After a long first day, it was time to slow down and experience some of the attractions that awaited us. We began a beautiful, sunny day with a short walk along The Mighty Mississippi River in Memphis. They have several great parks along the river that include bike trails and fitness stations. Tyler and I just kinda stood and watched a tug pushing a large load of barges up river for a few minutes. I got a bit tired watching a few people working hard on the fitness stations and had to take a short rest!
You cannot visit Memphis without seeing Graceland-the home of Elvis Presley. It doesn’t matter if you not really in to his music, but to see where and how The King lived, is worth the time and money. The influence he had on Rock and Roll will never be debated. All that being said, Tyler and I thought how the tour was conducted, was, well, a bit weird. We’ve both been on “audio tours” where they give you a set of head phones to listen to some person narrating information about what you’re looking at, but on the Graceland Tour each visitor also gets an iPad, fitted with a strap to hang around your neck. They hand you this fancy, electronic screen that you put on, open up and rest against your chest, or in some cases, against your belly. After choosing the appropriate language (I really wanted to try the entire tour in Russian, but decided to stick to my native tongue) you begin walking exactly where strategically placed staff people tell you to walk. There we were, along with 50 other people, walking around like interpretive zombies with these gadgets sticking out of the front of our bodies. I swear we all could have been selling peanuts or popcorn at the ball game! It’s quite the system they have unless you decide to skip one of the attractions, which we discovered was a no-no! Our iPad narration (by Full House Actor John Stamos of all people?) got all out of whack and we couldn’t figure out how to “fast-forward or “rewind” the damn thing. When we realized we couldn’t go back, so we simply walked ahead of the rest of the others, only to be scolded by the security guards! It was rather amusing, but all worth it! 
As we left Tennessee and made our way through Arkansas, I had only one destination on my mind-Fouke, Arkansas, home of the Legend of Boggy Creek, the Fouke Monster!
Now if you’ve never heard of the Legend of Boggy Creek, let me you fill in. It’s a basically an Arkansas Bigfoot. A classic movie (half documentary-half not) was made about the creature in 1972. My brothers and sister and I went to see the original movie in the theater, and as an 8-year old, I was scared beyond belief. I never wanted to wander into the woods again, and never looked out a window at night after that! Today, the “performance” may seem a bit cheezy, but to a certain 8-year old kid from PA, it became a lifelong source of wonder (no, I did not say obsession) and pure awe! When we stopped by the Monster Mart today to buy a few Boggy Creek souvenirs, we were greeted by the owner who began telling Tyler and I about how all the items are made, etc. I then asked him if anyone had seen the creature recently, and that’s when I got excited! He began to describe, in detail, a sighting that happened just last week, only a few miles from where we were standing. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I accidently blurted out, “Can you take us to that spot?” I knew I had made a mistake asking, but couldn’t help myself. He stood there looking at me as if I was the actual creature, then politely replied, “No, I’m sorry, that’s private property. They don’t like strangers wandering around out there.” I was bummed, but still thrilled to hear his story. Cathy-we need to return w/Bobo to do our own investigation! Check a big one off my bucket list!
