Week 65: New Year's Eve, Tupelo, Mississippi

 

You can take all the tea in China,
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail right around all the seven oceans
Drop it straight into the deep blue sea
She's as sweet as Tupelo Honey

Van Morrison, Tupelo Honey

My path takes me a few miles West and South of Tupelo, but it's good to have a good picture, and a picture of a statue of Elvis in Tupelo works for me.

Tupelo honey, by the way, is a real thing, made by honey bees that gather their nectar from the Tupelo tree. It is only produced in Southern Georgia and the Florida panhandle, and rumor has it that it tastes unusually sweet. I think I will buy some, just to try it.

Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Presley, and his childhood home is here, and a museum and several statues of him. Elvis is a big deal in this part of the world.

More interesting, at least to me, is that a trail called the Natchez Trace, and a roadway called the Natchez Trace Parkway, go through Tupelo. The Natchez Trace is an old forest trail that starts (or ends) at the Mississippi River at Natchez, Mississippi, far south of Tupelo, crosses the Tennessee River in Northwestern Alabama, and ends (or starts) at the Cumberland River at Nashville, Tennessee. It's about 440 miles long, and it would give me a good reason to visit Mississippi and Tennessee.

I will post a little retrospective of the month, the year, and the trip so far in the next couple of days.