Memphis, TN

"I ain't no saint, but I've tried never to do anything that would hurt my family or offend God...I figure all any kid needs is hope and the feeling he or she belongs. If I could do or say anything that would give some kid that feeling, I would believe I had contributed something to the world." -Elvis commenting to a reporter, 1950's.

We spent the majority of the day on Wednesday traveling. We drove through New Mexico, Texas, and part of Oklahoma. We stopped for the night at the Elk City/Clinton KOA campground located near Clinton Lake. We were glad that we did not choose to continue to Oklahoma City as the weather was pretty bad there during the evening. There were even some funnel clouds spotted in that area. There was some noise from the interstate at this camp ground but the camp ground itself was nice....shady, clean sites, and friendly staff. We had dinner in Elk City at Lupes Mexican restaurant. It was actually some of the best Mexican food that we've had in a while.

Thursday was primarily more driving. We decided to make our last stop in Memphis, TN, before continuing on to Huntsville on Friday. Rachel and Anna have decided that they want to spend a little more time in Huntsville with Gail & Harold. We still need to stop in to pick up our niece, Mary Grace, as she has another trip with friends planned for next week. Plus, we miss our children terribly and it'll give us an opportunity to stay the night before continuing on to Georgia. The children will join us at home in a couple of weeks.

We arrived around 5 pm at the Memphis-Graceland RV Park and Camp Ground. This camp ground is located directly behind the Heartbreak Hotel and immediately next to Graceland. It's very convenient to Graceland...you can walk to the entrance. The sites are a bit small but overall the camp ground is nicely maintained and we were able to easily fit our 40' motorhome into one of their pull-through sites.

Since Graceland was already closed, we decided to head to Beale Street to have dinner at the Blues City Cafe. The ribs were awesome but I have to admit...they weren't nearly as tasty as the ones that I had in Sheridan, WY. But, there was one thing that Jeff and I were both happy to see again...sweet tea. We were both in withdrawal after being out west for almost two weeks. You won't find sweet tea anywhere in the areas that we visited. And, any southerner will tell you...it's not the same to add sugar to cooled unsweetened tea. I need to work on Jeff's method of eating Bar-B-Que ribs. He used a fork to pull the meat off and then ate the meat with his fork. I told him that no self-respecting southerner eats ribs like that. :-)

After dinner, we walked down Beale Street, listened to some jazz bands, and browsed in a couple of shops. I noticed a lot of people walking around drinking beer along the street area. I'm guessing a popular item is the "Big Ass Beer." I wouldn't have been able to put a dent in a beer that size. Beale Street reminded me of New Orleans a little but without the nudie bars. There were people there with young children. While I didn't consider the area unsafe by any means, it was certainly a party atmosphere and not really a place I would want to bring my children. I could see it being a fun place to be for adults on New Years Eve. After leaving, we stopped briefly along the Memphis Riverfront front area bordering the Mississippi River. We saw a beautiful sunset prior to heading back to the camper.

And, what would a visit be to Memphis without touring Graceland? We took a tour of Graceland on Friday morning. It was pleasant and worth doing at least once. It is a shame that Elvis died so early. Beyond the glitter and the flash, he seemed to be a down-to-earth person that I would've enjoyed knowing. And, we share love for some of the same foods. He liked peanut butter and banana sandwiches too....one of my favorites. And, while you have to consider that for the time period that his house was very extravagant; in today's time period, the house really didn't seem that grand. I imagine it was something to behold back in his time of popularity though.
Memphis was a nice end to our vacation trip. And, I recommend a stop here for anyone traveling through.

Get Your Kicks On Route 66

If you ever plan to motor west,Travel my way, take the highway that is best.Get your kicks on route sixty-six.~~Lyrics from Nat King Cole's song Route 66

We left Zion this morning and began our long trek back home. We stopped at the Hoover Dam for a quick tour. Lake Meade and the Colorado River was beautiful. The dam itself was very impressive. It's hard to believe they built such a magnificent engineering work so long ago.

We stopped in Holbrook, AZ, for the night. We arrived in Holbrook late in the afternoon but still had time to make a quick drive through Petrified Forest National Park. I found the Painted Desert to be more enjoyable than strolling around the petrified forest portion.

Along the drive, we traveled in part on the famous Route 66. We are going to try and drive to Oklahoma City by Thursday night. And, then, continue our drive to Alabama on Friday. We've got a couple of long days of travel ahead of us but we are trying to make the most of the trip on the way home as much as we can with the time we have left.

Zion National Park

We arrived in Utah Saturday evening. The RV park that we chose is within 13 miles of Zion National Park. We stayed at Zion River Resort RV Park & Campground. This RV campground was very nice and highly recommend it for anyone visiting this area.

We drove into Springdale for dinner and ate at Oscar’s. The food was great and the atmosphere was phenomenal. We ate outside on the patio with a view of the Zion. The white wine margarita wasn’t bad either.

We got an early start on Sunday morning and headed straight for the Narrows Bottom-Up hike. Jeff and I thought how striking the difference was with this trail from what we had done only a few days before. Just a few days earlier, we were hiking in the snow in the Tetons. And, now we were hiking in the Virgin River through canyons in 90 degree weather.
In the Narrows, you navigate in and along a river, crossing from shore to shore through water mid-calf to mid-thigh deep. The river is the trail. The river was a bit cool at first but after a while we got used to the temperature. And, when returning back to the trail, the temperature felt great as the heat really increased by that time. Unfortunately, the hike back was also more congested with a lot more people so there was the additional hassle of going around people while trying to navigate our way through the river.
After the hike, we decided to have lunch at the Zion Park Lodge. After that we attempted the hike to Angel’s Landing. We began the Angel’s Landing 5-mile hike around 2 pm and the heat was at it’s peak. I could not tolerate the heat combined with the extremely tough all uphill hike so we stopped prior to making it half way up and we returned back to the camper. I felt pretty dehydrated even though I drank a lot of water on the way up and back down. After a shower and a nap, we went out for dinner in Springdale.

We wanted to go to Bryce Canyon on Monday but decided instead to stay at Zion since we had not seen everything we wanted the day before. We drove through the east side of the park through the tunnel. We also hiked the Emerald Pools loop after lunch at Oscar’s.
After the hike, we headed back to the camper and I made an appointment for a massage at the RV resort where we were staying. We grilled our dinner at the RV and relaxed for the evening as we planned to begin our journey back home on Tuesday morning.

The trip has been wonderful. My only complaint is that there isn’t more time to do all that we wanted to do. There is so much to see in this beautiful country and simply not enough time to do it all. I hope to bring our daughters out here in a few years when they are a bit older and could appreciate everything a little more than they could now.

Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park, MT

We drove to Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park in Montana today. It was a beautiful drive to and from the park and we spotted a coyote on the way home too. Today was my first time to go "splunking."

We stopped at Eino's in West Yellowstone for dinner. And, again, the food was great!

Tomorrow morning we are heading south towards the Grand Canyon. We have enjoyed our stay in West Yellowstone but have decided it's time to move on to another location before all of our time is gone.

Below are a few pics from our visit to the Caverns today.

Yellowstone...Round Two

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.The winds will blow their own freshness into you... while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.~~John Muir

For anyone who has never been to Yellowstone, it is hard to describe the vastness of this park. Just to get from one side of the park to the other takes a good bit of time to drive. There isn't enough time to do all of the things we want to do in this area so we spent the day today hitting some of the "tourist" hot spots in the park. As of today, we've now driven through every entrance to the park. We had lunch at the Yellowstone Lake Lodge and dinner at the Roosevelt Lodge. We visited the Midway Geiser Basin, West Thumb Geiser Basin, Lake Village, Mud Volcano, Tower Fall, and the Beartooth Highway outside of the northeast entrance to the park. There are no words to describe the beauty we witnessed so I'll just share some pictures with everyone. We plan to rest tomorrow and then leave West Yellowstone to travel south on Saturday.

Grand Teton National Park

If you aren't religious when you come out here, you will be after you leave and have seen this place.~~quote from Jeff

We relaxed on Tuesday morning for the most part. We got some groceries and Jeff washed the RV and the jeep. We passed through road construction on the way in and both the Jeep and the RV were filthy. So, Jeff decided to clean them up.

Afterwards, we decided to hop in the jeep and drive to Jackson, Wyoming. Our plan was to get a hotel room for the night and go hiking on Wednesday morning in Grand Teton National Park. We ended up getting a room for the night at a bed & breakfast, The Alpine House, in downtown Jackson. We had dinner at Skyhigh Pizza and then explored around town.

We had breakfast early in the a.m. Wednesday morning and then we headed straight to Grand Teton National Park. We opted for a hike from Jenny Lake. We paid for a ferry ride across the lake and then hiked to the falls, Inspiration Point and on to the lake. The total hiking trip was 17 miles. Our legs were so tired when we were done but the hike was worth it. It was definitely the most scenic and beautiful hike that Jeff and I have been on to date. We actually had to hike through the snow towards the top of the mountains. That was tough hiking. It was slippery in places and very hard to keep our footing. The lake that we hiked to was still frozen. But, we made it through the entire hike and recommend it to anyone who makes the trip to the Tetons. We saw moose and a variety of small animals on the trail. We spotted a wolf on the way back to our RV as we drove through Yellowstone also. The only animal we haven’t seen yet is a grizzly bear. Unfortunately, a local man was attacked by one this morning as he was jogging in Teton National Park. He surprised a bear and her cubs. Luckily, he was not killed.

I also took a picture of this park sign (Below) in Yellowstone on the way back to our RV. Now, isn’t a sad fact that they actually have to post a sign telling people not to “molest” the animals!