MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE - GRACELAND

After almost 19 years full timing, we have finally run out of “oh, golly, let’s go here” kinds of places. We can now turn our attention to places neither of us had particularly been crazy about. One such place is Memphis, Tennessee – Land of Elvis! Graceland. The Blues. Beale Street. Bar-B-Que anything! It happened to be sort of kinda, a little bit, on our way to some friends house in Illinois which we had considered visiting. Eloise plotted a course using Street Atlas, and by golly, here we are at the Graceland RV Park, on Presley Avenue.


Based on recommendations made in the Escapees Travel Forum, we had wanted to stay at the Tom Sawyer RV park in West Memphis which is right on the river where you can watch barges go by as you sit in/next to your rig. When we got close, E gave them a call to make reservations. CLOSED due to flooding of the Mississippi River. Change of plans for full-timers is part of our life, so undaunted we searched the internet, and came up with Graceland RV Park, which sits directly behind the Heartbreak Hotel. The clerk’s first word had been no room for our 40 footer, but hold on a second. There was one back-in site at the rear that only had electric and water, no sewer. Two nights would be $74.29 incl tax. We took it. A Big-Rig friendly park, with pull-thrus for most of their sites. Fifty Amp service. There was a gate that led directly into the Graceland parking lot, where we could walk directly to the Graceland property.

Traveling right past milling crowds on the street opposite Graceland, we marched up to the gate where a guard seemed surprised to see us and asked us what we wanted. We sorta thought that was a pretty stupid question, but informed him we wanted to buy tickets for the tour. He said to go back across the street to the ticket pavilion, back to where all those people we so cleverly avoided were! We are still a little puzzled about our discount there. The brochure and the on-line information said there was a discount for several things, being over 62 being one of them, and there were no multiple discounts allowed. We took that to mean we would be getting the old people rate. The cashier told us that if we belonged to AAA or had military Ids, we would qualify for a second discount. We were quick to whip out our retired Ids and paid $26.75 each for tickets normally $33; or $29.70 for seniors. We were opting for the ‘Platinum’ ticket, which looked like it would be more than adequate for a couple of ‘take it or leave it’ type Elvis fans. It included: Audio-guided tour of the mansion and grounds; Elvis’ 2 custom airplanes; Elvis’ automobile museum; Elvis in Hollywood Exhibit; Elvis Lives Exhibit; Private Presley Exhibit and the 68 Special Exhibit. Out to the waiting shuttles, we were handed our player and headphones, and off we went.







Heartbreak Hotel. The hotel is just in front of the Graceland Campground.












This is Eloise, the sign is in front of the ticket office and some of the other buildings.











The plaque was out front. As yo can see, people just can't leave things as they are.










Costumes on display.
















This was his meditation garden. He spent much time in this area. The stained glass windows in the back of the picture were from Italy and had been made in the 1800's.









This shows the graves of Elvis, his mother, his father and his grandmother. There is also a small marker for his twin brother who was stillborn. His brother is actually buried in Tupolo, MS.













Two views of his gravesite. The flowers are sent by fans and placed there for the life of the flowers.














There were lots of Elvis' costumes on display, here are a few.













This is the sign with the real thing! It is outside the car museum. A beauty don't you think?









His Black Rolls Royce was purchased in Sept 1960 in Beverly Hills. It was custom made for Elvis. He used it in Los Angeles, LasVegas and Memphis.













Elvis loved his cars. This was his Farrari.














Mercedes Sports Coupe like the one E & I almost bought while in Germany in the early 80's. An officer was selling it for $14k at Hahn AB. It seemed a lot of money at the time, even though the car was perfect. We let it pass. Could have had it shipped home for nothing, and would be worth a bunch more now. Sour grapes...












1971 Stutz Blackhawk. It was originally ordered for Frank Sinatra but Elvis charmed the dealer. It is the 1st Stutz ever delivered in the U.S. Since I was not familiar with the car, the following information is taken from Wikipedia: The Stutz Blackhawk was an American luxury car produced from 1971 through 1987. It debuted in January 1970 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. The prototype cost more than US$300,000. Each Stutz Blackhawk was constructed with a steel body over 19 feet long, and was handbuilt in Torino, Italy. The production Blackhawk used Pontiac Grand Prix hardware and Pontiac's 7.5 L (455 in³) V8 engine. Output from the specially tuned engine was 425 hp (317 kW) and 420 ft·lbs. A GM TH400 automatic transmission was used, allowing the 5000 lb car to accelerate to 60 mph in 8.4 seconds with a 130 mph top speed. Fuel economy was just 8 miles per gallon. Later Blackhawks used Pontiac's 403 and 350 engines.














1973 Stutz - Elvis' favorite - red interior and gold plated accessories.



'55















Cadillac Fleetwood. Elvis kept this car from his rise to stardom throughout his career. He gave the car to his mom--referred to it as Gladys' car even though she didn't drive.








This is Elvis' 1962 Lincoln Continental with Elvis specs - white with alligator top. Notice the car has "suicide doors".


Pool leads to the meditation area.









Mansion from the rear.
















Recreation room, one of many.















This plane as you can see was named after his daughter Lisa Marie. It is a Convair 880, built in 1958 and bought in 1975 by Elvis for 250K but the customization cost was 800K. He flew in it 221 times. It had a crew of 4 with seating for 28. The overall length is 129' with a wing span of 120'.



















These are of the Jet Star, built in 1960 and purchased by Elvis in 1975 for 900K. The Jet Star carried those who flew ahead to ensure arrangements were taken care of for his arrival. It seats 10 persons.


























The parking booth for Graceland. Fees were $10 per vehicle and $15 for oversized vehicles.


























Note the sign near the office of the Campground. In case you can't read it "ELVIS FANS ONLY Violators will be ALL SHOOK-UP."


















This is the main entrance to Graceland RV Campground.



This is our parking place at Graceland Campground, Eloise is reading in the shade. The weather was muggy after all the rain.








We enjoyed our visit to Memphis. If you are going to stay just the couple days like we did, the Graceland RV park could be your best choice. Walk to Graceland and save 10 bucks parking fees. If you like souvenirs you really have choices here! There is a free downtown shuttle leaving from Heartbreak Hotel, and RV park clients are welcomed.

A final note: We were anxious to try the Interstate Bar-B-Que, many posts on the Escapees forum thought it was the best they'd ever had anywhere. The first night we went to Marlowe's BBQ just up the street from where we stayed. They have a free pink Cadillac shuttle we saw circling the park a lot. We drove. We thought the BBQ was pretty great, which really got us anxious to try Interstate. Next nite we went to Interstate on State Line road. We had mediocre service, the beef ribs seemed tough, and E said the pork ribs tasted like they had been re-heated, and they didn't furnish moist wipees. Not so good. I liked the sauce from Marlowe's better too. So much for other peoples opinions...