Thursday 12th September

We left Memphis around 9.00 am and did a little back tracking on our way to Tupelo, Mississippi - the Birth Place of the King ! Not really knowing what to expect we dropped into the Visitor Centre and got some advice, the first piece of which was where Starbucks was located. To break the drive, a coffee stop gave us the opportunity to look at the Tupelo brochures and decide the order of our exploration.

We found out that there were a series of murals throughout the town, the Elvis Presley Birthplace Experience and of course, the Tupelo Hardware Company, where in January 1945, Gladys and Elvis Presley came to the store to buy Elvis a birthday present. He had his mind set on a rifle, but his mother talked him into getting a guitar - thankfully ! The staff in the store were really friendly and happy to talk to us about the stories and show us where Elvis actually stood when receiving his guitar. The store is still pretty much the same inside as it was in the 1940's, they have done a great job in retaining the original store. In honour of its most famous customer it still sells guitars (but not guns).

The murals in the town were very interesting ..

While walking around town, we went into the Reeds department store, it was in its third generation ownership and they had a lot of historical photos, and memorabilia scatterd around the store, plus a couple of shop keepers who were happy to chat with us and share more stories and history. Just before leaving, the lady gave us some free tickets to go to the Elvis Presley Birthplace Memorial .. so nice of her....saving us $19 each to enter.

So next stop was of course the Birthplace of Elvis which included the home he was born in, his church. museum, a memorial garden and a reflection pool. Really nicely done and well worth the visit, with stories and articles we hadn't come across before. His home was still located in its original position although the 4 neighbouring homes were no longer there. The 2 roomed house had been restored and period furniture sourced to fit it out. The actual church building that Elvis attended was obtained and relocated into the park area near the home when a larger church was built to replace it on its original site.

The City of Tupelo bought the park and surrounding property in 1957 as a tribute to Evis and he did a return to Tupelo concert in 1957 and donated the proceeds toward making improvements to the park. All very well done and an enjoyable visit.

With Tupelo being a stopover, we headed to Muscle Shoals for the night. We drove along the Natchez Trace Parkway... very pretty and some historic points of interest.