March 2015
We left the tranquility of Death Valley NP and drove the 3 hrs back to Vegas. It's so strange as you approach Vegas, particularly when you are driving and the countryside is so sparse, to then drive into Vegas where it is so populated, so bright, so gaudy, so surreal....even the street names...
It took us a while to find our hotel, which was on the Strip, a Travel Lodge...so nothing fancy, but free parking, brekky and wifi and Woody and Buzz, who were off to earn a dollar!
No casino to walk through, just a basic hotel room for a reasonable price...unlike the expensive Bellagio that we stayed in in 2013! It was ideal and we were on the Strip within minutes of leaving our room. The best part was we didn't have to walk through a smoke filled, people filled casino to get anywhere!
It was much less overwhelming this time and I found it more enjoyable.
We saw the Bee Gees and Elvis perform...as you do....
We had a Vegas buffet dinner which was delicious and wandered around the Strip...
There were still lots of people trying to get you into their establishments, lots of drunks and homeless people, and probably because we were there during week nights, it didn't have the same sleazy feel it had the first time. We were up early on our last morning there and raced down to the iconic Vegas sign. There was a guy there taking photos for people..with their own cameras...and they paid him around $1 each for the privilege! He would have made a fortune as there were at least 50 people queuing when we arrived. We did what was advised on Trip Advisor...get someone in the queue to take your photo and return the favour!
We said goodbye to the Strip and drove to Old Downtown Vegas in search of a pawn shop that features in the TV show Pawn Stars and that Stuart watches. I have never watched an episode so had no idea what we were looking for and I must admit was a little surprised that this was the shop! Maybe that's why it took us so long to find it. Underwhelming would be the best way to describe it, but we could tick it off the list of "to dos".
On a more exciting note, the Graceland Wedding Chapel was just down the road...and I saw a couple arriving in a limo to get married...don't think they were famous...
like this guy....
and we were on Route 66...
Our favourite part of Vegas turned out to be Fremont St, or Old Vegas and we only wish we had discovered it earlier or someone had told us about it. Apparently there is a great light show every night, but we were leaving Vegas that day so didn't get a chance to see it. But we did enjoy wandering around, checking out some of the old signage....
We were looking for something for lunch...this was on offer but we went nachos instead...
and knowing how much I love jewellery, Stu wanted to buy me a necklace...but I just didn't have anything to wear with it.
We could have ziplined down Fremont St, through the Mall, but instead we chose to walk it...
We somehow ended up at Downtown Container Park which is an offbeat shopping area, gallery and parkland made entirely
out of recycled trucking shipping containers. It was very innovative and so simple.
We were a bit reluctant to leave Old Vegas but had to be in Laughlin, Nevada that afternoon where we were staying with friends, Marilyn and Rick. Once we were out of Vegas, the landscape changed and we stopped to take some photos of Joshua trees. They are everywhere!
FUN FACT: Laughlin is in Clark County, Nevada on the Colorado River on the 90 miles (140 km) south of Las Vegas.
Its name comes from Don Laughlin, who hails from Minnesota and purchased the southern tip of Nevada in 1964 (informally
called South Pointe). At the time, Don Laughlin operated the 101 Club in
Las Vegas. He opened what would become the Riverside Resort, offering all you can eat chicken dinners for 98 cents, 12 slot machines
and two live gaming tables, along with eight motel rooms (although four
of the rooms were occupied by Don Laughlin's family). He wanted to call
the community Riverside or Casino, but the post office opted for
Laughlin instead.
Laughlin is the third most visited casino and resort destination in Nevada after Las Vegas and Reno and is one of the top five destinations for American RV enthusiasts.
We arrived there in time to stop at Davis Dam,
and eventually arriving at Rick and Marilyn's place late afternoon. They are both heavily involved with CITEL and Rick bought this house for winter, so he could escape the cold weather in Colorado and he heads back to Colorado during summer when temperatures reach high 40C's in Laughlin. They took us for a drive to see some petroglyphs just out of town
and that evening we enjoyed a catchup and dinner with them at the house. The next morning we went to the riverfront where the casinos and hotels are
before driving out to Oatman, Arizona....with no expectations.
Wow..what a great little town. It is on a section of Route 66 and is an old mining town in the Black Mountains of Mohave County. We knew nothing about the place, but Marilyn and Rick assured us we would like it and we did. The first images were of burros (mules) freely roaming the narrow street...
and although wild, they were tame enough for us to get up close and personal with.
We checked out all the little tourist shops,
had lunch..(no we didn't eat these)
and made a few purchases including this for $25
and a cowboy hat for our friend Colin.
The highlight though was a mock Wild West shoot out in the middle of Route 66...at high noon!
A (cowboy) hat is then passed around and donations made towards a
children's hospital. It was a bit of fun and all for a good cause!
We had a long drive to get to our next house exchange in Sedona, Arizona and were going to be doing a bit of it on Route 66,
so left Marilyn and Rick mid afternoon and made our way out of Oatman. We probably got 3 minutes out of town and came across a burro crossing the road.
We were so preoccupied with him that we didn't see these guys in the hills until they started their loud "bellowing" to try and get rid of us! After a long drive, we eventually arrived in Sedona in the dark.
No comments:
Post a Comment