American Adventure

Tennessee

Starting on Friday, November 01, 2002, 5:15:06 AM

I showed up in the north part of Tennessee fairly late at night. I did manage to stop and get something to eat before everything closed for the evening.

Afterwards I found a 24-hour Kinko's to hang out in for a while and work on my web site.

Having been filled up and a little tired I wasn't getting much done on the web site. I kept getting drowsy and a few times nodded off. I had parked my bike right outside the window that I was facing so that I could keep an eye on it. As I sat there I would occasionally look out the window and feel secure that I could see all my stuff, safe and sound.

I nodded off again and was abruptly awoken by a very loud thump on the window. I thought that somebody must have been out there but when I looked up there was nothing there. I rose from my seat to try to get a better look when I noticed a small sparrow rise up off of the ground, right in front of me, directly in front of the glass. I watched as it tried to fly away but only made it out to the center of the parking lot where it tumbled to the ground. It must have hit the window going pretty fast and was surely hurt. I quickly went outside and walked up to the bird very slowly so that I wouldn't scare it away. I got close enough and reached my hand out to it, almost expecting it to try to take off, or even try to bite at me in defense. However, I was amazingly surprised when the bird didn't try to get away, or even try to defend itself. But instead it hobbled over to my hand and climbed on. I was shocked, but at the same time was so glad that this little creature put its trust in me enough. I held it and pet it for a while and placed it on my bike up on the gear.

I went back into Kinko's to get my camera and came back outside. I picked up the bird again and got some pictures of it and held and pet it some more. It seemed very calm so I put it back on my gear and went back inside. I occasionally looked out the window at the bird and watched as it nestled its way down a little between my sleeping bag and the guitar case. Eventually, after about an hour or so, it came back out and flew away.

Not too long after that the sun began to come up so I gathered my things and headed out. I took off south to find the Graceland Mansion and visitor center. I looked all around but I couldn't find Elvis' ghost. Of course I didn't take a tour of the mansion, I just drove by and took a few pictures. Here you can see the font gate and the mansion in the background.

Across the street is the visitors center where they have a few of his private planes parked. Over to the side stands the Heartbreak Hotel. Then there's a car sitting out front.

I looked around some more and that's when I looked off to the side and saw one of Elvis' biggest fans.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I had to go there.