Tunica and Graceland

Elvis' Graceland

In the time since our last blog when the Shuttle linked up with the International Space Station over Indonesia, the Shuttle has returned safely and we have moved from Holt, Florida to Tunica, Mississippi. Although it was our original intent to slowly explore areas of MS on our way North, we quickly discovered that although there are many RV Campgrounds and Parks along the way, there are very few with space available due to a high population of temporary workers located in the available spots who are involved in the building of a number of pipelines in the area. We did manage to spend one night along the way in a spot about half way between Jackson and Vicksburg, MS; however, we were really not at all fond of the location and were unable to secure a spot in Vicksburg where we had originally planned to spend some time exploring. Finally, we had to make the decision to continue on to Tunica where there we found plenty of space available and we also had the chance to meet up with our "Holt" friends Roger and Karen for a few days before they moved on into Tennessee where they used to live in the Nashville neighborhood.

We've now been in Tunica for nearly a week and we'll probably remain here at least another couple of days as we wait for wind conditions to subside a bit. As in Florida, we are experiencing some unexpected weather here, including some flooding of the Mississippi River which is only a few miles from our location. We found a great spot in the RV Park that is part of the Grand Casino complex and we've spent much of the week visiting a number of casinos in this area [will give more detail of all this later]. The following photo link incudes a few shots of the trip and our current location. See captions for additional information. TravelAndTunicaPhotos

On Wednesday we took the opportunity to travel the short distance by car to Memphis, TN, and visited Elvis' Graceland. While not all of you may be Elvis fans, it was quite a nice afternoon of visiting the mansion and other displays that are available, including the automobiles he once owned, costumes, trophies (gold and platinum records, Grammies, etc.) and aircraft. There are quite a number of photos from this visit and captions will give you some sense of what you are seeing. GracelandPhotos

STS-123 Docks with the International Space Station

NASA TV Image

Here are some screen clips from the docking of STS-123 with the International Space Station that took place the evening of March 12th. This clips were captured from NASA TV once again and even though the quality is not great, it is simply amazing to see all of this live [see captions for information]. How about a quiz? When the docking took place at 10:49pm CDT, where was the shuttle located relative to earth (over what country)?

Two additional photos are provided (thanx to Chuck) in the album. Our friends Karen and Roger departed for Mississippi this morning and I have little doubt that they are having some fun at the Beau Rivage as I write this.

Photo Link

Launch of STS-123 [Update - Video Link Added]

Launch Image - NASA TVPress This for Video Link

In case you missed it, early this morning [Wednesday, 11 March 2008] shuttle mission STS-123 was launched with equipment on board to be delivered to the orbiting International Space Station. Yes, we are still located here in Holt, Florida, but no, we are not close enough to the Cape Kennedy launch site to actually observe the launch, although, being one of about 25% of shuttle launches that have been accomplished in darkness, like earlier such events, I'm sure it was quite a spectacular sight for observers within a radius of many miles surrounding the area.

I've always been a great fan and supporter of our space program to the point of setting up my 35mm camera on a tripod to capture photos from the TV from the first lunar landing (no VCR's or DVD recorders in those days) and you could usually find me absolutely glued to the TV for just about any broadcast coverage. Today it is difficult to find much more than a brief mention of events on commercial TV and with our limited (and far from clear) reception in our current location, there was little chance of me seeing much of anything about this launch via the normal means; however, thanx to today's technology, I was treated to a superb account and view of events via NASA TV which I was able to view through NASA's site on the Web.

I'll not bore you with the details, but for those who are interested, you can access NASA TV via this link http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html and you can be sure you will see events unfold as you've never seen them before.

You can see just a bit of what I observed in the wee hours this morning at the following link; keep in mind that these are mostly screen shots so the resolution is a bit rough:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=1443i1v0.8s7768u8&Uy=-lt87zo&Ux=0

Fish Fest at Eagle's Landing

Thanx to a 'care' package that arrived from our Alaska kidz, Tracy and Jeff, today we enjoyed a feast of fish and other goodies with some of our neighbors here in Holt, Florida.

Deb's fishing for Halibut in Alaska a few years ago is a story that's been shared with a bunch of the folks here and so it was only fitting that when the gift of frozen delights arrived a few days ago, Deb decided to organize a Sunday afternoon gathering of about a dozen folks to taste a bit of the shipment. In addition to the Halbut and King and Silver Salmon, there were also contributions of mac&cheese, baked beans, deviled eggs, grape salad, broccoli salad, corn bread, pecan pie and strawberry pie.

It was a perfect day for the event, with 74 degree sunshine all afternoon and just a comfortable light breeze blowing. Deb and Karen fried the Halibut while I grilled the Salmon and others pitched in with the other chores to make it all come together. The meal was superb as was the company and a great (and satisfying) day was enjoyed by all.

FishFest Pix: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=1443i1v0.69p44r0w&Uy=7nluf3&Ux=0