Not being huge Elvis fans we still felt that it would be fun to visit the Graceland Mansion. As a teenager I listened to his music, watched his movies and even attended his concert in 1976 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco which I remember quite well.
The mansion Elvis bought in Memphis Tennessee, Graceland is not really very large by todays standards. The property is fairly big and right in the middle of town today. There are small neighborhood houses right next door.
We toured the house and found the decor not so lavish, I guess he spent most of the money on costumes, cars, & planes!
The front room of the mansion with the music room
Media room
The grounds were not spectacular either. I actually felt that it was quite comfortable and would have been easy for a non celebrity to live there.
Backyard and horse pasture
Elvis also owned 2 airplanes which now are part of the museum here in Graceland. These planes were sold after his death and found again in 1984! Pretty amazing that someone bought them and kept them the same.
TCB with a lightening bolt stands for “Taking care of business in a flash” This was Elvis’ motto and something that I never knew before coming here to Graceland.
We finished our day in Memphis with a Pink Cadillac ride to dinner at a local Rib’s place called Marlowe’s. This was so cool, they come and pick you up at the RV park and take you to the restaurant and then pick you up and return you after dinner. The Rib dinner came complete with all the fixin’s including, beans, coleslaw, fried corn, fries, and roll! The fried corn was awesome. I also ordered some fried dill pickles because since we have been in the midwest I keep hearing about it. Interesting! Not sure I need to order it again but it was worth the $6 just to see!
For all my square dance friends I kept hearing “Pink Cadillac, swing your partner, while riding in the back of the Pink Cadillac”!!
P.S. I almost forgot. See the man getting into the Limo with us? He is Pauls newest friend! This couple, Tom & Brenda pulled into the RV park about 30 minutes before our scheduled arrival of the limo and Paul introduces himself and invites them to dinner with us! This is something I have feared since getting on the road but it turned out ok! They were quite friendly and it was fun getting to hear about their adventures during dinner. They own a home in Kona, HI and live there 6-7 months a year and then return to the states and tour are touring in their RV for a few months. They are on their way to Branson after Memphis! It’s a small world after all.
If you look closely you can see the Nascar Sprint Cup cars racing around the track. This was taken 1 lap before the first crash that took a favorite out, Jeff Gordon. He later returned to finish the race with a car that was missing most of its rear end!
It is about 550 miles from Branson to Talladega so we left Wed. afternoon spending the night on the road and we arrived at the speedway about 5 pm on Thursday to wait in line until about 8:30 before our group was allowed in. Once we are inside the track there is no one to direct you so you are wandering among RV’s, tents, cars just looking for signs for your site. This is pretty exciting, a bunch of beer drinking was going on in line and a bunch of people were already inside the track from Wednesday night – drinking lots of beer so asking for directions was not only hard but pretty entertaining! Amazing how many people come every year and have “their spot”. We found our spot, parked and began to get acquainted with the neighbors and the local customs – Budweiser Light is the prefered beer in this part of the country, in fact their are not many people wandering around without one in their hands!
Hope everyone had a very Chocolate holiday!!! I did! We were really good and spent the morning in Church. The catholic church here in Branson is quite large with seating for 1300 x 4 masses per week, but only has a parish of 450 families. Visitors make up most of their numbers. Easter was no exception here, even with seating for 1300 there was more than 50 people still not able to find a seat.
