...Two for the show!

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Geo: 36.1682, -86.7772

After a poor night's sleep, our attempts at slumber thwarted by the sporadic roar of the air conditioning and the intermittent ping of the lift outside the door every time it reached our floor, we had our breakfast, served on polystyrene plates and eaten with plastic cutlery. As far as breakfasts go, for a Marriott Hotel in the middle of the tourist district, it was a pretty poor comparison to ones we have enjoyed in small hostels and guest houses across the world. We took the refund the hotel offered us and hastily hopped into our car to get across town to the main event of Memphis as far as we were concerned, and the main reason for our visit here.
Elvis Presley's Graceland is world famous. Pilgrimages from across the globe have been made to this iconic abode and songs have been written declaring its significance. Considering all of this, it could be presumed that finding it would be a simple task. In the USA, signposts for tourist destinations abound on every inch of the highway - diners celebrities have attended, houses where civil war memorabilia is on show, birthplaces of historical figures - all of these are signposted for hundreds of miles before they are reached. But Graceland? The defining tourist attraction in this otherwise unremarkable city? Nada. Not a single sign was on show anywhere within a ten mile radius of the place. No highway sign gave us an indication of which junction to use, no neighbourhood signs alerted us to the boulevard we should be taking. Fortunately, three weeks of map reading had given us a little assistance in navigating the USA's roads, and after a half hour detour taking us to the opposite end of Elvis Presley Boulevard, we managed to find the Heartbreak Hotel that we knew was opposite Graceland.
After paying our $10 to park(!), we made our way across the car park to the entrance of the historic home. I stopped in my tracks when I saw, from the corner of my eye, the blue and red lettering I had been searching for for the last three weeks. South Dakota, the final piece in the 50 states plates puzzle had finally slotted into place. Having found Delaware on a parked car in a random backstreet while lost in New Orleans, and after weeks of scouring every car for the elusive state, I had finally completed the full set. Today was going to be a good day!
We picked up our tickets and were given iPads ready for the new multimedia tour of the house and grounds. We boarded a minibus to the ultimate destination, and thought it must be a long way from the ticket office to require such a mode of transport. The bus drove us across the main road, into the gates opposite and stopped outside the front door - a journey of around 2 minutes. Not really sure what had just happened, we disembarked and were treated to our first views of the mansion. We were immediately struck by how small the place was from the outside. Compared to the modern day mansions inhabited by the stars in Hollywood, this was really only comparable to a modern family home for a moderately to high-earning family. The porch was flanked by two wide pillars and we passed under a neoclassical portico before entering through the front door.
The iPad tour guide led us around the house and the grounds, giving us information about the great man, his work, his family and his personal life. No longer feeling the house was in any way average, although still small by modern standards, we passed through his opulently furnished lounge and dining room, family portraits still adorning the walls and the decor untouched and left its as it was on the day of his death in 1977. We were told stories from his life as we wandered through the kitchen, complete with all mod cons, reputedly one of his favourite places to be in the house. We experienced the den and the basement - Elvis' "man-caves" where he would entertain his family and friends and then stopped for a while to admire the jungle room - Lisa-Marie's favourite room in the house. Decorated with a thick green shag pile rug, and with furniture carved to resemble jungles pieces, the room was a study in excessive 1970s style!
In the outbuildings, past the pool, we saw the rows upon rows of gold discs, platinum discs and awards that the King had been presented with. His successes in the music and film industry were laid out for us amongst memorabilia charting his stratospheric rise to fame. Personal possessions were displayed alongside industry pieces, showing the two most important parts to his life. We were treated to a view of the wedding outfits worn by himself and Priscilla on their special day. Our multimedia guide continued to give us snippets of film, audio and photographic insights into his life. After more time enjoying the exhibits, music and videos, and strolling almost freely around the house and grounds, we came to the poignant Meditation Garden, the peaceful spot that Elvis spent much of his time in. Here we saw the graves of Elvis, his mother, father, grandmother and still-born twin brother, all resting in the same serene surroundings. There was nothing opulent or showy about this part of the house, it was simply a lasting tribute to the incredible talent whose music had accompanied this section of our travels.
We were then taken by minibus for another ridiculously short drive - 1 minute this time - to the rear of the mansion to the archive rooms. Here we were shown small pieces not on display that gave an even deeper insight into the personal life and career of the rock and roll legend. We saw photographs, cheques and other smaller scale memorabilia unique to Graceland. Then it was back on the minibus, over to the car garage, where we were given a insight into Elvis' passion for automobiles, viewing Cadillacs, limousines, golf-buggies - anything and everything with wheels and an engine! Slick pieces designed and custom made for him were shining under the spotlights of huge room and videos of film-clips showing his relationships to cars in the movies were showing on a repeat in the purpose-built drive-in theatre.
After souvenir shopping, we headed back to the car, left the iconic home and were on our way to our final stop on our grand ole tour. After losing our Taco Bell virginity and finding it nothing to write home about, we hit the road and made our way to Nashville. Listening to the radio, we heard a beautiful song, "You take me places, I've never been," which we found out was by Mark Wills. The lyrics and tune were lovely and would have made an excellent song for our travel-themed wedding! It only took around three hours to drive to Nashville, but as we had been so engrossed in Graceland, we were well behind our pre-planned schedule!
As we neared the home of country music, the sky became ominously black and thunder began to shudder in the air. Huge flashes of lightning lit up the darkening road ahead of us. And then came the rain. Huge sheets of rain began to pour from the sky and the road was awash with spray. This slowed our progress and we were becoming more and more uneasy about finding the hotel. We should have been... After trawling the city streets for around 40 minutes, the rain still lashing onto the windscreen and bouncing off the road, our phone and iPad batteries, on which we were running the sat nav and Google Maps in a desperate attempt to find our hotel and shelter from the downpour, simultaneously died.
Eventually, following some less-than helpful locals (the first we had met on the whole voyage!) and some equally unhelpful map reading by me, we finally saw the green signage of our hotel in the distance, pointed our car towards it and crawled through the traffic and rain to the sanctuary of the Holiday Inn. Never has such a mid-range, business hotel conjured such rapturous joy! We parked the car, quickly changed and grabbed a taxi into town to enjoy the music we had come here to experience. Our taxi driver was a true Nashville local. He informed us seconds into our short journey that he was a songwriter, and proceeded to play the cd of, and sing along to, his own song on the car stereo. He dropped us off at the bar we had researched, Robert's Western on the Main Street of Nashville. We had finally found an authentic music experience without having to leave the tourist trail.
The band playing in the bar were spectacular. Main Street, Nashville is fast losing its country heritage and, although still showcasing excellent live bands up to five times a day in the bars, is now playing host to more conventional chart and rockier music. The music is still great, but country music is what we, and thousands of other tourists, had come here for, and so Robert's, with its country-music-only policy, was right up our street. This band were playing a mixture of contemporary and old-style music, with an incredible guitarist who was only 19 years old. The bass player too was excellent and the whole sound was exactly what we had come here to appreciate. The food too was fabulous! I had a Recession-buster - a southern style hotdog with sweet potato fries and a local beer for $5. Stacey just stuck to the beer, which came in an old style bottle and evoked images of the old south.
After trying another bar - where we found a disappointing nasal female singer and her somewhat lacklustre backing harmonies, we asked local bouncers where to go. We made our way to one of the more buzzing bars on the street, where we chatted to a group of men from Alabama. However, the music in the bar, once it started, was too rocky for us, so we headed straight back to Robert's. After chatting to a young local and his New Orleans girlfriend and being praised for our love of country and desire to seek it out, we bid goodbye to the second great band of the evening and headed back to bed.

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