Southern US Road Trip: 11/20/21

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 Day 3

Missouri, Tennesee, Mississippi, Alabama

While eating dinner and making our beds the night before, we found out that a place called "Kentucky Bend" was nearby. The first thing we did the next morning after packing up the car was to drive towards the river to see this place. Though it doesn't look any different than the surrounding countryside, "Kentucky Bend" is special because it is an island of Kentucky surrounded by Missouri and Tennesee. It's an interesting place that we had never heard about or thought was possible. We got a beautiful view of the Mississippi river, sandbars, and a huge barge.

We were in Marston near the top left.

After seeing this, we drove straight through Tennesee to Tupelo, Mississippi. On the way, we saw many cotton fields, some cut, some harvested, and some not harvested yet. The bales of cotton look like giant marshmallows. We also saw a semi-truck with a funny name on it, "Butt's Foods". We don't know why it got that name but it doesn't sound great. Now back to Tupelo. Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Presley and his former home, a tiny two-room shack, is now next to a museum, his old church, and several memorials to the rock-and-roll icon. Next, we drove to "Dunn's Falls". We had to pay a small amount ($15.25 for the five of us), but it was really pretty and interesting to look inside the old mill. We also clambered around on the rocks near the bottom of the fall and along the river. It was also a much needed break from the car. Our next stop was a much needed gas station where we tried some deep fried gizzard. It was very chewy, but pretty much just tasted like chicken. Then we drove all the way to Orange Beach, Alabama and stayed there. Our room was on the fifth floor and had a beautiful view. For dinner, we walked to a nearby Waffle House (we've been wanting to since our last trip to the south) and enjoyed a delicious meal of breakfast for dinner.

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