Day on the road: Tennesse to Arkansas

Today I left Tennessee making my way to Little Rock, where I am spending the night in a hotel. When I realized that I would be driving through Memphis, I decided that I must stop by Graceland. So I hung out with Elvis for a little bit. It was fascinating to see the house (you don't get to go upstairs; only the main level and downstairs). It's like being in a time warp, with it's '70's decor. Elvis paid $100,000 for Graceland, which has 13 acres.

-----------------------------

this is Elvis's living room, where he spent quite a lot of time.

--------------------------------------------------------

The formal dining room. I fell in love with that chandelier. Such a pretty set up.

-----------------------------------------

the stairs to Elvis's private lair. The tour doesn't go up there as we were told, it was a private area in during his life and remains private in his death.

------------------------

Elvis's tv room. Supposedly he wanted 3 tv's after hearing that President Lyndon Johnson had three sets to keep up with all the major network newscasts at the same time. There were other cool rooms such as the billiard room and the jungle room. you can read more about Elvis's interesting decorating style here.

-----------------------------

this is Elvis's trophy room and it was huge! it housed all his gold records, awards, movie costumes, show costumes and all kinds of cool memorabilia.

------------------------------------

Elvis was originally buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis but after someone attempted to steal his remains, his father, Vernon, petitioned to have his body moved to Graceland. He was reburied in one of his most beloved areas on the property called, The Mediation Garden, along side his mother, his grandmother and then eventually his father. (Elvis died in 1977 and his father died in 1979). Read everything you didn't know about Elvis here!

The statue of Jesus was a Christmas gift to Elvis from friends. it stands nearby, overlooking his grave.

Greetings from Tennessee!

had a beautiful day in Tennessee today. Brenda and I started the day off by going to breakfast in a nearby town, Franklin; where i had the most delicious biscuits and gravy ever! Then we did a little walk about the town and check out a few stores. She took me to a great store called Philanthropy, which I just loved. It was such a beautiful day for walking around.

---------------------------------------------------

then we met up with another art friend, Bernie Berlin at the American Pickers store. (it has it's own name, but can't think of it right now). my husband LOVES that show, so it was fun to go there and see all their cool pickings............

-------------------------------------


Next we headed to a really fun store called, Two Old Hippies. They had some really cool and unusual things. it was hard to be so restrained in there. I did leave with a great pair of earrings though. Love the vintage VW van parked inside the store.

-----------------------------------------------------

After saying goodbye to Bernie, Brenda and I went to lunch where we decided to order a lobster pizza. I know it sounds gross, but it actually was quite tasty!

finally, we headed back towards her area and stopped by a really old, historical cemetery. There are 4 soldiers of the Revolutionary war buried there. I love to visit old cemeteries. so much history there. the earliest age of someone born, that is buried in that cemetery, was 1776!

--------------------------------------------------

After getting back to Brenda's, I decided to change into my jammies and then Brenda treated me to a glass of moonshine. what a way to end a great day!



-----------------------------------------------

tomorrow i hit the road again and will probably spend the night in Little Rock, Arkansas. I don't know anyone there, so I'll be in a hotel tomorrow night. From there, I make my way over to Dallas, Texas to visit with Pam Carriker.

Day two

This morning I left good friends, Tom and Lesley (my first stop in Roanoke, Virginia). Last night we had a nice pizza dinner with their friends, Charlie and Sherry, whom I had met when we all stayed in a lovely rental house in Nags Head last May.

They sent me off with a bag lunch, a bag of Tom's delicious toffee and 2 things of Tom's super yummy ice tea. It was a quick hit, but fun to chat with everyone and visit with their fur-babies; Clancy, Lucy and Bennie.

-------------------------------------

8 hours later I am now in Thompson's Station, Tennessee, with yet another art friend, Brenda. It was dark and drizzly when I got in, so we decided to have a nice dinner and call it an evening. We went to downtown Franklin and had a true southern dinner at a wonderful place called, Puckett's. We got to enjoy live music and we ate BBQ pulled pork, fried green tomatoes, coleslaw, corn cakes and delicious baked beans! I have one more day here, so we will do some exploring tomorrow. Brenda has a cool cemetery (dated 1855) to take me too where we will shoot some photos.

-----------------------------------------

until tomorrow,
xoxo,

kecia

p.s.
i don't know what is with this new "text enhancing" of words. I find it extremely annoying! I'm not doing it -so if a random word is underline, it's blogger doing it, not me!

day two

Taking off soon. Today's journey is leading me to Thompson's Station, Tennessee; where I will visit with art friend, Brenda Bliss.

my journey begins

come 6:00am tomorrow morning, I will begin my adventure driving across the US from New Jersey to California. I am teaching at Kim Allistair's event, "Affaire at Tiffany's", themed around the 50th anniversary of Breakfast at Tiffany's. So I've donned my finest vintage clothing, from my beautiful old black evening gown, to my very fun black hat and gloves and of course, we cannot forget the classic Audrey style sunglasses (the only thing missing is my cigarette case and perhaps, Cat)

my car is packed and I am ready to go. I said goodbye to Dillon today as he returned back to school following is very short week at home. (i feel like I hardly saw him!) I am grateful for the few hours we stole away and went to get adjusted by my chiropractor friend, Brendan, and then we went to the mall and had the most amazing deep tissue chair massages (i'm hooked on those now!)

This will be a really interesting trip. Alone with all my thoughts. What will i think about? i wonder how quickly it is before I pose the question to myself of "What the hell are you doing"? or I wonder how long it is before I am feeling quilty for doing such a selfish thing for myself (you know that negative nellie, "guilt"), always sticking it to ya at the worst possible times.

I spent so much time preparing for the trip and I am pleased that my organizational skills paid off. I only had one stressful moment and that's only because it had gotten hot and I was getting tired. But obviously I survived and the crisis was nothing more than who-ha (not important enough to dwell on)

i honestly can not think of one more thing that i need to do because go to sleep. So on that note, I will say goodnight.

i look forward to sharing my adventure with you. It can't be a coincidence that many of my friends and even strangers and told me the same thing, "I have always wanted to make a trip like that". So I am you and you are me. Come along for the ride and see what sort of fun we can have.

First stop for the evening is with friends, Lesley and Tom Venable. They are hosting a nice dinner for me and their guests will include the adorable couple of Charlie and Sherry. Looking forward to seeing them all. Tom even confided in me that he made me some of his world famous toffee for the road. I am definitely very lucky!

until we meet again,

xoxo,

kecia aka Mis-adventure

I do want to thank everyone for all their well wishes, gifts , support and more. My family has been very supportive; especially my husband, how will be in charge of Tucker, 3 dogs, 2 cats and one birdie. My husband has been one of my biggest cheerleaders and often doesn't get enough credit where it is due. love you sweetie.