Continuing road trip adventures

In honor of a couple of birthdays, Stace, Sandi and I decided to hit the road once again last weekend. It was Sandi's turn to choose our destination, and she decided to show us around the part of Mississippi where she grew up. Saturday morning found us headed straight for Tupelo.

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, which is one of the newest properties in Tupelo. It's a very nice hotel, with a small indoor pool, a restaurant, room service, etc. I'd recommend it to anyone; I think we were all very pleased with our stay and the location of the hotel.

First things first, though. We arrived in Tupelo right at lunchtime and made a beeline for the Fairpark Grill (located right next to the hotel). I'd heard from a co-worker that it was a great new restaurant in the area, and we were not disappointed. The grill offered a full lunch menu, plus breakfast/brunch! I chose the smothered eggs with fruit, toast, and hashbrowns, washed down with a big cup of coffee. Delicious, and only about $8.

Then we moseyed on over to the birthplace of Elvis Presley. I'd never been there, and I've always wanted to visit. I'd heard some disparaging remarks about how little the attraction offered, but they must have stepped up their game in recent years. Currently, you can tour the small, two-room house, then visit the Presley family chapel for a short video presentation, then tour the museum, which has several interesting displays in addition to some multimedia presentations. All told, it took us about an hour and a half to make our way through it all, and admission was about $10.

After that, we thought we'd shop a bit at Tupelo Hardware Store. To my great disappointment, it had closed at noon. Boo. Hiss. Instead, we consoled ourselves with shopping in the downtown Tupelo area, where I found some cute stationary, a girly monogrammed clip for my work ID badge, and some books for the baby.

Still going strong, we headed to the Tupelo Automobile Museum, which was one of my favorite stops of the trip. They have a wonderful variety of vehicles on display there, and they are arranged chronologically, allowing viewers to experience a tangible timeline of the car's evolution. Not only that, each vehicle has a small speaker box in front of it. Press the button on there, and you get some brief information about each car. Fascinating and brilliant. I could have spent all day at this attraction. (They even had one of Liberace's old cars! It had a candelabra perched on the back! Ooooh, and they had a DeLorean! Sooo cool.) And because we'd been to the Elvis birthplace earlier in the day, we got reduced admission! A mere $7.50!

Feet aching, we stopped at the hotel for a brief rest before going out to dinner at Harvey's. Sandi had waxed poetic about this restaurant on many occasions, and I found myself wondering if it would live up to the hype. Rest assured that it does. We wolfed down spinach and artichoke dip (one of the very best I've tried), then I had a Caesar salad and the New Orleans seafood pasta (don't worry; it's not very spicy). Even after all that (and a glass of red), I still made a tiny corner of room in my tummy for a few generous bites of Sandi's bread pudding, which really was one of the best bread puddings I've ever had. (For a skinny girl, she knows good food when she eats it. An admirable quality.)

I will never understand how on Earth we waddled into the Scrugg's gigantic feed-and-seed/Super Wal-Mart/Home Depot, but we did. I took the opportunity to buy some cowboy boots and note that the store had PINK firearms for sale. (I am sooo not kidding.)

Exhausted, we rolled back to the hotel and sunk into bed.

More to come . . .