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The rest of the buses are to the right

4/28  Interesting couple of days.  I got up after the storm to clear, sunny skies.  I tried to go to Graceland in Memphis.  To make a long story short, I never got inside the mansion.  The regular parking lot was empty when I went in so I thought it would be a good tour.  Only, as I got to the entrance, they were unloading 7, count 'em 7, buses full of kids.  It would have taken me 1 1/2 hours to get the shuttle that takes you to the mansion, so I took a pass on the whole thing instead.  I then headed to downtown Memphis to check out Beale street and take the tour of the Gibson guitar factory.  The factory was closed, and most of downtown was blocked off for a music festival they were having over the weekend.  I finally found a place to park a ways a way thinking we could at least walk down and see how flooded the Mississippi was, but we were stopped.  Seems you couldn't even walk down there.  I found a park farther away by the river, but got stuck with a local who wouldn't shut up and insisted he walk with us, but he walked very slowly.  So we finally gave up and headed down the road to Little Rock.  The wind damage  and flooding was fairly extensive.  Every creek, river and lake was to the top of it's banks and over.  Several roofs and signs had been blown down. The farmer's fields were all flooded.  I tried to take some pictures, but it didn't do justice to how bad the damage was.

Me in front of the "Little Rock"

Later, in Little Rock, I met up with a snow bird friend who was heading home from Seal Beach.  We caught a ride on her free hotel shuttle to the River Market area, and had the funniest (unintentionally) southern gentleman as a driver.  He ended up giving us an impromptu tour of town.  We laughed and enjoyed him on the way to a wonderful dinner, after which he picked us up and continued the tour on the way back to the hotel.  Besides him being entertaining, we got a good look around town.  And learned a lot about Clinton.  I ended up staying over at the dog friendly hotel with my friend. 

4/29  We got an early start this morning, but it was soon delayed.  I had unplugged the trailer connection and forgotten to reconnect it when I drove off.  The cable dragged along the ground for several miles before I noticed it.  The connectors in the plug were completely worn away which meant I had no lights on the trailer; brakes, or turning, as well as no connection to operate the brakes or charge up the trailer.  So I had to find a place to fix it.  That wasn't too hard to do, and as usual, I met and chatted with some very interesting locals in the process.  And it turned out to be a cheap fix.

As we had started the day, there was a large caravan of electic company trucks.  There had to be 40 of them.  As they got off the freeway, I followed them and took a picture.  I believe they were from different areas rendevoing in town to try to get the power back for the people that had lost it.  The rest of the day was spent driving.  Not too boring, but boring.  Lots of green, gentle hills, farms, more farms.  And wind....really strong wind.  I saw two 18 wheelers blown over.  As I write this, I am in the  Wal Mart parking lot being rocked by the wind.  Yes...I ended up at Wal Mart tonight.  At least the price is right.