Sunday, 22 Jan 2012 - Heartbreak Hotel, Memphis, TN

OMG...what a day...what a great day and we haven't even hit Graceland yet!

We were up and out the door by 9:30 this morning. We always stay at a Best Western but although this one was advertised as 'newly renovated', it should have been called the Worst Western. No details but I suspect the reno project has stalled and I was actually motivated to fill out the comment card. We ended up getting $10 off our coupon price of $49 and reminded ourselves this wasn't the norm for this chain.

Given that we are (supposedly) in the middle of a severe tornado warning area, we decided we'd better get to Memphis, hope the Heartbreak Hotel was made out of concrete (it is) and make sure we were off the highway.

We breezed by Loretta Lyn's Dude Ranch, hummed along to 'Love Me Like My Dog Does' on the radio and pulled into Memphis at 2:30 pm. Once again, God Bless the GPS as it brought us right to the hotel without any problem. I can't remember how we fumbled around a city pre-GPS but I know I'm never going back to that place in time. The only thing that scares the b-Jezuz out of me is that Wayne talks to the darn thing..."Thank you Gertie", "What are you doing Gertie?" etc. but the amount of stress 'she' has taken off me makes me overlook this little idiocyncracy.

We've only been here a few hours but believe me, Elvis Overload cannot be too far off! The hotel is advertised as a 'boutique' hotel so the decor is purple, zebra stripes, hot pink, and plexi-glass, but quite lovely. The girl at the desk was in a tizzy as Colin Farrell had just booked out and she still wasn't over the hot flash (I totally get it). She had to show us his check-in sheet...he was driving a grey Chevy Tahoe...along with his very messy writing. It's not too busy right now so we booked in early and went to our room. Every available wall space is...of course...Elvis pictures along with Elvis music in the backroom and televisions playing Elvis videos.

Our room is beautiful..king sized bed (what else) and a couple of Elvis photos on the walls. Needless-to-say, there is an Elvis channel on the TV showing all his movies. Outside our room is the heart-shaped swimming pool. Tomorrow morning we will go to the 'Jungle Room' for breakfast. We bought the package that gives us passes to every possible building, museum, or attraction currently collecting money for Prescilla on the grounds of Graceland, including a tour through The King's jet, a Lockheed JetStar, which is parked right beside our hotel. All of that awesomeness will happen tomorrow after we've had a good night's sleep. Graceland is directly across the highway from the hotel. It is all very well organized and I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing.

Supper was fun. We picked up the pink, fluffy, bedazzled phone in the lobby which is connected to the (reportedly) best rib place in town, Malonnes. They said they would pick us up in 5 minutes and true to their word, 5 minutes later a pink cadillac limo pulled up and off we went! The ribs were absolutely the very best I've ever had..and I consider myself somewhat of an officiado of ribs and lasagna. Every table is covered with Elvis 'stuff' as well as the walls and the music was...what else...Elvis...supposedly being broadcast 'live' from Graceland on Serius Radio. Same ride home and a really fun way to end the day. I haven't personally SEEN Elvis yet but we Gilchrist girls have a bit of the old spookiness in us so anything is possible.

We were able to Skype with Colin & Jen and Gillian blew kisses so we got our fix for the day.

So that was our Sunday...how was yours? Hope everyone is well and until next time, love and hugs to all. xx