St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Today we toured St. Jude Hospital and it was a very emotional and humbling experience.  Seeing the children was difficult but learning that they were getting the very best of care was encouraging.  I didnt see parents that were confused or overwhelmed looking...that is not to say they were not, and I hope I am not sounding like I am minimizing these situations....I just expected something much less positive than I witnessed. 

I think the key is that the hospital has gone to great lengths to create an upbeat and purposeful environment for the children.  The halls are painted in murals that represent the seasons and activities that children like, such as pumpkin patches, playgrounds or forrests with children playing hide-n-seek.  It is not just the walls either, its the floors and the ceiling and while the kids are riding around in the wagons from area to area for their treatments, they are looking at the walls.  Its pretty amazing. The resources available to the families is pretty amazing too....they provide for language interpretation, counciling, nutrition, housing, financial and transportation needs and so much more !

I have to say that the artwork of the children that is displayed throughout was the most telling of how they are feeling. The children are encouraged to express themselves and they do through art.  The ABC wall really got to me....the kids wrote thier feelings in the forms of  'A is for....' and each letter of the alphabet has a list. The lists are frank and difficult to read. Here is a picture from the ABC wall where V is for Vomit...that speaks volumes doesn't it?   Joe says this will be a tour he will not soon forget, I think we all feel that way.  The phrase I saw most was "St. Jude Rocks" and clearly it does !  xxoo TML

Hanging Out Downtown !

My pictures from the Peabody Hotel Ducks did not turn out...very dark in the lobby and the setting I used to make pictures lighter also was slow motion.  Anyway this is all I have for you but the ducks did come down from their "Duck Palace" right on schedule and all is good in Duck-Land !

After the Ducks, we took a tour of the Rock and Soul Museum which was all about how Black and White cultures joined in music dispite the Civil Rights unrest in America.  What resulted at Sun and Stax Recording Studios was the music of Al Green, Isaac Hayes, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich and ofcourse Elvis.  It was really interesting and we got to listen to all kinds of good songs...Im still singing Love and Happiness in my head as I type this.

Beale Street was next we had a really good BBQ lunch at Blue City Cafe, recommended to us by a local.  It was wonderful...their motto "Put Some South In Your Mouth" and we did !  xxoo TML

Tennessee Ya'll

We got into Memphis around noon today, a short 100 miles from Tupelo.  We stopped at a Flick's Truck Stop for breakfast, and boy did we get a great breakfast...homemade sausage and strawberry jelly and the biscuits were really good too.

Anyway, we arrived at T. O. Fuller State Park, just outside of Memphis. We have lots of gusty wind today and possible rain tonight. Seems we hear that everywhere we go !  We will take a day trip into Memphis tomorrow and see what we can find there.  We do have WIFI here, so can update blog etc this week. 
xxoo TML

They're Here !!

Linda and Henry arrived today and our trip really begins at this moment.  The four of us have been planning this trip for 2 years, so having them here is very exciting for us.  We were at the gate waiting for them when they arrived at Trace State Park.  Tomorrow we all head out to Memphis !!  HERE WE GO !!  xxoo TML

GeoCache Hiking Today !

We attended a church service in the campground which was very nice.  We then set out for a GeoCache trip with a picnic lunch.  We found all three caches (pictured below) and we ate our picnic lunch at the last site, which just happened to be a graveyard.  Not where you would normally have a ham sandwich but we just kind of go with the flow.  In one of the cache containers we found there was a Geo-coin that had instructions for us to remove the coin from the container and register online.  We did and learned that the coin was initially put in place by a lady in California and it has traveled around the USA and she hopes it will find its way back to her one day.  We registered that we had retrieved it and now we will place it in another location, which we are thinking might be Texas.  Anyway, another part of GeoCaching that we will enjoy.  Linda and Henry will arrive tomorrow and travel with us the rest of the trip.  Hope everyone has a great week !   .xxoo TML

Old Cars

Today we awoke to cloudy but sunny skies and a forecast of no rain until Wednesday.  We also learned of much devastation in Tuscaloosa Alabama and we were grateful that we had left.  We spent yesterday watching weather reports and analyzing Dopler Radar, but we were comfy and got through the storms just fine. 

With the ground still soggy, we are holding off until tomorrow before we hit the hiking trails again.  This morning we decided to go to the Tupelo Automobile Museum which had a slew of old cars and tractors.  Joe was sooooo happy !  I saw lots of cars with features that we remembered but that no longer exist.  Example: The Wind Wing....that little window where cigarettes ashes were flicked out of.  Another thing was that fuzzy material that was on the ceilings...I remember scratching it and it would come off like dust.  Bring back memories for you too?  The hood ornaments were fun to look at also!

At the campground we had a lot of people arrive late last night.  How they get those big rigs parked in the dark is scarry and this morning there were no open campsites.  By 930AM, a group of 8 RVs who are in a camping club had vacated and so now we have open lake side sites.  So, we will have to walk around and check out all the new tenants and their RV's....Lookie-Loo !!  xxoo TML

Elvis is in the house !!

We went over to Elvis' birthplace and took that tour.  Not sure it was worth the price but we did get a good sense of where he got his musical roots.  They had a re-enactment of a church service and the preacher was the person that tutored Elvis on the guitar and if you watch this guy play his guitar to gospel music, you can see clearly where that first influence came from.  We also enjoyed seeing the Tupelo Hardware Store where Elvis' mom took him to buy a birthday present and while he wanted a rifle, she opted for a safer guitar and told him that he needed to learn to play that and see where it takes you.  He did and .....

Weather update: We knew that today would be a rain day and a good storm has now passed us with no real impact to us.  We will be in all day, boning a roasted chicken we bought at Wal-Mart so we can make BBQ sandwiches later on.  We also found more GeoCache locations in this campground so we will be doing that over the weekend when the ground dries up some. Weather behind this storm is supposed to be really nice...sounds good to us !  xxoo  Happy Tax Day !  TML