Friday, September 7, 2018

Graceland RV Park and Campground - Memphis, Tennessee (July 2018)

Not again!

The voltage meter inside Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, was reading low when we connected to the power at Graceland. It was about 108 volts and while that was low, it wasn’t enough for our surge protector to shut down our electrical service. The voltage problem became an issue later during our stay at Graceland.

Sign at the park

You don’t stop at Graceland's RV Park because it is a great campground. You stay here to visit Graceland, Elvis' home. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and planned to visit Graceland the next day. We discovered that we were not the only people planning to visit Graceland because the campground was full with RVs from across the United States and Canada.

A few signs in the campground

This was a pet-friendly campground

We made a last minute decision to take Suzy, our Yorkie, with us the next morning as we visited Graceland. That was a very fortunate decision.

Welcome to Graceland

Elvis

Waiting for Elvis to show up

The mansion

We were surprised at how many people were visiting Graceland that day. There were lines of people waiting to see the mansion and the archives. According to the literature given to us there, more than 500,000 people visit Graceland every year. We also noticed that many were what we would call serious Elvis fans there, very serious fans!

At the entrance gates


OK, visiting Graceland could be considered a “bucket list” item for many people, but once was enough to quench our curiosity. Still, it was interesting to see. I wanted to see Elvis' Army archives since I also served in his old division 12 years after he was there.

Not the uniform worn while in the Army

After seeing everything we could at Graceland, including his jets, we walked back across the parking lot to the campground and Rosie. We immediately noticed the problem when we opened Rosie’s door. It was hot inside Rosie and the power was off. A check of our surge protector confirmed that the voltage was below 104 volts and our surge protector disconnected Rosie to keep from damaging her electronics. Our first thought was how thankful we were that we decided Suzy needed to see Graceland too, because it could have been tragic had we locked her inside Rosie that day.

Rosie at Graceland

The office workers first responded to my complaint with the dreaded, “No one else is having problems with their electric connections.” After it became apparent that I wasn’t swayed by this faulty logic, they asked the maintenance guy on duty to visit our site. He said he would check on things, but Graceland's electrician went off-duty more than an hour earlier. The maintenance man pulled out his voltage meter and read 104 volts without any power load on the circuit. After giving me a quick history of the numerous power problems suffered over the years at that campground, he decided to change out the power receptacle and the circuit breaker feeding Rosie. He did and the result was that that the voltage went up to 112 volts. I told the maintenance man that I was surprised that changing those components fixed the problem. The maintenance man said he was also surprised he fixed the problem. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:
  • Our site was a pull-thru
  • Our site was gravel and very close to level 
  • Our site had a 30 amp electrical connection. Some sites had 50 amp service 
  • Our site had a water connection 
  • Our site had a sewer connection 
  • We could not find any WiFi service at this park
  • AT&T placed a good 4G signal over this park
  • We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC while using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also saw digital channels Antenna, Decades, Grit and ME-TV
  • The restrooms and showers in this park were disgustingly dirty 
Memphis is known for bar-b-que and we wanted to try some for dinner. One restaurant would pick up customers in a pink Cadillac and chauffeur them to their front door. How could we not do this? The ride and the BBQ were great. 

The pool room inside Graceland

Elvis' "Jungle Room"

Inside Graceland
Elvis' MG
Elvis' Pink Cadillac
Becky about to board the Lisa Marie
Heading out to eat BBQ in a Pink Cadillac

In the Cadillac
A pink Airstream at the restaurant

Elvis Greets Becky at the restaurant
Rosie at Graceland




No comments:

Post a Comment