April 3, 2009

We woke up early on the 3rd of April - turned on the GPS and discovered that we had only about 2-1/2 hours to travel to Memphis. So - we got ready and hopped into the car for the next leg of our adventure. It didn't seem like too long before we started seeing signs directing us to Memphis, but were somewhat surprised that there were no signs indicating that Graceland was there. In fact it was a good thing that we had our GPS because there were no signs on the road into Memphis at all. Nonetheless, we were soon on Elvis Presley Blvd. and heading to our destination. Again - not much signage on the road - just a small one indicating that Graceland parking was on the right. So we pulled into the lot and found ourselves a space, crossed a little bridge and found the main entrance. After purchasing tour tickets we boarded a little bus to take us to the mansion.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house unless we declined to use a flash and I had no idea how to do that. Unfortunately we were almost finished that portion of our tour before a kindly, young man on security detail showed me how. Of course, at that point I started madly taking shots. The house was smaller than I imagined, but then, the public only saw portions of the downstairs and none of the upstairs. I recognized all the furniture from photos I had seen in magazines and on television. You've surely seen (for instance) that long white sofa - it was there! The kitchen was much smaller than I would have thought and the interesting thing was that they had a tape of Lisa Marie speaking and she was saying that there was always staff available to make meals any time of day or night. The tour included a look at the "movie room", the "jungle room", his parent's bedroom, the bowling alley, the pool room, Vernon's (Elvis' Dad) office and the little smoke house that Elvis converted into a shooting range. That portion of the tour ended at the Meditation Garden where Elvis' remains are buried alongside his parents and grandmother. It also includes a memorial stone for his little twin brother who died at birth. That was probably the most touching part of the tour for me. At that point I was feeling sooo glad to be there.

The other side of the road was the site of several museums devoted to Elvis. We got to tour his airplanes. There are two. A larger one called the Lisa Marie is outfitted with a lounge, and office which doubles as a bedroom with a pullout sofa, a bedroom for Elvis and two bathrooms - one for Elvis and another for whomever else is onboard. The smaller plane was mainly used by Colonel Parker when they were on tour - it holds ten people and is called the Hound Dog II. Of course (Poppa's favourite museum) we toured the car museum - and I'll tell you there are some pretty amazing vehicles there! There was also a movie memorabilia museum, a platinum, gold, silver record museum (which is pretty amazing since there was also a couple of other sites containing even more of these). There was a Private Presley museum displaying memorabilia and uniforms worn by Elvis during his stint in the military. I should warn anyone thinking of visiting. Graceland is VERY commercialized - be prepared. Having said that, I am sooooo glad we went - another dream come true. It was definitely a good and enjoyable and moving experience.

Since we were done our tour in good time we decided to head up the road in a northeast direction this time and get just a little closer to home before we turned in for the night, someplace in north eastern Tennessee - called Bowling Green.

And just because it is important here is a pic of little Munchkin, taken around the day that we were strolling the grounds and enjoying ourselves at Graceland. He is modelling the very latest in orange jumpsuits. The small fuzzy object is one of his toys. Her name is Ella and she is an elephant that he received before he was even born - from his Gramma. I think they both look stunningly adorable.