On the way to Memphis, a funny thing happened. The awning on the passenger side of the motorhome suddenly began to dangle in the breeze as we were cruising down the high way. I could see that one leg of the awning had come loose, and both of us thought we could just keep going, but after a few minutes, it dropped down a little bit and was dragging along the highway. We pulled off onto the breakdown lane and Bobby climbed up onto the roof. We couldn’t figure out how to get it to stay on, so we did the next best thing. We tried to tear it off. While Bobby pried at the bolts from the roof, I yanked at the pole from the ground. When we finally got it loose, it began to fall towards the ditch on the side of the high way and… I’ll admit it…. I just let it go. We thought our problems were over, until we realized that without the pole, the awning could come unrolled on our journey. At the next truck stop, we did what any one would do… yanked the other leg off and with a Swiss army knife, cut the awning off the side of the RV and left it in a dumpster when no one was looking. You have to break a few rules when you are living on the road, and as much as it broke my heart to not recycle all of that plastic, the awning had to go.
Lighter and more streamlined than we were before, we headed on in to Memphis.
Lighter and more streamlined than we were before, we headed on in to Memphis.
Any Elvis fans out there? Graceland is amazing. We checked out of the Heart Break Hotel early because we wanted to be first in line for the Graceland tour. His house is not as big as one would imagine, but you have to remind yourself that Elvis bought this piece of land when he was only 22 and it was the sixties. Everything was scaled down compared to what we have now.
First you get to walk around the first floor of his house, viewing his living room, dining room, kitchen and “the jungle room” which was like a large sitting room that he’d added on to the house and decorated in such a way that reminded him of Hawaii. There was green carpet on the floor and ceiling and fake fur covered furniture with big hand carved wooden arms and legs. Elvis recorded his last album at his home in the jungle room because his manager was finding it increasingly harder to get him out of the house. We bought the album (called “Moody Blue”) before leaving Graceland.
It is so cool being in the place where he lived. His family pictures are still hanging on the walls. In his basement, you get to see his sitting room where he hung out and watched TV and his pool room. In the backyard there are the graves of his grandmother, mother, father and himself. I can’t lie, we both cried when we got to this part (I haven’t seen Bobby cry like that since the wedding). It is just really moving thinking of how loved he was, how many lives he touched, but that it was probably all of this adoration that eventually led to his death. When you are there looking at all of his glamorous outfits and all of the screens that play his performances over and over again, you can imagine how his icon – the idea of Elvis--grew bigger than any normal person could manage. Elvis wasn’t the kind of guy who could just roll out of bed in the morning and put on his slippers and watch TV all day…every moment he lived people wanted recorded; every thought he had, people wanted to know about it. Can you imagine how that could mess with someone’s mind?
Our next visit will be Nashville. After witnessing where the best blues, jazz, and country musicians cut their teeth in Memphis, we have to see where the current country stars call home.
First you get to walk around the first floor of his house, viewing his living room, dining room, kitchen and “the jungle room” which was like a large sitting room that he’d added on to the house and decorated in such a way that reminded him of Hawaii. There was green carpet on the floor and ceiling and fake fur covered furniture with big hand carved wooden arms and legs. Elvis recorded his last album at his home in the jungle room because his manager was finding it increasingly harder to get him out of the house. We bought the album (called “Moody Blue”) before leaving Graceland.
It is so cool being in the place where he lived. His family pictures are still hanging on the walls. In his basement, you get to see his sitting room where he hung out and watched TV and his pool room. In the backyard there are the graves of his grandmother, mother, father and himself. I can’t lie, we both cried when we got to this part (I haven’t seen Bobby cry like that since the wedding). It is just really moving thinking of how loved he was, how many lives he touched, but that it was probably all of this adoration that eventually led to his death. When you are there looking at all of his glamorous outfits and all of the screens that play his performances over and over again, you can imagine how his icon – the idea of Elvis--grew bigger than any normal person could manage. Elvis wasn’t the kind of guy who could just roll out of bed in the morning and put on his slippers and watch TV all day…every moment he lived people wanted recorded; every thought he had, people wanted to know about it. Can you imagine how that could mess with someone’s mind?
Our next visit will be Nashville. After witnessing where the best blues, jazz, and country musicians cut their teeth in Memphis, we have to see where the current country stars call home.
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