GRACELAND, Memphis, Tennessee

We had a long drive on Thursday with lots and lots of traffic (but that's another blog for another day), but arrived at Tom Sawyer's RV park mid-afternoon. 

We had been given a recommendation for this park by a fellow Escapee.  Turns out now that almost all our Escapee friends have been here at one time or another.

It's a gem.  A little more than we usually pay at $35.00 a night but well worth it.  Did I mention the free laundry facilities, the Mississippi outside your door and the fact that the staff picks up your garbage.

Biggest feature, Graceland is just 10 minutes from here.  And easy to find.  We read that Graceland is the 2nd most visited house the US.  The White House is 1st.

We are not Elvis fans, never were, but we did grow up listening to his music and watching his movies.  The cheapest tour is $35.00 each for seniors but we went.

We were not disappointed.  The mansion is well preserved and very very well maintained.  Apparently 2,000 people tour the mansion each day, 7 days a week.

That's quite the couch!

The living room

Pretty normal kitchen.  It was busy here all night long.

The dining room.  Priscilla and Lisa Marie still eat here when they visit.  Elvis always sat the the head (the right side of the picture) because he had to be able to see the tv which is just beyond the chair in front of the window on the left.

The pool room.  Notice the furniture, walls and the ceiling are all made of the same fabric.

The "media room".  Elvis kept the three tvs on all the time 24/7 all set to a different network.

The famous Jungle Room.  The red wall is a fountain.  Note Lisa Marie's Teddy bear in the round chair.

Yes, he had stables and horses which he rode regularly until he was bucked off one on a movie set.

We learned some things we did not know.  Elvis died before his father and before his grandmother.  They (and his mother) are all buried in the Meditation Garden at Graceland.

Elvis, his father Vernon, his mother Gladys and his grandmother (who outlived them all) are buried at Graceland.  This area is open to the public free of charge, daily in the morning only.

His former wife Priscilla and his only child, daughter Lisa Marie still stay at the mansion 3 or 4 times a year.  They occupy the same rooms they did before Elvis died.  Lisa Marie only lived at Graceland until she was four years old when her parents split up.  The house was listed for $50,000 in 1957 but when the owners found out it was Elvis buying it, the price became $102,500.  The house was called Graceland by the former owners.  It was named for the owners' Grandmother and Aunt. 

 Elvis was relatively broke when he died and so Priscilla decided to open the mansion for tours in June 1982.  Upkeep of the house is about $500,000 a year.  

The back yard.  The rooms upstairs are not part of the tour.  Presumably that is Elvis' bedroom and the fateful bathroom where he died.

The house was not as large as we had expected nor as garish.  Most of it is tastefully decorated, at least for the time.  The tour itself shares lots of information about the house and its decorations.  For instance, in 1957 a microwave cost $698.00, quite a lot in those days.

Sorry, the microwave is not in this picture.  Note the ordinary canisters.

Suicide or natural death.  Both schools of thought but regardless of whether it was premeditated or not, a huge amount of drugs were found in his system.

We had lunch on the grounds.  Doug had to try the grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich.  Alas no bacon.