Voilà! I'm in Asheville...

 Voilà! I'm in Asheville, North Carolina.

O. If only it were that simple. 

I am in Asheville. Sweet friend Roger drove me here and by that I mean he DROVE every single mile of the trip to Asheville and then down to West Palm. The little Subaru was on a car hauler behind the RV, loaded with my stuff. 

This was terrifying. One of those situations where you better hit your mark.

Eeeeeee!

I did it! Whew!

Carlos, Mina and I sat in comfort in the front seat of the RV and helped navigate. Well, I sat in the seat and helped navigate. Mina sat in my lap most of the trip or under the emergency brake and she tried to sit in her most preferred spot- under the brake pedal-but I think we convinced her that was a bad idea. (That involved the hand brake and some yelling with me butt up trying to pull her back out.)

Mina Kitty tucked up in my lap. Like having a nice warm blanket.

We FINALLY convinced her this was NOT the place to sleep.

It wasn't pretty though.

Carlos slept under my feet, for some reason terrified that the "house" was moving. He was ok on the highway but the stopping and starting absolutely put him over the edge. 

Eventually the animals settled under my feet and under the emergency brake.

For about 2000 miles.

We left Saturday, April 17 from Golden with one minor problem. The RV stabilizers did not retract so they were dragging on the ground causing Carlos much anguish. What a racket! A quick stop at Camping World where Roger pulled in, asked the first people he saw if they could help and they did. I'm not even sure those people worked there but they knew what to do. 

The first night was spent in Salina, KS at the Hog Valley RV and Treehouse Resort. Expectations were low but it was actually a lovely spot.  On our way we stopped at the Dish Room in Burlington, CO for dinner. OMG. Out in the middle of nowhere and they had Wagyu beef and seafood and it was excellent. Definitely recommend if you are going that way.   We arrived at our campsite at 3am due to the delay with the stabilizers. Roger was still smiling. I was in awe. 

Next was Bentonville, AR and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Please go. Alice Walton of the Walmart family founded it as a non profit charitable organization and it is admission free due to her. The visit is worth it just for the buildings and grounds. Dogwoods and redbud trees were blooming as we walked the extensive trails that were dotted with  sculpture. Inside there was a special exhibit of Crafting America which sparked a debate of what was art and what was craft.  Definitely most of what was in the exhibit was labeled craft but qualified as art in my book.

Crystal Bridges Museum

Look at those red buds. The blooming trees were magnificent.

That ceiling!

The landscaping! 

I had never heard of this place.

Now I want to go back.

In Memphis the next night we stayed at the Graceland RV park right across the street from Graceland. We figured we would just take Lyft into downtown Memphis, have some Barbecue and then Lyft back. After a lovely messy dinner at BB King's BBQ we stayed for the live music. Wandering outside at 10:30pm (granted it was a Monday) we tried to order a Lyft to go home. Nada. Crickets. Nothing. I tried Uber. Nothing. We wandered over to the Peabody Hotel thinking maybe we might have better luck there. Nope. I asked the valet and he gave me the number for some taxis. Nope. A couple of policeman were walking out of the hotel and I stopped one, asking if he had any suggestions. At this point it was almost midnight and we had come close to resigning ourselves to just getting a hotel room and going back to the RV in the morning. The police conferred and finally offered to take us back to the RV park as long as we didn't mind sitting in the back of their patrol car. Being desperate, that sounded like a splendid idea. 

After over an hour of trying to find a ride home, 

we finally were locked into the back of a police car and returned to the RV park.

Let me just say, the back of a police car is not limo material. Pretty sure no AC was coming our way. The seats were the plushest molded plastic, no seat belts. At least the plexiglass divider was clean! And no, there are no handles on the inside of back seat police car doors, so we had to wait for them to let us out. They even managed to miss the turn so we were treated to a flash of the lights and a squeal of siren. Even though we assured them it was perfectly fine to drop us at the entrance to the park, they insisted on driving in and letting us off at our door at almost 1 in the morning.  The neighbors were giving us the side eye the next morning. So. While there has been plenty of police brutality and police aggression in the news recently, there are good cops out there. We had two of the nicest cops ever. 

We did make a run through Graceland the next morning as Roger had not seen it and EVERYONE needs to at least see the Jungle Room once.

Me, in the Jungle Room, at Graceland.

I am not wearing suspenders, that's my iPad guide.

And obviously, RV travel is not the best for hair styling. O well.

A stop in Nashville was uneventful because apparently everything shuts down on a Tuesday due to COVID. That's ok, we were ready to have a quiet night. 

Finally we arrived in Asheville.  We unloaded my Subaru which had been lounging in back of the RV on a car hauler. All of the stuff inside was dropped at the apartment which will be my home for the next few months.  We took my "landlady" out to dinner at the Lobster Trap that evening as a mini thanks. Yum. It's been ages since I've had lobster and this did not disappoint.

And then....

the trip continued. 

Sixteen hundred miles down. Another 700 miles to go in the RV before Roger and I parted ways.

More to come.

No. 79: Graceland

No. 79: Go to Graceland


O my. Going to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presely,  has always been a dream of mine. OK. Not always. But for quite a long time.

In the late 70s I worked with a woman who idolized Elvis. She wore her make-up exactly as Priscilla Presley did when she met Elvis: bubble bouffant hairdo, thick black cats-eye eyeliner.

Priscilla Presley although

it could be my former co-worker.

Very popular look in the 60s (and the eyeliner is totally on point today) but we were in the 70s when the "natural" look was all the rage. Coming in from lunch on August 16, 1977, I relayed to my co- worker that Elvis had died. I had just heard it on the radio. She broke into tears then retreated to her office. A few minutes later, bag in hand, she was out the door, unable to speak. She couldn't come in to the office the next day either. Too upset. Her idol was gone. Elvis had peaked a little before my time, then came back around about the time I was in high school, but I was never a huge fan.  However her devastation intrigued me...how could a stranger have that much of a hold on someone?  

Then in 1986 the book Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley came out. I gobbled up that book and anything else I could read about The King.  His voice really was beautiful. Deep and soulful.
So my curiosity was piqued but, Memphis...I had no reason to be anywhere near Memphis.

Fast forward to 2016. Thirty years later and Bunny is in school in Oxford, Mississippi, a mere hour away from Memphis. Funny how things work out. Bunny wanted me in Oxford last weekend and guess where I flew into? The Memphis Airport.   Know how far Graceland is from the Memphis Airport? About ten minutes.

So I HAD to go.

Graceland.

Doesn't look that big from the front. 

Out of the airport and turn on Elvis Presley Boulevard. I'm greeted by signs and air planes. Into the ticket center and out to see Elvis's private jets. Overall the planes appeared a little tired and while I am sure they were "state of the art" at the time, I was mostly impressed by how dated they look.

This was named after his daughter, 

the other jet was Hound Dog II

I'm sure this was the height of something,
but it just looks old and tired now. 

There was still a bit of time before my mansion tour so I went through Elvis's car collection next. He had a thing for Cadillacs, Mercedes and BMWs. Some of those cars were tanks!!! I swear most wouldn't fit in a modern day garage, they're just too long. My favorite was the 1955 pink Cadillac, probably because we are the same vintage.

Me with Presley's 1955 Pink Caddy. 

A very good year. 

And then it was time to visit the mansion. Honestly from the front it didn't look that  big. The website says 17,000 square feet and I suppose with the finished basement that is accurate. Visitors are not allowed on the second floor where there are bedrooms and the bathroom that was the site of Elvis's death.


The first floor tour starts in the living room. Peacocks on stained glass, a grand piano and a boxy cabinet TV are the highlights.  In fact, the TVs really stood out in all of the rooms.  Every room had at least one, sometimes more and they were all huge cabinets with the heavy and deep TVs inside.   Hard to believe how much they have changed since then.

Love that the TV is the center of attention.

Next was his parent's room and then off to the dining room. Yes, there was a TV in the corner of the formal dining room.

Beautiful formal dining room with a 

TV (hidden here) over in the left corner. 

The kitchen had some of the ugliest carpet ever and again a big ol' TV. O! And some more stained glass, this time in the form of Tiffany lamps.

That carpet is "something". 

What? I don't know.

Downstairs was a media room with more giant built in TVs and a stereo system. (And a bar, of course.)  

 Lots of TVs. WHAT was he watching on all those TVs?

 The billiards room followed, a dizzying mess of stained glass and 400 yards of fabric, pleated and draped.

And then, and then.....the room we have all heard about. The Jungle Room.  Plush green carpet on the floors and wall, Tiki style designs on the furniture, a waterfall cascading down a wall of cut field stone. The height of kitsch.

Love that furniture!

The tour continued outside to the south wing, with rooms of trophies and Gold Records, show outfits and photos. And more TVs. Overall Elvis had a total of 90 gold, 53 platinum and 25 multi-platinum albums.  He probably had that many TVs, too.

Televisions used to come already installed into their 

own enormous cabinets. 

There is a tiny Meditation Garden near the pool where Elvis, his parents, and his grandmother are buried. Jesse Garon Presley, Elvis's stillborn twin, is also memorialized here.

Rest in peace Elvis. 

That concluded my tour.
It was time to drive on down from Memphis to Oxford. But for a couple of hours I had been immersed in the magic of the King of Rock n Roll.

Graceland. I've been to Graceland.  Cross off #79.

••••••••••••••••••

And for a little bit of that creep factor...

Elvis met Priscilla in Germany when she was 14 and he was 24. They dated for a year or so, then he moved backed to the States, and they continued to communicate daily. After a couple of visits while she was still just 16, (and he was...ahem...26) she finally moved in with him at the ripe old age of 17. They married when she was a nice legal 21.  Can we say "pedophile"?