The minute we crossed the border into Mississippi it looked like a cleaner happier place. We were headed down through the more rural part of the state so that probably helped, but the drive south out of Tennessee was very nice. The roads are well kept, its lined in trees, and as you drive across rolling hills the fields are all full of green grass.
We were destined for a stop in Tupelo for the night. This is the birthplace of Elvis, a Civil War Battle, and possibly other stuff but the Visitors center was only open from 10a to 1p on Saturdays so we may never know. We pulled in to town to find it completely packed full of people. Mississippi's governor had just announced they would be lifting the mask mandate and opening up venues and restaurants to full capacity. We went to our hotel hoping to check-in early but they were fully booked the night before and no joke laughed at my request. I let him know he found this way more funny that I did and I would be back later to check in. We went to see the house Elvis was born in and look at the church he used to go to. I guess Im not the guy to ask when it comes to Elvis, while Im told he had cultural significance and did good things for the community it feels a little played out to me. Krystal enjoyed the visit and it was better than getting a root canal I guess so we burned up the clock there until we could grab lunch. The place we picked out was the Blue Canoe which sold itself as a pub but was really a bar. I was on the fence about it at first but then I had their burger.... best burger I have ever eaten. It was a beef chuck with smoked bacon mixed in smash patty. They also had some local beers. The cool part was when Lance noticed the Rogue Ales sticker on one of the tables and on stage. This means someone packed a Rogue Ales Sticker all the way from Oregon and stuck it up inside this 20 table bar at some point in the past and we got to find it. Small world..... We paid the tab and took off back to the Hotel.
Other than catching the giggly bastard at the front desk sleeping on his hot tub duties (ya it was 115 degrees when we tried to get it) and some complications with their phones having the wrong address on them which meant Krystals dessert went to a church and not her tummy, we had an uneventful and mostly restful night.
The next morning we got on the road to Laurel, MS. We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. We were really looking forward to this destination for many reasons. We had looked at housing prices and had a realtor lined up to check a couple out, I wanted to get a chance to meet Ben from Hometown on HGTV, and the house we were staying in looked nice. After Memphis we were hoping for a decent week. The drive was again very nice, lots to see, but I was surprised and the amount of logging that happens back here. I intend on reading up on it. Im not against logging, but I look forward to learning more about their industry out here and how it compares to Oregon. As we pulled into North Laurel Krystal was reviewing the demographics. Turns out, I will be a minority in Laurel. Over 50% of the population is black and the other 50% is a mix of hispanic and non-hispanic white. Also the median income for a family is less than $35k a year with men making $27k a year on average and women making $17k a year on average. The cost of housing seems to reflect this but the other goods are the same price as you would see anywhere else in the US. First impressions of Laurel are what you would expect after watching the show Hometown if you've seen it. Its got a nice downtown area, lots of old houses that reflect multiple building styles, and lots of southern charm. It has a population of about 18k people, which is about 5k less that Roseburg for comparison. It feels like a small town to me, especially having lived in Medford the last 5 years of my life which has 81k people. We have done some local exploring and so far havent found anything to complain about. We really like it here. We have looked at a couple houses with a realtor and have found at least 1 house we really like. Whats fun is the place we had lunch the first day is owned by our realtors family, she referr
On Sunday we head to our next destination New Orleans, LA. It should be quick drive at a little over 2 hours. We were set to stay for 2 weeks, but there as an issue with the reservation for the second week, so we are now set for just 1 week and then we will head east towards Alabama.
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