Graceland

This summer my aunt that lives in Virginia got remarried to her long time boy friend it a small and simple ceremony. RG and I were more than happy to attend. However after all our expenses of the last year getting RG back home and dealing with immigration we didn’t have a lot of funds to fly out there, rent a car, and so on. However I found I could fly RG down to Arkansas and we could use the company car to drive to VA. While this only saves about 3 hours driving from MN it did help in that we had a much more fuel efficient car. So that is what we did. Between my project site and the wedding was Memphis. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to spend a day or two there I figured a nice break would be to go to Elvis’s house – Graceland. It’s just one of those things I wanted to see because so many are so fanatical about the place.

So we went. And it was defiantly worth the stop. To start Graceland is no longer just the house that Elvis lived in, it is an entire attraction. The main attraction of course is the house, but beyond that there were the grounds, an Elvis car museum, an Elvis in the movies museum, Elvis’s two private jets, and several other museums. It was actually quite impressive. Nearly three quarters of a million people a year visit Graceland and tours run every half hour from eight in morning all day. Though it is funny that at the end of every exhibit is another gift shop – in fact there were more gift shops than museums on the grounds. The all pretty much had the same stuff in them.

So we paid for our tickets and went straight to the main attraction. What is crazy is that the house itself is not really that large. Plenty of people I know have houses that are similar in size or even bigger. It certainly isn’t a mansion by any means. But it is an estate. Besides the house there is quite a bit of land, a pool house, a Racquetball facility, a stable, a small office in an out building, and tranquility garden, and of course it walled, fenced, and gated. The main house is also straight out of the 60s and 70s. There are gold laced mirrors everywhere, shag carpet, great brass chandeliers, and crazy furniture. Also Elvis has either his initials or his symbol (the lightning bolt with TCB – Taking Care of Business) on everything. You are only allowed on the first floor for 2 reasons. 1.) Elvis never let anyone but family upstairs and 2.) It wouldn’t pass code without major structural changes ruining the house.

So there are three rooms that stand out. First the kitchen because of its state of the 1970s art that in their day were really fancy and expensive harvest gold appliances. It was also staffed 24 hours in case anyone in the house was hungry and doubled as a security station as all the surveillance cameras have their monitors here. Next the TV room in the basement. Here he had a bar and a lot furniture all situated around 3 TVs. One for each channel! He had heard that this is what the president had and he wanted it too. Finally he has created a jungle room. This was the last room that had been renovated a few years before he died and he recorded some of his last work there. The room had shag carpet everywhere including the ceiling. It has a water fall on one wall and huge chairs carved out of wood that resemble African animals. It was something else.

I won’t go through everything there is to see but I will say the other 2 places I found most interesting were the 2 private jets and the car museum. Though I have to say a lot of Elvis’s cars from the 70s were ugly even if they were worth so much money. The planes were something else. One is a normal executive jet and the other is an actual full size airliner that has been heavily modified. They were just as crazy as the house itself inside. All done up in Elvis’s favorite colors and made to be homes in the sky I guess. Overall we spent about 3 hours at Graceland. I think this was just enough. There was more to read, more to see, and probably an exhibit or two that we missed. But I have to say we were Elvised out. But I certainly say it was worth the stop if you were in the area. I even think RG liked it though she is not a fan of the man.