Leaving Las Vegas

Friday October 23 2015

The reunion is over but we hadn't planned on leaving Las Vegas until Saturday so today we rode over to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The cool thing about Red Rocks is you can see a great deal of it from the comfort of your car. They have a scenic road that follows a giant curve in the mountain range. There are several trail heads and overlook parking areas were you can hike out onto the rocks as much or as little as you like.

Saturday October 24 2015

After our eleven day stay in Las Vegas Millie and I are ready to move on. Our desire to hit the road is partially because this is a gritty rundown city, save for the immediate area around Las Vegas Blvd. There are some newer nice neighborhoods, they are mostly on the west side around Summerlin. Our RV Park is on Boulder highway on the east side and the reunion was across town at the Orleans Hotel. We tried several different routes to get across town and everyone took us through a less than desirable neighborhood.

Don't take the impression that we didn't enjoy our stay in Las Vegas, because we did have fun. Primarily here for the reunion we rounded out our Vegas experience with a variety of activities. We saw live theater, movies, the Strip, Fremont Street, Hoover Dam, Red Rocks and Boulder City, not to mention our many miles of driving around town. 

We drove from Vegas to Tusayan the little village at the entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park, a distance of =/- 275 miles. The RV campground in the National Park was full so we are parked for two nights at Grand Canyon Village RV Park. It's an OK campground just a mile outside of the Park entrance. Maggie likes it because there are ground squirrel burrows all over the Park, she's constantly wanting to go out and hunt for squirrels. The most notable thing about Tusayan is there is no TV or radio signals.

In the afternoon we went to the IMAX theater here in the village to see the National Geographic movie about the Canyon. It was impressive but on Sunday we will see a different documentary about the big ditch that I liked better. 

Sunday October 25 2015

Leaving Maggie and the motorhome at the campground we drove the jeep into the park and walked the rim trail from Mather's Point to the the historic district. It's an easy paved trail, with all three miles within a few feet of the canyon's southern edge. There are endless spectacular views all along the rim with several rock outcroppings perfect for taking people pictures. There are many Elk that wander around the tourist areas of the park, They apparently have no fear of humans, on the rim trail we saw several laying in the brush not 30 feet away. 

Upon leaving the park we had dinner at The Big E steakhouse where we saw the second Grand Canyon documentary. Afterwards we strolled the gift stores, buying only a T shirt.

Monday October 26 2016

Today we drove 340 miles to Casa Blanca in New Mexico. We stopped twice, once for lunch at a Subway store again for fuel at a flying J travel center. Our overnight stay is at an RV Park adjacent to the Sky City Hotel/Casino. The entire complex is owned by the Native American Acoma Pueblo. We had planned on visiting the casino, but I think spoiled it for Millie. I walked through it after registering for the campground and reported that it was populated by the same sad broken down patrons that we see in casinos everywhere. Of course it wasn't all my fault, we have 30 cable TV channels and after two days of no TV we've been watching it nonstop since we got here.