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As day three broke in Van Buren, Arkansas, it was obvious we would reach Lexington much earlier than we had planned. Erin and I focused on one goal. Her's was to finish the trip as quickly as possible. Mine was to visit Graceland. I almost met Elvis in Memphis in 1975. I was working in the World Football League doing stats in a now long forgotten game between the Houston Texans and the Memphis Southmen. Early in the game there was a commotion in the press box. It was Elvis. True to his practice, he would arrive at the Liberty Bowl about five minutes into the first quarter, enter through the press elevator and watch the game in a private box surrounded by his Memphis Mafia. At halftime I tried to talk my way in to meet Elvis, but I couldn't convince the guard at the door that my All Access Pass included entry to Elvis' box. A glimpse of black hair would be as close as I would ever get to meeting him. Nonetheless, we were ahead of schedule, and I was going to Graceland. I promised Erin we would be back on the road by 1 p.m. So, we pulled off I-40 at 11 a.m. and "followed the Mississippi through the cradle of the Civil War" as Paul Simon sang of his own pilgrimage to Graceland. Unfortunately, we learned you don't just "drop in" on the King. We pulled into Graceland's parking lot to find almost as many buses as you find in South Bend on a Saturday in September when the Fighting Irish are home. Undaunted, we proceeded to the ticket line only to find a two hour wait for the shuttle to the mansion. Resigned to our fate, we turned to head back to the car when I thought I saw two familiar faces. I darted through the crowd and I was right, I'd spotted Stan Zimmerman and Jim Berg, two writers I'd worked with on the short-lived Gene Wilder series, Something Wilder. It turns out Priscilla Presley had commissioned them to write a Broadway musical Burning Love based on her life with Elvis. They were in town to do research and invited us to ride up to the house with them. Finally, I'd see Elvis, or what's left of him. That's what I thought. Jim and Stan had been assigned a V.I.P. tour guide. The tour guide, like the security guard years before, told me we weren't going anywhere. He was only authorized to bring two people to the house, and Erin and I weren't the two people. I guess Elvis and I were never meant to be. We said our goodbyes to Graceland and headed back toward Lexington. When we reached Nashville we exited Highway 40. The Bluegrass Parkway would take us into Kentucky past the Corvette Museum and on to Lexington. "Kentucky is the prettiest state we've seen, don't you think Dad?" said my transplanted valley girl. "Sure is, Sweetie," I answered. In the end we drove 2220 miles, spent $387 for gas, $170 on rooms and $85 for food. Yet on all the many trips taken on that storied Route 66 since 1926, I'll bet no one ever had a bigger kick than me. The 32 hours I spent driving it with my daughter. Frank Pace has produced nearly 500 episodes of network television, including Murphy Brown and Suddenly Susan. He is currently the Producer of the ABC Series George Lopez. He can be reached at
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