Chapter 14 · America the Beautiful

The Long Road Home

Elvis's birthplace, a flat tire, and the last disaster of the trip

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Once we were on the road again, I pulled out our big map to get an idea of which way to go. Our route home had us passing through Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama before once again reaching Georgia. Looking at a map today, I’m pretty sure we took a scenic route because it was not a straight shot back to Atlanta. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure we missed a turn somewhere along our journey and may even have had to reroute a bit before getting back on track. My sense of direction is another tale all in and of itself.

We stopped for a break in Tupelo, Mississippi, to see the house where Elvis was born, and the small museum and gift shop attached to take in the big bucks from all the Elvis fanatics. This was a small two-room “shotgun” home built in the 1930s by Elvis’s dad, with all the rooms lined up in a row. If you looked through the front door, you could see straight through the back door if it was open. The house was no more than 400 square feet, at most, and sat on about 15 acres, which now serves as the Elvis Presley Birthplace Park, featuring the home, gift shop, museum, and other exhibits, many of them preserved by Elvis himself with proceeds from a concert in the 1950s. An interesting fact: the construction was done by Elvis’s dad and uncle, costing his dad about $180 to build.

We were somewhere between Alabama and home when we experienced another calamity on our road trip. This time it was the camper, again. We were on another city road, making our way through town in traffic, when all of a sudden we felt a wobble and pulling from the camper that required us to pull over and check out what had happened.

Of course, it was a flat tire.

Grandma was visibly stressed as we were not prepared for a flat tire on the camper, and her arm was still bothering her, as she had basically driven across half the country in pain. This was not a tire we knew how to change, and we had to call for help. I remember us sitting on the side of the road waiting for the tow truck to show up, and she was so stressed about the cost of an emergency tow.

Looking back, Grandma luckily had a spare camper tire. The tow truck driver changed it right there on the side of the road for us. It was a minor setback in our journey home, but I can guarantee she was over the minor setbacks. We had all fallen victim to some crazy disaster, and the camper had just had round two.

Luckily, it was the last of our road trip disasters, and we made it home safely.