Graceland!

September 21, 2011

On the morning of September 21, 2011, Lucy and I awoke in our hotel room in Memphis.  Well, I say awoke...but I don't think I ever actually went to sleep the night before.  As I mentioned previously, I kept having nightmares about my car getting stolen or vandalized or what have you.  Plus my pillow was really uncomfortable.  Lucy admitted that she had also been up most of the night, having the very same nightmares that I did.  Initially I had intended for us to stay at that hotel for two nights.  That way we could go to Graceland, go into downtown Memphis and walk around, maybe take a ride on a riverboat on the Mississippi and then come back to the hotel and crash.  But after our sleepless night I decided we should just go ahead and pack up, check-out and stay somewhere else that night.

So we packed our bags and strategically wedged them into the trunk of the car once again.  Then we headed to breakfast in the hotel lobby.  When we walked in to the breakfast area we noticed that we were probably the youngest people in there by about four decades.  There was only one exception - a boy who appeared to be about 13-years-old and slightly less than excited to be there with his older relatives.

It was actually a pretty great breakfast.  We made waffles.  And the whole time we were eating said waffles, we got to listen to Elvis music.  The hotel lobby was tuned in to the Elvis Radio on Sirius XM - it plays Elvis music live from Graceland 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  It's like a dream come true.  We also learned something new while listening to Elvis Radio.  They aired an old interview with someone who witnessed Elvis leaping out of a limo in order to breakup a fight.  The story made us laugh and reminded us why Elvis is one of the coolest guys ever.  Apparently, Elvis was wearing his DEA jumpsuit over his concert costume when he shot out of the limo door.  Personally, I sort of wish he had just been in his concert costume, with his cape flowing behind him when he came to the rescue.  But regardless, it is still a pretty awesome story.  You can read the entire interview with Bruce Fey here:  Elvis Presley is my hero.

So while we sat at breakfast, Lucy and I began discussing whether or not we should drive to the Graceland parking lot.  We had planned to walk, but based on our walk the previous night, we started to wonder if maybe that wasn't such a great idea.  We looked at all the other people in the breakfast area and thought, "Well hey, they are old and frail, and we are young and frail!  Let's watch them and see what they do.  If they drive, then we should follow their lead.  But if they can handle walking to Graceland, I'm sure we can too."  We sat at breakfast long enough to see a few groups of people head out of the hotel and begin the walk to Graceland.  That was good enough for us.  Besides, there were a pretty decent number of tourists making their way toward Graceland by that point.  Safety in numbers!  So we finished our waffles and walked to Graceland in a clump of other tourists.  We were glad we decided not to drive since, as it turns out, the parking lot for Graceland was directly across the street from our hotel anyway.  If we had driven we would have saved ourselves about 20 feet of walking.  

Anyway, Lucy and I purchased our tickets for Graceland at the ticket office.  We took the little shuttle that goes from the ticket office across the street to Graceland.  We're not lazy, we just didn't have a choice.  You have to take the shuttle.  But the shuttle drops you off right at the front doorstep.  It's such a lovely house.  Although it seem like quite a modest home for an international superstar by today's standards.  Can you imagine Elvis showing off Graceland on MTV Cribs?

My favorite room was probably the living room, mostly because of the stained glass peacock windows.  The jungle room was totally cool of course.  There is carpet on the ceiling of the jungle room – for better acoustics when Elvis was recording, of course.  The entertainment room in the basement was hilarious.  I mean, I get the neon blue and yellow, and the sparkly pillows, and the lightning bolt on the wall…but why the giant ceramic money?  Was Elvis watching the shopping channel at 2AM or something?  Although, even as I joke about the odd monkey knick-knack, I wouldn’t be surprised if I walked into Z Gallerie this weekend and saw an exact replica of that monkey for sale.  I guess it’s not the weirdest decoration in the whole world, but it’s still pretty weird.  Just look at its crazy, googly, eyes for a few minutes.  You’ll see what I mean.

Lucy in the living room at Graceland - notice the cool peacock windows. 

Me in the dining room at Graceland. 

The kitchen at Graceland.

The Jungle Room. 

 The basement with the sparkly pillows and the crazy monkey.

Anyway, there was a gargantuan room with all of the awards Elvis ever won.  Some of his most flashy and fabulous costumes were on display in the same room.  The costumes with capes reminded Lucy and I of the story we had heard that morning about Elvis rushing to the rescue of a young citizen in Wisconsin, superhero style.  I think my favorite costume is probably the one with the hug Aztec sun/calendar on the front.  Or maybe my favorite is the one with the sparkly black eagle on the front.  I don’t know, it’s hard to tell.  They’re all pretty cool.  And look at the belts!  So huge!  Plus, every time I see one of those costume belts I think of the story I read about Elvis giving Jack Lord, of Hawaii 5-0 fame, one of his belts.  What a cool guy.

Anyway, following our tour of Graceland, Lucy and I hopped on the little shuttle bus to take us back to the ticket office which, as you can imagine, was surrounded by a zillion stores all selling Elvis paraphernalia.  Lucy said something like “Do you want to get Graceland pajamas?”  And I said “Of course I do!!!”  So we began wandering through the shops looking for Graceland pajamas.  It didn’t take us long to find some.  We were busy deciding whether or not to get matching pajamas or complimentary pajamas when I caught a glimpse of a price tag and said “Whoa, what did that say?”  SIXTY DOLLARS.  Granted, that did include pajama tops AND bottoms but still…sixty dollars???  Lucy and I decided maybe we didn’t want Graceland pajamas after all.  So I bought a 3 dollar magnet.  And some postcards.

With Graceland magnet and postcards in hand, Lucy and I walked back to our hotel, hopped in the car and headed for downtown Memphis.  We parked at the visitors center where, of course, there was a gargantuan statue of Elvis.  I sort of wanted to hug his leg but I am extremely relieved that I saw the sign saying “Do not touch, alarm will sound” in front of the statue before I acted on that impulse.

If you feel inclined to hug this Elvis statue - resist.

From the visitor’s center, Lucy and I walked to Beale Street.  It was a nice walk, through a very nice area.  Rather different than our walk through “sketchy gas station alley” the night before.  I insisted that we eat lunch at the Hard Rock Café on Beale Street.  I love the Hard Rock Café.  I love it for being predictably delicious and for playing cool music and music videos while I eat my food.  This Hard Rock experience did not disappoint.  Once again, the food was delicious and the walls were absolutely plastered with Elvis paraphernalia. 

Me and yet another Elvis belt at the Hard Rock Cafe in Memphis, Tennessee. 

 Just look at all those Elvis pictures!  Hard Rock Cafe in Memphis.

 The Elvis statue on Beale Street - no alarms on this one, but there is a fence.

If only Lucy had a guitar she could be exactly like Elvis.

Beale Street in Memphis.  Do not be dissuaded from visiting by this terrible photo - it really is a cool place. I understand that the street looks much more awesome at night with all the neon lights on.  Lucy and I decided we didn't want to stick around for another 8 hours to see if this was true - but based on a cursory search of google images, I believe the rumors are true.

On our walk from Beale Street back to the car, we stopped at the place that does Steamboat Cruises.  It was still two hours before the next cruise and it was super hot outside and, as we looked at the boats, I thought to myself, "You know that paddle wheel boat at Disneyland is just as pretty as these ones...maybe even prettier.  Maybe we'll just go on the fake but pretty steamboat at Disneyland instead of waiting for this one."  I wondered if I would be sad later that I hadn't gone on a steamship ride on the Mississippi River when I had the chance...then I thought, "Eh, I'll live."  

There they are - the steamships with paddle wheels. 

So, having decided we didn't need to wait around for a steamship cruise, Lucy and I turned our sights to the bridge over the Mississippi River.  I was actually pretty excited about crossing the Mississippi River.  I mean, I have flown over the Mississippi in an airplane a bunch of times (and admittedly it looks pretty cool from way up in the sky) but it seemed like it would be kind of exciting to cross the Mississippi up close and personal.  And it was.  It's such an enormous river.  Very big and very muddy, just as I had always imagined it.

Section of the I-40 bridge (a.k.a. the Hernando de Soto Bridge) over the Mississippi.

And so, after driving across the Interstate 40 Hernando de Soto Bridge over the Mississippi River, we entered the state of Arkansas.