Sikeston – Memphis – Sikeston
The Best Western we stayed at last night offered a free continental breakfast, so of course we had to take advantage of that. Not the usual kind we have back home but I had some toast, bagels and cereal.
It takes us over two hours to drive to Memphis, the roads leading there are quite boring, thank goodness for cruise control so I can take my feet off the peddles.
We park by Graceland and get tickets for the Platinum tour which gives you access to the mansion, car museum, Private Presley and his two Jets.
The first thing you do when you get your tickets is board a bus that takes you across the street and into Graceland. You go through the famous gates and then up the driveway. We are dropped off outside the front door and that is where you enter the house.
The first room you see is the living room, it is very bright and the main thing you notice is the large (15 seater) sofa, you then walk past the dining room before entering the kitchen. I found the kitchen to be quite dark, maybe all the lights were not on.
Other rooms in the mansion included Elvis’ parents’ bedroom, TV room, pool room, and a jungle den which even had carpet on the ceiling.
Behind the house was Elvis’ racquetball building and his original business office. The trophy building houses his enormous collection of gold records and awards, along with an extensive display of career mementos, stage costumes, jewellery, photographs, and much more. The smoke house was used by Elvis as a shooting range and the fields around it were for his horses.
The tour ends with a visit to the Meditation Garden, where Elvis and members of his family have been laid to rest.
We then take the bus back down the driveway and across the road. We then tour the other exhibits which included his motor museum which houses a collection of his cars and motorbikes. We then go into his private jet the “Lisa Marie” which he used to fly around the place, even to Colorado so he could show his daughter what snow was like.
We get a cheeseburger at one of the restaurants before visiting the last exhibit of his time in the army.
We leave and then drive back up the same road we came here on until we reach Sikeston where we stayed the previous night, this time we thought we would give The Drury Inn a go and it was very nice.
We go for dinner at the Ruby Tuesday restaurant next door.
Early night as there is a lot of driving to be done tomorrow.
