Wednesday, 7/27, Graceland, Mammoth Cave National Park, Travel to Louisville, KY

(The internet connection in Louisville is much better than Memphis so I was able
to update yesterday's entries with pictures.  Check them out!)

We got everyone up at 6:00AM today!  Karen and I were up late last night
figuring out the best way to do everything we wanted to do, and still wind up
being somewhat close to home Thursday night so the trip home Friday would be a
short one to give us time to prepare for Shabbos.  (It also didn't help that the
washer/dryer in the hotel was not very efficient and Karen kept running up and
down to check it out.  So we couldn't fully concentrate on the next day's plan.)

The plan was to do Graceland first thing in the morning and then go to Mammoth
Cave National Park (MCNP) near Bowling Green, KY (5 hour drive) to try to get
the last tour at 5:30PM.  We made reservations for the night in Louisville, KY. 
Then we could drive to Maryland somewhere (Hagerstown? 9 hours) on Thursday
which would leave us with a 4 hour drive home Friday morning.

We decided to try to get to Graceland for the first tour at 9:00AM.  The box
office opens at 8:30AM.  So we wanted to leave the hotel around 8:15AM. 
Everyone was really cooperative and we actually left the hotel at around 7:30AM. 
We figured that since we would be too early for the box office, we could hit the
Kroger supermarket which has a kosher section like in ShopRite and Bylerly's
(MN).  We finally got to Graceland a little before 9:00AM and got tickets for
the 9:15AM tour.  Our tour headed out on time.

Neither Karen nor I had any "upbringing" with Elvis, so we never really knew of
him, except we remember the big to-do when he supposedly died.  It was
interesting to see how he lived in the mansion and how he was very close with
family up to the end.  It's like a time warp seeing everything (really,
everything) still in the same condition today.  One thing that we learned was
how generous he was with both individuals and charitable organizations.  There
is a wall with many canceled checks, each for $1000 (a ton of money back then)
to charitable causes, one of them being the Memphis Jewish Community Center.  I
could imagine if it was today and he would get bagloads of envelopes from all
these charities like we get today.  Still don't have any interest in Elvis
(sorry cousin Michelle), but it was definitely a very educational Americana
experience.

Same green shade of carpet as in my house growing up, but ours wasn't a deep shag - AND we didn't have it covering the ceiling too!

Lisa Marie's playground

Plaque from city of Memphis acknowledging Elvis' generosity

Elvis is buried just beyond the fountain along with his twin brother (died at birth), parents, and grandmother.

We left at 11:00AM and needed to rush to Kentucky.  I punched in the address of
the hotel and saw the ETA of 5:30PM!! Yikes, I forgot to consider the change to
EDT and we would have to floor it to make up time for the last tour.  But then I
realized, I entered the HOTEL address, not Mammoth Cave (knucklehead!).  Mammoth
Cave is actually 1.5 hours closer than Louisville, AND (big AND) it is still in
CDT.  So we were back on track.  We stopped off for lunch at a rest stop
somewhere and then continued to MCNP.

We got there around 4:15, so Karen quickly rushed in to see if there was an
earlier tour, but it was already sold out.  So we got tickets for a 5:00 tour
that hadn't been listed on the website.  We needed to get our jackets from the
car.  We went to get them and once we locked the car up, a religious family
(with many young kids) is heading to the car next to us (with AR plates).  So we
greet one another.  They say they are heading back from Toronto, so I ask if the
car is a rental (AR plates, remember??).  He says no, they live in Little Rock
as the Lubavitch emissaries.  He tells me there is really nothing Orthodox in
Little Rock.  I start to ask him (and get my camera to show the picture) about
the Lulav restaurant (see yesterday's picture), and he quickly knows what I'm
talking about.  He gave me a little of the history of it - turns out the intent
was for it to be "kosher" but then it didn't work out, so it's not.  Amazing how
we always are able to make some kind of connection with others of the Jewish
persuasion in these remote places.

We took the most basic tour of the cave, which lasted about an hour.  We would
have rather done the longer ones, but who knew what it was all about when we
bought the tickets.  It's a pretty fascinating natural structure carved out over
millions (?) of years with oceans covering over and receding from the area
above.  It was used as a mine during the War of 1812 for the basic ingredient
(Calcium Nitrate) in making gunpowder during the War of 1812.  Even Mr. DuPont
had owned some of the cave at one point for mining.  Plus there are artifacts in
the cave from prehistoric times (4000 years ago thru carbon dating).  Chilly
down there - 54F all year round.  Felt great when first going down, then needed
the sweatshirts.

We then headed to Louisville, KY.  Checked into the hotel, Karen put up a pot of
pasta while the kids went swimming.  Tomorrow we may do the Louisville Slugger
museum in downtown before heading..... somewhere.... for the night.