Elvis, What Have They Done to You??!!

I have always loved Elvis.  Mom and Grandma loved him and during my childhood his music was played a lot on the radio.  Grandpa, Grama, Mom and I went to Memphis to visit relatives when I was around eight years old.  Mom and I went right through the big gates and right up to Graceland's front door and stood on the porch. Great memories!  Les and I went to Graceland in the late 80's and enjoyed that visit.  We stayed at the Heartbreak Hotel then.  It is gone now; we knew that already.  A very large resort hotel has been built for the "Graceland experience".

So...........here we are to the gist of this post.  Elvis' lovely Graceland is now a tourist trap.  Or as Les put it so well, a money grab.  You pay $10 to park, then you walk to the ticket area.  Today that was in high humidity and a heat index of 106.  There are many ticket levels.  What we chose was around $60 each  - pretty much the lowest level of ticket - for the tour, shuttle, and entrance to stores and food.  They take a picture of you going in and if you want that it's $39.50.  We did not get ours.  There is a lot of waiting in lines with no place to sit.  Before you get on the shuttle, they hand out IPads and headphones that you have to carry around to listen to the "personal tour" and look at pictures. It was nicer when we could just walk around on our own at our own pace and look at things.

After we ate our $6 hot dogs at Gladys' Diner, (Elvis' mom) we decided we were done.  We had "experienced" enough.  Remember, we had to show our tickets to get into the diner. 

In the game room at Graceland

 

I am so glad that we have our better memories of Graceland.  Priscilla and Lisa Marie should be ashamed of themselves.

 

Stay safe and God Bless America!