The King & I

Last week I was in Memphis for work, and by sheer coincidence it was Elvis Week. I'm no Elvis fan, but I felt obligated to go to Graceland since I was in the neighborhood.

First of all, it was hot in Memphis. Hot as in 103 degrees hot and plenty humid. It wasn't pleasant. Elvis would have thought it was really hot and flew his jet to somewhere cooler. If I was feeling truly unmotivated (which isn't a stretch for me), I would have just stayed in my air-conditioned rental car and did a drive-by of the place. However, I miraculously decided to get out of my car and check out the visitor center.

Apparently, a lot of people still love Elvis. The place was packed. There were a lot of Elvis fans waiting in line to take the guided tour of the mansion. There were a lot of fans trying to stay out of the sun. There were a lot of fans just milling about, buying anything with Elvis' picture on it. That was enough to convince me that that I really didn't want to see Graceland. I decided to save $25 and see what I could from the street for free. Here's what I saw:

The wall in front of Graceland where everyone writes, "we love you, Elvis"

The sign in front that told me I had the right house

Look! Past the trees...Graceland!

Mission accomplished!