Las Vegas, here we come!

Tuesday & Wednesday, June 26-27, 2012

We parked next to a 170 Roadtrek last night at Mountain Valley RV Park, but didn't see that anyone was around. Shortly after we openned our curtains and started getting the coffee and eggs on, Mary Ann Church, our neighbor stopped by. We enjoyed sharing Roadtrek adventures. Mary Ann has put 160,000+ miles on her 2002 170 RT and is thinking of buying an RT Agile SS. Mary Ann was just returning from a trip to Maine on her way home to The Sea Ranch, just North of the SanFrancisco area. She encouraged us to try a Roadtrek Rally sometime soon. Hope we have a chance to run into Mary Ann again someday.

We took off around 10am headed to Las Vegas through a valley in the mountains covered with wind turbines. This was the largest wind farm we have see so far on our trip.

We arrived in Las Vegas to find some VERY HOT weather--105 degrees! I'm sure it was even hotter walking across the blacktop parking lot where we found a parking place behind Harrah's Casino. LasVegas certainly changed since we visited last time.
We were disappointed to see the inside of the Luxor had changed so much. It once had a "river" running through it's pyramid shaped building. That has now been replaced with all sorts of tourist attractions and small exhibits. Guess they decided the river didn't bring in enough money. I was happy to see some fiber art by a friend, Carol LeBaron, featured behind the reception desks. Her three hand dyed wool shibori pieces looked impressive, even in the huge space where they were displayed. Sorry I couldn't get a better photo; my camera didn't want to cooperate.

We spent the afternoon exploring some of the casinos we hadn't visited before. Our favorite was the Bellagio where we didn't win our million dollars, but had fun trying. Mel generously "gifted" me his gambling money, so I had $40 to lose instead of just $20. That kept us busy for a while and gave us a nice cool place to relax. We tried the buffet at Harrah's the first night.  OK, but not the best.

Wednesday
We spent our two nights in LasVegas at the Oasis Campground just on the edge of the city, another one of those parks for the hugh rigs. With the weather so hot, it was nice to have a spot with a little shade and an electrical hookup so we could run the air conditioner. We spent the cool morning doing laundry and straightening up. More exploring some of the casinos for the afternoon. We hit the Bellagio buffet for dinner. The line was long, but the wait was worth it. We'd highly recommend it...king crab legs, kobe beef, shrimp, sushi, and desserts galore. Mel and I split the once we tried so we could have a taste of many.

When we first arrived on Tuesday, we decided to try for tickets to Cirque Du Soleil's "O" water show. We were able to get tickets for Wednesday, though all that was left were the "obstructed view" seats. What luck. We were were actually lucky to have gotten these seats...although they were up against the wall on the far left side of the theater (seats 1 & 2), they were in the fourth row from the stage. The only obstruction was not being able to see the performers to the far left of the stage as they entered. They were terrific seats where we could see the detail of the incredible costumes, the faces of the performers, and occasionally feel the spray of water from the stage. GREAT SEATS!  The performance was well worth the price of the tickets. The performers would emerge out of the water and then disappear back under the water. There must have been some kind of airlocks under the stage. The pool had a floor that would raise and lower...sometime the performers would dive from high above and other times they would walk across the water (when the floor of the pool would raise). It was quite amazing.  You can preview the show here.

A few more pics....