When we got up this AM it was grey and looking like thunder storms. We decided to make our reservation at Graceland for Tuesday, as the weather looked much better for then. It was about then that we had a huge hail storm. The news showed photos of hail that was 5 inches across. Glad we were not outside then. Barry suggested to check out online for any driving tours of Memphis we could check out.

Well, I found out that Tupelo Mississippi is only about 90 minutes south of Memphis. And EVERYONE knows (or should know) Tupelo is the birth place of Elvis Aaron Presley. They have is original home, a church and museum. So we stuck out to find some breakfast, which we did, at the Blue Plate Cafe. We are lucking out on our eats, it is apparently the best place in Memphis for breakfast.

Once we got to Tupelo we found Elvis’s place and went for the tour. It was cool to see the small church, and home. Both much much smaller than you would think. These people in this part of Mississippi were poor. Very poor. It was strange to see some homes very similar to the Presley home, still being lived in today. A few small add ons, but essentially the same.

The area that the home, museum and church rest on now was purchased by Elvis in 1957, the same year he purchased Graceland. He bought the home and 15 acres around it and built a pool, playground and park for the kids still living in that area. In later years, the city of Tupelo built a new, larger park and changed this into a museum. 90 minutes south of Memphis, but worth the drive. It was great to see where Elvis came from.

Once we left the museum we headed to find something to eat. We located Bar-B-Q buy Jim and had some ribs and beans and slaw. Once again, not much of a place, but the food was great. We found out later that Prince of Monaco had also eaten there when he came to Tupelo, so good enough for him, good enough for us!

We were heading back to Memphis when we spotted Tupelo Hardware, the place where Elvis got his first guitar. We had to stop. The store is still a busy general hardware store with one man who tells the tourists the stories of Elvis, (and Aerosmith!) Aerosmith stopped the tour bus one time to come into the store and buy a guitar at the same place Elvis got his. Tupelo Hardware still sells some 200 guitars a year. I’m really glad we stopped. Even without the Elvis stories, it is a cool old store.

The dive back to Memphis was uneventful, edited some photos, wrote the blog and will be heading out for dinner soon.