I downloaded a Thanksgiving app, which features a countdown, trivia, turkey cooking instructions, and daily quotes and jokes. Some of these will appear below.
Did you know “Jingle Bells” was written for Thanksgiving by James Pierpont and once titled “One Horse Open Sleigh?”
The few days we spent in Jonesboro, AR began with rain and ended with the first snow of the season! A group of us went to Hijinx for laser tag and bowling. Hijinx serves up three kinds of french fries: curly, thicc, and regular, and I ate them all. Between potato courses I learned that I bowl with a 15L. I also learned that I love laser tag. We played a capture the flag game and a base domination game in a room with multiple levels, hideouts, and LED lighting. It was also during this week that I learned about Plaid Tuesday in New York. This past Tuesday was the “it’s getting chilly” Tuesday when flannels are to be worn. I don’t know how the city collectively decides this but I’m told it’s a thing, so I celebrated. I also began my Thanksgiving celebration by showing my favorite Thanksgiving video to Dianne and Lizzie.
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Our Little Rock hotel looked out on the Arkansas River. I love that I can explore river walks around the country. I passed by a number of sculptures on my run and knew I had to visit for a closer look.
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Retro Trees by Dale Rogers
A group of us drove out a few hours to dig for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. For $10 you can dig, pan, and scout for precious stones in thirty seven acres of dirt. As I was sifting, a beautiful fantasy-looking orange butterfly landed in front of my trowel. I kept sifting in this area because I thought the butterfly landing meant that diamonds would be there. None of us found diamonds in the field but we can buy diamonds anytime. The butterfly was a gift.
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| The anti-Philadelphia |
Then we headed to Hot Springs. This town was settled around a series of natural hot springs with temperatures up to 134ºF. We stuck our hands in the steamy water and visited the Hot Springs National Park Visitor Center. This nineteenth century bathhouse is preserved to showcase spa treatments from decades past. The men’s bathing room has a fountain and beautiful stained glass window, the women’s did not and I’m mad. The third floor has a gym and workout/rehab equipment upholstered with velvet. Mmmm.
“We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.”
-Neal A. Maxwell
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| Outside of Esse's in Little Rock |
Every February for three years I attended a theatre conference in Memphis and stayed at the Sheraton, which is where we stayed this week! I walked to Blue Plate Cafe, and as soon as I saw the stack of newspaper menus I realized I ate here four years ago with my friend Scott, and I loved it, so I knew I was in for a treat. Here is a picture of my eggs and the cheesiest hash browns I will ever eat.
There is a scale model of half of the Mississippi on Mud Island, just a bridge away from my hotel. The length of the bridge is a short walk, and a monorail runs underneath to bring you to the island and its museum. Both of the monorail and museum were closed, it was cloudy, and there were only four people on the island, and this felt eerie.
“Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.”
-Nigel Hamilton
Kelsie, Marco, Dianne, my Lullaby Rubble and I Ubered over to Graceland! Rubble loves Elvis. His song in our show is very similar to “Jailhouse Rock.” So I had to bring him. The bridge between the parking lot and the complex smelled like poo poo? While we were waiting in the ticketing office next to a large photograph of the king an employee asked if Lullaby Rubble was my travel buddy. She was excited about it and asked if I wanted a picture with him and Elvis. I said yes and told her I play Rubble with the Paw Patrol tour and that he loves Elvis, and she got even more excited (“My grandchildren will never believe…”) After pictures she recommended different ticket packages to us. It turns out that there is an option to just tour the museums (option not listed online), which contain over a million archival documents, Elvis’ vehicles, his costumes, exhibits on his philanthropic efforts (he donated $40,000 to various people and causes over the course of two weeks one November), and SO many gold and platinum records. This ticket is under $29! Elvis once did a stint on tour of four shows a day. I thought three was too much, but wow.
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| Worn in Tupelo and at the Louisiana Hayride |
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| American Eagle Jumpsuit |
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| Grammy for Best Inspirational Performance, 1974: "How Great Thou Art" |
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| This gift shop scarf is labeled for “ages 14 and up.” |
These Elvis quotes stuck with me:
“I always felt that someday, somehow, something would happen to change everything for me, and I'd daydream about how it would be."
"Talent is being able to sell something you are feeling."
We made our way to Beale Street! I always keep an eye out for pralines, and Beale Sweets Sugar Shack delivered. This sweet shop specializes in fudge, and Chewy Praline is their top selling flavor. You can also purchase a banana flavored Blue Suede Shoes fudge (Elvis loved bananas.) I bought a square of the Pumpkin Spice fudge and devoured it while Kelsie and Marco talked cotton candy with the candy man. The doorman at Silky O'Sullivan's checked our IDs and told us “You’re twenty one” as we entered (no one is twenty one.) We were entertained with some dueling piano Elvis covers, goats on the patio behind the old street front wall (still free-standing), and a piece of the Blarney Stone.
Qawha serves up a very cheap very good breakfast.
I went into a Bass Pro Shop for the first time! This one in Memphis is enormous and and contains the tallest free-standing elevator. The outside of the building is shaped like a pyramid, and for years I asked “What is in this pyramid?” but never looked it up. Maybe I liked the mystery. Maybe I wanted to believe that I was the only one that saw it. And now I know that on the inside there is a shopping EXPERIENCE. It looks like the courtyard of a wilderness lodge! There are fish (longnose gar and bigass cat fish)! The first floor is laden with ponds, sweatshirts, toys, Bass Pro Santa, and the Lookout elevator entrance. If you take the elevator up to the Lookout (tickets $10) a voice regals the story of a bet involving a 30lb catfish and the opening of this very Bass Pro Shop. The second floor is where you can buy your cross bow and other hunting/party gear. There is also a collection of duck decoys from the past century and some beautiful duck stamp art. I didn't think much about duck stamps and duck hunting until this experience, but now I know that registered duck hunters must buy the new duck stamps every year, for the proceeds go to wetlands conservation efforts!
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| View from the lookout |
My trip to the city of “Love & Happiness” would not be complete without a trip to Westy's. Every year at the theatre conference I would come into the restaurant around midnight after my callbacks, and I would order from an enormous menu and then reflect on the day and write. The restaurant serves huge plates of rice topped of with combinations of all sorts of goodness, and for dessert you can order a brownie sundae bigger than your face. I walked into Westy's after my last show in the city and was surrounded by fifty people from a church group cutting potatoes. “You’ve been here before right?” the server asked me. I said, “A few years ago [but there were less potatoes?],” then he said, “Welcome back.” Westy's was preparing for their free Thanksgiving lunch. I got a salad and wrote about my day.
I’m thankful that I’m fulfilling my childhood dreams.
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.”
-Henry David Thoreau
PS
On this part of the tour I learned that some hotels have Governor's Suites. We used one to house microwaves, refrigerators, and luggage, but does the governor usually stay there? Tune in next time.
PPS
Our next hotel provided us with a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I usually put a small bite of cranberry sauce on my plate only because it's tradition to eat it, but this sause was sweet like candy and I went back for more. The pumpkin pie was full of spice and mm. My mom told me that two types of mashed potatoes were served at our family Thanksgiving, and I was a little bummed to be missing out on the options, BUT THEN I found that two types of mashed potatoes were being served at our hotel Thanksgiving. #thankful
PPPS
When I worked in the Finger Lakes a few years ago my dad passed down his wool skiing sweater to me. He recently told me that it used to have a matching hat, but it was lost. I hadn't knitted in four years, and I'd never done a hat before, but I decided to replicate the lost hat.
