May 9, 2012 - Graceland and Memphis

My day started in a panic...I woke up to find Jalaire dressed and ready to go!  Naturally I thought back to the Derby when she so adamantly stated that she had been making the hard cuts all week! and my first thoughts were... 'Shit! I'm getting left in Nashville!' So I busted out of bed to get ready hoping I would make it and not have to call Frontier to change my flight.

After I realized I wouldn't be left (I took Jalaire's hair straightener hostage in the bathroom...although as she pointed out to me later when I relayed this story, if she was willing to leave me...probably not gonna care about the straightener) and we got all packed up to go, we decided to stop at the McDonald's for breakfast then head for Memphis.

Jalaire's ipod plays her songs in alphabetical order...so I had been waiting THE WHOLE TRIP for 'We DIdn't Start The Fire' and today was the day!  See, Jalaire knows all the words and when I visited last year she mentioned that we would listen to this song over and over and over until she could do it without messing up.  SO..to prepare myself this year (cause I totally sucked it up last year) I memorized all of the lyrics.  We did it on the first try thank you!

We visited Graceland today, and I gotta say... it was so different than I had pictured it! But I LOVE the '70's look for the mansion...I'd totally live there.  When I uploaded the pictures from today I noticed that I have 250 just from Graceland.  They did not all make the cut...however, I plan on keeping alot of them, cause well..that's how I am...on with the pictures!

living room, yes that couch has been sat on by The King

We did not get to go into the music room
but here is the entrance  through the living room

Mirrored Wall?!  Heck yes!! Only the best at Graceland!

Elvis' Parent's bedroom

Closet, with his Mother's clothes still displayed

Bathroom, the wallpaper is poodles playing catch!

Chandelier in the foyer

Elvis never let guest's upstairs, so as a respect to
him, they still do not let visitor's go up to his private rooms

Stanley in the Dining Room

Dining Room

Stanley at the table

Kitchen, with the best appliances of the times

Kitchen, I LOVE THE CARPET!

There is fruit on the lamp shade! I LOVE IT!

back stairs up to Elvis' private rooms

Stanley at the downstairs bar

Elvis had a bar in pretty much every room even though he
did not drink liquor.  He wanted it available for his guests.

This picture DOES NOT DO THE ROOM JUSTICE!
It is bright yellow and navy blue.

These TV's were always on the 3 major news channels

Stanley and the Monkey

The King's own record collection

The Billiards Room

Cause who doesn't want curtained walls in their basement?

Can you imagine these with all those drugs in your system?!

Moss on the wall?
OH NO... GREEN SHAG CARPETED WALLS!

And so the floors and ceilings are not feeling left out....

The Jungle Room

Stanley in the Jungle Room

Indoor waterfall

Yep, you can totally see his sticks... we had to
stabilize Stanley.  Thank you Marriott Hotel's
coffee packets in the rooms!

Ceiling of the Jungle Room

And again...carpeted walls!

Lisa Marie's swing set

The back of Graceland.  We couldn't take pictures of the front
until after the tour was over.

Vernon's Office

The original 'Get your shit and get out!'

Horses and fields in the backyard

This is the sports room (we'll see inside later)

We went into the Trophy House next...the walls were lined with memorabilia, records and awards.  I took a few pictures but some of them did not turn out because of the glass over them.

These are outfits from a few of Elvis' movies, as well as some of his actual clothes/suits from different events.  Again, some are bad pics cause of the glass:

This is his actual Army Uniform

Pricilla's wedding dress

Evlis' wedding tux
You can't see from the pic, but the tux has tiny
gold swirly paisleys all over it!

The jumpsuits....Oh yeah!

This tux was worn at his first awards show

Pricilla's awards dress

Fan Art

The swimming pool...

The Sports Room:

pinball machine... my kind of exercise!

And of course another bar...

These purple curtains open to a wall where people could sit
on the couches and watch racquetball through the glass.

The audio tour that we were listening to said that Elvis
played this piano the morning that he died.

More jumpsuits!  The revivals:

LOVE THIS ONE!

This headstone was at the original site of Glady's
grave and was moved here later with her body

Marker for Elvis' twin brother.  He is not actually buried at Graceland

Elvis' Mother

Elvis' Father

Elvis Presley

Elvis has an eternal flame

I told the family when I got home that I wanted an eternal flame...Dad said no. :(  But he did promise me an Eternal Dr. Pepper Fountain!

Grandma Minnie outlived them all

Random purple plant

Front Yard

poolside at Graceland

They have a pool vacuum!

Graceland Pool

Outside windows of the music room

Graceland's front door

Graceland Mansion

Front yard

I'm telling ya.. if you're rich, you have to have
lions guarding your door!

'P' for Presley

After the tour of the mansion we went back across the street (they shuttle you from the shops over to the house and back) and had some lunch at the Chrome Grill.  Then it was off to the Auto Museum.

The Famous Pink Cadillac:

I don't know what these are...but they're pretty!

Random pink jeep?!  All the others had signs describing a
little about the car...not this one!

Elvis' first motorcycle

After the car museum we went over to see the 'Lisa Marie' as well as 'The Hound Dog II'  Apologies on the pics, they covered the seats and stuff with plastic.

This was so great! It was a metal detector 'Elvis Fan Detector'
and when you went through it, it said (in Elvis' voice)
"Thank you, Thank you very much for being a fan of Elvis"

Bathroom on the plane

closet

that's right.. a TV on the plane

So, this is a horrible picture.. but the white blurry thing,
it's a phone.. and the black one behind it...that's also a
phone.  One is for calls to the pilot, the other for calls anywhere else

These next few pictures are of the bedroom..it was all done in Blue Suede.

Per FAA regulations even the bed had to have a seat belt.
All of the seat belts in the aircraft are done in gold

Elvis and Pricilla's private bathroom

'Taken Care of Business'
This is a major theme in Graceland, the lightening bolt
can be seen in several rooms in the mansion.

The Hound Dog II

Last stop before leaving Graceland was the famous gates.  They remain open during the day so the shuttle can get back and forth to the house so the pics are not as epic as they could be.  Plus we had to take them from across the street.

As we walked back to the car I snapped a few pictures of the Heartbreak Hotel.

We decided to try Interstate BBQ for dinner... Memphis BBQ is on the list of places and it suggests a few, so we narrowed it down to Interstate.  It was good, but the neighborhood was totally sketchy.  We tried BBQ Spaghetti (It's a BIG thing in the South) it is NOT GOOD!

totally made my face do this....  :\

Next up was a drive by on Beale Street (also on the list) we didn't stop cause really... it's all that walking around in crowds and paying to park... no thanks!

Our last activity for the night was to drive across the Mississippi and into Arkansas, then immediately back across the river and back to Tennessee.  We just needed to be able to cross that state off (there is NOTHING on the list in Arkansas).

Jalaire also informed me that she would be going to get the car looked at in the morning. So if I woke up and she was gone, I was NOT BEING LEFT in Memphis.  We noticed a leak from the car earlier in the day and when we took the snack bag inside it was soaking wet.  So Jalaire wanted to get it checked out before we continued on.