March 23, 2009. DAY 3.

It's 5:30 in the morning and I've already been up an hour but at least I found a place to eat. I laughed on my Facebook posting from today that I had BBQ for breakfast, but in reality I had a sausage breakfast sandwich, wrapped in wax paper, with a toothpick stuck through the middle to hold it all together....classic.

I made the mistake of going to bed way too early last night...I ended up waking at 12:45am, feeling all rested, and began to pack up my stuff when I finally turned on my cellphone and saw the time...so after unpacking, I went back to sleep for a very restless couple of hours before just killing time writing in my journal...

Shiloh National Military Park. I made it to the Shiloh battlefield at sunrise and walked around the cemetery while I waited for the rangers to open the visitor center...then drove the auto-tour of the grounds...very calm and peaceful at that hour...
Graceland Mansion. Memphis and Graceland turned out to be a bit further from Shiloh than I had originally estimated...but I found Graceland with no problem since it is conveniently located on Elvis Presley Blvd.

This is the view from the foyer of Graceland, when you first step inside after the shuttle bus has driven you across the street. Of course, I'd already spent $10 just to park and another $28 for the basic "mansion-only" tour. Lisa Marie owns Graceland and she must be making out like a bandit...

Jungle Room.
Pool room.


Jungle Room shots...
The back of Graceland. The grounds are actually pretty nice...


The room holding the 50's Elvis stuff. All the other tourists were busy reading plaques and studying the gold records...I just ran around giggling like a schoolgirl and trying to get pictures of myself in front of the more picturesque memorabilia...I thought, at one point, they were going to ask me to leave but while they don't let you loop through the house more than once, they also don't rush you along either...I could have stood in the Jungle Room taking pictures for 3 hours for all they cared...as long as I eventually kept moving forward.






The great 70's Elvis rooms with the Las Vegas suits and all the gold records. They have done a great job in presenting this stuff...it's fantastic.

The gravesites in back of Graceland are actually the surprisingly moving...fans from all over the world still send flowers.

Driving down the Mississippi Delta. Satellite radio has an all-blues station which I tuned in while driving around here, just like I had listened to the all-Elvis around Memphis...