| "I'm goin' to Graceland, Graceland,
Memphis Tennessee ..." We were on our way to the land of the King, Graceland! It was
a "must-see" stop on the tour, the home of Elvis Presley himself. But our
critique is as follows: Be prepared to fork over
your wallet for a very mediocre tour of the mansion. It was worth the cash, but for the
two of us to see the house, and the car museum where "Momma's Pink Cadillac" was
stored, it cost us a grand total of 46 BONES! Nonetheless, the lovely
decor of the 60's and 70's along with a slew of other fascinating stories and memorabilia
peaked our interest.
Elvis bought Graceland the mansion when he was only 21
years old and throughout his years there redecorated it many times. You can see the rooms
in their exact state such as the carpetted fury green cealing in the jungle room and the
TV room in the basement. He had three televisions in a row just like President Truman.
Elvis learned that the president liked to watch three different channels at once. We were
told that there were always staff on duty in the kitchen cooking meals for all kinds of
people who came through the mansion. Elvis always welcomed visitors.
Elvis was a very generous person, in fact, he gave away
most of his fortune to charities. He was notorious for giving away cars to family and
friends, and always helped people who came to him in need. You can walk through a
room that is lined with receipts that document a $1000 here and a $1000 there to hundreds
of charities. At Graceland there is an enormous room filled with all the different
cars Elvis bought for himself and his family and friends. He bought his mother a beautiful
pink cadillac that in fact Elvis only drove. There are all kinds of dune buggy's that
Elvis and his friends raced around all over his property and down town in causing havic.
Elvis was so generous that he actually died virtually
poor. It wasn't until Presila, his former wife, who really had the business sense of
making a fortune on Elvis's niche. She is the trustee of the rights to all his music
and estate.
After Graceland, we hit the downtown area of Memphis.
Beale Street is the historic blues avenue lined with restaurants and jazz bars. We ended
up chowing down at a place called Alfred's
where two guitarist were jamming out and singing classic rock n' roll songs.
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