My Year of Traveling - Part 5

Memorial Day weekend, my sister and I took the American roadtrip - Graceland! The first day we drove to her friend Michelle's home in Des Moines. On the way, we stopped at a Rock & Roll McDonald's and made an employee take a picture of us with the Elvis statue. We had a nice visit with Michelle, although she was a tad over-Harry Potter-y.
The next day we drove through Amish country down to St. Louis, and finally, Day 3, we reached Memphis!
We took the tour of Sun Studios, where Elvis, Johnny Cash, and others made their records. We even got to stand on the spot where Elvis liked to stand and hold his microphone.
We stayed at the Heartbreak Hotel (with the Elvis channel - all Elvis movies all the time!), which is definitely something you must to if you go to Graceland. Didder ate a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich - the nastiest sandwich ever concocted (I tried a bite, and think she deserves the title True Elvis Fan for managing to eat as much of it as she did). We, of course, toured Graceland itself. The estate itself is much more modest than I had expected. It's a beautiful looking house and grounds. It strikes me as a bit odd that it's right smack dab in the middle of Memphis - I would have thought he'd want something more secluded. The inside of the home, however, is very different from the exterior. It is unbelievably tacky. In Elvis's defense, it was last decorated in the mid-1970s, and everyone should be embarassed for the clothes and decor they had during that era. But apparently when you combine the '70s style with a huge amount of money, the end result is not something tasteful. It makes for great conversation, though, and it's all part of what made Elvis the King. We saw his cars and his plane, and plenty of other Elvis-y stuff. I think Didder needs to get a job at Graceland, doing purchasing for the gift shops. The selection definitely could have been better. But that being said, it was a really fun place to go.
Besides the fact that Graceland is a great American landmark, this trip was fun because we traveled girl-style. No pressure to meet schedules, no yelling at traffic. Feet hanging out the window, playing Would You Rather and Marry, Date, or Dump, singing along to "Grease" (and, of course, Elvis), and stopping along the way just because.
So, in 2005 we went to the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayword, Wisconsin. 2006 brought us to Graceland. What can we possibly do next that wouldn't be a letdown after those two?