Day Nine - Graceland and Memphis

Day Nine -

We knew we wanted to check out Graceland while in Memphis, but I didn't know what else to see. We found a museum online called the SlaveHaven and it's a house built by the Burkel family in the 1800's, to help slaves through the underground railroad. The house looks just like the other houses on the street, but contains a celler underneath, where slaves could hide out. The house was occupied by the Burkel family until the late 1970's, when the secret came out that it was affiliated with the underground railroad. Until then, nobody was aware of the history in this home. Today, it's setup as a museum about slavery and was really, really fascinating. Apparently there was a code within quilts, that allowed slaves to basically speak to each other in a hidden language. Various quilt patterns meant things like "follow the drunken path" -- zig zag your way out, so when the dogs are sent out to hunt your scent, they go east, west, north and south, and the slavemasters think the dogs have lost the scent and stop looking for you. There were several other meanings behind quilt patterns that I can't remember right now, but it was really interesting. Maybe not the happiest way to spend the morning, but eye opening, that's for sure. We toured the house, and saw the trap doors that the Burkel family built, to help slaves into the cellar. Also went down into a room under the house where slaves were believed to stay at one point.

After that, we headed over to Graceland. It's amazing what he had accomplished by the age of 22. Bought a house, had multi-platinum records and was well on his way to stardom. The entire tour was really neat. His home is like being in a time warp. When you first walk in, you see the living room. With a 12 foot white couch and all white furniture, the stained glass and baby grand piano really stand out.

The next room we saw was his dining room. All original furniture -- who knew a man could have such good taste?!


In the basement, he had is TV room with 3 TV's. Apparently, Elvis liked to watch the news of ABC, NBC and CBS all at once, so he had 3 separate TV's. The couch was a royal blue color and sparkly pillows! Very showy and flashy, just like you'd expect to see in his house. Couldn't get it all in 1 shot, so I had to take 2.



Back upstairs, we saw his jungle room. Complete with green shag carpet on the ceiling and floor, because he said it soundproofed the room better. It's also full of tropical style furniture because of his love for Hawaii. That round chair under the window was Lisa Marie's favorite place to sit, and her teddy bear sits there today. The pictures are dark and not so great because flash photography is prohibited, and you can't use a tripod. So with dim lighting and no flash available, it makes a decent picture hard to come by.

The other side of the jungle room is complete with a cool walnut bar. Very 70's.

The last time Elvis played the piano for friends and family before passing away, was at this piano in his home. The upper level of this split-level room was for recording purposes and the lower level part was where he'd invite friends over to play for them.


Seriously, the amount of awards he won was just insane. There's an entire trophy room that is FILLED with grammys and other awards. This is only a teeny tiny portion of all his plaques and trophys for songs that went platinum, etc.


His grave is quite peaceful. He's buried with his parents and grandmother, but his twin brother (who knew he had a twin??) is buried somewhere else. His brother is never mentioned anywhere else on the tour, except at this point, to say that he's not buried with the rest of the family. But this grave is in the meditation garden and is surrounded by the pool and large green pastures. Not a bad place to be laid to rest! And no, Justin didn't lay down by the grave...I know you were going to ask.


Then we went into the automobile museum. How many cars he owned, I couldn't tell you. Probably 20 or so, and they're all amazing. This was my favorite though. A custom purple Caddilac with white leather interior. He bought the car when it was painted white and had a different interior, but he wanted to stand out and be unique, hence the customization.

Ok, so this picture is wicked blurry, but it's the pink Jeeps that the groundskeepers would roam around the propery in!! I just thought it was fun. Who roams their property in a pink Jeep?! Carrie...maybe you can replace the giant orange box with one like this?!



We flew past the Mississippi sign too fast and I couldn't get a picture. So I snapped a photo of the next best thing. A sign of the Mississippi Mental Health Facility! At least it says Mississippi somewhere on it...


Here's a good sign of Alabama though!

After Graceland, we were going to head to the hotel for an hour or so before dinner and just chill, since we're exhausted, but then decided that was a waste and we should pick up dinner and hit the raod early for Atlanta. So instead of leaving Friday morning for Atlanta, we left Memphis late afternoon and headed down. This way we can relax all day Friday. While the trip has been a blast so far, it's extremely tiring, especially since we're both still a bit sick. Feeling better, especially now that we have some humidity. We thought about going downtown to Memphis for the evening, but neither of us was really up for the bar, loud, congested scene so We stopped at Corkys BBQ on the way out of Memphis to pick up some road food. Holy crap was that delicious! We got a rack of ribs, bread, baked beans, slaw, and a slice of pecan pie. The pie is probably one of the best pecan pies I've ever had. And the ribs. So tender! And flavorful. We got the dry rubbed ones, based on the many reviews I read online. Sooo tasty...I want some more.