Graceland - Memphis

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Water, water everywhere as we drove north on Hwy 55 out of New Orleans. Lake Pontchartrain on the right and Lake Maurepas on the left and swampland in between. How do they build these highways over so much water?

The landscape changed dramatically when we crossed the Louisiana/Mississippi border. Trees, trees and more trees. We stopped at a Visitor center on the border about an hour and a half north of NO and the air smelled like pine trees! Pretty country. We picked up a map andvisitor's guide of Mississippi and it looks like you could spend a month just touring around the state. Lots of Civil War and Civil Rights history and museums. A lot of beautiful looking golf courses too!

Graceland - we were there at 8:45 in the morning thinking we would beat the crowds but they were already lined up for the first tour at 9am. The parking lot would have been a good place to take photos of license plates from every different state and parts of Canada. We bought the Platinum tickets (not the least expensive and not the VIP tickets). With these we toured the mansion (more of a house), the grounds, the memorial area where Elvis and family members are buried, the trophybuilding, Elvis's cars and two airplanes. And, numerous gift shops. Every exhibit you exited took you into a different gift shop. There must be half a dozen gift shops. The house is amazing in its gaudiness - I suppose it was the rage for decor in the 60's and 70's with the shag, fake fur furniture and the jungle room. The house is actually quite small - the kitchen not much bigger than mine at home. It's hard to imagine that Elvis, Priscilla, Lisa Marie, Elvis' parents and grandmother all lived there and apparently there were always friends and musicians around all the time. The grounds were fairly big - he had a few horses, a racquet ball building, an office building and a pool. Also a big carport for some of his cars. I don't understand where he kept the rest of the cars, motorbikes and toys he had not to mention the dozens of performance suits we saw.

No doubt he was a phenomenon in his time and still is. Elvis was definitely "the King."

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