Arrived in Memphis and spent the first night with high school friends, Sharon and Steve Archer. Spent Mother’s Day with Elvis as we visited Graceland for several hours (not the same as being with Scott but not a bad second). This was a fantastic tour as we saw the main part of his house and the basement where all the action took place. Although he had changed the décor while living there, the house is still the way it was when he died in 1977 -- the avocado coffee pot, harvest gold refrigerator, his favorite chair of beige shag, his room in the basement known as the animal room because the décor, the pool room with wild colored material even on the ceiling. Unbelievable. Next we went to see his trophy room and many of his outfits he wore during those years. We could not get over how thin he was at one time and all the “glitz” of his costumes. From there you saw many of his cars and other “boy toys”. He loved to race around Graceland and even put wheels on a snowmobile. He was a boy at heart but never liked to lose. He owned two airplanes. Lisa Marie is 1988 Convair 880 completely remodeled inside with two bathrooms, bedroom, conference room with a large table and then a lounge area with couches, tables and chairs. Then there was the Hound Dog II, a smaller 1960 Lockheed Jet Star which Colonel Parker used to go ahead of Elvis and set up the concerts. Again Elvis spared nothing when it came to decorating and inside were bright colored chairs of turquoise and yellow. Elvis had a large brick wall installed in front of the property for privacy. Fans now leave messages in tribute to Elvis on this wall. We recommend this tour to anyone that is in the Memphis area. We also visited Beale Street which is the Home of the Blues.
From Memphis we stopped off in Tunica, MS for the night on our way to Nashville. Although Tunica is not exactly on the way to Nashville, we needed to stop at a Monaco dealer to have a compartment seal replaced. Tunica consists of small historic town and many many neat Casinos. It was interesting to go to several Casinos but since we are not gamblers we did not spend much time in any of them.
From here we drove on to Nashville and met up with Joan and Earl for the night as they traveled to Arkansas for their niece’s wedding. We were in Nashville this past November but were not able to tour the Grand Ole Opry as it was closed for special recording session. This visit we not only toured the Opry but sang to a standing ovation on the Grand Ole Opry stage --- along with everyone else in the tour group. We were impressed with the Opry and wished we could stay around for a show and see all the action that we were told went on behind the stage. We did get to see several dressing rooms and were told the dressing rooms are assigned to the entertainers based on the size of the group. Roy Acuff was the only entertainer that had his personal dressing room and he actually lived on the grounds in a small house a few feet from the Opry.
Next stop – Knoxville. Here we toured the historic section of Knoxville, which was not as interesting as other cities. We have noticed that the Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville are remodeling all the old buildings and turning them into lofts at a very nice price. We also took a ride on a paddle boat down the Tennessee River and saw more historic sights and gorgeous houses. The next day we spent in the Smokey Mountains which with all the green was breathtaking. So did the highway as we traveled around for several hours on narrow winding roads along with hundreds of motorcyclist.
