O God help Tupelo! - Til The King is born in Tupelo!

Perhaps my music selection is a little esoteric today, but Nick Cave's song Tupelo sums up something of our experience this afternoon. Quoting some of the words:

Looka yonder! Looka yonder! Looka yonder! A big black cloud come! A big black cloud come! O comes to Tupelo. Comes to Tupelo

O God help Tupelo! O God help Tupelo! O God help Tupelo! O God help Tupelo!

In Tupelo! Tupelo-o-o! Til The King is born in Tupelo!

In a clap-board shack with a roof of tin, where the rain came down and leaked within, a young mother frozen on a concrete floor, with a bottle and a box and a cradle of straw. Tupelo-o-o! O Tupelo!

We were greeted in Tupelo with a big black thunder cloud and torrential rain. But by 2.30 it was clear, so by the time we had settled in to the room, we went out to find the only thing that Tupelo seems to be famous for: as the song puts it "the birthplace of the King" in this case Elvis Presley. Again as the song indicates he was born in a house, little more than a hovel, on land his father was soon to lose when he was put in jail for trying to fraudulently cash someone else cheque. Unusually my 'co-pilot' had lots to say about the experience of going to the house, so over to him.

<<The Birthplace (and Museum)

Yesterday the pilot and I had the life-changing opportunity to visit The Birthplace, an opportunity afforded to so few it would the one of the high levels of ignorance to not take advantage of it. The Birthplace is a place where miracles happen and one can truly feel the presence of The King.

Upon our arrival we were informed that we were cutting it fine to miss the final show of the day, and so we moved quick smart over to the church for The Show . We were quite distraught when we arrived at the church, for it was locked. We felt we had missed our opportunity. Distraught. That is how we felt. As we started to slowly meander our way back to the Museum a truly miraculous event occurred. Maggie, one of the acolytes opened the door and beckoned us in.  We had not missed The Show . After a few minutes the doors were locked, ready for the show. Then a voice appeared in the air, informing Maggie that two more believers were on their way for The Show . Upon their arrival the doors were locked (again!) and the show began.

Maggie began the show by welcoming us to The Birthplace > and giving us a brief history of the building Maggie explained that it was the exact same building The King had gone to as a child and HAD ACTUALLY PERFORMED!!!, a glorious warmth spread around the room, and this was just the preamble to The Show . Darkness descended upon the room, and we were enveloped in an almost holographic experience of a post depression church service of the Southern USA.

After feeling truly enlightened the doors were opened and we made our way to The Old House , the actual building in which The King was born. Another acolyte was there to spread the knowledge of The King early, formative years, including the history of the building. Vernon, The King's father built the building (and bought 15 acres) for $180, that is $3157.28 in today's money (Geneen had complained about the lack of links in my last section, so here is the GDP deflater link).  We were informed that when the reached the Museum we could actually see the hammer Vernon used to build the house. The acolyte explained that the depression caused The King's family to seek work in Memphis, and so the house fell into disrepair.  But, The King, in a characteristic sense of goodwill to his fellow man (and/or woman) purchased the land for the children of the local area to be turned into a park, and so The Foundation came into being!!

The Museum, held many many wonderful artifacts of The King and his life, along with the words of those lucky to have experienced his presence, these include, but are not limited to; a pair of his pyjamas, old tickets stubs, and yes, YES, the hammer Vernon used to build the house. Unfortunately given the significance of the items, and their value in the record of human existence pictures were not allowed, suffice to say, dear readers, that we consider ourselves blessed to have seen them.

PS. I'm all shock up!>>

Why were we in Tupelo, you may be asking. Well as you will have noticed all the previous place we have been were for a very deliberate reason, though sometimes an odd one. But sometimes on holidays like these you look at two places you want to be and then see where you might stop that is about half way. With our return to Atlanta planned and the need to pick up Arkansas as the third of my six states and with Atlanta and Little Rock being 520 miles or 8 hours apart we needed somewhere in between and Tupelo is 285 from one and 244 from the other, so here we are. It was only after we selected the location that we discovered that it was the birthplace of Elvis.

After our visit we returned to the hotel for an hour to change for dinner and then went out to a place called Woody's Steakhouse which Drew had pre-selected by searching on Trip Adviser. 

You might think that selecting a steakhouse when it is Friday, a non-meat day, is a strange option, but there was no problem here. I started with New Orleans Seafood Gumbo with corn muffins, it was delicious lots of shrimp, lobster and a delicious fish stock underpinning the flavour. It was a bit strange to my palate to have sweet corn muffins soaking up the juice. But the whole thing tasted great. Drew opted to start with the food that seems to be his first choice this holiday: Fried Green Tomatoes, here this was served with a fresh tomato and crawfish reduction which was rich and warming.

For mains Drew opted for a 7 oz Angus Filet Steak which was served with Yukon potato mash, Yukon being a breed of potato which is especially fluffy. The mash was buttery and suited Drew to perfection. I opted for the Blackened Catfish, the last time I recall having Catfish was 12 years ago in Louisiana, and this fish was even better than that. Cooked with black, white and cayenne pepper with thyme, oregano and paprika this fish has the right mix of European herbs and more exotic spices. It was served with crawfish pan sauce, a good accompaniment  cheese grits and little bits of roast corn and peppers. Both plates were completely empty by the end.

The piece de resistance was the dessert which, after a little persuasion from our waitress, Tori, Drew was persuaded to have the Death by Chocolate. I'll let the photos do the talking, and yes it too led to an empty plate.