Start Off the New Year with The King's Ransom

As you know I try as much as I can to let folks know about interesting places, people, and attractions across the land.

Over the years, this blog has spoken about such places as the SPAM Museum, the National Mustard Museum, Prairie Dog Town, Bryce Canyon, Hash House A Go-Go, Big Elvis, and many others.

Well the time has come to let you know that Elvis has entered the building! Not Big Elvis (though I still recommend his show at Bill's Gambling Hall & Saloon), but rather THE Elvis. You can now check out a wide assortment of Elvis Presley's personal treasures & items at Las Vegas' Imperial Palace at the newly opened exhibit, "The King's Ransom".

April and I were there to check it out yesterday and absolutely loved it. Of course, we're always into such exhibits, but this one really had some rare and amazing artifacts, all personal items from The King of Rock n' Roll. Moreover, seeing it through the eyes of my friend, and occasional boss (he's a booking agent in town), Paul Sanders of Las Vegas Talent, the place took on a whole different meaning.

Paul was on hand to give us a tour and he really has put his own heart and soul into this project. It was not just the personal items from Elvis that made it special, but seeing the dedication and effort on the part of Paul (and so many others) to make this new attraction find a home in Las Vegas is quite remarkable.

Elvis will always be associated with Vegas. Now, The King has returned and found a home at a Palace, no less. I can strongly recommend" The King's Ransom" as a worthy distraction from your drinking & gambling duties when traveling to Las Vegas.

Some info for you...

Address: 3535 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Pricing: $10 admission (Keep your eyes out for Two-for-One coupons. At either price it is a BARGAIN for an attraction on the Strip!)
Phone: 1-888-777-7664
Hours: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. daily
How To Get There:
Las Vegas Boulevard between Flamingo Road and Desert Inn. Across from Caesars (Next to Harrah's).
Parking: Valet and self-paring garage

Also at Imperial Palace...

The NEW Strip location for Hash House A Go Go
The Auto Collections
Embers (our FAVORITE steak house in Las Vegas!)

Thanks, Blogywood.

I'd forgotten how much traffic comes my way from the fine link-dump known as Blogywood. You can find many fine links to unusual websites, news stories and photos from across the globe. Why just the other day I went there and saw a post for SPAM University. Sadly, the link led me to a place other than the Spam Museum, but it was fun being mislead for that instance.

I like a lot of these web-oddity sites. Places like Blogywood, Attu Sees All, D-Sign, and The Goose (and others) are not only fun places to surf during the day, but links from those types of sites can really bring in the readers to your own blog. Well most of those can drive traffic. I somehow have been deleted from Attu's link list with no explanation. Too bad. I got a lot of readers from him.

Anyway, thanks again Blogywood for the fun reading and the fun readers.

Next Stop...Niagara Cave

After completing our pilgrimage to the "CRAZY TASTY" SPAM Museum, it was time to head back towards Wisconsin for the next part of our journey. Of course, being ones to not adhere much to plans when traveling and having a good time, we decided to make a stop in Harmony, Minnesota so we could check out the Niagara Cave.

I have loved going to caves for many years. April had never been to one until last year. Even though she can get very claustrophobic, she LOVED her first cave experience and it seemed like a grand idea to go to another one. I'd never been to Niagara Cave and since this was April's first visit to Minnesota and only her second cave I knew this would be new to her as well.

I found out there are actually two caves you can visit in this area of Minnesota. We chose the Niagara Cave because it seemed to promote the visit more than the other one and boasted some fascinating things to see inside. Not the least of which is a 60-foot waterfall. Boy are we glad we chose this one.

There is such a calming effect on you when inside a cave. The temperature is always a bit chilly, but soothing. The smell is that of fresh, clean water & limestone. The sounds of water dripping and echoing lightly throughout the system are always enjoyable. And the formations are beyond comprehension. So many randomly-occurring flowstone creations end up resembling easily recognizable objects, like "The Dolphin" found here. There are even formations inside resembling an elephant, a skeletal arm, shark fins, and an old man's face.

How can you NOT enjoy looking at the magnificent Earthly creations found within a cave? They are just breathtaking to behold.

This tour gives you quite a workout as you end up walking about 500 stairs, back & forth throughout the cave. You end up walking a good couple of miles I'd say. Of course, if you're in to this sort of thing, the tour could traverse 20 miles and it would be over too soon.

We were fortunate enough to only have one other person on our tour so it was as if the entire cave was our own.

Maybe it has something to do with the air or the ambiance, but caves are very romantic I must say.


Of course, maybe it has something to do with the fact that so many formations look like giant vaginas.

Don't believe me?

Behold! The first of MANY different vaginal formations we encountered inside Niagara Cave.

I have way too many photos of the cave to share here. I'd say about 20 of them are different forms of, to quote The Very Famous Lance Vegas, "The Va-Geeje". It got to be kind of funny after awhile. I may have to do a separate blog post to prove my pint here. For now, simply take my word for it. Lots of Hoo-Ha in the Niagara Cave.

Now don't think I saw anything remotely feminine in these formations. April was the first to point out any strange vaginal resemblances here.

I am from Chicago and I don't see things like that when I look at stains and crevices formed by nature. No, I see the Virgin Mary.

Anyway, as I said we had a most excellent time at the cave. The tour was not very expensive and the memories are absolutely priceless. Caves are among the most unusual and fascinating things our planet can create. If you haven't visited any then you are really missing out on life.

Incidentally, you can see much more than giant vaginas inside a cave. In fact, the Niagara Cave likes to exploit both sexes equally.

For the ladies in da house, to paraphrase Monty Python, "here's a gratuitous picture of penises" found inside the cave. I have some better ones, but I'll save those for the separate post, fully shocking and amazing you all.

It is quite amazing what you can find inside a cave. What surprised me the most was that a little exploring provided me with an image of one GIGANTIC PRICK!


Stay tuned, kids! I still haven't completed day one of our journey!

Holy Crap! It's the SPAM Museum!

That's right, you heard me, THE SPAM MUSEUM! I don't know where YOU thought I'd be kicking off my Birthday Week, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to go anywhere else to celebrate such an occasion!

We drove on the 30th for as long as we could, heading north into Wisconsin. Our destination? Austin, Minnesota to bask in the porcine goodness that is the SPAM Museum.

Of course, lack of sleep and several deer throwing themselves in front of my car made me pull off in Sparta for the night. However, Sparta seems damn cool in it's own right and I'm glad I stopped because NOW I have another fun place to go with April some day!

As strange as this will sound, April & I have been wanting to check out the SPAM Museum for a few years now.

My original intent was to be there for the grand opening because my hero, Joe Walsh, was scheduled to play. He cancelled and I never went.

As time went by our desire to check out the SPAMMY goodness grew.

Simply put, the SPAM Museum is one of the most excellent chunks of Americana around.

There is no admission so it already has my attention. It celebrates a product rich in history, maligned by people everywhere, and yet loved by BILLIONS worldwide. It is also one place that NEVER takes itself too seriously and you know I am all bout that!

SPAM is just one of those products. Life would be hard to imagine had it not come about. Think about it, SPAM has been a part of our lives for DECADES. Vegetarians may not understand nor would they care to, but SPAM helped keep this nation and others ALIVE during World War II. At the SPAM Museum you learn about the history of the product, the ways it fed the world and the military during our toughest times.

You also learn that Hawaii is the single largest consumer of SPAM on the planet! I'm sure that Doyle, Christine, and Ma would have a few fine recipes to share with us. LOL!

What else is there at the SPAM Museum? Well I'd say that a campy, semi-animated puppet show giving a brief "This is Your Life" style tale of SPAM would certainly be something to grab your attention.

You can also play a SPAM trivia game that is held inside it's very own simulated TV studio. I imagine this place is HOPPIN' when there are large touring groups sitting in the studio audience.

You can play SPAM games, listen to radio and TV spots, see movies, get recipes from around the world, listen to SPAM songs, sample different varieties of SPAM, and of course...SHOP! They have one kick-ass gift shop.

Yessir, there sure is a lot to see once you walk through these doors.

Of course, I must be forgetting SOMETHING.

There's an interactive SPAM internet cafe where you can sign up for the SPAM fan club, but that's not all that important to mention.

OH YEAH! I remember now!

At the end of the tour you can sit in a replica of the set used during Monty Python's famous "SPAM Sketch"! There's a TV playing the sketch on a continuous loop, a giant Viking, chairs, a sign for the cafe, and all the hilarity that accompanies Python and SPAM. It is the PERFECT photo opportunity for freaks like you and me!

You can even get your own can of the limited edition SPAMALOT variety of SPAM. How freakin' cool is that?

I would recommend the SPAM Museum to anyone with a sense of humor and a love for canned spiced ham. And yes, they do tell you ALL of the ingredients inside a can of SPAM.

As you can see, I certainly enjoyed our first stop during Birthday Week. Of course, there is so much more to tell you!

Stay tuned.