I had purchased tickets to Graceland (Elvis Presley's home in Memphis) several weeks before we left on our road trip. I picked 4 PM, as that time was pretty late in the day and would hopefully give us enough time to get there from Atlanta without having to leave at the crack of dawn. It was a good 6 1/2 hour drive. We ended up leaving Janet's at about 7:30 Saturday morning. Fortunately, traffic in Atlanta is light on early morning weekends, so we were able to get out of town easily.
On the way to Memphis, we passed through Alabama and Mississippi before crossing into Elvis territory - Tennessee.
Elvis' birthplace - Tupelo Mississippi
We rolled into Memphis a little after 2 PM - our campground was right next door to Graceland, convenient, right?! We checked in, found out site, put up our tent, and then walked over to the checkin buildings to pick up our tickets. Since we were early, they put us on the 3:30 tour, which was great.
Graceland is nothing like I imagined. I guess I thought it was this ginormous house when in fact it is really not all that big - well, with all of the additions and outside rooms it is pushing 18,000 square feet, but when you're in the house (we only got to tour the downstairs) it seemed almost small, when you think about the larger than life Elvis living there. Here are some pictures of the home and the outside yards and gardens.
Back yard
Office
Pool
Meditation garden and graves - Elvis, his mom, dad, stillborn twin brother and grandmother are all buried here
It truly was a great experience to visit Graceland. Our tickets also allowed us in to see his collection of cars and archives.
For dinner, we opted to visit a restaurant called Marlowe's. It's a popular BBQ place nearby to Graceland, and recommended by the manager of the RV park. What I didn't tell Adrienne, was that Marlowe's will pick you up in a pink cadillac limousine. I let her know that we were being picked up at 6:15 at our campsite and I have to assume SHE assumed it was going to be a taxi. She was SO surprised when this pink cadillac pulled up onto our gravel road and stopped at our campsite!!! It was a hoot and a half to be driven to and from the restaurant! And the food was simply scrumptious! We split brisket and ribs and a couple of sides and it might have been the best meal yet.
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