Well here we sit in Las Vegas airport waiting for the redeye back to Atlanta and Greensboro. We got to the airport about 6 hrs early, but it certainly eliminated all the stress of normal airport arrival. Last night we rode "The Duce" which is what Vegas calls their double-decker bus line down to Fremont Street to see the light show. Fremont Street is an incredible happening every night from dusk to midnight in downtown Vegas. The street is covered by the world’s largest video screen. The show runs every hour on the hour, and is different every time. In the meantime, the street is lined with casinos that seem more liberal than the ones on the strip. Also there are various other attractions going on between the light shows. We had a nice diner in one of the casinos at an oriental buffet that was quite reasonable. We watched a motorcycle stunt show where three guys rode wildly inside about a 14-foot steel cage ball. It was unbelievable. We also saw a guy that played piano from the back of a semi at light speed tempo, a fellow playing various jazz saxophones, and a pretty good rock band. We also spent some time wandering around the various casinos and shops. We rode "The Duce" back to the Tropicana and turned in for the night. This morning we enjoyed a good breakfast and packed everything up for leaving at 11:00am. We hauled all our stuff down to the Previa, and packed up. I had looked up how to get to Bob’s Original Country Steakhouse. This is an old restaurant (started around 1955) that Vickie and I found the last time we were here. When it was started it was out in the desert from Vegas and had a flashing blue light so the folks could find it driving across the desert. All the food is prepared on a Mesquite Grill inside the place. The walls are covered with autographed pictures from celebrities like John Wayne, The Lone Ranger, The Rat Pack and many others. It has been a Vegas staple for years. Now days it is surrounded by housing developments and a freewa y, but still has all the flavor and great food of the past. We had a great lunch there. Afterwards we made the scenic drive up to Mt. Charleston and it’s National Recreation Area. The road leaves Rt. 95 North of Vegas and goes pretty much straight up for 5000 feet. We had a great time visiting all the scenic areas, and used up some of the time we had to wait till our flight. We then headed for the Vegas airport, and now here we are.
Later—the return. As always the red eye flight home leaves you disoriented and tired. We arrived in Atlanta on time (the next morning) and the same at Greensboro. Our luggage arrived concurrent with us, which is always welcome. We were met by our good friend Chris who had benevolently stored our autos for the two weeks we were gone. He lives in close proximity to the airport and was very helpful in managing our cars. We were soon loaded in our own cars, and enroute for home. As wonderful as traveling is, arriving home is always wonderful beyond description. So around noon Saturday we were back in Eastern Daylight Time at our respective homes. There is always the 2 weeks worth of mail, newspapers etc to deal with, but there were no tragedies in our absence, a great feeling. I decided since it was a nice day, I’d do some work outside. Since we got some serious rain in our absence, the ground was soft, and a prime target for my 930 # roller. I hooked up the Kubota, and spent a coup le hours taking the humps out of the yard. Toward the end, the steady lull of the diesel overtook me, and I just had to go to sleep. I stopped the tractor, but left the engine running and put my head down on the steering wheel to sleep. I woke up when Vickie shook me after running from inside fearing I was dead from a heart attack. I guess sleeping on the running tractor was a little uncommon. I hate that I scared her so bad, but I just had to go to sleep. Later we thawed some nice tenderloin we scored at Kroger a couple of weeks ago and celebrated my birthday with steak, baked potato, and some sparking wine. For desert there were some great vanilla wafers, and bed was soon on the horizon. All in all what a wonderful adventure. And now we have a wonderful cohesive group of three couples we can plan future adventures with. Our next scheduled adventure is Alaska in February to see the Aura Borealis. Until then or some other spontaneous adventure, thanks for sharing this with us.
Cheers,
Wes
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