We arrived yesterday from Zion National Park to the Tropicana in Las Vegas after what was at times a harrowing trip. We left Zion yesterday afternoon after touring the park. One of the cool things we did before leaving, was a hike to the overlook where the entrance road comes in through this huge canyon of switchbacks and a long tunnel. Just where you enter the tunnel coming in is a parking area where you can get on the overlook trail. It is listed as an easy hike with 165 feet of elevation change. My knee was feeling pretty good, so I decided I could make this hike. Jerry and Brenda lent me their walking sticks, and Vickie declined to go. It turned out to be more a moderate difficulty hike, and often quite scary as you traversed smooth sandy rocks with drop-offs and no railings. But I was determined, and made it up and back. Nothing stopped working, and other than a sore hip joint, I survived quite nicely. After the hike, we headed back out of the park through the Springdale Ut ah exit. Along the way we stopped at the park visitors’ center and took advantage of the picnic area to have lunch from stuff we had brought from the boat. After our picnic, we headed out for Las Vegas, eventually joining I-15 for the trip into Vegas. The drivers were pretty crazy on the interstate, and Jerry did a good job of getting us safely to our destination. We saw one incident where a tractor-trailer accidentally cut off a small car. The driver of the small car went into a fit of road rage, and drove up beside the truck and threw a full can of liquid at the window. He then got in front of the truck and pulled off and dared the driver to stop and fight him. The driver didn’t so he rejoined the fray and harassed the trucker again for several miles. Oh and by the way all this was going on at about 80 mph as the speed limit was 75. Also during the trip, we experienced the "Nevada Lane Change". What this consists of is, you turn on your turn signal and change lanes after about tw o blinks, even if there isn’t any room to move over. The other cars just have to get out of the way. (all at 80 mph)
After arriving at the Tropicana, we checked into 3 adjoining rooms, and made plans for the stay. It was decided that Jerry and Brenda would take Judy and Jimmie touring today since they had never been to Vegas. Miss Vickie is pursuing her love of gambling, and left me to catch up on my writing and such. We had a great (if expensive @ $11.99) breakfast buffet this morning. After that I retired to the room with a beautiful overlook of "The Strip" to communicate. During breakfast today, we had a discussion, which leads me to a soapbox topic.
Las Vegas has really changed. The days of reasonable rooms and reasonable food in Las Vegas are past. In the past, Vegas wanted to get you here to gamble, so they enticed you with amenities and good prices. Today just the opposite is true. They know folks will come, so they stick it to you every chance they get, just like any other resort. The rooms we are staying in are nice enough, but nothing special for the price. There is no in room coffee, no complimentary continental breakfast, and even a tiny TV with very few channels. (and no curved shower rod) Breakfast at the buffet was $11.99, and dinner last night at the Garden ala Carte restaurant was quite high. To get a cup of coffee this morning, it was $4.95 at some special coffee restaurant, and then Internet access is $11.99 per day. It is free most every where else. A soda from the machine down the hall is $2.00 but then the machine does take AMEX. I’m sort of disappointed. I used to think Vegas really wanted me as a tourist , now I feel like it is just another resort tourist trap. Wish I could snap my fingers and go back about 25 years and be here. Oh well the joys of being a "Boomer" tourist.
I’m going to take a shot at uploading some pictures from the week.
More later,
Wes
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