A visit to Graceland, the monument to Elvis in Memphis

Baby Boomers: Elvis remembered 36 years later

By Ray Hanania

“Elvis is in the building” is such a common phrase used to describe the presence of someone important being someplace and playing on the fact that the rock-n-roll icon is one of the best known people in the world.

I was lucky to actually visit Elvis’ building, his home in Graceland in Memphis Tennessee, which has been turned into a pure profit enterprises generating as much for the musician’s successors as he did for him when he was alive.

Elvis died on August 16, 1977 ending a tumultuous year in which his career was on a slide, his personal life after his divorce was a disaster and his father intervened to control his estate, firing three bodyguards accused of provoking lawsuits filed by injured fans.

The three bodyguards, who previously enjoyed Elvis’ high profile life, went on to write a revenge book against Elvis that caused his to turn to more medication. His death was believed caused by excessive medications and drugs.

But despite the tragic ending, Elvis is best remembered as the smooth singing crooner who pushed open the door to rock and roll in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs left a lasting impression on every baby boomer at the time and spark a rise in rock music sales and fans.

You can’t drive through Tennessee without seeing some evidence of Elvis’ life. But Elvis was actually born in Tupelo, Mississippi on Jan. 8, 1935. His twin brother, Jesse, was still born. Imagine, two Elvis Presley’s? Chances are had his brother lived he might never have become the music icon and who knows what we would be listening to today?

He was Scottish and German ancestry with a little Native American Cherokee on his mother’s side.

After moving around nearly homeless, Elvis and his family moved to Memphis in 1948 when he was 13 and lived in a cramped little public housing unit. And he started to hang out during high school at Beale Street, which today is the Blues Capitol of America if you count Elvis, BB King and so many others who performed there.

Graceland has been turned into a massive monument. I traveled there the week before his anniversary, so it wasn’t as crowded. But every year around the anniversary of his death, hundreds of thousands throng to the Elvis Mecca to pay their respects.

Elvis is buried at Graceland along with his mother, father and other relatives.

The home is on one side of the main road. Across the street is the Elvis museum and plane and a huge parking lot for the visitors.

You will spend a fortune there to see everything and a small fortune just to see a few things.

Graceland is a southern mansion on a large area of farm and horse lands. Many of the rooms have been turned into museum displays.

What’s remarkable about the mansion is that it is a reminder of life in the 1960s, more than a symbol of wealthy decadence.

Elvis generated maybe billions in profits for himself and his entourage, but what you see is what a typical rich person might have lived in during a past that has been long gone. He loved Gold and had Gold plated everywhere. But the furniture and settings look like grandma’s house, even though he sang to my generation.

You walk room-to-room and you lose some of the shine that the name Elvis had in my mind before I went to Graceland. He was just a normal guy with the same problems a lot of wealthy people faced. Extravagance. Excesses. Tragedy.

The bathroom where he died is closed to the public. There are so many diehard Elvis fans out there that you can’t put it past one of them to want to commit suicide in the same spot where their music God died.

After leaving Graceland and realizing it’s not as great as you might have thought, you are taken back by shuttle to the museum buildings where each one soaks more money out of your pocket.

I did purchase an Elvis cigarette lighter, the old style stainless steel box type that the mobsters in the James Cagney Movies would flick open and light with a snap of their fingers.

And, I bought my musician-inclined son drum sticks with Graceland and Elvis emblazoned on them. Oh, and I bought postcards, too.

Now, you can go through the throngs of people and the sweating crowds. Memphis in August is humid and very hot, despite global warming.

Or, you can just it back and enjoy these picture I was able to take.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist. Reach him at www.TheMediaOasis.com or follow him on Twitter at @RayHanania.)

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Baby Boomers: Modern day Road trip through the near South

Baby Boomers: Modern day Road trip through the near South
By Ray Hanania

One of my fondest memories as a child was going with my parents and siblings on a “road trip.” This was in the 1950s and 1960s, long before Chevy Chase and others made classic comedies about the motorized travel experience.

A “road trip” wasn’t a business travel pitch. It wasn’t a drive to a nearby town to visit grandma. It was the family getting in the car, or if you had money, the camper, and going on vacation through America.

We did several road trips, once to Canada and Niagara Falls, and another to Oklahoma where we spent time checking out the Native American reservations and historic sites. We traveled through the Smoky Mountains, through the South to Tennessee and Florida, and even went as far west as Texas.

Many times, the motivation was to visit relatives. But driving took us through cities and sites we found to be fascinating.

We collected decals from each state, and other souvenirs, including knickknacks that were symbolic of the regions we visited. We’d stop at local restaurants to enjoy food from the region, and stay at a “motel,” which was a motorists hotel.

They were usually small, had a swimming pool and were inexpensive. You didn’t need reservations, usually, even though the roads were packed with millions of Americans who would jump into the car and vacation on four wheels.

Over the past three decades, as the father of my own family, we’ve traveled almost exclusively by plane to resorts in the Caribbean, Mexico and Dominican Republic. In the past 15 years, almost every trip involved a beach resort that was “all-inclusive,” where our meals were paid for ahead of time as a part of the vacation package.

Many times, we used a charter like Funjet or Apple. A few times we booked the air and hotels on our own. One time, we just booked the plane to France where we spent 10-days traveling through that beautiful country not knowing where we were going to stay.

The France trip was much like the old road trips I took with my dad behind the wheel. The uncertainty of what to expect made the trips more exciting. We easily found places to sleep in France and we did on the road back in the 1950s and 1960s.

So it was with all that in mind that I decided I was going to take the family on a new roadtrip, this time planned out with hotel reservations made in advance and tourist sites mapped out.

The difference between 1950 and 2013 is that the roads are different. In the old days, we drove mostly on slow, two-lane roads that took us through the towns at 35 to 45 mph. We went through a lot of towns. Today, a lot of those old roads have been replaced with super highways. Where the speed limits are 70 mph and they take you around the little towns, not through them.

The highway system in the old days was made to connect people. Today, the tollways and super highways are there to facilitate speed and save travel time. And when you save travel time, you lose a lot of the experiences that made road trips in the past more fun.

We stopped at Hanging Rock Cliff in Madison, Indiana, and then continued on our journey. Whenever there was a scenic option on the road, we tried to stop there.

Hanging Rock, Madison, Indiana

We booked hotels online in Jeffersonville, Indiana across the river from Louisville, Kentucky where we mapped out several sites to visit like the Louisville Slugger factory and baseball museum. We stayed at the Sheraton and ate at one of the high end restaurants that crowded in the little hotel corridor where everyone else boarded, too.

Jeffersonville, Indiana view of Louisville, Kentucky across the river

Plaza bat display at the Louisville Kentucky baseball factory, the Louisville Slugger

We did some online research while passing some of the towns and found that Col. Sanders is buried in Louisville Kentucky. We found the cemetery and discovered that it had painted two lines in the middle of the street that take you right to his grave, one in White and the other in Yellow.

Col. Harlan Sanders grave in Louisville, Kentucky

We drove to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. But you couldn’t buy tickets to tour the cave by walking up to the National Park. Tickets had to be booked in advance, online. So we walked around, checked out the frigid entrance of the deep cave, and then left.

Mammoth Cave entrance

In the old days, you wouldn’t need reservations at all.

We made our way to Gailinburg in the Smoky Mountains, a place I had seen years before. Back in the 1960s, Gatlinburg was the only real stop through the Smoky Mountains. Today, they have turned the little town of Pigeon Forge into a huge Honey Boo Boo resort filled with cheap attractions, wax museums, a Titanic museum, go cart and ferris wheel rides, restaurants and sky lifts. It’s kind of like a poorman’s Las Vegas. Dolly Party has “Dollywood” and the Hatfields and the McCoys battle it out each night over a dinner show.

The Great Smoky Mountains

Gatlingburg from the sky lift

It seemed most people stayed in Pigeon Forge in the carnival atmosphere than to really enjoy the pure air in the higher Smoky Mountains.

We drove to Clingman’s Dome, one of the three largest mountain ranges east of the Mississippi River, 6,643 feet high. And those mountains are smoky, reaching into the chilled clouds.

Clingman's Dome view

Next, it was off to Nashville and Broadway, the blues and music capitol of America where we enjoyed lots of music, museums and music tours including through the Country Music Hall of Fame, and RCA Studios where Elvis Presley and others recorded many of their hit songs.

Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee

Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville, TN

We found a few outdoor attractions to check out, like Cummins Falls, a more than half mile trek through the woods to see a beautiful waterfall. And then we made our way to Memphis to visit the Graceland home and grave of Elvis. The following week of our tour marked the 36th year of his death, so the place was not yet packed with tourists making it an easy and enjoyable walk through his mansion-like Southern home.

Cummins Falls, between Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee

It wasn’t until we were on the road to Memphis on I-40 that I saw a gas station “trading post” which sold Native American souvenirs. The only other one I found was near Mammoth Cave, a place called Big Mikes where I bought a dozen arrow heads, and other souvenirs for my son. We purchased some small raw crystals and rocks for his collection, too.

At the I-40 trading post stop between Nashville and Memphis, with a Raccoon skin hat

I even bought copies of the drivers licenses of Moe, Larry and Curley, the Three Stooges, who helped raise me through my childhood.

We checked out Fort Negley, which was the first Confederate Fort captured by Union soldiers in 1862. There were only a few tourists walking through the stone and tree fortification.

Fort Negley, Memphis

The Johnny Cash museum was a hit in Memphis, as was Beale Street, the music center of Memphis.

Memphis was a big stop with the Gibson guitar museum, riverboat rides and carriage rides, too. Great southern food and parks.

Beale Street, Memphis

Carriage rides in Nashville, Memphis and St. Louis

Memphis Riverboats

Elvis grave at Graceland, Memphis, TN

Gibson Guitar Factory in Memphis, TN

Country Music Hall of Fame display, Memphis

Memphis Bridge to Arkansas

From there we drove through one town that still looks like the way it might have in the 1960s, Cape Girardeau where we stopped at Market Street along the Mississippi River and enjoyed Jambalaya, the little shops and Gator Fritters.

Cape Girardeua, Missourri

We reached Cape Girardeau driving through the Arkansas Delta, which didn’t have much to see, sadly. 

We spent a night in St. Louis and toured the wonderful Arch. It’s is stunning. The photos of the Arch in the morning and night skies are striking.

 

The St. Louis Arch

And then we made our way zigzagging over the Mississippi from Illinois to Missouri. On the Illinois side, we stopped at the Popeye statue at the base of the state of Illinois. The creator of the Popeye cartoon character is from Chester, Illinois.

Then it was straight up Illinois through Springfield and back to home.

We drove almost 2,000 total miles during the road trip. I stopped for gas seven times. Gasoline was about $3.50 a gallon for premium, a dollar lower than what they charge in the Chicago area.

The expenses mounted, though. The average cost of a hotel room was $200 a night, with reservations.

Everyplace had the Internet. I guess it’s no different than the telephone technology of the 1960s. They had phones back then, and Internet today. But the Travel Apps were worthless. They were clearly designed by techies who never got out of the house when they were young.

Honeslty, I downloaded six of them – TripIt, Tripper Pro, Trip Suite, Trip Rider, Routes, Smokies and Circle the Smokies. The two last apps, which offered highlights of the Smoky Mountains were OK. But the rest of them were junk.

There’s nothing like exploring and running into a surprise.

Our Itinerary:

Jeffersonville, Indiana

Louisville, Kentucky

Gatlingberg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Memphsis, Tennessee

Cape Gerardo, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist. Reach him at www.TheMediaOasis.com or follow him on Twitter at @RayHanania.)

Travel: Clearwater offers reasonable cost vacation - Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Clearwater Florida

Travel: Clearwater offers reasonable cost vacation
Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Clearwater Florida
By Ray Hanania

With the prices of overseas travel skyrocketing, traveling to popular Caribbean resorts like the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Mexico have become cost prohibitive.

A good alternative, though, is to stay right here in the good old United States of America. And, if great beaches is what you really hunger, Clearwater, Florida is one of the best. It’s very affordable.

Clearwater is located in Southwestern Florida on the Caribbean side of the state between Tampa and St. Petersburg. There is a sandbar peninsula along the Caribbean where the beaches are affordable and phenomenal.

We’ve stayed at the Hilton in Clearwater about 10 years ago and recently at the Sheraton on Sand Beach, just south of Clearwater.

Sand Key Beach is a beautiful beachfront that has more sea shells mixed in with the sand. In fact, one of the great attractions is the shells. You can collect all kinds every morning. The kids love it. The water is clean and fresh, and crystal clear. And the sea floor goes out a hundred yards at shoulder length before it begins its drop.

Like I also said, Clearwater is very affordable.

The 7 night trip at the Sheraton cost only $1,800 for two people. We also spent $400 to rent a car from Hertz, picking it up at Tampa Airport, and then using it in the evenings to explore the very explorable Caribbean coastline all the way down to Tierra Verde, passing some remarkable town beaches like Madeira and Treasure Island. We spent about $600 for food, gas and miscellaneous.

Each of the towns have beach access side roads where you can park for a small fee and explore the ocean front or check out the local retail offerings.

The Sheraton Hotel in Clearwater is actually about 15 minutes south of Clearwater where two big hotels now dominate the beach. The Hilton, which has been renovated and sparkled up is right on a beautiful soft white sand beach front that is huge. Years ago, the neighborhood was a dump, somewhat frightening and crime-ridden. But that’s changed a lot. There are new stores, and more restaurants. A little further south is the brand new Hyatt Regency right across from Pier 60 and the jewel of Clearwater beach which everyday is like being in the middle of a circus.

If it’s the circus atmosphere that you like, you will like staying at either hotel. The beaches are packed with characters, entertainers and vendors. They’ll paint your picture and your face.

But if you are looking for a relaxing resort-like beach front, the beach at the Sheraton is the choice.

The sand is different at the Sheraton beach. More crushed shells and intact sea shells while the sand at Clearwater Beach is softer and more like a white powder.

The disadvantage is that the Sheraton beach is about 100 yards, or a football field away from the hotel and its small outdoor pool. But, it’s all shell and sand and wide open. Along the beachfront, which is supposed to be private, the Sheraton sets up Canopies (Cabanas) and umbrellas for a $25 daily fee.

You will see rows of blue cabanas that fit two lounge beach chairs and two people and a little room in between for your bags and iPads and electronic gizmos.

Occasionally, schleppers were trudged down the beachfront and plant a large umbrella on front and sometimes the hotel staff will chase the riff-raff away. But that doesn’t always happen. I mean, you are paying for your stay, and the squatters are not. It sounds harsh but why should someone get something for free that you have to pay for?

Every day just before lunch, Debbie will drive by with a large glorified golf cart refrigerated snack bar and take orders for drinks and sandwiches that come in perfect when the summer temperatures rise to the 90s and 100s.

Just beyond the buoys, which mark off the large swimming area in front of the beach in the water, you will frequently see dolphins arching out and then back into the water. Keep in mind that dolphins arch when they surface and then dive back down feeding on the schools of fish, while sharks, when they surface, sail menacingly along the water surface like submarines.

We saw lots of dolphins, and with Jaws always in the dark recesses of our minds, stayed pretty close to the shore.

We rented a car so we were not limited to the restaurant at the Sheraton where we did enjoy the hot omelet breakfast buffet every morning, for about $26 for two. It was fresh, hot, clean and enjoyable with lots of breakfast choices.

A decade ago when we stayed at the old Hilton Hotel in Clearwater, we would walk a block to Crabby Bill’s original seafood and lobster house. It was more of a hangout back then. But today, it is a tourist Mecca. Always crowded and a little pricey.

www.CrabbyBills.com

Lobster is inexpensive, as you can imagine. I had it every night for dinner. At $30 for one pound of lobster, it was well worth it. The conch ceviche was phenomenal and you can get alligator tail fritters and conch fritters, too.

But we went to Crabby Bill’s, which has two other nearby locations in the Clearwater region, mainly to reminisce. Our real favorite was just south of Sand Key Beach and the Sheraton hotel, in the opposite direction of Clearwater beach, called Keegans Seafood Grille on Indian Rock beach near Madeira Beach.

You would never expect Keegan’s to be a great restaurant, but it is. It’s in the elbow of a small strip mall and doesn’t look like much. Limited parking. The dining room is Spartan. You will drive past multi-million dollar homes on the western side of the road fronting the Caribbean, and smaller homes on the eastern side of the road looking like a nice neighborhood with little beach access.

But the place is phenomenal. The two half pound lobsters were phenomenal. The conch ceviche was perfect. The conch fritters were great.

About one block away is Guppy’s on the Beach Grill and Bar, another great restaurant. It has a large dining area in its own building. The place looked like a little shopping mall and we didn’t even know how big it was until we found the entrance hidden on the south end of the building. The place was packed. The lobster was great.

The dining area was really comfortable. Indoor and open-air, and outdoor.

www.3bestchefs.com/guppys

But we continued to go back to Keegans, which was recommended by the Sheraton concierge. What a great tip he gave us.

www.keegansseafood.com

Pier 60 back in Clearwater was a fun circus. You can walk out on this long pier that is choked with vendors selling all kinds of art and shell designs and souvenirs. Near the end, you have to pay a small fee to go to the tip where you can watch the sunset in the western sky. It’s beautiful.

But, it’s all about the beach for me. The beach has to be perfect. I always used to love the Bahamas, which has the best beaches and clearest waters. But they destroyed the beauty of Paradise Island with that monstrosity called Atlantis. Atlantis costs a fortune. Sure it’s fun, but for $14,000 for three people. That’s ridiculous. The “deals” they offer are just not deals at all, but rip-offs. It’s so sad. That beach was always my favorite, now choked with families seeking water slides and souvenir junk to bring home, rather than just enjoying one of the most pristine beaches in the Caribbean.

Punta Cana is a great alternative, when you can find a deal. You should never pay more than $1,200 a person for an all-inclusive. But you have to carefully check out the resorts because they are built like bowling alleys with the cheaper rooms six blocks from the beach. You’ll have to walk long, hot asphalt drives or take golf-card pulled “trains” and shuttles. It’s annoying. A few have villas right next to the beach.

Jamaica is a disaster. The only hotel worth going to is Beaches on 7 Mile Beach. But 7 mile beach is like 20 miles of harassment and hustlers constantly trying to sell you junk and dope to relieve you of your cash.

We stayed at the Lady Hamilton in Jamaica but the beaches were just so lacking, even though the hotel itself was very good.

So many people are afraid to go to Cancun because of the violence from the drug lords.

Clearwater and the Sheraton Sand Key Resort is the perfect alternative.

(photos)

  beach cabanas

escargot

Treasure Island

piles of shells on the beach

Ceviche at Keegans

Distance from the beach to the Sheraton hotel, with
storm clouds approaching fast (rain storms were quick in Florida)

Pier 60

Pier 60 Scenes

2 half pound lobsters

Baby live conch shells (that I threw back into the water)

One pound of Lobster from Crabby Bills

Crabby Bills in Clearwater

Sand Key Beach, facing north. Endless bliss

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