October 27: Niagara Falls to Chicago. Starting mileage 31,534.
There were a few really long days of driving in our trip. And today was one of them. The plan was now to head west, but we needed to reposition ourselves. Oh, and we needed to pass through our homes, and go see Elvis. 🙂
We left Niagara Falls just before sunrise. We rode along the bottom shore of Lake Erie, through New York state to a corner of Pennsylvania, and through the top edge of Ohio, then made our way across Indiana near the Michigan border, and pulling into Chicago by 6:15 p.m.
Bryan! Laundry! Tacos! A night in my own bed! And after 10 days gone, a little repacking since I’d had a bit of time to reconsider some of the items in my suitcase. I wasn’t going to be back this way for another six weeks, so it was a hectic 14 hours at home.
October 28: Chicago to Nashville. Starting mileage 32,102.
Chicago to Nashville (and vice versa) is a drive I’ve done hundreds of times. I know where to find cheap gas, clean bathrooms, fast Starbucks, and all the Long John Silvers restaurants. As far as scenery, there’s a wind farm, a solar farm, a few horse farms, and dozens of farm farms, and as you get closer to the bowl that holds Nashville, rolling green valleys and high hills and ridges topped by radio and cell phone towers.
We arrived at Mama’s house around 6:30 p.m., after 9 hours of driving and a stop at Krogers for a food restock. Another 14 hours of home life: more laundry, Mama’s repack moment, and a good night’s sleep in a familiar bed.
October 29: Nashville to Memphis. Starting mileage 32,599.
On Sunday, October 29, we set out on the second leg of our USA road trip. This part of the trip would take us to see Elvis, then south to New Orleans, and then we’d begin motoring west.
Tennessee is a long skinny state. The drive from Music City (in the middle of the state), to the Home of the Blues (on the western edge of Tennessee at the Mississippi River) is a four-hour trip on I-40. We left just before 8 a.m. so that we could make it to Graceland and Sun Studios before they closed. Apart from a truck’s blown tire scaring the crap out of us, the trip was easy-peasy.
Elvis!
This part of the trip will make more sense if you know that Lucy has a thing for Elvis. She got to see him in concert three times before he died in 1977. And it is for Elvis alone that she subscribes to Sirius Radio. The Elvis Channel is ALWAYS on in her car. ALWAYS. Even on these long rides…Elvis, Elvis, Elvis. We marvel at his voice, we know the words by heart, and of course, we have our favorite songs.
To put you in the spirit for the rest of this blog post, I put together a 62-minute playlist on Spotify of some of our Elvis favorites from the trip. You can listen to the playlist in full by logging in to Spotify, or hear a 30-second sample of each song here:
Graceland
The first time I came to Graceland in 1989, there was a strip mall across the street selling trinkets. Back then, my friends and I didn’t have the time or the money to go in, so we walked along the property’s stone fence reading all the inscriptions grafitti’d to Elvis. Lucy had been in Graceland before, and had described the extravagant and quirky Elvis style. All these years, I’ve kept those vivid images in my head.
Today, an Elvis complex is across the street from Graceland. There, the Sirius radio show broadcasts, the Lisa Marie TCB plane sits, and all visitors park. We arrived just after lunch, paid our $10 for parking, locked the car, crossed the street, and started to walk up the driveway to Graceland. It was a beautiful Fall day in Tennessee–the trees were still mostly green, but the air was crisp and the skies clear. Mama was excited and I was humming Paul Simon’s Graceland in my head, wondering if indeed “we all will be received” when a guard yelled at us, “You can’t just walk in!”
Turns out, visitors have to pay across the street, pick up their very own iPad tour guide, and get on a shuttle bus to ride across the street. Is it any wonder the tickets are ~$40 each?
The house is not big by today’s standards. But it was a mansion to Elvis and his family in 1957. We entered through the front door, just as if we were invited guests. And like that, we were standing in Elvis’ home. There was the living room to the right, the dining room to the left, and the stairs to the off-limits second floor where he died in August 1977.
Our group of about 15-20 people clustered by the velvet ropes looking into the white living room. Everyone was trying to get to the front for a good photo, and each one of us seemed to be struggling with his/her iPad tour guide. I’m sure there was a lot of content in that thing, but what a pain! Accessing it and all the layers of content, keeping up with its pace and timing, hanging on to the cords and headphones…all while trying to stick close with Mama, stay out of other guests’ way, and actually be in the moment to see, appreciate, and absorb what we were standing in front of was all too much. I abandoned my headset so I could just walk and look.
Graceland remains decorated just as he had it when Priscilla and Lisa Marie lived there (his last girlfriends’ decor changes were changed back after his death.) We spent over two hours at Graceland wandering through the rooms and around the grounds– looking at exhibits that included his wallet, Priscilla’s wedding dress, old photos and videos, and letters. We walked around by the pool, heard about his last day, and stood in line to walk by his backyard grave. In death, as in life, Elvis gave us a show. He was only 42 years old when he died.
Sun Studios
After Graceland, we drove over to Sun Studios. What a different experience! Free parking in the back. Tickets were about $14 each, and we got a real live tour guide named Lana who made Sam Phillips’ place come alive with her stories.
Mama stood behind the microphone Elvis sang into and I got to sit at Larry Mullen Jr.’s drum kit. We gawked at old photos and heard original scratchy recordings of some of the greatest moments in rock-and-roll…this place is also what makes Memphis “The Birthplace of Rock-and-Roll”.
October 30: Memphis to Tupelo and eventually to Louisiana. Starting mileage 32,852.
Tupelo
After a night in Memphis, we headed into Mississippi. We’d drive over the Tallahatchie Bridge made famous by Bobbie Gentry’s song before arriving in Tupelo.
Now, if you’re an Elvis fan, you might know that he was born a twin in Tupelo. His parents lived in a two-room shotgun house and made do like many people did during the depression. At one point, his dad, Vernon Presley, spent some time in jail for adding a zero to a check…”He made a $40 check $400…or maybe it was $4 into $40,” said the attendant, as she unlocked the back door of the tiny house for us. We were the first guests of the day. Mama and I stepped into the kitchen and that old house smell. We had Elvis’ childhood home all to ourselves on that early Monday morning.
And that was Elvis…from the end, back to the beginning.
See these links for more about the beginnings of this trip and leaving out for the first part of the route.