Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas

We spent very little time in the casinos in Las Vegas except to walk through the shops and down the street gawking like tourists are supposed to.




One day we drove out to Red Rock Canyon.

I had read about this in Les's blog( see side bar) and thought we would try it. Believe me the pictures in no way show the sight. It is magnificent!
Some visitors even dye their hair for the occasion.

There is a large visitors center, information center and gift shop for the first stop. You meet the Rangers and tell them what kind of hike you would like to take. A 13 mi. scenic drive surrounds some spectacular scenery and the hiking trails branch off the drive.
There are many mountain climbers out here, some free climbers and some technical. It all looks technical to me!


Erwin and I have always wanted to see the desert in bloom and we got our wish....enjoy

Cha Ching

After a long drive through the desert with nothing to see but the straight road and cactus we are finally here in Vegas. We are staying in Sam's Town RV park not too far from the strip..Oh all right it is about 10 miles more or less. We have a very nice site with a tree and nice neighbors. Our first night here we had happy hour with them and had a wonderful time.



The next day we were gone all day. We started out at Ethel M's Chocolates.

As you can probably tell I am fascinated with cactus gardens.
Such prickly things to have such gorgeous flowers.


Next on our to-do list was to visit the MGM Casino and see the lions...not too exciting there. Lions mostly sleep during the day and these were definitely well fed and ready for naps.



Then a long long walk to see Imperial Casino where they have these amazing cars for sale. You know I hate my truck so why not?

How about this one? They only made two, I wonder why?



Or perhaps one of these? Wouldn't it be an eye catcher with my 5th wheel on the back!



Finally the Bellagio to see the dancing fountains.







I will try later to get the video on here, but so far no luck and that is a shame because it is beautiful!

I HATE THIS TRUCK!!!!!

We get all packed up and ready to go this morning. We stop at the post office to get our mail. It was there. We love our mail service! Erwin hops back in the car, starts the motor and what? No air conditioning? This cannot be!
Six hours later and a much lighter pocket book we are on the road to Winterhaven, CA for the night just so we can say we stayed in CA then on to Las Vegas. Let me just say here that I hate this truck!

We have found Salvation (Mountain)

It is too hot here to even think about sight seeing or doing anything outside. The humidity percentage is so low that if you get wet, you shiver because the air just sucks the moisture from your body. I gave the poodles a bath and took them outside to dry. In 103 degree weather I didn't see that it would take too long even for them. I sat in the shade and looked down at poor Buffy. Not only did she look like a drowned rat, she was shivering. What the ???? I felt her coat and it was ice cold. Evaporation is such a cool thing.Moved her to the sun and that solved the problem.
When you cannot go outside and play the next best thing is to get in the car and drive. We have heard about The Slabs and Salvation Mountain for years.Since Niland was only a few miles away comparatively we decided a day trip was in order. If we liked it we would come back and camp, if we didn't then the trip was definitely worth it.
We drove for miles in the desert replete with sand , sand dunes, boon dockers and heat. When we first reached Niland we knew we were in for something unusual to say the least.
Definitely we were overdressed.
But hope and direction were right around the corner.
Just a few more miles of this and we would be there!
Ah ha! there on the side of the road another art project.
And a bit further on. All I could say was, "Oh My"At least 50 feet high and close to 200 ft across...all images from the Bible.

Yes folks, seeing is believing.
And I believe that Slab City is not for me! I felt like we were in the midst of a rag pickers commune. I am sure that during the season, it is full of 5th wheelers, motor homes, etc, but right now all that is there is the rag tag of society.

Oh my.