This morning we were up, showered, had a small breakfast and coffee, bus packed and on the road by 7am!

I took a quick photo of the sunrise before we left.

We had around a three and a half trip to Graceland in Memphis and had booked a tour for 10:45am.

It was quite busy when we arrived at Graceland but they split you into smaller groups so it feels OK, although there is quite a bit of waiting around at the beginning.

The tour starts at Elvis’ Graceland House. Tourists are only allowed in the downstairs part as the upstairs has been left as it was when Elvis died.

Elvis bought Graceland in March 1957 and paid $103,500 for the house and 13.8 acres of land. He was just 22 years old. He had a stone wall built around the perimeter of the property and installed the music themed wrought-iron gates.

Elvis lived at Graceland with his parents Gladys and Vernon as well as his paternal grandmother Minnie-May.

The furniture and decor in the rooms are amazing. In the dining room the crockery on the table is a gift Elvis and Priscilla received for their wedding.

These are the ground floor rooms and are the lounge which includes a baby grand piano, the dining room, Elvis’ mum’s bedroom, the kitchen and then the stairs going up as well as the ones leading to the lower floor, which are all mirrored.

On the lower ground floor is the jungle room, which is an extension built onto the original house as well as the pool room and media room.

We then walked across the outside paddocks to the recording (Vernon) studio and also a small area where Elvis practised shooting with his friends.

We then walked through a space where there was lots of information about Elvis and his family. Elvis and his parents originally lived in Tupelo and in relative poverty. They moved to Memphis in 1948 so Gladys and Vernon could find work.

The next area showed various trophy and items from Elvis’ life and lots of photographs of him. One of the items was a tv that had been gifted to Elvis by a film company and there was also a photo of his favourite horse- Rising Sun. Elvis made 31 films during his life.

We then wandered outside again to the Meditation Garden where Elvis is buried alongside his mother, his father and his grandmother.

Elvis Presley was originally buried next to his mother at Memphis Forest Hill Cemetery, but his body was moved back to Graceland after an attempt was made to steal his coffin and hold the remains the ransom. His mother’s body was also then moved to Graceland.

It was actually quite emotional standing by the grave of such a superstar.

As we walked out of the garden I spotted a butterfly and took a photo.

As we drove back towards the entrance we passed the wall that everyone signs.

Our next stop was to have a look at all the cars – all owned by Elvis and this was only part of his collection. Obviously there was the focus pink cadillac as well as the 1970 Mercedes-Benz 600 Saloon Limousine which was one of the.mpst expensive cars Elvis owned.

There was then another area which provided a lot of the information about Elvis’ life in the army as Private Presley.

It was during his time in the army that Elvis met Priscilla, who was just 14 when they first met. They eventually married in May 1967 in Vegas when Priscilla turned 21.

In February 1967 Lisa Marie Presley.

The last stop of the tour was to the aeroplanes, one which was named after Lisa Marie. The plane was certainly very luxurious.

It was an amazing tour and quite surreal at times.

After a quick lunch stop at Burger King it was back on the road for the long journey to Lake City.

The total mileage for the day was 867 miles and we passed through 5 states: Tennessee. Mississipi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

In America every 5 miles of the highway have to have a 1 mile landing strip. This is 1 mile of straight road so a planes could land. This means that a plane can land anywhere in the country and was introduced by Eisenhower.

On the journey you could see the full moon, the Hunters moon.

Ali, Sarah and I shared a bottle of red wine on the journey – it was hard to take a photo as the roads were very bumpy!

We arrived at the Holiday Inn in Lake City around 130am. I had a whole room to myself and slept really well.