So far so good: GA, AL, MS, TN, AR, TX, NM, Road Trip!
 

So far so good: GA, AL, MS, TN, AR, TX, NM, Road Trip!

Reporting from the road. From Amarillo, TX, to be precise, on Day 5 of a road trip which is supposed to take us from our home in Decatur, GA to Santa Fe, NM and back.

Tonight is sort of a down night so I thought I’d get a few notes posted about the trip so far. Now, bear in mind that my notes are down in the car and I am already in my pj’s (therefore not eager to run down and get them) so I’ll do this from memory. Might have to come back with corrections if required.

We bought a new car last summer and really like it. We’ve been talking about a road trip ever since. Someplace neither of us had ever been. Santa Fe!

Headed west out of Atlanta on I-20, then north out of Birmingham, AL on US 78. First stop: Tupelo, MS, birth home of the King, Elvis Presley.

This was a great stop. Elvis’s birth home is a two-room bungalow in a tiny town. You can tour the grounds and the gift shop for free, it’s very inexpensive – maybe $2.50 to go inside the house itself. The little museum has some nice features, including oral histories of Tupelo residents who remember the boy king and shared their memories.

There is also a chapel. I never quite got the connection between Elvis and the religious devotion that seems to go along with his memory but if it works for you the chapel is there to accommodate you.

In the gift shop there are several large cut out 2-dimensional Elvis sculptures. It’s a good photo opportunity.

Back into the car for the short stretch to beautiful Oxford MS, home of Ole Miss and our night’s lodging at the Downtown Oxford Inn and Suites. Oxford is everything you want in a gorgeous old southern town, including a historic courthouse, a tree-shaded town square, ante-bellum buildings, interesting shopping and more.

The best thing about the Downtown Inn and Suites is its location, just around the corner from the town square. There’s also a full bar and a restaurant, and breakfast (cereal, Danish, fruit, juice and coffee) is included with your stay. Bearing in mind that you don’t have many other options, the Inn and Suites is adequate at about $80 with a AAA discount.

We had a refreshing stroll around the square and an early-evening cocktail at Proud Larry’s, on their patio. If you wish to adopt the look of a southern lawyer, there are at least two good-looking shops on the square to set you up with seersucker suits and oxford cloth shirts. There’s great browsing at Square Books, the best independent bookstore I’ve visited in ages. I challenge any book lover to emerge from Square Books empty-handed.

Lots of dining options but if you have only one evening, City Grocery seems to be committed to updated southern classics and fresh local ingredients. The roast chicken was served with mashed potatoes flavored with truffles—to die for. Creative selection of wines by the glass or the bottle. This was a memorable meal. We spent about $125 for dinner for two, including the wine. Oh, there’s a bar upstairs/next door, it’s part of City Grocery, and it has a tiny veranda overlooking the square. Nice.

In the morning we walked to the Ole Miss campus. I am guessing the distance as about 1.5 miles. We had picked up a copy of a campus walking tour in our hotel lobby. It shows you where the ante-bellum buildings can be found and provides a little history lesson as well.

Before leaving town we visited Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner, America’s greatest writer. You can tour the house and grounds for $5 but we were lucky enough to visit on a Wednesday when admission is free. (I get an absurd childish pleasure out of an unexpected bargain.) The best thing to me in the house was the room where Faulkner did much of his writing, he had story-boarded the outline of a work in progress; you can see where he has written it out right on the walls of the room. I highly recommend this house tour.

I’ll post about our next stop, Memphis, soon. It’s late here and tomorrow we head to New Mexico. I hope the information about this trip is useful. I’ve received so many great tips from Fodor’s posters and I’d like to return the favor.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report - and since you're headed here tomorrow, bienvenidos!

Lee Ann

I too am looking forward to the next instalment!
I fly out to Phoenix Sunday, get to New Mexico middle of next week, two whole weeks in New Mexico.:D

olive oil, I was reading your post about the casita espiritu yesterday and thought of posting to ask about your trip, but realized you were ON the trip now.

Your ears must have been burning as i was thinking of you, and here you are posting.

Hope the rest of your journey was/is as fun as this first part.

What route are you taking..is it all highway driving or are you doing some back roads? What towns in Georgia will you be visiting?

lol...never mind...I guess I should have read your post better...sorry!

Lee Ann, we are in NM and it is swell! Thanks for the warm welcome.

Hetismij, perhaps we will run into each other. When I was in Florence last year I met a Fodorite! You never know.

emd, we got into Espiritu this afternoon and are enjoying a quiet evening. It's pretty great so far. I'll have a better feel for the convenience of the location tomorrow.

mrsd2fan, we are doing a mix of big roads and small roads. This is such a big country and the distances are vast, it is hard to resist the interstates. However, when you have smaller, out of the mainstream stopovers planned, it gets you onto the smaller and more interesting roads. Regarding Georgia, we are beginning and ending there but not planning any stops. If you have questions about GA I'd be glad to give you my two cents.

Ok! Another installment. I am a few days ahead of myself and posting from Santa Fe. We are here for a week so I hope to get caught up. It is delightful here and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

But first, Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis is a town that looks to be thriving. We stayed at the Westin on Beale Street. Seemed pretty new and is located just south of Beale Street in an area that looks like it has enjoyed some fairly recent redevelopment.

I know it lacks soul or character but I have to admit, I love the Westin. Especially when I pay via AMEX membership rewards points. Sweet! Very convenient location, lots of walkable attractions.

Plus, we stayed there on a Wednesday night so got to enjoy their Wednesday wine and cheese tasting in the lobby. They did a really nice job with three decent wines and an interesting cheese selection—all complimentary. Too bad I tried all three wines, later I tripped on a manhole cover and injured my ankle, wrist and knee. This has crimped my touristic style a little but I am on the mend. (Wearing the platform sandals contributed to the fall, I have not put them back on since then. Sticking to sneakers and hiking boots. But of course it messes up all the vacation outfits. Grrrr..)

We took two great tours in Memphis. The first was of the Gibson guitar factory. Happens to be located next door to the Westin. The tour costs $10 and lasts about an hour, including spending a little time in the factory store. They have more than one facility; at this one they make the semi-hollow bodied electric guitars and a Les Paul custom white limited edition. The tour takes you step by step through the manufacturing process and when it is over you understand why they cost as much as they do. I am not a musician but my husband is, he had a great time.

But the second tour we took was really great if you have any interest whatsoever in 20th century music. We went to Sun recording studios. It was fabulous. It’s a tiny little place but spectacularly well preserved. The tour guide takes you through the whole story, the birth of rock and roll, and plays excerpts of recordings by Elvis, Howlin’ Wolf, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ike Turner, and more.

You can take pictures of each other standing in the exact spot Elvis stood and holding one of the original studio microphones. This was a blast. If I had not been partially crippled (see above) there would have been dancing.

Several of the other tourists were from Great Britain; they were like pilgrims to the holy land of rock and roll. Before the tour was over, one guy was belting out the opening of It’s Alright Mama.

There’s a free shuttle from the Rock and Soul Museum (which we did not have time to visit but looked great) or it’s a short drive, with parking behind Sun Studio. Tour cost $10.

Also in Memphis: We stopped in to see the beautiful Peabody Hotel and its famous ducks. Here’s a tip. There is a mezzanine level to the lobby. View the duck ceremony from there for an unobstructed view.

Don’t be innocent fools like us. We arrived early, found a seat near the fountain, and ordered drinks. All very lovely and civilized.

Unfortunately, as the duck hour approached, hordes of folks parked their fat asses in front of us and we may as well as skipped the whole thing. It was sort of silly anyway.

You don’t have to pay a lot of money to hear good music in Memphis. There’s a park just below Beale Street where there was an ongoing free concert all day. We went to a club just down the street from the Westin, Ground Zero, the cover was $3 and the band was good.

All in all, despite injury and rabid duck watchers, Memphis was a blast. The next morning we got a coffee from Starbucks and set off for Arkansas. Perhaps you saw the headlines this week about the killer tornadoes? We were there at the same time. I’ll provide the details in the next installment. Right now I am headed for the hot tub under the stars at our New Mexico casita. Thanks for reading.

Love it! And then what happened? Really looking forward to AR, TX, and can't wait for NM...this reminds me of Ellen Griswald's road trip out west of a few yrs ago, another great epic road trip report.

hi olive oil, just checking back in to see how Santa Fe is going...

Me, too.

I guess olive oil is enjoying Santa Fe!
I hope we can have the next gripping installment soon :)

That is exactly what I was thinking today. She is probably watching all those stars from the patio of her casita espiritu after a nice meal somewhere about now.....

You all are funny. emd, that's a great compliment, comparing this trip report to Ellen's. Thank you.

I think it’s swell that you all are reading this. I am determined to get up to date. Tonight is our third night in Santa Fe and already Arkansas seems very far away and long ago.

I’m afraid that I won’t give Hot Springs a fair shake. The weather was scary, I was limping around, and we were not there very long. But here goes.

The drive from Memphis was easy and short. One moment of panic when Bill (DH) saw a billboard for a liquor store proclaiming NEXT FIVE COUNTIES DRY. Turned out to be a false scare.

Hot Springs is an odd place. It seems like a relic from a long gone era. The National Park includes the famous bathhouse row, a promenade of beautiful old turn of the century buildings housing the therapeutic hot baths.

I’m sure it would be a lovely place to stroll along if one did not have a sprained ankle and if it was not raining. Bathhouse Row is beautifully maintained and illuminated. The rest of Hot Springs, not so much. Looked a little shabby and funky. I saw a sign outside a shabby building advertising strip karaoke. I thought that looked intriguing but Bill was not willing.

We stayed in a very cool place, the 1890 Williams House Bed and Breakfast. The house was beautifully restored and very grand.

I need to give Hot Springs another try when we have more time to spend and explore the area. I did not even get to try the hot springs. FORESHADOWING: other hot spring opportunities ahead.

We left Hot Springs and headed toward Texas, stopping en route at Hope, Arkansas, home of former president Bill Clinton and Arkansas governor and presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee. The visitor center in Hope was quite interesting. Lots of information about the Clinton’s, of course. No matter your politics, it is amazing to think you could start your life in such a tiny town, and grow up to be president.

Across the street from the visitor center, check out the Southwest Arkansas Arts Council and Craft Shop. You can browse through a collection of work locally made. We enjoyed it and then hit the road for Plano, Texas.

Why Plano? We have friends there.

I am still trying to mentally assimilate Plano. I’ll start with our very interesting hotel, The NYLO. Reasonably priced ($80), very comfortable, and relentlessly hip.

Everything was very high design from the lobby furniture to the original, locally sourced art on the walls, to the concrete walled rooms, like a New York loft.

This is apparently the first of a string of NYLO’s planned. It’s a business travel hotel, but definitely aimed at young business travelers. Gorgeous pool area with beds (!) instead of chaise lounges. Interesting.

So our friend picks us up at the hotel and gives us a brief tour of Plano. The first thing that strikes me is that everything we saw looks like it is no more than two years old.

Driving through the Willow Bend neighborhood, I was agog. Street after street after street of multi-million dollar houses. I’m no slouch, I’ve been to Palm Beach and to Newport, but I’ve never seen anything like this.

Our friend (Rick) took us to a neighborhood shopping/entertainment district for drinks and dinner (possibly called the Shops at Legacy—it’s sort of a blur.) Very glamorous.

Cars cruising up and down the street included Lamborghini’s, Ferrari’s , yada, yada’s, basically no car worth less than $50,000, except ours. There was music in the street and I guess this happens every weekend.

Is there a downtown Plano? I have no idea. We had a lot of fun catching up with Rick, stumbled back to our organic cotton sheeted bed at the NYLO, and headed out of town at the crack of eleven, toward Amarillo, just hoping to make good time toward New Mexico.

But Amarillo turned out to be a surprise. We saw two really cool things and we found a great hotel deal. Which I’ll share in the next installment.

Just wanted to add a few notes from Olive Oil's better half ;)

When we checked out of Hot Springs, that was the day the killer tornadoes were ripping across Arkansas - the ones that killed 8 people. At 10 AM as we were checking out of our B&B, the owner was moving his vehicle to covered parking as there were hail warnings. We braved it anyway and as we were leaving the 2 lane road from Hot Springs and getting ready to get on the Interstate, to our left were several huge totally uprooted old oak trees and half a large house was ripped out - just gone. Don't know whether this just happened or happened a week or month ago, but it got our attention. We used to live in South Florida and have been through our share of palmetto pounders before, but I've never driven through such a storm as this. By the time we reached Hope, the storm let up and we were through it. After seeing the news reports, we were very lucky.

Nice to hear from you Bill. What a great combination you two make! I was wondering about the tornadoes. Now I know, and am waiting impatiently to hear what you thought of Amarillo.

Bill, we have our fair share of tornados in this area, that's for sure! Glad nothing happened to you both.

I'm living vicariously through you two while you're in Santa Fe. My home away from home.

Eat lots of green and red chile.

Two great things in Amarillo.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Several Fodorites recommended this park in Amarillo and I am very glad I followed their advice.

Sometimes on a car trip you are so intent on your destination that you fail to slow down long enough to learn a little about the area you are driving through.

This was a worthwhile visit, even if too short.
Called the Grand Canyon of Texas, the state park is the result of a depression-era make-work project by either the Civilian Conservation Corps or the Works Progress Administration, the former, I think.

There is a $4 per person entry fee and you can get a lot for your money. Miles of hiking trails and a Loop drive which provides views both from the rim and at the bottom of the canyon.

We were there early enough in the morning that the light was still kind. The colors revealed in the eroded canyun were amazing. The cottonwood trees along the river were in their spring green foliage. Just beautiful.

If you go, there are facilities for camping, RVs, horseback riding (stables in the park) and picnicking.

On the way west from Amarillo, we stopped to admire Cadillac Ranch, the iconic set of 10 Cadillac’s planted nose-down in a field along Highway 40. You do not have to stop your car to admire this installation (for lack of a better word.) It is perfectly visible as you speed along. But I am glad that we took the south side access road and spent some time, close up, with the American Stonehenge.

We had spent the previous night at the Drury Inn in Amarillo. Turned out to be a good value even at about $90 because we made a meal that night of their complimentary happy hour buffet (hot dogs!) and enjoyed a couple of cocktails to boot. Breakfast was included with our stay, as well.

They have an indoor pool and I went down to it with the best of intentions to get some exercise. Unfortunately, the water was too cold for me so I spent half an hour in their hot tub instead and enjoyed talking to other hotel guests.

After breakfast it was back in the car, then the visit to Cadillac Ranch, then we pointed it west. Time to get the heck out of Texas!

Some additional notes on Palo Duro ...

The purple sage was in full bloom. Beautiful.

When you drive along the canyon floor, there's a small stream that you cross 6 or so times. The road is slightly elevated (maybe a foot) at the crossings so the water just trickles over the road. There were flood gauge poles at each crossing that stood 5 feet high. We noticed that the signs on top of the poles had mud on them which indicated that at some point, flash floods raised the water level 5 feet or more, which is enough to submerge any sedan. Upon talking to the park ranger, she advised that floods have gotten as high as 22 feet! Gave us new respect for flash floods.

The deer seem very tame. At one point we had several cross in front of our car. There were supposed to be Texas longhorns up on the rim, but we didn't see any.

Although we were there early in the day, this is probably a great place to catch a sunset.

Bill and olive-- I SO want to retire and do road trips!!

more, more, more.....