And after another night out on Beale street, with far too much Brazilian meat in our bellies, we were ready to leave Memphis and return to Arkansas. Some really wanted to see Graceland, but at over $50 a ticket, some of us weren’t fanatical enough to go. Luckily we had taken two cars out, and two cars had to return. So the group split on the Elvis line, and I was in the car that decided to do a road tour before heading back to Arkansas.
There are no pictures of Graceland, because it was far too disappointing. It looked like a bunch of themed strip malls. Apparently if you participated on the tour they bused you over to the mansion itself. But, I did see an impersonator, finally! He wore a red shirt and was walking along the side of the highway. it was brilliant, and my only regret is that my camera wasn’t at the ready to snap a shot. Memphis, you saved the best for last.
However, after our disappointment at seeing the reality of Graceland (or the outside of it), the Indiana boy suggested we go to Tunica, Mississippi. It’s a small gambling mecca, about an hour away from Memphis, supposedly ranked #3 in the nation, after Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Again, this was somewhere his family went on vacations, and the small size of Graceland meant we had plenty of time to take a detour before we headed back to Arkansas.
There was a grasshopper that decided to join us for part of the journey, he made it almost to the Mississippi border!
Tunica is a very strange place. Las Vegas is a gambling mecca in the middle of the desert. It’s a capitalist oasis surrounded by a lot of nothing. Tunica is more of a sprinkling in nothing. The casinos are not clustered together, and there is a fair drive between each resort.
I don’t gamble, but, as you can see, Paula Deen had a HUGE presence at the casino we went to. There was a Paula Deen store and BUFFET where we had lunch. It was a buffet. The less said about it the better. The gift shop had some fun and kitschy stuff though!
And after lunch we did the long drive home, which now had an additional hour tacked on thanks to our detour.
Overall it was a fun trip, and I’m disappointed that I missed the second co-worker roadtrip to Kansas City, but there should be more forthcoming. There is a lot of stuff to do in this part of the US, and I’m determined to see as much as possible!
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