Trying To Get To You ~ A Trip To Memphis

The lyrics to this song, sung by Elvis, that fit our Memphis trip end after the first verse:

I've been traveling over miles

Even through the valleys, too

I've been traveling night and day

I've been running all the way

Baby, trying to get to you.

My baby daughter (err no longer a baby, but our youngest) is now living in Memphis, TN!  Last week at this time we were driving and driving and driving her little Civic to a new city for her to work for a advertising firm for awhile. The ironic part; she has always wanted to visit the Elvis Presley estate, Graceland, but never dreamed it would happen this way.

She has been an Elvis fan since about the age of 8!  Here is a family picture taken back in the day, and notice the book she is holding and the cassette tape player at her dad's feet.  You can guess who was singing!

While she was working her first few days, and in the day I had to roam, I visited Graceland to take the Elvis tour.  I had as much fun listening and watching the visitors as I did seeing the home, etc.  Since I was alone, I could take all the time I wanted and eves drop on all the conversations around me of aging women recalling their youth!  I stopped at a Memphis visitor's center on "Elvis Presley Drive" to check for discount coupons, etc.  It was a very good idea.  It saved me a $10 parking fee and $5 off my ticket.  I found a "family" who was happy to join me at the ticket window to get $5 off of each of their tickets!  There are Elvis gift shops up the kazoo and fun to look through.  Soon I was loading on a tour bus to cross the street and go up to the home.  A Head phone with a key pad attached is your tour guide (which let me take my time to ogle), camera in hand and I was off for a few hours of back to my youth!  The home was 60's glitz.  Lots of "antiqued" and plate glass mirrors on walls and ceilings.  Shag carpet covered walls, ceiling and floors!  It was hard to take a photo without seeing yourself in it due to the mirrors!  I loved seeing what was modern at one time being vintage today!  Here is a classic, this is the Media room where Elvis had 3 TVs installed so he could watch all 3 TV stations at one time.  I heard a father explaining to his young teen son that "at one time there were only 3 TV stations to watch, NBC, ABC, and CBS" followed by the shocked look on the kids face which was priceless!

Because I am a garment construction educator I examined the construction of the many jumpsuits Elvis wore and that were on display. They all appeared to have no expense spared in their construction and were well made.  I kept thinking about all the wonderful fabrics we now use that were not in use in Elvis's day and how they would have been so much more comfortable and lighter weight to wear in concert.

I learned from a lady on tour that the living room at Graceland had been redecorated by one of Elvis's girlfriends (Linda Thompson) 2 years before his death to red.  Priscilla didn't like it, and had it returned to the blue of from the years she lived in the house.  I went searching for the red room and found a picture online of the red, and the one I took of how it looks today.

My all time favorite picture of my whole trip is my last I am posting.  I have been to Disneyland and witnessed all the cute little girls wearing their various favorite princess dresses as they march around the famous park. As I was leaving the Lisa Marie Airplane I saw this sweetheart of a kid wearing a full fledge Elvis costume! Notice the pink shoes, it was a precious little girl about the age my daughter was in the picture I posted at the top.  She would have LOVED to have been this little girl!