Graceland: A living monument to a musical legend

I love Elvis. I have always loved Elvis. He was stylish, interesting, he seemed over the top, yet down to earth, and he just had an amazing star quality most people do not even closely possess. When traveling in Tennessee to see the solar eclipse this summer I had to stop in Memphis, and go to Graceland and see his house.

The house is a colonial mansion, but by today's standards, it's just an average house, maybe even a bit small. It is kept together immaculately and in the same exact way Elvis left it. Our arrival coincided with the 40th anniversary of his death.  As a result there was a lot more really sad older women with roses than is normally the case in Graceland. Our tour began in the museum when we had to buy a ticket to get on the bus to go to the house.

Upon entering the house it's hard not to notice the tacky-chic style of the living room with its stained glass peacocks and baby grand piano. Also, I thought it was strange there was a TV in every room, in Elvis' time having a lot TV's must have been a status symbol.

The backyard had a kidney shaped pool which was very small. I don't think I've ever seen a pool that small. I almost think a person could hit their head while diving into it.  

Elvis was very dedicated to his family. His parents and grandmother were buried in the back yard at Graceland in the meditation garden alongside him. They lived there even after he died, which was Elvis' intention for the house. He wanted to make sure his family was taken care of in all aspects of their life.

Graceland is so much more than just the house, it's a horse pasture, a playground, airplanes (two of them), and there is also a new hotel aptly named "The Guest House".

The clothing and cars are stored in the new museum areas and these areas are very large. Also, there is a hall for concerts to be played so the musical tradition is kept alive. The entire area is growing and taking Elvis' legacy right along with it. Even if you don't like Elvis, his impact on the world around him remains undisputed. He really was the king and his kingdom is still growing.

Crater of Diamonds: Arkansas State Park

There is a place in Murfreesboro, Arkansas where you can dig for diamonds all day long. It's called crater of diamonds and it's 37 acres of field where you can look for diamonds to your hearts content. It's an amazing site, since opening to the public in 1972, over 30,000 diamonds have been found by visitors.

There are several ways to look for diamonds in the crater. One is surface searching. This is basically just walking around, looking down in the ground. This method is good right after they plow (They never tell anyone when they do this) and after a hard rain. While I was surface searching I came upon a lot of trash and junk. I basically walked around and picked stuff up- there was cigarette butts, plastic cups, pop bottles, and just generally junk people leave laying around. There were signs to warn people not to leave things, but humans always do.... 

A second method is call sluicing. This is with a water bath and a screen. You can rent those at the visitors station. It's a little more intense and a lot more work than surface searching. When you are doing this method the water is cold and dirty. It is in giant troughs and you have to use the screens. Basically, you take a bucket of dirt and the screens over to the water. You use two screens, one on the top and a smaller screen on the bottom. The screen on the bottom is for finer dirt and particles to be trapped. 

The third method for searching is dry sifting. This can only be done when the land is really dry. When we visited it had just rained the night before so dry sifting was not an option.

There is an equipment rental place, but you can bring your own equipment if you'd like. Things you will need, buckets, trowels, shovels, screens, and maybe gloves if you don't like getting dirty, but if you don't like getting dirty, you really should not do this activity.  There is also a mineral identification place where they will tell you what kind of minerals you've found. Finding diamonds is hard because you need to know what you are looking for, raw diamonds are pretty extraordinary.

Diamonds are found all the time- almost everyday. There are brown, white, and yellow, but lots of people also come and look everyday. The park has a lot of visitors, statistically your chances of finding one aren't really as high as one would hope. Lots of the people digging had brought their own equipment, their own buckets and shovels.  One couple had a canopy they put up because there is no shade. It's a very hot in the sun on the field.

Randy and I found nothing but rocks, pretty rocks (quartz) and some good exercise. We did discover that no exercise is more motivational then the hope of finding a bunch of diamonds.