Day 66 Memphis, USA

Saturday 13th August 2005

23.8.05 35 °C

Visited Graceland for most of the day and it was surprisingly quiet considering it is Elvis week. As we pulled up to the front of the house I was surprised at how small it seemed. You get the chance to walk around all the 1st floor but upstairs is closed to the public for personal reasons we were told. The trophy rooms are pretty impressive with more gold discs and trophys than you could imagine and it really puts it into perspective how successful Elvis really was. What did surprise me was the amount of money and time Elvis actually donated and did for charity and theres quite a display of different charities and people that benefited from this. Something that did make me laugh though was upon walking around the house his taste in décor. Part of the house has the walls and even the ceiling decorated in a green shagpile carpet and whether this was just to his own acquired taste or something that was popular in this era im not entirely sure but its certainly not my chosen taste in décor. The last thing to see on the tour of Graceland was the Meditation Garden and then the place where Elvis, his twin brother who died at birth, his mum and his dad are laid. Across the road from Graceland is an area where they have a museum with several of his items like his cars,motorbikes stored and theres also the outfits him and his wife got married in along with many other items of his. Finally we got the chance to look inside 2 of his planes which he also totally redesigned inside and out.
All in all it was a very enjoyable trip and that’s considering im not really a fan of Elvis.
Later that evening we also visited the site where Martin Luther King Jr was killed and the whole area doesn’t look like it been touched since that day 4th April 1968. Theres 2 old cars sitting in the parking lot to that don’t look like they’ve moved since that day either.

The Entrance to Graceland