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TuziTwo Journal: Fall 06. Report 1.
Oklahoma to Memphis
Dear Friends and Family: When last we left you, we had returned from
our Yellowstone trip with Connie and Bill
Lacy. Five days later (9/23) we left
for points east. Primarily this was a
family trip: to OK to see my family, then Nashville,
to see Mandi and Paul (and attend annual Bluegrass fanfest festival – no
doubt you remember last fall’s report), then Raleigh, to see Jason, Mile and Karen. Then, on the return we’ll go to Red Bay, AL to see if
we can get TuziTwo’s booboo fixed (souvenir of our recent Moab
stop). This would be a pretty quick
trip: had to return by Oct. 17 for a homeowners meeting, so not a lot of
general tourist interest, but still a few things we thought you might be
interested in.
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Near Edmond, OK, we stayed at Lake
Arcadia, which is part of Edmond’s water
supply. There is a nice, unadvertised
RV park there. The village of Arcadia
is on old Route 66 and features a restored round barn, one of the Route 66
landmarks. Here’s the barn and a
section of the original Mother
Road seen through Tuzi’s windshield.
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A few miles further east and we had lunch at the
Rock Café in Stroud, OK,
another 66 landmark. The proprietor, who
we didn’t meet, was the model for the café owner, Sally, in the movie
CARS. Here’s a shot of my brother,
Lael, and my nephew, Sterling,
in the waiting area.
From Stroud, it was back to I-40 and then, a day
and a half later, more nostalgia in Memphis,
at Graceland, Elvis’ home and
shrine. We saw the whole thing – his
home, his grave, his cars, his airplanes – and heard lots of music. Susie says she was busy teaching school and
birthing babies and didn’t have time for the Elvis thing during his
prime. I wasn’t too taken by it at the
time, but have since become a fan, particularly of his gospel and
country-oriented recordings.
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My book club’s book this month is “White Noise,”
by Don DeLillo, a weird and wacky (so far) book about a university professor
and his family and colleagues. A
comedy of the absurd. The professor
has created a niche and a reputation by establishing a Hitler Center
at his university. There’s a visiting
professor teaching some sort of course on American culture and he invites the
Hitler prof to sit in on one of his classes to provide a level of
credibility. Well, they get into a
verbal tennis match, Elvis vs. Hitler, comparing their families and early
influences — obscure or made-up, I don’t know which. Pretty hilarious stuff. I mention this, in part, because there’s
another more eerie connection between the book and our trip, which I’ll tell
you about in the next installment.
Stay tuned.
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