I’m Going to Graceland
I wasn’t sure how long I’d be at Graceland, nor did I know what I was getting myself into before I arrived at the mecca for Elvis Presley fans. I consider myself a big Elvis fan and I really respect and admire what he did for rock and roll and how his influence on music lead to the evolution of the music I love to listen to today. My favorite Elvis song is probably “Burning Love,” but I really enjoy listening to most of his music, but I’m not as big of a fan of his religious stuff.
So I showed up at Graceland and didn’t have any cash on me to pay for parking so I pleaded with the woman in the booth if she’d let me run to an ATM after I parked my car. For some reason she believed me and let me go through without much hassle and I ran to the ATM to get some money before heading back to pay her for my parking spot.
I then returned to the ticket booth and asked for a student pass for the typical tour that included the mansion, the planes, the car museum, elvis after midnight, and a few other attractions, 6 in total. I first jumped on this shuttle bus that drove me less than a quarter of a mile from the ticket booth to the front of his Graceland mansion. Everyone exited the bus and we made our way to the house. The house had an audio guide.
Elvis’ house was definitely crazy lookin but I’d imagine it wouldn’t seem all that weird back in the 60’s and 70s. He apparently bought the estate when he was 22 years old for a crazy amount of money but I don’t think money was ever much of a concern for the King. There were around 20 different rooms or more I stopped by during the tour and I thought the experience was actually really great. I got to listen to a lot of his music, see how Elvis got to where he ended up and learn a lot about his life. If you’re not an Elvis fan, there’s no reason to do any of this.
I thought the gardens/stables, and where Elvis and his family were buried were the most beautiful parts of the tour. The house itself was really impressive but a little dated but I still appreciated the experience. I jumped back on the shuttle bus and made my way back over to the rest of the exhibits.
Since I paid to see another 5 exhibits I was goin to get my money’s worth so I headed immediately to the Car Museum where I got to see all the cars Elvis owned. Some people and families own one or two cars, maybe three, four if you’ve got an older car, five if you’re the Schisgall’s. Even Elvis outdid the Schisgall’s as 20 cars were put on display, with his Pink Cadillac as the prize of the collection. I only knew about Elvis’ pink cadillac from the Bruce Springsteen song, so I got a picture with it, since it was apparently his most famous car and continued through the exhibit.
The clothing/costume display was the next exhibit I stopped by as I got to “admire” the numerous fashion designs Elvis went through during his music career. He must have owned at least 200 white jumper suits, all with different styles and designs. It was actually kind of impressive, but after 15 minutes I was ready to move on to a new exhibit.
The next exhibit was a 30 minute movie about Elvis’ life and although I missed the time when the group entered the building I was able to sneak in right before the show began and got to relax and learn about Elvis’ life. It was fun to watch because I got to hear a lot of new Elvis songs I had never heard before. After the movie I started getting hungry so I got the famous Peanut Butter and Jelly banana sandwich which is only served in Graceland, but after receiving the sandwich I made the decision that even I could muster enough sense to put together this concoction. The sandwich was really good and gave me enough energy to help me finish the final two exhibits at Graceland.
I stopped by Elvis’ private jet after the sandwich and got to see its interior. The plane’s style definitely seemed dated, but the plane was huge and managed to have around 6 separate rooms inside. The one fact I remember from the exhibit was that one day his daughter mentioned to Elvis that she had never seen snow so Elvis flew her to Colorado to see snow. I don’t know why they had to go all the way to Colorado, but I thought that was a pretty awesome thing to do. I then thought how dangerous it would be if I had a private jet some time in the future because it’d be too easy to travel abroad.
Elvis after Dark was the next exhibit, and I’ll be honest, I thought the exhibit would have to do with the numerous women Elvis must have known during his life, and I was surprised Graceland would have something so riske for one of its exhibits. I was expecting pole dancers and black leather and lace, so I was a tad disappointed when the exhibit seemed to focus on Elvis meeting President Nixon and receiving a badge from the President.
I was ready to hit the road again after spending a good 5 hours at Graceland. I kept on wondering through my visit how a few Kenyon friends of mine had enough time/energy to drive all the way down to Graceland for a weekend, and how crazy that must have been because they had to drive all the way back immediately afterwards. Though I thought Graceland was fun and interested driving 1284 miles over a weekend seemed a little too insane and too much. Next stop….New Orleans
Tags: Summer 2007 Road Trip, Travel
