2nd Week in Vegas, 2008

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Lorraine's report

Another week spent here in Las Vegas, bright lights, big city. Feels like the weeks are just zooming by. Each day we get going and we are never sure what the day will bring most of the time.

Monday was unmemorable to me. I can’t remember what we did. Tuesday was “Carol’s 81st birthday. Carol and Melba Smith are friends Chuck met on the Oregon coast. Mel recognized our rig here at 1000 Trails. We took them out to a new casino that was suppose to open on Nov 11; but it wasn’t open until 11:11 pm that night. So we drove to another casino and showed Carol how to play the new machines. She wasn’t sure what all the bells and whistles meant, so we tried to help her with that. She said she enjoyed herself. Then we went to dinner. Fun times for all.

Wednesday we got up and went to the strip to try and find cheap tickets for Jersey Boys. We went to the half price ticket place in one of the malls, and waited in line only to find out Jersey Boys was dark for the night. We would have to come back another day to try again for tickets. Chuck asked how much they were and they told us they were $125.00 each. We decided not to go. Just can’t seem to make ourselves spend that kind of money for a two and a half hour show.

Thursday was find a beauty saloon for my hair day. I needed my hair colored again. I ended up at a saloon on the far west side of LV at a place that had one hundred or so beauticians, nail techs and botox people. My gal was named Shar and I explained what I wanted. She said she could to it, so I let her try. While this is not exactly what I wanted, at least I can live with this for another four weeks or so, till next time. My hair is more blonde than I like. I had “hot” roots for a day or so. Oh well, it will fade out and grow.

Friday Chuck wanted to go to the painted desert. This park is on the far west side of LV.
The colors in the rocks were beautiful. We took lots of pictures. What a beautiful country we live in.

We got back about 3:30 and I received a call from my son, Rick. We will be burying my brother, Colin’s remains in Bellingham, on Thursday, Nov 20th. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get air fare for this.

After that, Chuck took us over to Sam’s Town for seafood buffet. What a great buffet!

Saturday Chuck got up and said his ear ache was back and hurting pretty badly. So we went and found a walk in clinic. He has swimmer’s ear and the Doc prescribed different antibiotics and ear drops for him to take. Hopefully this will get him feeling better.

Saturday night we went over to Fremont Street. We enjoyed the lights and music they have every night. We did a little gaming, but no luck..

So that brings us to today. We decided to leave here a day early because I will be leaving on Wednesday out of San Jose, CA to head up to B’Ham. I’ve been doing laundry and will have to pack up and pack my stuff for the funeral. Chuck took me to the champagne brunch this morning; we won’t have to eat for the rest of the day.

So that’s been our week. Till next time…Lorraine

11/16/08

Chuck's report

Well, it's been another week, time for a quick report. We are still set up in 1000 Trails at Las Vegas and enjoying the weather. We are a couple of miles from the Las Vegas strip, much less hectic and less traffic around here.

We are under the flight approach for the airport but they are high enough that we can't hear them. The airport is very busy, seems to be a line of planes, one every 2 minutes or so. It's pretty neat to see them lined up at night, can usually see 5 big planes in row, heading towards the airport. At least, that was the normal for most of our time here. Two days ago, the wind picked up and switched direction so now we are under the takeoff path instead. There is still a plane every 2 minutes or so but now they are making more noise. It sure seems to me that a lot of campgrounds are under airport paths or around train tracks.

Monday we decided to head to the Strip, not our favorite area in Las Vegas. Here are a couple of pictures to prove we were there.

Lorraine standing in front of the waterfall at Wynn's casino. This isn't as nice as the big water show at Bellagio or the Pirate ships at Treasure Island.

Two pictures from a walkway across Las Vegas Blvd.

About two months ago, we were staying at a campground at South Jetty in Oregon were we met a nice couple from California. Melba and Carol Smith are not fulltimers but they are on the road a lot of the time. While walking Misty, I met Mel again here in Las Vegas. We remember each other and decided to spend some time together.

Mel, Carol and Show-Show.

On Tuesday, which happened to be Carol's birthday, I wanted to go to a new casino that opened in North Las Vegas last week. Mel and Carol agreed to go with us. It is about 15 miles away but the GPS would get us there, right? Of course, there is lots of road construction here and the GPS wanted us to go where the roads were closed. We finally got there, only to find the casino was closed, it's grand opening was this Tuesday, today, but at 11:00 at night. Oh well, with this lifestyle, no worries, back to plan B. We stopped at a Casino in that area for a couple of hours. We then headed back to our area for dinner. We went to a buffet and had a very good time visiting with them.

Also, Tuesday was Veteran's day. I would like to thank all our veterans and current military personnel for insuring we keep our freedoms. Not everyone may be pleased with the outcome of our election but everyone should be proud of the way it was executed. It may not be perfect, but there's nowhere else I want to live.

Wednesday we had to go to a medical lab to get some blood drawn for tests our doctor needed. We went back to the strip for awhile after that then returned home for a quite, restful rest of the day.

Thursday, Lorraine had an appointment for her hair so we kept close in the morning then headed out to the West side of Las Vegas. While she was getting her hair done, I was able to go to a couple of hardware stores, just looking, didn't buy a thing.

We stopped for a burger at a place called "Fat Burger". We had never heard of this chain before so thought we would give it try. Their burgers aren't as good as "In & Out" but still were good. Later on, we stopped at a casino near our area for a couple of hours.

Friday found our friends, Mel and Carol, leaving. They are planning on heading towards Arizona for awhile, hope to meet up with them somewhere along the way. Their house is in the Bay area, we may visit with them there someday. Good travels and goo luck, Mel and Carol.

After they left, we wanted to go to Red Rock National Park, about 10 miles East of Vegas. There were lots of people visiting this park, most of them were hiking or climbing. We just drove through, stopping often to take pictures. Once again, there are lots of rock formation with red rocks, the pictures don't do them justice but they're the best we have.

We really like the way the red is partway and white the rest.

One of the catus in the area, lots of them around but in areas it looks like most are dead? This one seems to be doing just fine.

A picture of the valley, Vegas is off to the left, can't really make it out here.

Saturday, I woke up with another bad ear ache. I decided to go to a walk-in clinic and get it looked at. The doctor said it is swimmer's ear and prescribed some medicine. After we got back home, I took a nap, don't have any energy, it seems.

Later we went to old Vegas, a place called Fremont Experience. I came here in the late 60s, I don't know how much of the strip was built then but this is what I remembered of Vegas. Now, the strip is what everyone thinks of when they think of Vegas. If you get here, this is a side trip I recommend you should check out. It has a canopy covering about three block with millions of LED lights. Every hour, on the hour, they turn off all the glittery outside lights and put on a light and sound show on the canopy. Sorry, the pictures we took didn't turn out very well but we think it is well worth the trip.

Also, the casinos are close together here, within walking distance of each other. The street is closed between them, just a nicer area. It's not as glitzy as the strip but we like it better. I believe the payout on their slots is way better than on the strip, same type machines, just programed better.

Last week I said we were hoping to harvest some of the money we left here as seed on earlier visits. We were both winning then, can't say the same thing after another week, we are both in the hole. I keep reminding myself we are paying for our entertainment. But still, given the choice, we would rather be ahead and I know they don't build these places from the winners.

We are planning on leaving here tomorrow morning, heading back to Susy's. Today we need to get packed up and ready to go. Lorraine is doing laundry as we will not have sewer hook-ups back at Morgan Hill but we get to be with Susy, Mark and Kaitlyn. Lorraine has to fly back to Bellingham on Wednesday, more on that next week.

So, another week, another posting. Hope everything is going well with you. We are sure enjoying the weather and the sights. Being able to be here for two weeks also allows us to explore the area which we always enjoy.

Thanks for visiting our site, 'til next week - - - Chuck