We got up as usual and I have to say it was nice waking up right beside the place we wanted to visit. No buses, trains or subways etc, and best of all we didn't have to move the RV!! The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, a pleasant 21 degrees in Graceland today. We made our way over towards the mansion just after 11am to begin our tour. Before we began Aidan was told that he couldn't use his video camera throughout the tour and that he had to leave it in a locker. He was of course only too pleased to quietly inform the rest of us that his camera phone is "capable of making DVD quality videos", and he did manage to get a few sneaky ones. We began our tour right on Elvis Presleys front 
door step and we entered a house with a colourful history. As soon as we walked in the door we were immediately stunned... What a house!! Let's just say the decor is a tad louder than Gortlee House back in Letterkenny. We got to see the majority of the place, although upstairs was out of bounds. Apparently when Elvis entertained guests, which was pretty much all the time, he did it downstairs. Upstairs was private to him and his family, so out of respect that's the way they keep it. Every room we did see certainly had its charm to put it mildly,but the most impressive rooms were his TV room, his games room and of course the infamous Jungle Room. When we finished inside the mansion itself we were able to walk around the back yard where Elvis and the boys used to regularly race Golf Carts, 
with Elvis apparently always being the ringleader. Adjacent to the back door there is a small office where his Father and a few others conducted his business dealings and sorted his bagfuls of fan mail. It seems he liked to keep all his family and friends close to him. I guess Graceland was his sanctuary. Also in and around the back yard there is a little building where he used to keep his many awards and is now home to memorabilia depicting his entire career. We also saw his stables and his Racquetball building. The racquetball court itself now houses yet more memorabilia but on entering it there is another small room which looks down onto the court itself. There is a piano in the room (pictured above), where Elvis sat on the morning of his death and sang Unchained Melody with some friends.I have to say it was almost eerie in a way walking around the mans house. It strange to say, but it kind of gives you the feeling that he was a very real man who lived a very real, or indeed somewhat unreal life... not just this character called Elvis Presley we've being hearing about since we were kids. As I said in yesterdays post, none of us are really big Elvis fans and I'm not saying we're all going to suddenly become die hards, but by the time we got to his grave, which is in his meditation garden at the very back of the house, it was hard not pay the man some respect. One thing we learned today, nobody will ever be as big as The King...
It only took us a couple of hours to do the tour so we came back to the RV and spend the rest of the day chllin and enjoying the wonderful sunshine... (I hear it's miserable back home.!.!.)
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