The Third Leg: The day of firsts and fun!

Leaving Nashville in the morning, I continued my way west. After a few hours, I stopped at my first tourist destination: Graceland. I can't say that I am huge fan of Elvis Presley or anything, but shoot, I don't know how anyone who goes to Graceland can't be somewhat impressed by the "King." Or at least the kitsch surrounding the place.

Tons of fifties style gift shops, diners, and Elvis music blaring all over the place. It was hard not to get caught up with all of it. Elvis and his family are buried on the property as well, so it sort of has a wacky sacred feeling about it--at least for those who might consider themselves followers of the King. There is a complete devotion to the positive attributes of Elvis only: his generosity, his music, his playfulness--not those things that people like myself, who have only heard about his addiction and weight gain know. Actually, there was not one shot there of Elvis where he looked unattractive or strung out. And no real mention of his death. And no, we aren't allowed to go upstairs and view the spot where he died.

At any rate, I am glad that I went and definitely enjoyed my visit.

This day, besides Graceland, was a day of pretty cool firsts for me: Travelling west from Nashville I spotted fields of fluffy white, which I took to be cotton. Other than viewings of "Gone With the Wind," I don't think that I've ever *seen* cotton before. After leaving Memphis, I immediately crossed the Mississippi River, something I've only flown over before. And of course, while crossing the river, I passed into the state of Arkansas, a state that I had never been to before--the first new one of the 10 total states that I passed through to that point (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas).

My next stop was to head to Little Rock and check out President Bill Clinton's Presidential Library. Since writing my thesis some years ago, I have wanted to visit this place and check it out. My thesis dealt with AmeriCorps, the program that Bill Clinton helped to start and so many of the documents relating to the program are housed here in the library. Unfortunately it was closed by the time I got there, but I got an opportunity to check out the neat architectural building (which it is pretty cool looking) and use the Porto potty outside (although the University of Arkansas Bill Clinton School of Public Policy had a ton of urinals just laying on the ground outside of the building--I have no idea if that is a maintenance issue or a political statement?) and head through town.

I had been warned that Little Rock was not a whole lot to see, but I dug it driving around and trying to find my way back to the interstate. I asked several people for directions, and they were incredibly friendly and 'ma'am'ed me tons. It was humorous, but I certainly appreciated the uber-politeness of these folks and the cleaned up look to their downtown area. I could see how someone like Hillary could get by in a town like that.

Further on down the road, when it was time to get gas, I kept up the Clinton theme by stopping in Hope, the birthplace of William Jefferson Clinton. It was dark, but I decided to just take a drive through town.

It didn't take long. Main Street may have been half a block. The Clinton Visitor Center is an old Train Station/Depot. Never did find the house.

At the end of the day, I came to rest my head in New Boston, over 1000 miles away from the old Boston that I knew, and in Texas to boot!