Easter Sunday April 16th – Donna and I left for Tupelo Mississippi for a visit to Elvis Presley’s birthplace and safely arrived at our hotel. If you want to stay somewhere close to everything, but feel safe and secure, this is the place. Very nice Comfort Inn, staff and rooms.We had a restful evening and night, grabbed some breakfast, then off to see Elvis’s Birthplace. The reason for visiting Tupelo in the first place. Last year Han and I visited Graceland in Memphis, so I was excited to see where it all started. I was definitely NOT disappointed. The home, church and area had such a peaceful serene feeling. It is absolutely worth the visit. Saw his home, the room where he was born, the car that carried the family from Tupelo to Graceland, wonderful memorabilia, lovely little museum, the church where he began his singing career and so much more. I was seriously impressed and touched by all.
They even have TV’s in the bathrooms playing Elvis videos and movies.
The furnishings in the home are not original except for the cooking/heating wood stove, and in the church only the pulpit is original. However it mattered none to me. I was just as happy knowing that or not. Met quite a few folks who were guides that had actually been friends and/or family of the Presley family.
After we finished touring and taking photos, we went onto Florence where we “were” to stay in a very cool airbnb loft apartment with two bedrooms and two baths. I worked really hard to find us an affordable two bedroom, so we could have our own space and spread out. I love airbnb, and that is all we used while in Cuba and it was perfect.
Well, it did not go as planned. Reed (the owner) who was in Mexico playing music told us either the housekeeper did not come in or someone stayed without permission. Either way, the loft had not been cleaned and our vacation started to sour like the garbage in the trash can.
Donna sat down trying to find us another place. I texted Reed and sent him pics and he was mortified that the loft was in such poor condition. He kindly offered to refund one full night and I began cleaning at that point because I did not know what else to do and it was kinda therapy for me. Just in case we could not find another place, I did not want to leave it until the last minute as the time kept ticking along. I cleaned most the kitchen, washed the bed linens and scoured both bathrooms. After cleaning it I was feeling much better about staying. I also have become more open-minded about unexpected situations after traveling Europe. Basically “shit happens” and I just try to make the best of it, hence the cleaning of the loft.
An unfortunate argument ensued over staying or finding another place, so I called Reed and let him know that we would not be staying and he promised to refund our entire stay. Loaded up the truck and I called Han, he quickly found us a Holiday Inn and upon checking-in I told Barry (the front desk clerk) the dilemma and he upgraded us to a wonderful suite for an outstanding price. They even had a managers get-together happening, with appetizers and wine to enjoy and he invited us to help ourselves.
Even though we had a suite, we still shared a bedroom and between Donna’s phone lighting up the room during the night and me snoring; it was obviously not the ideal situation and one that I had tried to avoid by getting us a larger place.
After settling in, Reed texted me and let me know that I would have to contact airbnb to cancel, and I was on the phone for the next hour trying to get through. I was finally able to speak to them the next day, which also took about another hour, as my blood pressure was creeping up again.
Later that day, I received a message from airbnb that not only were they refunding all my money, but they also sent a 100.00 gift certificate to be used for future reservations within one year. That was a huge relief, and the certificate will come in handy when Han and I visit Cuba again. That is three nights in Cuba. Cheers!!!
So thank you Reed for being cool, and thank you airbnb for being a great company to deal with.
In Florence, Alabama there are tons of thrift shops, the best ones are called “Loaves and Fishes”. I was shopping for items to put on eBay and I sure found some deals. Cannot wait to begin listing and making that money.
The music scene is what Florence is known for, since it is right next door to famous Muscle Shoals. I think we saw Billy Bob Thornton’s tour bus, as he was playing at the theatre next door. We previously had considered going, but not particularly a fan of his music after checking him out on youtube.
It was supposed to rain a lot while we were visiting, but it honestly was not bad at all. Seems that forecasters are more often wrong than right these days.
We finally stopped on the way out of town towards Russellville and ate lunch at Krispy Kreme. The guys, for some reason, slipped me an extra donut in my bag and I made sure to thank them. They were all super sweet.
We stopped in a little town called Tuscumbia and learned that Helen Keller had been born there.
Went to “Spring Park” to see a waterfall and a statue in memory of the “Trail of Tears”. It’s a pretty little area and nice to walk around, but watch out for the goose poop.
On the way out of the park is the cutest little log cabin that used to be the stage coach stop for the town.
Meandered around some stores in town and had ice-cream at The Palace.
I definitely wanted to check out the kick-ass guitar store called “Shoals Guitar Boutique”. The owners, Don and Alana, are delightful and friendly (their dog even more friendly. LOL) Alana is the daughter of Jimmy Johnson, one of the original Swampers, the famous session musicians group behind so many country and southern rock songs recorded in Muscle Shoals. I couldn’t resist and bought a t-shirt for Han and even put him on the phone with them because they all have so much in common. We are already connected via Facebook and Han and I will soon be planning a trip to go visit, have dinner with them and check out the music scene. I am pretty darn excited about that.
We continued on towards our day’s destination of Russellville AL, for the meet up point for my daughter to pick me up to join her for the weekend on one of her many horse-back endurance rides. Went to Walmart, picked up some dinner and I had to get some storage tubs for all the stuff for eBay. I re-packed for like the thousandth time and we went to bed fairly early, since we planned on an early wake up call.
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