The day began with a quick loading of the car, saying goodbye to the boy and the dogs and taking off. We went down 63 to just outside of Memphis and then I-55 into Memphis, before we got off on the Elvis Presley Blvd and out to Graceland. We did that in one single push – we didn’t stop for anything – no pee breaks, no food breaks (we packed a lot of munchies – that helped), no lunch break. We did stop right outside of Graceland and ate burgers at Checkers, but that was a drive-through and we ate in the Graceland parking lot. That was fun… 😉
Once we got to Graceland and unkinked our poor, abused bodies, we went in to see what was what. We got the platinum tour – it was $4 more and included a bunch of the little museum bits around the grounds. The first thing we did was head for the mansion. That was an interesting tour – the rooms weren’t *quite* as tacky as I was expecting, though the gold shot mirrors and dining room table was pretty bad, as was the shag carpeting on the walls of the stairs. When we got to the Jungle room, Mike found a chair that he decided would go nicely in our house…
Following that tour, we looked through the Auto museum (Mike audibly gasped when he was confronted with not one but two Rolls Royce Silver Clouds – one white, one black as we walked in) and dropped some cash in the gift shop (the auto one – we walked around the other shops, but my snark was in full force and I was too busy making comments to buy anything else…), we were done and ready to head out for the last leg of our day.
We made it to Bally’s in Tunica within 30 minutes and got checked in quickly. The room is smallish and a bit grotty, but it was $20 and there is a jetted tub that looks clean! We rested for a bit, then headed to the casino to pay for our room (and we did…) and eat. The buffet was nice, the casino was not at all busy and the video poker was moderately generous. I still walked out with less than I walked in with, but it could have been a lot worse! Now we’re back in the room, getting ready for bed and a full day of driving, touring Vicksburg and checking into our hotel in New Orleans. The LITA happy hour will be a nice end to that day!
