ELVIS LIVES!!!!
It’s true! He is alive and well in Las Vegas, Nevada. And guess what? Not only does he live in Las Vegas, he performs WEDDINGS there, too! How romantic is that? He’s gotta be one busy guy, because he can be found entertaining and marrying people all over town. It’s funny, though – the photos don’t quite do him justice. It’s almost as if someone was trying to impersonate him. But come on, now that would really be crazy. I mean, can you imagine a city filled with thousands of guys who look just like Elvis? That would be really strange.
Anyway, I thought our visit to Las Vegas would be the perfect time for Bill and I to renew our wedding vows. After all, we’ve been married for twenty years, but we’ve never been married by Elvis! What an opportunity!! Bill disagreed.
We could spend several hundred dollars to spend a few priceless moments with The King. He would even sing us a special song! And I’ll bet he’d wear blue suede shoes! What an event!! Bill disagreed.
It gets even better!! We could renew our vows without ever having to leave the safety and comfort of our RENTAL CAR!! A Drive-Thru Wedding Chapel!! Is this America, or what?!!! What a great idea! Bill disagreed.
I argued that Las Vegas is THE place to live for the moment with wild abandon, acting on crazy impulse and spending money like there’s no tomorrow. Bill argued that this describes the entire 50/50 tour. He also refused to be married across the street from a strip joint.
Well, yeah, but it’s the Tunnel of LOVE!!!
Or how about one of these chapels?
No go. The best I could do was make Bill cruise up and down the strip looking for Elvis in a convertible cadillac. Along the way, we discovered that there is no reason to travel anywhere but Vegas anymore. In one convenient place, we can visit:
Shiny buildings
And big, giant things
All this AND Elvis?!! What a place! Is the entire state of Nevada like this?
Ok, so the state is not completely covered in casinos. We only traveled along the strip and interstate 15. Half of Lake Tahoe is in Nevada, and rest of the place is a huge desert. With all that desert, Nevada is the nation’s driest state (excluding the casinos in Las Vegas, of course). My cousin lives in a Las Vegas suburb, and as far as I know, she does not have a slot machine in her living room.
But if she did — I’d use it to DOUBLE my money, just like I did at the Planet Hollywood casino.
Of course we had to try something tasty in Las Vegas, so we stopped by Pink’s Hot Dogs. Pink’s is actually a famous California creation (Hot Dogs to the Stars) but they serve a Las Vegas Strip Dog at their Vegas outlet.
The dog was tasty, but we kinda thought a “Strip Dog” should be just a hot dog lying naked on a plate.
Anyway, believe it or not, just around the corner from the Strip is the Atomic Testing Museum. During the 1950s, Nevada’s desert became a testing ground for nuclear weapons. The museum chronicles the atomic age and the development of atomic bombs. It was a blast. Really. It was extremely interesting, but a couple of us couldn’t get past all that pesky death and destruction that comes along with annihilating weaponry.
Speaking of annihilation, it turns out that the kids felt that one of those bombs could be put to good use in the middle of the Las Vegas strip. They didn’t care for the place at all — hated the overt, crass commercialization. Could it be that some of their parents’ preaching has actually gotten through? Nah, they were probably just annoyed because they’re not old enough to gamble yet. But they could still look out for Elvis — I heard he was playing in town……
22. Nevada
Las Vegas