Licia & Pete's 2012 RV Odyssey: Sunset on the Missippi

July 14^th

Licia writes:

Hi All,

We started our day today in another thunderstorm. Not wanting to drive in this we waited it out at our campsite and took the time to plan our tours in Memphis and Nashville. Once the weather cleared and cooled off (Yeah!!), we took off for our last Laura Ingalls Wilder stop at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, MO. This was the house that she lived in while writing the books. It started as two rooms and was added on to room by room until finished it was eleven rooms. Everything there was the original furnishings and was a great ending to this part of my bucket list. Again, we could not take pictures inside but I am going to do a scrapbook of the trip and will use the postcards that we have bought. It has been quite an odyssey to begin in Pepin, WI and finish in Mansfield, MO. I am definitely going to reread the books (my new hardback copies – an early birthday present) now that I have seen the places.

Pete writes:

The “Little House” stops being over, we turned south and traveled for 4 hours through Missouri and into the Ozarks. The route also took us through Arkansas, where we bought a tank of gas for $3.15 s gsllon! Finally, we crossed the Mississippi for the 4^th time on this trip and motored into our campground on Elvis Presley Blvd., Memphis, TN. One of my colleagues in website management who works for Finalsite (our web software firm) had asked us to join her and her husband for dinner, that is Bar-B-Que. Lorrie and John Mark Jackson picked us up at 6:15 and drove us into downtown Memphis to “Central BBQ”, one of the most popular places in Memphis. We quickly found out why. The ribs and pulled pork were some of the best we have ever had. By the time we finished and were leaving, the line to get in was out the door and into the parking lot. We had just beaten the rush.

On the way home the Jacksons drove us downtown to see the city and we stopped for a few pictures (See below). We ended our tour in a beautiful park on the river and I got a great shot of Licia as the sun set in the west. It was a great day covering another 250 miles. Our total for the trip is now over 4,100. We’re ready for a full day in Memphis tomorrow, including Graceland and Beal Street. Until our report tomorrow night. . . . . .

Licia at Rocky Ridge Farm, Mansfield, MO


In front of the famous Sun Recording Studio - home of sun Records.										Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and many more of R & R's early years mage records here.