July 23rd. Graceland to New Boston

Breakfast in The Heartbreak Hotel with a very mixed bunch of Elvis fans and their families and/or husbands, wives, boyfriends, children and me. Then off to the Graceland complex. It’s a kind of quasi religious affair with the strains of Elvis echoing through car-parks and shopping malls like some sort of high priest of Rock n’ Roll summoning the faithful to the temple, or something like that. We take a bus, literally, across the street, Willy was amazed. I keep telling him that people don’t walk in this country – the car rules. Graceland has been perfectly preserved as a shrine to Elvis, it looks as if he just popped out for a double cheeseburger. It’s a strange mixture of Southern colonial and 70s kitsch not to forget you’re walking around a dead man’s house. Ruins and Palaces are OK, those people are long gone but walking into someone’s den and the TV is on, well…He’s buried here, as well as his mother, father and granny so that part is very sombre as everyone files past to pay their respects and then it’s the bus back across the road to visit some excellent exhibitions with the inevitable merchandising shops at the exit of each one filled in the most part by tacky memorabilia, some of which I was only too happy to buy. There is a great collection of his cars, his white bejewelled jumpsuits that he wore on stage, his two private ‘planes and a brief exhibition of his time in the army. But time to move on. Next stop was ‘Sun Studios’ where Elvis recorded his first disc – a song for his mother’s birthday (which was actually a few months previous, but he wanted a break with Sam Philips, the owner) We had a great tour around this place and our guide was an enthusiastic young lady who was right into her music (I think her name was Cori, forgive me), she reeled off the names of some of the daddies of Blues and Rock n’ Roll who had recorded there – Jerry Lee Lewis, Ike Turner, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, BB King and I got lost. I started writing down names, it’s terrible when you realise how little you know about something that interests you, well in my case anyway with the memory of a small carp. We then headed out west, towards Little Rock, to see a WWII submarine, but we got there 15 minutes too late and the Navy is the Navy, Oh well. Then we headed for Texarkana with the idea to spend the night in Paris, Texas of the film, but Betty, our GPS had other ideas and sent us on a circular route. At about 21:00 we decided to call it quits and booked into a ‘Tex Inn’. As we paid and got our key I asked where the nearest bar was. The receptionist gave me a bemused, all-knowing, holier than thou look, not even a grin, and said we were in a dry county. This was totally beyond Willy’s comprehension and he’s still struggling with the concept. But at least it gave us time to start the new Blog and we’ve written down the various user names and passwords. Every cloud etc. etc. Though tomorrow we’re filling the cool bag up with ale should we have a repeat performance.