Highway 99

Graceland

Hi kids! Still on our tourist portion of our trip down here and Graceland was on the itinerary today. Graceland was just like how Elvis left it, except the toilet he died on is not accessible to the public (Presley family decision).

The tour is very informative, what with the audio tour-guide headset we all had around our necks and on our ears. Tells about Elvis’s living room and kitchen furnishings and appliances, and carpeted ceilings in his Jungle Room (where two of his albums were recorded).

Quinn offered to bring down all new Whirlpool stuff from Anaco Appliance, but the live tour guides inside frowned on his idea. Henry seemed to be inspired by the carpeted ceilings and the mirrored staircases. Hmmm… Now that’s home improvement!

The Graceland Mansion had cavernous rooms and hallways leading to other rooms, not unlike a maze or a funhouse. The tour eventually led us outside to Vernon Presley’s office, from which he operated the worldwide Elvis Presley Fan Club during and after his death in August of 1977.

Elvis had an 8×8 gun range (brick walls on three sides…kinda dangerous, but Elvis lived on the edge), a kidney-shaped pool (or was it spleen-shaped?), and a racquetball court converted into a floor-to-ceiling display of his gold records from the 70s, plus nine of his jumpsuits from his Vegas years. Too much to mention, so maybe I can blog in detail some of the things we saw when we return to Skagit Valley.

Before FannyAlger left the building (or left the Graceland Mansion area anyway), we made a video of us singing “Sometimes” at the gates of the mansion (to be YouTubed later). The guard at the gate gave us a ringing endorsement with an enthusiastic thumbs-up through the window of his brick guardhouse. He knew the song!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Fanny Alger Does Memphis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.