June 18: Graceland

This is for you, Anna - the biggest Elvis fan I know. I took lots of pictures and just didn't know which ones to leave out. My signal was reasonably good so I uploaded lots of them - but not all of them.

If Elvis made a lot of money when he was alive, his estate is making tons of it now. Our photo op pictures was $21 - which we didn't buy. Lunch at the Rock-a-billy Cafe was $16 (hamburger, hotdog, both with fries and one large drink); $8 for ice cream; $7 to park; and $30 each to get in. This, of course, doesn't count the few souvenirs I bought.

We were all given head sets with an audio devise and boarded a shuttle that took us across the street, thru the famous gates and up the drive to Graceland.

Graceland was a really pretty place and probably a must see at least once by any tourist or child of the '50's and '60's. The rooms in the home were smaller than the home would lead you to believe. And oh the colors. It has been left in it's 1970's decor - avocado green and burnt orange. Lots of shag carpeting. The living room was all in white with a beautiful stain glass door frame of peacocks. The photo of Elvis with a framed photo of his parents is to the left of the picture of the living room. The pool table was in a room where the wall paper and ceiling were made out of cloth - I think the audio said it had about 350 yards of material. Larry liked this room. The picture of Pricilla and Lisa Marie was in the dining room.











The former racketball room has been converted to a plaque room and cases displaying only a part of his jump suits. There is a TV showing his Vegas performance. We all walked in and looked at all the plaques - many from foreign countries too. Many of us finally took off our head sets and started listening. By the time he got to an American Trilogy and had sang Dixie and was into Glory, Glory, Hallelujah - we were all at a standstill - just watching the monitor. The orchestration, as much as his powerful singing, was very inspirational.

We moved outside to Vernon's office, another building holding all of his record awards and photos and newspaper articles showing his rise in the industry. We walked by the pastures holding a couple of horses, walked by the pool and then we were beside the graves. His twin in buried in Tupelo, MS and was never reburied here although there is a headstone for him here. However, Elvis' mother was reburied here beside Elvis. Then Vernon died and finally Elvis' grandmother, who died at 91 and outlived all of them. They are all buried here.




We then ate lunch. Moved on to the Lisa Marie Airplane display and then to his car display. It was full of cars that Elvis and Pricilla had owned at one time. His pink Cadillac was here but I thought the purple one with the cool background made for a better picture. Flash was not allowed for any of these pictures. Nascar celebrated 50 years by doing big event races around 1998. One of them was to have an Elvis sponsored car - one stock car and one funny car. Rusty Wallace raced the stock car and John Force drove the funny car. Both of those cars were on display here.




Then we went to a display called "Sincerely Elvis". It was another display of more jump suits. I had no idea that he had so many and that they were so intricate. There was lots of embroidery, studs and stones. There were several black ones too but they don't photograph well without flash.


The last exhibit was of his Army days, called the "Private Presley Exhibit". He was so handsome in this uniform.

Each of these exhibits exited thru a souvenir store. Then there were more stores along the way just in case you'd missed one leaving an area.

From there we headed back home so I could start my blog and get all these photos uploaded. However, Larry decided this would be a good time to go to Paula Deen's buffet in Tunica, MS. So off we went. It's about 20 miles south of us. We walked thru Harrah's and put in $20 in several different slots. Ended up at the big Wheel Of Fortune and got up to about $56. Shoulda quit then. Ended up loosing all of it - but we did have fun. Then went to the buffet. That woman can really make an awesome Mac & Cheese - I had two helpings. Had a small square of German Chocolate Cake - thick icing in two layers - WOW. The meal was really good but at $20 each it was an expensive dinner - not sure I got my monies worth - but I rarely do at a buffet. Larry makes up for it. Would have helped if we'd have quite at the $56 and cashed out.