I don’t thing many of you have done either of the fun things I did in the rain this afternoon.

Well, after a great time in Gadsden, Alabama, post to follow (hopefully soon), I landed in Tupelo, Mississippi.  Tupelo’s claim to fame, it is the birthplace of Elvis Presley.  He lived here until he was thirteen.  But walking around town one could think he lived here all his life.  Tupelo itself is a strange town.  It lacks any kind of community feel.  The town is spilt in half by some four lane roads with chain stores (I like to call them the death of unique towns and cities everywhere) along the way.  A small section of the “downtown” area has some one of a kind store, but that’s about it.  I asked some people if there is a local place that serves breakfast, but there are only the Arby’s, Waffle Houses and Cracker Barrels of the world, sad, very sad.

I passed the Automobile Museum, but couldn’t bring myself to actually go and see the exhibit; I hear it is very good.  Since there was nothing else to do I did drive to the Elvis Museum which is right next to his birthplace.  I visited the gift store, but again couldn’t bring myself to visit the museum or even to take a closer look at the rebuild “birthplace”.  FYI, it is a tiny gun shot home.

It was still fairly early in the afternoon and I figured I could catch up on some writing and maybe get JD a badly need car wash.  Unfortunately, the entrance height at the car wash was only 84”, too low for JD.  Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.  It started to get pretty dark and my favorite “severe thunderstorm warning” interrupted the radio program.  I arrived at the campground just before it started to pour.

Here is the first thing you can do in the rain: wash your car.  After the first shower was over I got out with my great car washing mop in hand and I wiped down the truck.  Thunder was still in the air and I could be sure that nature would take care of the rinse cycle.  OK, this might not be the best way to wash your car, but it is better than nothing.

Now you ask what could be the other crazy thing she did in the rain.  Are you ready for this, I played disc golf.  I had never even heard of it until yesterday evening.  There is even a PDGA – Professional Disc Golf Association.  I am staying at a state park near Tupelo and after driving for four hours I thought I check out the trails.  A little hiking after dinner never hurts.  Along the trails I saw these strange metal baskets which looked like deer feeders and there were tees and on a bench it read tupelodiscgolf.com.  All very strange.  On my way to the trail I had passed a group of guys and I remembered one carrying a Frisbee.  Still it didn’t make much sense to me.  Heading back to my camper I saw the guys again and I decided to just ask them what this disc stuff is all about.  They were very nice and explained the game.  Basically, instead of a golf ball you use a Frisbee or a disc which you try to throw into this basket.  The rules and scoring are similar to regular golf.  The trick is you play this game in the woods, throwing the disc through trees and hopefully over creeks and up and down hills.  The baskets are 200’-300’ (60-90 m) from the tee.  Ethan, Michael, Tim, Jonathan and Danny, all self proclaimed rednecks, had been playing for some time.  I followed them along to the 18th “hole”.  Meanwhile, I was learning about the game and the different weights of the discs.  There is a putter disc which is heavier than the long distance discs. 

So, after I had washed my truck, Ethan drove by and we chatted for a bit and he asked if I wanted to throw some practice baskets.  I was a bit hesitant, it was still raining a little and the sky was still pretty dark.  What the heck, how often will I get the opportunity to play disc golf?  Off we went.  After a few throws it started to rain again.  Well, let’s play in the woods where we won’t get too wet.  So we played 18 holes in on and off rain.  It was fun.  My play stunk; I played a round of 82, that’s 28 over par!  Maybe I’ll do better the next time.

Lots of good stuff from Gadsden will follow soon.  Have a good Memorial Day weekend.