Are you ready for this entry? I don’t think you are. I’m certainly not sure what in the world I am going to tell you about this last place we went this afternoon.

First, little backstory. Brittany had posted on her Facebook wall that we were now in Memphis and “what should we do?” Our friend Frankie responded with several things, one including visiting Graceland 2. After a bit of internet research we found it was named “Graceland Too” and wasn’t too far from my grandparent’s house, in a little town called Holly Springs, Mississippi. None of my family was familiar except for my cousin’s wife Corrie who told me “it was worth the trip.”

Was she ever right.

When we pulled up in front of the house there was another car parked in front with New Mexico license plates. We stood outside for a few minutes debating on how to approach. Just go up and knock? Wait for this other group to emerge? We decided to go knock and one of the ladies on the tour opened the door, “this is not my house” she said. Brittany asked “are you New Mexico? We’re Virginia.”

We stepped in the foyer and immediately knew this was going to be a wild time. The first thing that Paul MacLeod, the universes galaxys planets worlds ultimate Elvis fan, said to Brittany was “we are going to get married and have 100 children all named Elvis and this guy (pointed to someone else there for the tour) is going to pay child support.”

After paying our $5 admission (totes worth it) we jumped on board with the small group that was already being shown around. Everything was covered in Elvis paraphernalia. EVERYTHING. Walls, ceilings, a lot of the floor, the entire staircase, I’m not exaggerating in the least when I say everything. A lot of what Paul was saying was difficult to understand because his dentures kept slipping and he was on such rambles and rants it was frankly hard to keep up. In the first room he kept talking about all these different newspaper and magazine articles that were about him and his collection. At least I think. He had a case of locked things, all very disorganized, but I do believe some of his most prized Elvis items were in it. There were bottles of Elvis wines he said were worth $10,000. He kept going on and on and on about the worth of things and how he would make us money for this or that reason. He showed us an entire folder full of pictures of him dressed up as this character or that character. And if anyone was caught not paying attention he would say “yo” and a whistle to get you back on track.

In this room he had a picture who he claimed was Tom Hanks when he had visited. He talked about one of the Bush daughters visiting and how Sam Walton’s grandson visits “all the time.” It seemed a lot of celebrities visited “all the time” according to Paul. At first I felt kind of bad for just outright laughing, but the more the group laughed and cheered him on the more he was animated and enthralled by it all.

Did I mention he was a touchy feely guy? He kept grabbing our hands and shoulders and talking directly to us. At first I was pretty creeped but soon realized to just roll with it, it was just a part of the experience.

I just need to pause here and tell you I’m having a really hard time writing this because so much happened in our 2 hours of this tour.

The next room was filled with at least 8 or 9 televisions and trunks and storage bins lining the walls. The ceiling was covered and he had wrappers of some sort he said were worth “5K a piece.” Are they? Who knows? I just started to believe everything he said. All of the trunks were filled with VHS tapes because he has been cataloging every single mention, reference or showing of Elvis on television EVER. He had binders filled with TV guide transcripts detailing the Elvis moments. He showed us all the t-shirts he had made for “Graceland Too,” now if they were for sale or not I’ll never know. By this point in the tour the family that had been there had left and it was Brittany and I, two guys from the UK and their friend who had brought them here. Paul pulled out a disposable camera and had us pose for a picture together, more on this later.

The next room, which I do believe was a kitchen at one point, had stereo equipment, and old containers of Elvis ice cream, and of course the Elvis covered walls. It also had a back door to his backyard that held a pink Cadillac, a black Cadillac, a limo of some sort and his electric chair he had built. That was part of his Jailhouse Rock tribute. There were also Christmas lights strewn about everywhere and fake Christmas trees lining most of the perimeter. Paul told me out here that if we sent him anything in the mail he would hang it up for us. When we came back in the house one of the guys with us couldn’t get the door to close to which Paul says “it’s ok I gotta get the mail anyways.” I thought I was going to die.

Back inside he took us through a black velvet curtain and into a hallway that was covered in pictures. All pictures of past visitors. Again he talked about all the famous people that had been there. He also showed us the first flowers that were on Elvis Presley’s gravesite. I’m guessing one day a picture of Brittany and I and three guys we don’t know will end up on the wall.

Since we had missed the very beginning of the tour, we had missed the first room which was his record room. This locked room had 45’s covering the walls and more Elvis stuff everywhere. We had read online that he has 4 of each Elvis recording every made, so some of Paul’s estimates on monetary value from that room are probably correct. In the corner was a gold Elvis suit that Paul intendes on being buried in. We think he was/is an Elvis impersonator but I was never quite sure.

Two guys had come in at the end that seemed to know Paul. They were college students at Old Miss nearby and had been 9 times before. Because Graceland Too is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (you just gotta knock!) these guys had only been in the middle of the night. They wanted to see it during the daytime. I was also somewhat jealous of their membership cards. If you go three times Paul makes you an official member of Graceland Too. Free admission for life after that.

Some of the things that Paul said to Brittany and I so many times were so inappropriate, but you couldn’t help but laugh and say to yourself “I can’t believe I’m seeing and hearing this.” This place is all about Elvis but there was absolutely nothing new I learned about Elvis. The tour is all about the insanity of this man’s obsession. He named his only son Elvis Aaron Presley MacLeod, who also gives tours supposedly. His wife left him years ago because she said “me or Elvis” and he chose Elvis and gave her “one million dollars to go.” He also drinks something like 24 cans of Coca Cola a day. The group before had apparently woken him up when they arrived. It was 3 in the afternoon.

It was the most manic, insane, colorful, so many adjectives apply here, two hours of my life and I’m so glad we did this one last. I will keep this one as a memory for a long time.

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?id=712&option=com_content&task=view this is a great review on the place, most of what is said was said to us verbatim. Also when we get back to Richmond I will be posting some photos and video of our experience.

If you are EVER in this area of the country it’s worth a visit. And remember it’s open 24 hours a day, so it doesn’t matter what time you are passing through.

-Karen

Currently listening: Fruit Bats, that is before the house. PS Karen did an excellent job summing up all the craziness but I have to add one thing. My favorite part was when Paul showed us a photo of himself dressed up as Castro with his gun collection. He said if any film crews ever tried to break in that he had enough guns to fight off Iraq. Love that man.