The first shot is at the entry to the plaza where the tour begins:
After purchasing our tickets, we went outside to catch a small shuttle bus that would take us to the mansion on top of the hill across the street:
There were many pictures taken of the inside of the mansion, and these are just a few. Starting with the entry and foyer area which was nicely decorated for Christmas:
The tour was conducted using headphones and a small control device which allowed you to view the features at your own pace. The next areas were the living room, dining room, downstairs bedroom where Elvis' parents stayed and then the kitchen, which is shown below:
There were a couple other rooms on this level - the upstairs was not part of the tour - before we went downstairs to the finished basement area where one room was the pool room. This was unique by the fact that Elvis designed the room himself and approximately 400 yards of fabric were used to decorate the ceiling:
In the late 1960's, Elvis added an area onto the home that he used initially as a slot car track and recreation room and later transformed it into a trophy building to display his collection of gold records and other awards. He had always hoped that eventually he could share these with his fans:
We then went outside to the rear of the mansion where these shots were taken of the pool and grounds:
One of the main areas of interest was what Elvis called his Meditation Garden, which was just off the side of the pool and is where his final resting place is located along with his mother, father and grandmother:
Elvis, along with his mother, Gladys, were originally buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery which was several miles away. Vernon, his father, received permission from the city to relocate those remains to Graceland (see the sign above). He passed away 2 years after Elvis and his grandmother, who lived to be 90 years old, passed away after all of them in 1980 and their remains are also located at this location. There was also a small marker commemorating Elvis' stillborn twin brother.
The shuttle then returned us to the plaza where there were other buildings and displays containing other Elvis possessions. We went through the auto museum where all of his cars and motorcycles, along with other motor toys such as carts, snowmobiles, motorcycles and even his old John Deere tractor that he used for many years were displayed.
The final attraction was an area where his famous jet - the Lisa Marie - was on display:
He paid $250,000 in 1975 for this 1958 Convair 880, and then spent another $800,000 having it remodeled. The interior contained several different entertainment, seating and sleeping areas and was a small mansion in itself. Even the seat belts were 24 karat gold plated.
We went through several different gift shops in the plaza and finished the tour at about 1:30 PM and walked back to our rig. It was a wonderful tour and we were very glad that we decided to add this to our trip. We obviously learned many things about Elvis that we never knew or realized previously. Namely, he was a very generous person with his wealth and helped people everywhere. There was mention of his making the mortgage payments of many needy folks in Memphis and other areas. Of all the awards he received over the years, the only award ceremony he ever attended was the one where he was presented the award for Man of the Year in 1970 for his humanitarian efforts.
It's back on the road today as we will travel 213 miles to Byram, MS where we will spend one night before heading to New Orleans for Christmas...
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