The Ray Adventures: Oct. 17 - Oct. 30 Mempis to Galveston

Greetings from Texas, we'll be in Galveston until the first when we leave for Rockport. We are looking forward to getting together with friends we've made there in the last three years.

Monday, Oct. 17, Today is our daughter Talena's birthday, happy birthday Talena! We are staying at Naval Support Activity Mid South base in Millington, Tennessee for a week. Graceland is another place I never thought I'd get to see, but here we are. Graceland Mansion on 13.8 acres, 23 rooms, 8 bedrooms and baths with 17,552 square feet, opened to the public in June 1982.   Elvis had his parents find farmhouse property for him to purchase in 1956, he ended up paying $102,000 then spent and additional $500,000 for modifications including the pink field stone wall surrounding the estate. The wrought iron front gate looks like sheet music, a kidney shaped pool and a racquetball court, housed in a separate building plus a office for his dad. When you first enter the house there is a beautiful staircase, to the right is the living room/music room and left is the dining room, the table set formally. The music room has beautiful peacock stained glass doors. All of the furnishings belonged to Elvis, most of it tastefully done except the famous "jungle room" and the pool room is a little strange. There is also a stable complete with horses and another building that has his gold records and Las Vegas costumes.    The upstairs were off limits to the public, when Lisa Marie visits she stays there. In the basement the TV room has 3 TV's so he could watch all 3 network news programs at the same time. I don't know about you but I never thought of Elvis as a "news" kind of guy. The walls and ceiling of the pool room are covered with 400 yards of pleated cotton. After Elvis's death, Priscilla became the executor, the mansion was draining Lisa Marie's inheritance so she made the decision to open it to the public. What a money maker, we took the 7th tour at 11, people were lined up all day for a glimpse of the estate. After lunch in one of the restaurants at the Visitor Center (across Elvis Presley Blvd.) we toured a couple more museums and two airplanes also located there.

Tuesday, Oct. 18, We took Luci into a doggie day care while we spent the day in Memphis. Our first stop was the Bass Pro Shop, the Memphis skyline has one weird sight, a pyramid! Originally built in 1991 to be an arena for University of Memphis basketball then the Memphis Grizzlies but both teams left to play in the newly built FedEx Forum. The owner of BPShops and a friend were out bass fishing one day, the owner said he was thinking about putting a Superstore in the structure but couldn't decide. He said "If I catch a 30 pounder today I'll do it!" Well, he caught a 30 pounder. They began renovations in 2112 and opened in 2015. Normally I wouldn't be excited about a fishing and hunting store but this place is something else. It has an archery range, shooting range, laser arcade, 2 restaurants, the tallest freestanding elevator in the US, several aquariums and ponds and oh yes, a retail store where they sell everything a hunter/fisherman could ever want. Plus shoes, clothes, candy (a separate enclosed room for fudge) etc, etc, etc. For $10.00 each you can ride the elevator to the top to look out from the 2 observations decks to view the Mississippi and surrounding city, or have a drink or lunch in the Sky High Catfish
Cabin, There are 600,000 gallons of water in the water features and a 100 room hotel, The Cypress Lodge. What a place!

Wednesday, October 19, We dropped Luci at doggie day care again. Do you remember the movie "The Firm"? At the end Tom Cruise is being chased by the bad guys to Mud Island Park, I remember scenes shot in the tram. We rode the tram out to the park today, I was completely blown away by a half mile hydraulic scale model of the winding 1,000 mile long Mississippi River from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf, in the park. The model is made up of 1,746 precast concrete panels, each weighing 5 tons. Informational signs tell stories of the history, people and towns along the way. Also at the park is an Amphitheater, boat rentals, trails and a museum. Memphis is called the "bluff" city because it sits well above the flood plagued river. After a great lunch at McEwens we took an 1 1/2 hour cruise in a stern wheeler. Our guide really knew the history and made it an entertaining trip. Our last stop in Memphis was the National Civil Rights Museum, located at the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated in June 1968. Excellent museum, we didn't have a lot of time but we did see his room and the boarding house across the street where James Earl Ray fired the shot.

Friday, Oct. 21, We left Memphis about 11 for our 188 mile drive to Little Rock AFB for a week. Little Rock Air Force Base is the primary training base for the C-130's, training pilots, navigators, flight engineers and load master.    Arkansas was our 48th state on our map, we celebrated it with our neighbors with a bottle of champagne.

Monday, October 24, We drove into Little Rock to visit the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park, the 42nd president. Located on 13 acres next to the Arkansas River. This was the last of the Presidential Libraries, 13 in all. Now we have been in all of the 48 contiguous states and have seen all the NFL stadiums in just a little over 3 years. The museum showcases artifacts from his two terms in office including a full scale replica of his cabinet room and Oval Office. We were surprised how freely we could walk through the rooms, most libraries have them roped off leaving you to squeeze together to peek in. Clinton's library was laid out differently from the others we have seen, 4,536 of his books were contained in columns in the one room which was 3 stories high. His daily schedules for all 8 years were available for you to look through, one thing I noticed, no time for lunch. Never miss a meal is my motto. And yes, Monica and Whitewater were "mentioned". The temporary exhibit that is there now is "The Beatles", how fun. We walked a few blocks into the River Market District, a lot of funky shops and restaurants. On the 13 acres of the Library is a lovely boardwalk through a nature trail. saw lots of turtles, an old rail road bridge that is now a pedestrian/bike trail across the Arkansas River.

Tuesday, Oct. 25, We drove 1 1/2 hours to Hot Springs National Park, I had read it is the only National Park in a city but even then I was surprised, it's literally in the city. Our first stop was the Hot Springs Mountain Tower atop Hot Springs Mountain, no pictures, Gary left the sym card in the computer. The 216 foot tower has an elevator, when we drove up I saw all the stairs I thought, "no way", the view of the area was spectacular from the top. The thermal water that flows from the springs is naturally sterile. It begins as rainwater, is absorbed into the mountains northeast of the park and is carried 4,000 to 8,000 feet underground where the earth's extreme heat raises the temp up to 150 degrees. Then the water makes its way back to the surface through cracks and pores in the form of hot springs. The entire process takes about 4,000 years. In the 1800's numerous bath houses sprung up, now known as Bathhouse Row. There are still a couple in operation, but holy smokes a bath will cost from $75.00 and up. We just didn't "have time". We got to tour the bathhouse in the Visitor Center. Not your typical bath or shower.

Wednesday, Oct. 26. Time to get ready to leave LRAFB. A trip to the commissary for groceries and the exchange for a few things. We visited with new neighbors, new to full timing, newbies only 3 months. They have a Maine Coon cat, huge about 23 pounds with lots of orange fur. After dinner we took the "haunted Trail" a fund raiser by Outdoor Recreation.. I've never been to a "haunted" anything before so I was a bit apprehensive. You could choose your fright level. 1-2-3, we chose 2. You are guided by a person in front and back just to make sure we didn't run off into the woods screaming or pass out from fright. The "haunted trail" is in the nature park right next to fam camp, we'd walked through the trail in the daylight, it didn't seem too scary. although Luci didn't care for the bodies hanging from the trees but did want the chopped off hand laying beside the path. We saw the coffin, looked inside so we knew ahead of time that probably someone was going to jump out. Well it still scared the pee out of me! After it was over we decided it was fun.

Thursday, Oct. 27, We left LRAFB before 10 for our 255 mile drive to a Carthage, Tx. Wal Mart. We arrived about 3, and settled in our chairs outside to watch the comings and goings of Carthage folks, the temperature was about 85, too warm to sit inside. Several people stopped by to "chat", friendly folks in Carthage. Our dinner was frozen pizza from Wal Mart.

Friday, Oct. 28, We left Carthage at 7:40 after fueling up for our 235 non stop drive to Galveston. We did have to wait for the Point Bolivar Ferry for an hour though. After our last nightmare ferry ride on Lake Champlain this one was a snap, we pulled into Sandpiper RV Resort about 1:30. What a nice park and right next to the beach. After getting settled I took Luci down to the beach, she loves to wade in the surf and roll in the sand. Very happy girl, especially after being cooped up in the coach for 6 hours. Ahhhh! Palm Trees and a warm ocean breeze feels so good. We had an early diner at Fisherman's Wharf on the harbor outside on the patio, delish food but ate way tooooo much. We drove through the historic downtown and through the historic homes neighborhood. Then played 18 holes of cut throat mini-golf. I played poorly, my only bright spot was a hole in one, must have been the cocktails before dinner. We'll be going back for sure, Gary won a free game.

Saturday, Oct. 29, We got up at 7 and it was 76 degrees already. After breakfast I rode my bike 4.2 miles along the seawall to the Ferris wheel and back. I know it's not far but that's all my "bum" would take. My friend Joan from Salem is visiting her daughter in Houston, they invited us up for wood-fired homemade pizza, yum. Gary checked out the map, it looked like we could take Hwy 6 once we left the island all the way. Ez-peezy right? Wrong. It took us 2 3/4 hour to go about 80 miles. If we had stuck to the freeway and toll roads (like we did on the way back) it would have been about 1 1/2 hours. We were fashionably late. Dee, Joan's daughter, and her husband Phillip have a beautiful new home in Cypress, a NW suburb of Houston. They have a patio area and just finished putting in the pizza oven. We had a lovely afternoon/evening with them and the pizza was delish! It was good to see Joan again.

Sunday, Oct. 30, This morning Gary rode with me along the seawall. Boy I could live like this, although the last two times we were here it just stormed, leaving a moat around the coach. We spent a lazy day, lunch out, more golf, Gary won again but this time by only one stroke, watched some football and a lovely walk on the beach at sunset. Life is good. (Except our Seahawks lost).

That's it for now, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam