We had a jam-packed day today. So much so that I am going to split today into two parts. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow. It is getting late here in Tennessee and I need my beauty sleep – or just any sleep really.

We had tickets for Graceland at 10:45. They time them for every 15 minutes. We woke up early and were at the estate a little before 10. We thought we may have to wait for our allotted time, but we were ushered right in.

They have a 7-minute intro film in one of the two theaters and they just let as many ticketholders as are in the line to fill all the seats in each theater.

Elvis purchased 13.8 acres of what was a larger property on the outskirts of Memphis called Graceland Farm. The first thing he did was install a rock fence around it and add the famous music gates. The property is now a huge complex with restaurants, theaters, the car display, costume display, etc.

Our tickets gave us access to the complex – stores, restaurants, etc, the Graceland mansion and Elvis’s airplanes. By the time the cost was converted to Canadian $ we paid $125.00 each. If we wanted to see Elvis’ Memphis, or the garage with his cars, or any of the other venues they had their own tickets. $86.00 US to see the cars. If you wanted to spend a lot of money you could spend the entire day there. I really just wanted to see the mansion. It was an expensive house tour for sure (we skipped the planes) but we grew up listening to Elvis music and watching Elvis movies – of which he starred in 41 – so it was on my ‘must see’ list.

The mansion is across the road from the entertainment complex and they have shuttles that hold 30-35 people each and run back and forth all day in 15 minute intervals. So every 15 minutes another 35 or so people enter the house.

We only toured the main floor of the main house. Not the wings or the upstairs where the bedrooms are. That was Elvis’s space and it is kept private out of respect. If any family comes to Memphis they stay in the upstairs bedrooms.

There is no big fancy gardens between the road and the house.

There were information signs for every room and guests also had an audio guide that told most of the same information about each one. They are all quite detailed so lots of print.

There were four different stairwells you could take from various rooms to access the upstairs. This one is in the main hall. The living room is on the right and the dining room is on the left. The mansion was not huge. There were five bedrooms – four upstairs and one on the main floor and none of the rooms were really big.

This was Grandma Minnie Mae’s room. She had the bedroom on the main floor. Elvis’ parents Vernon and Gladys also lived in the house. I suspect in the east wing.

There are 14 televisions in the house. At least one in every room. This one is in the dining room.

Priscilla and Lisa-Marie

Elvis bought Graceland in 1957 when he was 22-years old. He paid $103,000 for it and spent $500,000 remodeling and renovating. The house was redecorated a number of times over the years as styles and his tastes changed.

The ‘Jungle Room” was a sitting room just past the kitchen. Unfortunately my photo of the description is out of focus and unreadable. All I remember is that it was used a lot when Elvis entertained, which he did often. It was also quite a dark room so neither my photos nor John’s are very good.

In the basement was the TV room

And the pool room.

The tour took us out to the back yard and Elvis’ dad’s office. Elvis had his own office in the main house on the upper floor. His father and two secretaries worked in the backyard office. They answered incoming phone calls, paid bills, made donations (Elvis had 50 charities in Memphis that he supported annually plus other worthy causes. There was a cheque he wrote to Bob Hope’s charity for $5,000 on the wall in the Trophy room), and handled upwards of 5,000 pieces of mail each day at the height of Elvis’ career.

Elvis did not have photos and paintings of himself in the house or other rooms. Many of them are gifts from fans and are on display for the tours.

Elvis loved to ride horses and he kept several of them on the property. The building on the right is the stable. He had horses for himself, Priscilla and others that could be ridden by friends. His favourite horse was a palomino and they keep horses of the same breeds and colors as he owned.

The swimming pool was one of the first things added after Elvis bought Graceland.

There were lots of mirrors and mirrored walls in the mansion. Elvis installed them to make the rooms look more spacious.

We caught the shuttle back to the complex and headed for the car. When we arrived there were lots of empty spots in the main parking lot near the gates but by the time we left 2+ hours later it was almost full and people were still arriving. You had to pay for parking as well.

As we left I snapped a couple of quick pics of the planes. Notice the lightning bolt with TCB on the tail. This was Elvis’ logo – Taking Care of Business in a flash or quick.

I do not like busy multi-lane freeways so we did not drive north through Memphis. Southaven is in Mississippi, right on the Tennessee border. As a matter of fact it is vitually a suburb of Memphis and our hotel was only a 15 minute drive to Graceland. We headed back on the highway we came up and then went east along a quiet road before heading north to Union City, which is about an hour or so drive south of the Tennessee/Kentucky border – about 2 hours north if you take the interstate. We did not. And we did not arrive in Union City until 5:30. What we did not see because of the proximity of the two communities along the border was any kind of Welcome to Tennessee sign.

But Graceland was not all we saw today. Stay tuned for June 8 Part 2.