Graceland and the public library in Olive Branch, Mississippi

 I had no interest in touring the inside Elvis's house or the museum at Graceland, but I heard the grounds between the front gate and the memorial garden are open to the public from 7:30 am to 8:30 am for people to visit the family gravesite. I woke up early enough, so I drove to graceland.

The memorial garden was peaceful. I didn't remember that Elvis had a twin brother. His twin was stillborn, and is buried next to his parents at the gravesite. Elvis, his parents, his grandmother and his twin brother are together. 

Elvis's daughter and his grandson are also there.

The rock wall in front of Graceland is full of messages from Elvis fans.

I remember the day Elvis died. I was working as a desk clerk at Hillsdale Inn in San Mateo, California. When I got to work, the girl I was relieving was crying. She asked me if I had heard the news that Elvis died. That is my memory, and I decided to memorialize it on the Graceland  wall.

I chose a  spot near the middle of the wall. If you visit Graceland, look for "Forever Elvis" in black in one of the middle sections of the wall, and my message is directly below it.

So now I've added my contribution to American culture!

When I set up  my tent last night, I  put up the rainfly -- just in case -- but everything was dry when I woke up this morning. While I was lying in the tent, I saw a light flashing and moving around the outside of my tent. A firefly had found its way between the tent and the rain fly, and was flickering on and off ! It was fun to watch! It eventually must have found its way out.

The combination of hearing that Memphis was a dangerous city, along with passing through a run down area north of the city on my way to the campground, plus seeing empty pickup trucks parked near the river, had my radar up a little last night. So I was a little on edge when I heard gunshots near the campground just after I crawled into my tent after dark. Nothing came of it, even though it made me nervous.

The campground is a state campground. I arrived last night after the campground was already closed, and left before the office opened, so my stay was short, but I wanted to walk the grounds at Graceland this morning during the memorial garden visiting hours. 

After visiting Graceland, it was time to find a Planet Fitness and shower. The Planet Fitness nearrest to Graceland looked a little sketchy, so I found another one in a nice area just South of Memphis, in northern Mississippi. My plan for today was to visit the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis today. The museum was about a half hour drive away, so after my shower, I looked to see what time museum opened. It is CLOSED on TUESDAYS!! That's what I get for not planning ahead! Had I known, I could have visited the museum yesterday!

So, I had to change my plans! I did some web surfing but didn't come up with anything else that was compelling to see. An outdoor scale model of a large section the Mississippi river in a park near the waterfront would have been cool to see, but evidently it was run down and wasn't open anymore.

I have been wanting to add a couple of new features to my blog -- an archive page to make individual blog entries more accessible, and a page showing my car setup -- so I decided to take some photos of the car and go to a local library to spend time adding those two features to my blog. I could visit the Civil Rights museum tomorrow.

Here is what the two new links look like on my blog. They are on the right side of my blog page. Try clicking on them!

I was planning to camp at Arkabutla Lake tonight, but it was late when I finally headed in that direction. I had been driving close to a half hour, the 2-lane roads were dark, and I was tired an didn't really want to set up my tent. So I did an Internet search for nearby rest areas to see if spending the night at a  highway  rest area would be a possiblity. Luckily, there was a rest area only a couple of miles away... on Hwy 55, just South of the town of Hernando (named after the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto, I suppose).

The entrance to the rest area had two signs... "Security Guard" and "No Overnight Parking". The  security guard was stationed in a small building near the restrooms. I told him I saw the sign about no overnight parking, but I was tired and wanted to know how long I could stay. He told me the sign was to prevent people from staying long term (multiple nights) and also so he could ask people to leave if they were rowdy. He told me I was  welcome to stay all night! It was hot outside, so I could tell it would be a hot night in the car. Even though I sleep with the sunroof open and rear windows cracked, there wasn't a breeze tonight.  I was glad to have a place to sleep, though, and felt safe with the security guard!