Four states in 24 hours: an unexpected adventure

Earlier this week, Mom and I took a little 5 hour road trip to Tunica, Mississippi for a doctor's appointment. I didn't have high expectations for the journey. I figured we'd drive there, eat some drive-thru food, and drive back home. The trip ended up being one of the best trips in my recent memory. What a surprise!

The drive into Tunica was beautiful and pastoral, nothing but fields for miles and miles and miles. We even saw some rice paddies...in Mississippi! I had never heard of such. There is nothing (literally, almost nothing) in Tunica except cotton fields and casinos. That's it. We learned that Tunica is the 3rd largest gaming center in the United States. I'd like to meet the person who looked at Tunica and said, "Yes. This is where I shall build my casinos. I can't think of a more ideal location!" Homeboy had some serious vision.

We stayed in nearby Robinsonville, which is where the casinos are actually located, and were struck by the total absence of people. It was a bit creepy. I began to wonder if the Rapture actually did occur back in May, hitting Robinsonville, MS especially hard. I did a little research when I got home and found out that Robinsonville (which has "officially" been renamed Tunica Resorts) has very few permanent residents. Most of the people who live there are casino employees. Ah. Makes sense now.

Mom and I decided to hit up the casinos, since neither of us had ever been to one. Harrah's was our first stop.

We figured out why there were nearly zero people in town...they were all at the casinos. The inside was smoky and loud, just like I'd expected. It was fun to visit a casino for the first time but much less lively than I expected. Many of the people were just plopped down in front of the slot machines, piddling away what little money they seemed to have. Kind of sad. Mom and I were going to play, but we figured we'd get laughed out of the joint by playing $0.50 each. We stopped to feed the fish in the "moat" on the way out.

{They were literally fighting over the food. I'm not convinced that they weren't piranhas.}

Next, we set out in search of the Mississippi River. Mom had never seen it and I never get tired of seeing it. We found it right behind Fitzgerald's casino.

{"I shall build a castle in Mississippi." Serious vision.}

There's something really spectacular about the Mississippi River. Knowing that the water we were seeing had flowed all the way from Minnesota, marvelling that people used to sail down it using rafts...it's pretty amazing.

We had asked at the hotel what restaurants were nearby. I didn't have to worry about eating nothing but fast food; there were no fast food places to be seen for miles. We had only two choices: casino buffets or The Hollywood Cafe. Having already been to the casinos, we opted for The Hollywood. That ended up being the best decision we made on this trip. We pulled up and were the only ones there (in keeping with the Rapture theme and all). The inside is delightfully old and decorated very eclectically. Loved it. Since we had the place all to ourselves, we went into total tourist mode...roaming all over, exploring, taking obscene numbers of pictures. All we were missing was a pair of fanny packs.

{One lone sunflower growing by the side of the restaurant. Poor little guy...the Rapture must've left him behind, too.}

{We had to squeeze our pins into a very crowded Alabama.}

Mom was in the midst of exploring when I heard her squeal. She had stumbled upon this:

We were eating at THE Hollywood. It took me a second to make the connection, but then I remembered. "Muriel played piano every Friday at The Hollywood, and they brought me down to see her..."

Take a minute, listen, pretend like you're still at Auburn and it's Tim Tyler Tuesday at SkyBar and Tim bangs the first few notes of this on his piano and everybody goes absolutely nuts and you throw your head back and sway with your friends and screech along at the top of your lungs and all is right with the world. Sigh.

The Hollywood took on a whole new level of cool once we realized it was THE Hollywood. You  know, THE Hollywood from the song and where some of the music video was filmed. In fact, I may have squealed, too.

{Marc and Muriel}

{me playing THE piano...it was too dadgum hot to wear makeup that day}

{Mom on THE piano}

We settled down long enough to feast on fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, and hamburgers. Delicious.

 The next day, after the doctor visit, we decided to drive to Memphis, which is less than 20 miles away. We crossed over into Tennessee and drove straight to Graceland. We didn't want to go in; we just wanted to see what we could see. After realizing that parking was $10 (egads), we acknowledged that we'd seen the gate and that was close enough to Elvis for us, and drove on through downtown Memphis. We somewhat accidentally found the bridge over the Mississippi River and drove into Arkansas. As you drive over the bridge leaving Memphis, you're surrounded by buildings, city streets, and the hustle and bustle of downtown. Literally just yards away, in Arkansas, there are nothing but fields and tractors as far as the eye can see. Such a huge difference in such a short distance. We turned around, drove back across the bridge to Tennessee, on into Mississippi, and headed back to Alabama. All without a GPS...I was pretty proud. I wish I had pictures of all of this, but that's what happens when the photographer moonlights as the driver.

This journey turned out to be so much more fun than I expected. Have yourself a random little adventure sometime soon. It's good for the soul.