Day 26 - Graceland and Beale Street

Thursday we had tickets for Graceland at 10:15, it is within walking distance of our campground. We were  unsure how long the tour would take and thought if it wasn't too long we might go down to Beale Street in the afternoon. 

Graceland is rather expensive to tour, but what the heck we are in Memphis. It is one of those American stories that is very good except for the ending. We are not the least bit sorry we did it. 

Elvis was one of a kind and so was his house. It screams 1970's because that is when time stopped in 1977. The mansion is big, the rooms are not overly big but they are all Elvis. 

The living room was like any other living room, but on steroids. Custom everything. 

I took a lot of pictures that will not be included in the blog, it was hard not to because everything was so unique. For example, the stair way to the basement level is all mirrors on the wall and ceiling, you get disorientated going down the stairs. 

Yes there was a  jungle room.  Check out the colors and carpet.

The pool room has matching pleated cloth walls and ceiling.

The kitchen was like anyone's kitchen, just a bit larger. The house goes on and on, and we only saw the first floor. Elvis never let anyone but family upstairs, so we were not allowed. 

We toured other buildings that house the offices, trophies etc. and ended the house tour at the family memorial where he and his family lay at rest. 

After leaving the mansion there is building after building of exhibits about his life. I really liked the one on his military service. I did not take any pictures but was fascinated at the way, despite being a national celebrity, he served his 2 years and was deployed in Germany after the war. I seriously doubt any of our contemporary celebs would do the same. 

He also had a love of all things that moved, cars, motorcycles, golf carts, dune buggies, snowmobiles, you name it. To that I can relate. He loved snowmobiling so much he had about 6 with wheels on them so he could ride them at Graceland. 

He also had three personal airplanes, his Convair 880 Jet Airplane was something.

The interior was all decked out with gold sinks and fixtures, it had a conference room, and a bedroom (complete with a big seatbelt across the bed) with a private bath.  

We finished our tour at about 1PM, it took a bit over 2 hours and there was so much to see we got tired and hungry.  We did not see everything but got enough to confirm he really was larger than life.

After Graceland we walked back to our campsite and had a good lunch. It was a nice day so we decided to take the scooter downtown to see Beale Street. It was an easy commute of about 15 mins. We found a few pot holes along the way  but nothing like the streets in New Orleans. 

Beale Street reminded me of Nashville Music Row, lots of bars and restaurants with music. It was bricked and pedestrian only with some bars that have a window that opens to the street. 

We walked a bit of Beale and headed down to see the water front. The water front is very nice and modern, with lots of park space. 

There are tour boats that take you out on the Mississippi. This is a big one.

From the water front we walked the entire length of Beale Street and kept walking until we found the WiseAcre brewery. The brewery huge and the beer was pretty good. It opened about 3 years ago, it is the second location that WiseAcre has, it seems they are doing well. 

We wanted to sample some food on Beale Street and stopped at one of the less crowded places called King Jerry Lawler's Hall of Fame. We had a sample plate of pulled pork and BBQ ribs...it was very good. 

We had a good experience in Memphis and we scootered back to camp to rest up for our trek to Mammoth Caves National Park on Friday.