Being tourists in Tupelo

Yesterday morning, we drove over to the airport, just to check out if it would be any good to park for a night. We've parked overnight at many small airports, but Tupelo, Mississippi is a little larger of a city. Sure enough they have a decent sized parking lot and less than half full. And, from where we parked, we got a good free wifi signal from the terminal.

I went inside the very quiet terminal and looked for somebody to ask. But couldn't find anybody. I finally went to one of the two car rental counters and explained to the lady that we wanted to park overnight.

She said "well, nothing official of course, but I've been working here ten years and I can tell you that nobody will care".

Hm. Sounds good then! Unless we find somewhere better, we might make it back here!

Then, we took a drive downtown to wander around. We found a huge empty parking lot behind the new Tupelo City Hall. A couple of school buses parked there and a few municipal vehicles. And, another great wifi signal called "Tupelo Free Wifi". Nice. This would also be a good overnight spot, especially on a Saturday night when City Hall is closed.

We set off to explore.

We are parked behind that building.

Notice the clear blue sky? It's still a little chilly, but at least the sun is shining!

Tupelo City Hall.

Tupelo is well known to Elvis fans.

In case you weren't aware, Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935 and lived here until he was about 13 years old.

Tupelo courthouse is an impressive building.

Where Elvis got his first guitar.

Ace Hardware in downtown Tupelo has been here since 1941.

Interesting store to wander around.

Street art.

Downtown Tupelo.

The old Woolworth store.

Tupelo history.

While we were downtown, we saw a police car stopped at a light. I flagged it down, and the officer rolled down the window. We asked about parking overnight behind the city hall, and she said that she wasn't able to give permission to do so. I asked if she thought we would be fine there on a Saturday night, but she wasn't willing to make a commitment at all, only saying that they would only bother us if anybody complained.

Scenery along the way.

We decided to drive over to the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Of course they are bleeding it for all it's worth, including a display about what Elvis's outhouse might have looked like. No, we didn't pay the $17 USD to go into the museum and the old two room house.

Elvis was born here.

Another reason we were in this end of town was because there were two possible places to get propane, and Sherman is starting to get low. We could probably go another week, but it's below 1/4 tank now.

The one larger place was closed on weekends, but there was a U-Haul place that was open, and most U-Haul franchises sell propane. I had read online that it was $2.79 a gallon, which is a little high, but not bad. Propane prices vary widely, and if you can get it for $2.00 or less, it's a great deal. $2.50 is not bad, but anything over $3.00 a gallon you're paying too much.

But the girl inside was not the most ambitious. Maybe she was new, but I don't think so from listening to her conversation with the customer ahead of me. When it was my turn, I asked the price but she said she didn't know, and didn't look about to make an effort to find out. So I said that I needed to know the price before filling up my motorhome. She said she had done lots of BBQ tanks before, but didn't know how to fill my motorhome. I could have shown her how!

Anyways, she didn't have much ambition to try and help me, so I just gave up. There will be another propane place along the way, and maybe at a better price.

We did manage to fill up Sherman's gas tank at a decent price though... put in 47 gallons at $2.13 a gallon. ($0.74 per liter CAD).

We made a decision to head back to the airport for the night.

View out our window at 5:30pm.

It was going to be another chilly night, but Ruth decided to bake a loaf of bread so that we will have stuffing for the turkey she's going to do this afternoon!

Freshly baked in the airport parking lot. Too funny!

Then, used the warm oven to make dinner.

Venison (thanks Connie and Barry!) enchiladas with fried rice and salad. Yummy!

Slept great last night, but it was only 35F (2C) inside the motorhome when we woke up. The Mr. Heater Buddy along with our furnace warmed things up quickly though, and now the sun is contributing as well. Another clear blue sky, and it looks like the worst of the cold spell is over.

Today, we're headed south to Jeff Busby Campground, another one of the free Natchez Trace Parkway campgrounds. Have to arrive early enough to get that turkey in the oven!

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Remember our kayak that we bought last year? They have the one man version on sale today only... record low price!

Intex Challenger K1 Kayak

And in Canada too!

Intex Challenger K1 Kayak