Perception Change

Day 2 of our K&M Road Trip. We decided to break up the road monotony with a stop at Graceland Mansion. Neither Margie or I were big fans of Elvis so our main motivation to go to Graceland was to be able to say that we did. We were sort of expecting a tacky 'Velvet Elvis' type home and looked forward to getting a few chuckles from it. That didn't happen. Yes, some of the rooms were over the top - but they were over the top with what was popular in the day. Lots of shag carpeting (even on the ceiling and side walls), mauve tiles in the bathroom, fur sofa in the jungle rooms and lots and lots of mirrored walls. It wasn't tacky at all - it was the late 50's and 60's style. The main house was smaller than you would expect of a huge star, but each room looked lived in and enjoyed.  Our biggest perception change was about Elvis himself. After listening to the biography and seeing Graceland - we came away with the feeling that he was a lot more intelligent and talented than we thought. Some of his actions made him seem very insecure. He always seemed to need his friends around him at all times. He even moved his family and friends to Texas where he did basic training and then to Germany when he was stationed there. A lot of his other actions proved him to be a truly kind, caring, and very polite gentleman. We left impressed and with a new found respect for the 'King of Rock and Roll'.

K & M Road Trip - Day 1

Margie volunteered to help me drive in a large circle around the US. GA to NM via I-95, 1-75, I-24, I-40 -after a 5 day visit with my sister we head south to TX for Penny's graduation then home again by way of I-20, 1-49 and I-10. We had a couple of hickups early in our adventure. First was my early discovery that I didn't have my wallet and finally remembered that I had forgotten to take it out of my bike basket from the night before. Obviously I had to make a quick return and retrieval from my house. Second was when Margie was climbing in my car she knocked over my tea. But, I finally got to test out my lifeproof iPhone case - it worked.

In anticipation of visiting Graceland Mansion on Thursday we listened to a unusual Elvis biography on the way to Atlanta. We decided that we were about 8 years too young to have been real swooning Elvis fans, which meant our Elvis knowledge was sorely lacking.  We did most of our swooning for the Beatles,  the Monkeys and Dr Kildare, so the Elvis biography gave us a little background and some interesting tidbits. We did a quick stop in Locust Grove Outlet Mall for some gas, power-walking and power-shopping. We stopped again in Dalton where we ate lunch with Jim (taught with him and his wife Kris in China) and caught up on news. Gratefully, the rest of our first day's adventure was smooth driving. We stopped for the night in Jackson TN in a slightly questionable Ramada Inn.