Walking in Memphis

Although this was part of our Thanksgiving weekend, our day trip to Memphis gets its own post. On Saturday we decided to drive to Memphis, about two hours away from Searcy, to do the tour of Graceland and eat some world famous barbecue. Andrew has always wanted to go to Graceland for some reason and loves the song Walking in Memphis. We've talked about visiting Graceland in the past but never had a good reason to be in Memphis before. Also, if you know us very well, you know that a two hour car drive is not too far for us to drive to eat good barbecue. All in all, this was the formula for a perfect day trip. My aunt has a Garmin GPS she let us borrow for the drive, and we loved playing with it. About 30 minutes into the trip Andrew exclaimed, "This thing is awesome."

Driving into Memphis just before you cross over the bridge on the Arkansas side, you drive through West Memphis, AR. My parents lived in West Memphis when they were first newly weds, while my dad was doing graduate work at UT Memphis. My oldest sister was born during the time they were living there, and it's a place that they reminisce about from time to time. I caught a snapshot of West Memphis that I'm sure they will appreciate.

Our first stop was at The Rendezvous, a world famous barbecue joint located in a back alley and down a flight of stairs in downtown Memphis. It had the perfect atmosphere for what it was and we enjoyed a great lunch. Andrew tried to hide his excitement, but he had a gleam in his eyes like a kid waiting to open his Christmas presents, waiting for the ribs to come after we ordered. This place was first recommended to us by my good friend Steve Holt, and everyone we talked to after him also sang its praises. It did not disappoint.

Then it was on to Graceland, our main reason for being in Memphis. I thought it would be cool but I expected it to be kind of cheesy- for some reason I was thinking of something reminiscent of Dollywood in Gatlinburg, TN. It was quite different. We were both pleasantly surprised at how interesting the tour was and really enjoyed it. We went on the tour of the mansion and other buildings on the grounds of Graceland and then paid a little extra to see some of the other exhibits. The additional exhibits included a museum of Elvis's car and motorcycle collection, a display of many of Elvis's jumpsuits and stage costumes, and two of his private jets. I totally looked like a tourist cause I was taking pictures at every opportunity, and three days ago I could have cared less about Elvis. I've only included the highlights in the slideshow, but don't worry I took more!

So here are some interesting facts you may not have known about Elvis (yes I'm a nerd):

• One of Elvis's favorite drinks was Diet Dr. Pepper. He also liked Lime Gatorade. He didn't much care for the taste of alcohol.
• Elvis's favorite car out of his whole collection was the pink Cadillac. It was his mother's favorite and he often referred to it as "Gladys' car."
• Elvis had a twin brother Jesse Garon Presley who was born stillborn.
• Elvis loved the sport of racquetball so much, he had a building built on the grounds of Graceland with a racquetball court and a lounge with a glass wall, where spectators could watch matches.
• Elvis had three televisions built into the wall of his lounge in the basement of Graceland. He got this idea because he heard that President Lyndon Johnson had three tvs to keep up with the broadcasts of all the major news networks. This might not seem as impressive today, but in the 60's that was pretty extravagant!

• Elvis loved spontaneous trips on his private jet the Lisa Marie. Once when his daughter Lisa was young and he realized she had never seen snow, they flew to Colorado, played in the snow for a few minutes, then turned around and went home to Memphis. Lisa also celebrated her ninth birthday in the air at the enormous conference table aboard the luxurious jet.

Ok that's enough Elvis nerd-dom. If you ever get the chance to visit Graceland, its definitely a fun time!