Tennessee Day 10 - 21st May 2012

Memphis 

Impressive catfish weathervane on a nearby building...

Graceland

Fortified by a breakfast of French toast, sausage & grits, we headed out to Elvis-central.

Top of Miche's list was a trip to Graceland; I was a little skeptical, fearing that it would be super-tacky, but it was actually really well done and was both interesting and moving.

We went the whole hog and even bought the cheesy posed photo...

You get on a bus, that literally just takes you across the road and up the drive to the house.

Postcard - you can't really see the gates when they're open...

Wired for sound...

Even though it was a working Tuesday and the tours very well managed and spaced out, it was still difficult to get shots of building without catching the previous or next set of visitors...

Formal lounge, great peacock stained glass...

Elvis's kitchen, some fine sandwiches will have been created here...

The mirrored ceiling of the staircase to the basement...

Elvis's den part 1...

Elvis's den part 2...

Flash photography is forbidden in the house itself, so the photo's didn't come out too well.

The less formal lounge, known as the 'Jungle Room'...

Carved arm rest...

He had his own shooting gallery...

I'm a sucker for pictures of Bassets in hats; the picture is from a show where Elvis was trying to show his less edgy side, back in the days when he was considered dangerous, and the dog was supposed to assist that and frankly why wouldn't it?

There were plenty of fine suits on display...

Games room at the back of what was the squash court. Elvis played a couple of songs on this piano on the morning of the day he died...

We had already seen hundreds of gold discs in a previous building, but the ex-squash court was an impressive home to many more...

... and some of the really outrageous suits too...

Family graveyard, fans still send flowers daily, which are placed on the graves...

Another fan tribute...

Giant poster marking the 35th anniversary of his death...

Of course there had to be a Heartbreak Hotel...