Elvis Sightings

Seems I left you kind of the middle of our Family Vacation trip, after we left Arkansas we headed for Tennessee stopping at the first exit in Memphis which is on the eastern side of the Mississippi River, if you are ever in the area it is worth a stop if for nothing else but the view, The Welcome Center has the normal stacks of area attraction brochures to go along with the view, there is also a large statue of Elvis Presley with a sign that reads “Do Not Touch” Randy and Timmy are looking at it and you can see by the look on their faces what they are thinking, Randy says “How are they going to know if I touch it” I reply if you touch it an alarm will probably go off, he laughs and lays his hand on Elvis foot, I kid you not just as he touches it a SWAT team comes into every door everyone is surrounded, the building is sealed off, the restrooms are searched and everyone is questioned, I thought Randy was going to die on me right there, seems there was a shooting in the area earlier in the day and a tip had come in that the suspect was hiding by the river, what a coincidence that Randy picked the right time to touch the last statue he will ever touch.

After the Swat team cleared us and our van was searched we hit the road and headed for Graceland, heck we had seen the statue we might as well go see where he lived, Graceland is pretty impressive although not as large as you would think, it is a nice Southern home with a lot of stuff inside if you are an Elvis fan it is well worth the trip and if you are not you will like it anyway, after the tour of the house and grave we went back across the street to go through the shops, first thing Cindy ran into was an Elvis impersonator who just knew he was Elvis, every time we turned around there he was trying to sing for Cindy, the kids and I thought it was funny but Cindy was not impressed, we went down the street a bit for another shop and guess who was there, a “Fat Elvis” impersonator who was equally talented as the previous one, we were having fun but time to hit the road was upon us.

Music Row was our next stop in Nashville, there is a lot of history there and you just have to see it for yourself, yes Elvis made an appearance for Cindy while we were there and it was getting late in the day so we went to find a motel to which we had better luck than the last one, we found a very nice place with all you could ask for, there was a pool and weight room for the kids, a restaurant and a large room we could all be comfortable in, after supper we could hear music coming from the bar downstairs, we went down to find a group of people who we were told are trying to make it in Nashville, we were allowed to bring the kids inside as long as we were not drinking, I had no problem with this and we all really enjoyed listening to a talented group of people sing for us, after this group there was a karaoke type performance in which there were a few good ones, then out of the blue there he was “Elvis was in the building” he started singing and Cindy started laughing, she was having such a good time at seeing Elvis again she just couldn’t stop laughing after seeing him so much this day, Elvis noticed her and here he comes through the dark crowded room with a spotlight following him to pull up a chair and sit right down in front of her, she is still laughing and he is leaning in close singing “Love Me Tender” I was laughing too hard to help her, he finished the song and said “Thankyouverymuch” (yes that is one word) then Elvis left the building.

We really like visiting Tennessee and it is the longest state to drive through on I-40 heck it even shares two time zones, Knoxville is beautiful on the eastern edge nearing North Carolina and our last major town before leaving the state, the Great Smoky Mountains just take your breath and we didn’t see Elvis anywhere here.

to be continued: