Bleary and Loafing in Las Vegas

We left Price, UT around noon and passed by a sign, surrounded by dinosaur statues, that read Carbon County- Land of Imagination. Shortly after that we passed by a city called Helper, and later we saw cities named Beaver, Sulphurdale, Toquerville (which we thought should’ve been in CO), Browse and Ute. We also drove by Starvation Road, which was funny because it wasn’t that far from a sign at a rest stop that listed elk, deer, buffalo and beef jerky.

One place that caught Grant’s attention was the Eureka Casino & Resort because of their billboard which read, “Play Long and Prosper.” Then there was another billboard that read, “This is the Comic Con you’re looking for,” which will be taking place in Salt Lake City. We also saw this sign that read “Drowsy Drivers take the next exit,” which we thought was funny because the only state we saw that in was Utah. And even though they apparently have mountains in Utah, they looked more like big sand dunes. It was definitely a more boring landscape than Colorado! That must be why they have the highest speed limit at 80 mph. J

But there was a really cool rest stop in Utah called Eagles Landing, where they have a petting zoo to the left of the store. It was the most unusual but fun rest stop yet! They had a camel, emus, burros, deer, dwarf ponies, fainting goats, llamas, peacocks, peahens, chickens, turkeys and a steer. And there was no admission fee or price to feed the animals, the store just asked for donations (which we gladly offered).

When we got back onto the highway we could see lightning strikes in the distance. We didn’t get caught in the storms this time though. It was kind of strange, however, to see the temperature go from the 80s to 101 degrees between the cloud bursts. I felt like we were back in New England with the chaotic weather! We also saw the third rotary since leaving MA.

One thing I was surprised we didn’t do earlier was listen to the ultimate road trip song, “Life is a Highway.” I couldn’t believe it took us five days for that one!

As we drove into Arizona we noticed the mountains took on a pretty red hue (much cooler than the UT sand dunes!). But we were only in the state for about 10 minutes and then we drove into Nevada. That’s when we realized the car clock didn’t match the cell phone, and that we had passed into the Pacific time zone. That was one thing that would’ve been difficult to keep track of without my phone! And this being my first time driving into Las Vegas instead of flying, I didn’t realize how windy it would be.

We got to the hotel about 6:30 p.m. and utilized the valet and bell desk for our stuff. I got to work on the blog while Grant looked up possible trips to the Grand Canyon. We eventually opted not to go, because we could only find one plane ride available that would’ve had us up by 4 a.m. And you didn’t even land to walk around, it was only a flyover. Other plane trips took too long overall, which is why driving there wasn’t an option either. We were picking up Cai from the airport that next day and we wouldn’t have been back in time to do so. But hopefully this will be even more incentive for Grant and his girlfriend, Angelica, to come visit us so we can all drive out there together. J

After making that decision, we decided to eat at the Italian restaurant in our hotel, Fellini’s. Dinner was delicious and I had leftovers to bring to the new house. Following that we went into the Stratosphere Tower to go up to the Observation Deck. There was a long line for something and we couldn’t figure out if it was the deck or not, so we asked a concierge on that floor for help. He told us a “little secret” and sent us through the VIP lounge to avoid the lines (since we had our hotel key that got us into the deck in the first place). So we hung out in the lounge on the 107^th floor above the Top of the World Restaurant, which sits on a floor that spins a full 360 degrees to see a view of the entire strip. As we were looking out at all the lights, we saw a handful of “sky jumpers” go flying down the side of the building. They have a feature now where people in a harness are attached to a vertical wire that goes down the length of the tower and kind of free fall to about five or six floors from the bottom. It was crazy to watch! They had a sign in the restaurant warning patrons that they might see sky jumpers fly by their window, so feel free to wave. The concierge told us after we came back down that they didn’t have the signs originally, until one woman in the restaurant had let out a blood-curdling scream, thinking that someone had jumped or fallen from the top of the tower! Smart addition I think.

The concierge also told us he was from Hawaii, after we mentioned our road trip and that Hawaii was the ultimate missing license plate from our list. He told us you can spot a car from Hawaii because it has a special safety sticker on the back. We also discussed the passing of Robin Williams, because the concierge had just read it online as we were walking back to the desk. That was the first piece of news we saw when we set up the Internet in the room, and we were both pretty shocked. We talked about it for a while, but didn’t want to be too upset for the end of the trip. We watched a few of his interviews on The Daily Show once we reached the new place.

We then decided to walk on the strip for a bit, since the temperature had cooled down to a nice 89 degrees. We made it as far as Circus, Circus, where we checked out the amusement park. Unfortunately it had just closed when we got there but Grant got to look through the gates to see some of the rides. We also passed by the Elvis wedding chapel, and a clothing store that had mannequins wearing lingerie and horse head masks (only in Vegas). We decided not to walk around too much, but rather get some sleep and do more sightseeing in the morning after checkout. That gave me some time to post the fourth day blog.

The sixth and final day post will be up by tonight. We’ve got some moving in of stuff to do today. Until then…

License plates we saw:
1:35- Manitoba
3:08- Washington