Our Winter Vacation '04 - Page 6
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After leaving Wellton, we headed north to Laughlin, Nevada. Laughlin is one of those towns that beckon tourists and their dollars to come and spend (gamble) their money away. It is nestled down next to the colorado river in a small oasis of 9 glittery multistory casinos. We were curious about the town and so we descended in low gear down the long hill into the Colorado River Valley on highway 163 till we reached Casino Drive that routed us south through the center of the casino section. When we reached the Ramada Express on the right, we noticed a large parking lot up the hill behind the casino that was specifically reserved for RVs. So we gently maneuvered into the lot and found a nice level place amongst the other RVs. There were no hookups, but at least we had a nice place to stay for the night at no charge. Soon we were out walking about and visited several of the casinos including the Colorado Belle where we stopped for a buffet dinner where we proceeded to stuff ourselves. Even though we were on the Adkins diet, we had no trouble finding all the seafood and red meat we wanted. It was wonderful. After Diana spent a quarter or two in a slot machine, we ambled up to our home on wheels, turned on the generator to watch a little TV, and then went to bed. The next morning, after a breakfast at the Ramada Express, we started up the motor home and then left town.
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Our destination was now Pahrump, Nevada, which is about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. We were heading for the Western Horizons, Charleston Peak RV Resort. To get there, we had to maneuver the freeways of Las Vegas and then climb west up over a mountain pass. Luckily, there was no snow on the road, but there was snow on both sides of the road at Mountain Springs Summit. After arriving at the RV resort, we connected to the utilities and then settled in for a bit of rest from the long drive. The thing that is unique about this RV Resort is that it is also a Winery. In fact, it is the only Winery in Nevada, and it's getting to have a reputation for some very fine award winning wines. On top of this, it also has a great gourmet restaurant, which we were able to partake of one evening. Reservations are required in advance, but you are treated like royalty to some very fine menu selections. For patrons of the RV Resort, there is a swimming pool and a clubhouse. Also, there is Wi-Fi available for access to the Internet. This was the first RV place we had been to where we could access the internet from our motor home with no other special connections needed. Out laptop was already Wi-Fi capable and all we needed to do was turn it on in the motor home and supply the password which the resort gave us for one days worth of free usage. For the following days, we had to pay for our usage, which was a little irritating, since we have heard of some places that provide the service with no charge at all. However, is was really great to be able to just turn on the computer to get our email and then surf the internet at super speed without having to go into the clubhouse and connect to the slow dial up line.
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Being in this particular location put us away from the sparkle and splendor of LasVegas, but here you can find some peaceful solitude and some great views of the Pahrump Valley and surrounding mountains. This was to be our home base for 10 days, but in 7 of those days we found ourselves in LasVegas anyway. It just happened that Dave's mother and his two aunts (who we saw earlier in California) had planned to have their annual rendezvous at the same time that we were in the area. So, the day after arriving in Pahrump, we found ourselves at the Vegas airport where we picked up Dave's mom and took her to Lorraine's condo where she was to stay. Later, we all went to the Gold Coast Casino where we had a buffet lunch. On another visit to Vegas, Dave's mom took us all to the Excalibur Casino where we took in a dinner show of medieval jousting. Then, on another day we just decided to spend the day walking the strip and to take in the sights, however, we were snagged by some of those people who temp you with show tickets and money to visit facilities that try to sell you time share opportunities. We decided that for three hours of "work" and some wasted time we could afford to be "snagged", provided that we were strong enough to resist the tough selling job we'd be subjected to. As it turned out, we ended up with two tickets to a magic show, 5 tickets to a comedian show, 2 tickets to the Follies Bergere, and $80 in cash. We didn't think that was too bad for three hours of "work", and we got to see LasVegas a little closer and be entertained at the same time. We were hoping that the $80 would turn into a million dollars at the craps table, but it actually disappeared into zero dollars.
On one Saturday afternoon, Diana decided to call Dave's son Devin from our home base in Pahrump because she thought she remembered him saying that he was planning to visit Vegas in the near future. It turned out that the near future was to be the next day, and on Sunday we picked up Devin and his "new fiance" at the Vegas airport. Yes, we had learned for the first time (on the phone) that he had a new fiance, although we had met her once previously. For further details on all this, you can visit the web page that announces his engagement (click here). We spent some time with them both, visiting the MGM Casino, the Hard Rock Casino, and then the Palace Station Casino where we took in the comedy show that we had tickets for. This show was particularly memorable for Dave because he and the others didn't want to sit up front center next to the stage, except for Diana who wanted to get her monies worth. Dave knew from a previous experience, that one becomes particularly vulnerable when sitting in this particular location next to the stage. As it turned out, he was right because he became the brunt of many of the jokes, except for the compliment he had on the good looking woman he was with. When Dave slyly put a thumbs down at this "famous" performer, it did not seem to help and the jokes and barbs kept coming. When the performer asked Dave if he had any children, he pointed at Devin. Now, if you know "big" Devin, you can visualize that Devin could easily take care of this sick joker. After asking Devin who the woman was next to him, Devin said that it was his fiance. The joker then said, "well you better be careful not to break her" (referring to her slender size compared to Devin). After that, the joker diverted his attention to others in the audience, but in the end he gave Dave a personal thank you, and said, "I appreciate it". Dave wanted his money back (even though we all got in for free).
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On Tuesday, Devin and Stephanie flew off back home and we picked up Dave's mom and took her to the airport. We then decided that we had seen enough of LasVegas and thought we would tour some of the surrounding country before leaving for home ourselves. On one excursion, we jumped in the jeep and just started heading uphill on a gravel road from the RV park. It was not long before we were high up in snow country. In fact, we came to a place in the road where we decided that it would be wise to turn around before getting stuck in the stuff. The country at this altitude was quite different with lots of trees, but with cactus still in places sticking up through the snow. And, the long vistas of the valley below with Pahrunp in one-corner and mountain ridges disappearing in the distance were quite beautiful. On another excursion, we went to Hover Dam and took in the sights there. This is a popular tourist attraction, but we found it very interesting and took our time looking around. Our final excursion took us on a long haul north, then west, and then south from Pahrump; not far from Death Valley. We really did not have time to visit Death Valley, but decided to leave that for another time. What we did find, or rather what we came across was The Chicken Ranch and Candies. Here, way out in this desolate desert in places where you would not expect (except for the billboards leading the way), were garish neon signs, provocative manikins, and signs offering free tours of the facilities. In our amusement (or amazement), we had a good laugh and then continued on.
All good things must come to an end, and after six great weeks we made a dash for Sunnyside, Washington. We needed to get there for the scheduled stay at the hospital by Diana's mother. As it turned out, her mother recovered by getting three units of blood instead of stints in her leg arteries to relive the pain in her legs. After that, it was necessary to find out where she was loosing the blood (but that is another story), and she was then allowed to go home. We then needed to get home to start work in preparing for the Seattle to Portland (STP) bicycle ride put on by the Cascade Bicycle Club of Seattle. Part of our work was to get in shape for riding (beginning with the Chilly Hilly ride around Bainbridge Island in late February), and the other was to start recruiting volunteers and putting them to work on the registration process for STP as part of our responsibility as STP Committee members. We hated to leave our short life as new "snow birds", but there is always next year. And, now that we have experienced a taste of what it is like, we may be able to stretch out our next adventure and find even more places to visit and see.
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