Organizing 101 or Honey, Where Did You Put My...

Walmart & Target love RVer's. The amount of stuff we purchased to outfit and supply the coach is incredible. All this for a home that has ~400 sq feet of space and a lot less storage than most master bedrooms. All those fine looking cabinets you see in the coach pictures; most of those cabinets are only 10-12 inches deep. There are some cabinet doors that open only to find no, zero, nada, zip storage; the cabinet door is only there to give it a 'balanced design'.

Spent a quiet day at the RV park while the car was being turned into a 'Toad'. Toad comes from the term "towed vehicle' (I guessing here so I'm 100% sure I'm right). The CR-V was at Surwic Hitch all day having a base plate installed and an auxillary braking system installed. The braking system is not required unless car is over 5000# (CR-V is ~3800#) but it's a safety feature worth having. This way, when you hit the brakes in the coach the brakes in the toad come on as well; otherwise, only the RV's brakes are stopping all the weight (RV+toad), not good.

In any case, it meant a day without the car so we organized the coach. We did so well, now I cannot find many of the basic items we require. Oh well. Tommorrow we drive the coach to Surwic to have the motorcycle lift installed and the tow bar installed.


It will take all day so MLA and I will be exploring Memphis and seeing the sites. Graceland is our first stop. This was Elvis' home when he was alive and is now a museum/monument/meal ticket to his legacy. Elvis no longer stays here since he is doing a world tour. I based this on how many Elvis sightings still occur to this day. Plus someone has to be running his thriving Elvis Impersonator School.

When we were in Muscle Shoals, AL, we found out the area is known as the Hit Recording Capital of the World. Back when you needed a recording studio to record music, some of the best studios were in the Muscle Shoals area. How about this list of hits:

- Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves A Women"
- Wilson Pickett's "Mustand Sally"
- Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved A Man (the Way I Love You)"
- Etta James' "Tell Mama"
- Clarence Carter's "Patches"
- R.B. Greaves "Take A Letter Maria"
- the Rollong Stone's "Brown Sugar"
- the Osmonds' "One Bad Apple"
- the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There"
- Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll"
- Mac Davis' "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me"
- Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night"
- Willie Nelson's "Bloody Mary Morning"
- Simon & Garfunkel's "My Little Town"
- Dorothey Moore's "Misty Blue"
- Shenandoah's "Sunday In The South"
- Z.Z. Hill's "Down Home Blues"
- Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody"

Wow; maybe they deserve the name Hit Recording Capitol of the World. Of course, today anyone with 5-10K can build a sensational digital recording studio in the basement.

Lastly, one of the favorite sons of the Shoals was Sam Phillips. Not familiar with ol' Sammy? He helped launch the careers of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich. How would you like to have 10% of that?

BTW - many consider Sam Phillips the Father of Rock & Roll. I'll have to check in with a few of my friends who are music fanatics and see if they agree. In any case, this must have been one great party town 'back in the day'. Today, it is not. Trust me on this.

See ya.