April 13th - Memphis, Tennessee to Evansville, Indiana

We were up early so that we could have one of the day's first tours round Graceland. The house was on the opposite side of Elvis Presley Boulevard to our hotel, A shuttle bus took us the 200 yds across the road and up the winding driveway to the house.

There is a large Presley industry in Memphis and when you see how many people are employed at the house, the hotel and the various Presley enterprises in Memphis, it shows how important this is to the local economy. Literally tens of thousand of people come from all over the world to visit Graceland.

The house is much smaller than I was expecting although when you are inside it there are more rooms than are visible from outside. The whole visit took about 40 minutes and was quite interesting though, as I'm not an Elvis fan, my interest was somewhat lukewarm. The visit of the house ends at Presley's grave where an 'eternal' flame burns.

We then went back across the road and looked at his car collection as well as his two jets. The picture below is of his favourite car, his pink Cadillac.

We left Memphis and drove due north into Kentucky. The state is famous for its blue grass and thoroughbred horses. We had now left the 'deep' south and it was noticeable how much better off Kentucky is compared to Louisiana and Mississippi. The weather had now become decidedly colder and light rain fell. The drive though was through rolling countryside which made up for the indifferent weather.

We took the back roads and went through a national recreational area known as the Land between the Lakes. This is a strip of land about 40 miles long that is bounded by the two lakes created by dams on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. In the middle of the area is a state park that has recreated some of the original prairie, which they are stocking with bison and elk.

We carried on for another three hours and drove into Indiana across the Ohio River. Evansville, our destination, is just inside Indiana. Tomorrow another 300 miles of driving and we will arrive in Chicago for our three night stay.

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