Down South

We had a great time in Atlanta while we were there. It was great spending time with family, and we got to see a bit of the city when we stayed with Lily's uncle Bob for a few days. We went to the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world, where we saw whale sharks feeding and beluga whales having fun and showing off. Lily will post pictures soon in her photo blog.

Last night we arrived in Memphis, where we're staying at the Elvis Presley Boulevard RV Park. We took route 72 through Alabama and northern Mississippi on our way to here. Man, there's nothing as far as the eye can see in northern Mississippi. Route 72 is a very straight road with very predictable hills through forest with the occasional dreary looking farm. I could see about five miles ahead of me and behind me and I rarely saw another car on either side of the two lane highway. It makes for a boring yet peaceful drive. As we go west, I'm sure we'll start to encounter more and more of this.

Today we went to Graceland, because hey, it's Memphis and we're a few blocks away. Since it's so expensive ($29 to see it all), we decided to see Elvis's automobile museum. It was small, but pretty cool. Elvis really had a great taste in cars. Lily took pictures, which I will bug her to post. It bothers me how much Elvis is exploited at Graceland - all the museums are expensive, and there are tons of gift shops selling some really lame stuff that I can't believe people actually buy. But Elvis is and was larger than life, so why not celebrate his life by throwing money in the garbage.

From where we've been so far in the south we've notices some interesting, some troubling trends. There are churches everywhere - in really rural areas along some of the local highways it seems like half of the buildings we see are churches. Also, there are lots and lots and lots of fast food joints in the towns. I'm going to write more about that in my food blog. College football is HUGE in the south. Oh, and for some reason there are a ridiculous amount of subdivisions down south. Even though there is so much unpopulated land down here, sometimes it looks like over half the population is living in very close quarters in the same looking quarter-of-a-house. I would estimate that %75 of the buildings we see are churches, fast food restaurants, or subdivision housing.

Well that was a crabby blog...

-Wax