We had breakfast then went and checked out of the hotel and set off for Graceland our first stop for today. This is actually only about 15 minutes outside Memphis but as they say a world away! As we drove up all you could see was massive buildings that contain various exhibitions, you don’t actually see Elvis’ house until you go on the tour. We had previously booked a tour at 10:30 which is a good thing as we are in Memphis in the middle of Elvis week which seems to be celebrated during the week he died and ends with a candle light vigil, the downside of this is that there are loads of Elvis fans around who to put it nicely are probably on their only day out this year and are definitely in a world of their own! As we had some time we went into the first of the museums, this was where all his cars and motorbikes were stored. We were almost the only ones in there so it was great we had an opportunity to look at all the cars and read when he brought them or what happened to them. I love the fact that he seemed to just randomly change his mind about what the best car was as there were quotes on the walls from him at various times saying that Cadillac, Mercedes, Rolls Royce were all the greatest cars to own, however I did agree with one quote which was ‘Life is too short to drive a boring car’, he even owned a red MG which was in great condition although it was automatic which I think rather ruins the experience! He seemed to have a motorbike from most of the major manufacturers as well as a variety of buggies that he either used as go-carts to race round the estate or just to get around his 16 acres. There was even a car that he brought for Lisa Marie when she was about 4 which was a peddle car that apparently he tried a few times but it didn’t go fast enough! By the time we had finished looking at all the cars and bikes it was time to join our tour so we went round to check in for that. You start off by watching a video that basically lists a load of statistics about how amazing Elvis was then you get on a bus to be taken up to the house. You drive in through the famous guitar gates which unfortunately were open rather than closed so we couldn’t get a picture of them, then we were dropped off at the front door, which is probably a good thing as the temperature went above 100 today! You are given an iPad which is your guide through the house, you can only look at the downstairs but to be honest that is enough as it has all the rooms that you have ever seen any interview with Elvis take place in. I was rather surprised by the sitting room as it is very long and thin which I am not sure I liked, also the cinemas room in the basement seemed to have the sofa’s facing in the wrong direction but they had cleverly hidden the camera behind a painting so you couldn’t really see it and the room did have a bar so not all bad! This was also the TV room and Elvis had put 3 TVs in it as he had been told the President watched 3 news channels constantly, apparently Elvis had one tuned to Sport, one to Game Shows and one to either the news or a comedy channel. One of the things I don’t think I had realised about Elvis was that he was a prolific reader, and he mostly read religious books, a lot of his books were around the house. We were able to go into the office where about 1000 letters per day were dealt with by 3 secretaries, the racket ball court he had in the garden and look at the paddock, he was a prolific rider until he was thrown by a horse on a film set and didn’t take up riding again until Pricilla moved into Graceland and started riding. Once we had finished walking around the house we took the bus back to the main area and stopped for a very nice ice cream but then again as ice cream was one of Elvis’ favourite food groups they should probably get that right. Fully refreshed by our ice cream we set off to finish walking round the museums. The next one documented his time in the Army, they delayed his enlistment as he was contracted to film King Creole which wasn’t scheduled to finish until February and his call up papers had him enlisting in January. Numerous letters were sent to the Army to request a delay to his enlistment which was ultimately granted as he didn’t join until March. I hadn’t realised that his family moved to Germany with him and that his mum died while he was there. She wasn’t feeling well so came back to the US where the prognosis was bad and he was granted compassionate leave to come back and see her, he arrived on the 13th and she died on the 14th August 1958 he was allowed to stay for the funeral then returned to Germany to complete his service. The next room was an archive which had various artefacts in boxes which was followed by a room where a number of people that have been influenced by him had donated clothes and quotes. Then finally all his various costumes and he multitude of Gold discs, platinum discs and other awards he received during his life and after he died. Exhausted by all this we then went into Vernon which is a smoke house although not the best BBQ we have ever had, and by the time we had finished going round all the museums and the house we had spent five hours so it was time to head to Oxford. We took highway 61 which is know as the Blues Highway and we stopped at the home of the Blues visitor centre and museum which to be honest looked more like a run down building than a visitor centre and museum! We picked up a map and a list of the markers on the highway then continued our journey. The final stop before we got to Oxford was at Clarksdale which is home to the Blues Cross Roads, this is where the legendary fiddlers and guitar players have been said to sell their soul to the devil in return for their skills. The Blues highway is actually the route that people like BB King, Ike Turner and various others walked to get to Memphis and a recording contract. They worked on route and sheltered with other Black people, some tried to hitchhike but as ‘people of colour’ they would not be picked up by any white people and not many coloureds had cars so they ended up walking, picking up work where they could and finally made it to Memphis to make fantastic music. We arrived at the hotel about 7pm and as they have a roof top bar we headed up there, unfortunately the air conditioning had broken in the bar so we sat outside where there was a little bit of a breeze but as the car had said it was 96 F when we arrived it was still quite hot but after a couple of drinks we had definitely acclimatised. The hotel is called the Graduate and there are definitely a lot of students here, not sure how they can afford a hotel but perhaps they are visiting with parents as Oxford is home to the University of Mississippi.
