Now, The Good Part

I'm still amazed by the amount of activity we managed to pack into so few days. Besides the musical smackdown of Saturday night's Elvis Festival which featured Bliss, Bandit, Ingram Hill and our boy Taylor Hicks, there was also the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Competition and the Mississippi Showcase of Bands. Miss Tupelo gave away a new van. And if we had been lucky enough to stay through Sunday, I would have dragged a lawn chair from the hotel to watch a performance at the First United Methodist Church to see the battle of the Gospel Superstars. Local ones, that is, but that's still bound to be speaking-in-tongues-worthy.

Besides these events, did you know that the Elvis Festival offers an Elvis inspired art display ("Pink and Black Days"), a "Running With the King" 5K run, Elvis Look-Alike-Pet Parade and the Elvis Movie Poster Exhibit? Everyone should go once in their life.

We did other memorable things in Tupelo that should be noted here.

-My very first visit ever to Walmart. It's phenomenally huge.

-Meeting our friend Wompuss (above in pink with another friend, Kelley) for dinner on Saturday night at Johnnie's Drive-In. This small venue is an old haunt of Elvis Presley's. Womp lives in Mississippi and true to her sweet thoughtful nature, compiled Mississippi survival kits for all of us. In each kit were a packet of pork rinds, a packet of saltines, a packet of insect repellent, a bottle of sweet tea, a moon pie and a can of Vienna sausages (which is pronounced VI-EEE-NER in Mississippi).

-At Johnnie's, we were enticed by the waitress to try the dough burger, a house specialty. It's part flour, water and meat. We did. I'm still trying to pass the fucking thing and it's been days.

-At Johnnie's, we also had corn dog nuggets as appetizers and as SR said, those fairly rocked.

-We met a man who was the son of the actress Ann Sheridan (who had an affair with Elvis in 1955). This man was born in 1956, insists he is the King's spawn and is an active Elvis imitator. He had the big hair, sideburns, glasses, leather jacket...and striped sweatpants.

-On Friday night, Bluesy and I went to a club called Benjamin's. It was exceedingly loud. We met some nice folk and a sweet young man taught me to swing dance. The highlight however was when the lead singer from the band came down to the bar during the bridge in the song to swill a shot of Jaegermeister. He took one look at Bluesy and licked his microphone as a come on. How freaking unsanitary.

-On Saturday, we decided to check out the festival. When we got downtown, the streets were deserted. The sky rumbled with thunder although it was dry. We went to the entrance for the evening's concert. There were a few women sitting in lawn chairs waiting to get the front spots for the show when the gate opened at 5 pm. They'd been there since 8 am. They were locals, very pleasant. At the head of the line was a woman with one tooth in her mouth. And it protruded. I thought it was a cigarette until I looked closely.


-We then went to a midway section of the festival where corndogs and funnel cakes are sold and where carnies hawk their rigged fairway games. They had some rides so Bluesy, E!! and I decided to take a spin. We went on the Tilt-o-Whirl and then the rain began to pound down. In stinging, unmerciful sheets. By the time we were on the Scrambler, it was like being hosed down by the National Guard. The wetter we got, the more we laughed. E!!! heard the carny say, "Look at those crazy bitches."

-We surprised our friends from the Midwest (SR, Tif, TinaB and ElvisGal) in their hotel rooms with a 12 pack of Rolling Rock---we were still soaked to the skin after our whirl on the midway. This was the first time we had ever met them. They were down with us. Well, poor SR was in a towel, just out of the shower, but she was as cool as can be. She's always cool.

I'm so glad I went.