7.13.2010

Deep South: 1

Last week my husband and I headed out on a little road trip to celebrate our anniversary. We decided to travel deeper into the south, spending some quality time in Mississippi and Louisiana. I have a ton of photos and experiences to share, so over the next week or two this is the stuff you'll be seeing on here. 

Day 1:
 Left Atlanta, GA and headed to Corinth, MS
The first leg of the trip was slow going, so we played a little travel bingo
We stopped at Borroum's Drug Store in Corinth, MS for lunch. It's the oldest drug store/soda fountain in Mississippi established in 1865. Skip tried one of their famous slugburgers. The food was OK, but the atmosphere and food were not as exciting as we were hoping based on the research we had done beforehand, and not quite worth the extra two hours of driving it took to get their and back on our path. 

Next stop, Holly Springs, MS. As we pulled into town I spotted this abandoned college. I've seen plenty of abandoned houses and buildings before (and Mississippi sure has a whole lot of abandoned structures), but never an entire college. It was pretty interesting and we took a few minutes to explore. 
(notice the freshly cut grass... ??)
Our reason for stopping in Holly Springs was to visit Graceland Too. Graceland Too is an in-home museum dedicated to all things Elvis. (I suggest reading about it, it's quite a fascinating place). It is very informal, open "anytime", you just walk up to the house and knock on the door. Unfortunately, we knocked and there was no answer. We went into town and wasted some time (and had a freshly made waffle cone at the local drug store- yum), and came back to try again. We knocked, and poked around hoping to get our chance to get in. Skip said he caught a glimpse of a man in the backyard walking around naked (there's stories that the owner has become quite crazy over the years), and yelled and knocked some more and nothing. A few passerbys even stopped and said how crazy and amazing it was inside and that "he's always there and will usually just pop up out of nowhere and let you in". We were super disappointed not be able to see this one-of-a-kind place from the inside. 
The exterior was still interesting. The bottom windows were all completely painted over. The house mimicked the real Graceland and was decorated for Christmas (in July).

It had high fences, barbed wired, and bright blue accents. There was a fake guard station inside the fence, and we could see the yard was crowded with old cars including a pink caddy and a gold limo. 
MS was full of soybean and corn fields. FULL. This is what we saw for 90% of two days
In the early evening we arrived in Clarksdale, MS where we would be staying the night. We had dinner at Ground Zero Blues Club. 
Every inch of the place was covered with signatures and other writing


Next: Deep South 2 (night 1 at The Shack Up Inn)