Viva! Las Vegas!

The morning we left, was my Birthday! Scott handed me a little bag and inside was a pretty little necklace – Wonder Woman’s dress. Zales has a whole Wonder Woman theme going on. It’s super cute.

He spoils me too much sometimes I swear.

I messaged a fellow pilot friend of mine that I met through a Pilot’s Forum many years ago. Maybe ten at least? We became friends on Facebook and I followed his travels and adventures there, and he, mine.

I knew he had a place in Havasu, so I messaged to see if we could hit his place, on the way through to meet and say hello. He’d always said to come see him – and over the years We’d just never been out that way.

He said Of course, and gave his address.

We drove up the nice WIDE streets (thankfully, lol) and parked in front of his house. They assured us their house was pet friendly, and Odie and kitty came with us up to the front. They had to put their new little doggie in the bedroom, because he was very angry someone was there with a dog AND a cat.

We had a nice chat, while kitty and Odie explored the house, but couldn’t stay long. Scott had dinner reservations that night. (A surprise, but I think I’d figured out where, since that’s all he ever talked about when he talked about Vegas and the Fence convention days). R said to take a different route than I had planned because the road was terrible! – and to be honest ALL the roads in Arizona SUCK. They are literally falling apart – or ½ paved, or roto-milled forever. I never saw any paving work or signs that they were DOING paving work on the roads that had been grooved – and were HORRIBLE on the bike. So far Arizona has the worst roads of any state we’ve been in.

We made it past the Hoover dam, and saw smoke. Up the hill we trekked, and there was a fire truck coming down the opposite side of the highway and then we saw it…..Car on fire. Yikes! The people were standing away from it, and it looked like all their stuff was out, thankfully – but damn. I’ve never seen a Car-B-Q like that! I was scared to drive past it – too many movie explosions. Lol.

We rolled into our newest spot – in a sketchy part of Henderson. Most of the RV parks are positioned there on the Boulder highway. When Scott saw online people were complaining about break-ins, We cancelled and I called another park to reserve a spot – in a slightly better place. I had called earlier to verify they had a spot for us, before cancelling and she said yes they have one left. Work got in the way and It took me a few hours to call back. So when I did the spots were taken.

It’s getting tougher to get last minute changes lately in the nicer parks, so we have to plan way ahead, and this was only a couple weeks out, so I wasn’t surprised. We called and re-instated our reservation at the other place, thankfully. As we pulled in – it was pretty busy. We were escorted to our spot – with a few hiccups with trucks blocking access, and a couple of questionable turns. We squeezed into our little spot and set up. It’s TIGHT in there – with only about 6 to 10 feet between rigs – maybe a little more.

We also backed up to the Dog Parks. 4 separate fenced off areas for multiple dogs that might not get along, all with pea gravel about a foot thick. Not great for puppy paws. As soon as we got there, several dogs were barking at each other through the fences, and their owners sitting on their rumps saying “Penny, now stop that….come here….come here….penny stop…..ok come here….penny stop, that’s enough” Oh boy – THIS is going to be great. <eyeroll>

Our bedroom is in the back of the coach, and so while I opened up the slides, and got the bedroom put together, I could hear all the dogs, and all the yelling….ugghhhhh.

I ordered a Lyft, earlier and looked at the time. 20 minutes until they arrived. Shiiiiiit. I didn’t have time to shower, or even put on makeup. I quickly put my hair up with a clip, and slapped on some light makeup. As I was putting my foundation on the Lyft driver texted “3 minutes away” Omg we still have to walk to the entrance. The RV park was strict about letting anyone in to the park without permission and when I called the office no one answered, so I just told them to meet us at the entrance.

We got our shit together with lightening speed, and got to the entrance just as she was pulling in.

She dropped us off at the Venetian – and Scott said “Well you probably know by now we’re going to Smith and Wollensky’s” YAY!

2 AWESOME steakhouses 2 weeks in a ROW! Woot!

We had a lovely dinner, despite the loud ass group that came in about ½ way through. What possesses a group of people to come into a place, whoop and holler like its fucking Mardi Gras – in a high end place like that, and think it’s ok? They were literally STANDING UP and hollering, high-fiving and laughing the ENTIRE time.

I couldn’t even talk to Scott, because he COULDN’T HEAR ME. I almost asked to get moved, but I liked our waiter, and so we just suffered.

We had the Shellfish tower, The bone in Rib Eyes with Mashed potatoes and Asparagus. Scott told the waiter it was my birthday so they brought out a MASSIVE chocolate cake we could only eat a few bites out of it was so rich. We got a to go box for the bones (For Odie) and the cake.

We went out and walked around, checking out the casino and some stores.

I wanted to go to Ceasars Palace, and play the MegaBucks machine. I try to do that when I can – since my Aunt and Uncle won big on it back in the early 80s. I also wanted to go to the Shrine out front that was always so nice, and light and incense in thanks for another successful trip around the sun.

The shrine was hard to find. Everything has been built up around it – and it’s not so peaceful anymore. Restaurants and a big open square surround it now. Yuck. The night was at least beautiful, but I didn’t get my Gelato from Ceasers Palace’s forum shops. It was too late. It’s kind of a thing we do and I was sad we couldn’t! Well, we’re here for a few days. We’ll see.

We couldn’t find the Megabucks and finally had to ask. We walked right past it – and someone was playing it. I sat nearby to see if he’d get up soon, and put 20 dollars into the machine in front of me. Three spins and it was done. The guy never got up so I said “I’m done, this is stupid” – I mean I could have bought a couple of pairs of socks with that $20.

We called for our Lyft and called it a night. The lady who picked us up was FUNNY and we had some good conversation on the way back.

The next day we went to take a hike at a place I’d found, that was a new national park (or monument) and it has all sorts of fossils everywhere. Apparently when this area was much wetter, back in the Ice Age, many animals lived and died there. It’s now a huge fossil bed and is being protected.

Tule Springs Sign

We headed out and what we noticed on the trail right away was dog shit. TONS of dog shit. In bushes….IN THE bush on top! Everywhere on the trail. It was disgusting. Odie wanted to of course sniff ALL of them – but gross, man. No. The problem was the sand? Gypsum? Shale dust? Whatever it was, was WHITE and all the dog shit was Black. UGH. Made it look so terrible. What is wrong with people?

Dog shit...as far as you can see

It was a crappy weird day and WINDY as hell. As we walked around – trying to figure out what we were looking at – exactly – we both got an emergency message on our phones that there was a severe wind storm moving in, and that we needed to take shelter. OH well GREAT.

We were waiting on meeting for dinner with a friend of mine. We were going to meet her at a place that we could eat outside with the dog on the patio, and we were killing time near where it was. I saw this on the map and I was thrilled to see it was a great place to bring dogs.

I’m always looking for a place to be able to bring him. We just aren’t interested in anyplace that won’t take him. I was ok with him being in the trailer in a gated, and fairly quiet community – but not at some random place we don’t know. So we skip a lot of cool things because of it.

I looked down just then and saw a huge cluster of Fossils in a rock. OH! I said. I was like OMG I stood up and actually looked around, like I was going to be able to ask someone if I could have it, lol. – and then I saw it. Fossils everywhere. I found bone fossils right on top of the ground. Looked like a rib bone from a fairly large animal, I touched it and it was a fossil for sure. Unbelievable. I wanted to take them so bad, but in doing some research on my phone saw they don’t want you to touch them. I sadly put it back and made mental note where it was. They wanted reports from anyone who found anything, to help them catalog things there.

Damit – we need to leave – We don’t have time to look for more.

I took some photos and sent them to my Aunt – and told her she MUST check this place out this summer!

Just then the wind kicked up and we couldn’t breathe. I mean it nearly knocked me off my feet. OH great I’m breathing in dog shit and white gypsum or whatever this stuff is. Gag.

We need to go. Now. We cut across the open field – even though we should have stayed on the path, but it would have taken twice and long and we could see the dust cloud coming.

I looked for a dog park close by and found one up the road with good ratings. The wind was still howling, but at least we could breathe if there is grass. We needed to kill some more time since we weren’t meeting her until 5:30. Odie wasn’t real interested in the only other dog there – he hasn’t been lately. He’s such a person, I think dogs annoy him. He still loves sniffing poop though. <eyeroll>

My friend texted just then and said that the outside patio was out. I wasn’t surprised. The weather was terrible. She invited us over instead and I told her we were stuck at a dog park with nothing to do, because the wind drove us out of our walk.

She said give me 10 minutes, so I can put on pants – but yeah come on over! We’ll order in.

I was SO excited to see her. I’ve known her since we were 14 at least. We were attached at the hip during a good portion of the 80’s and attended several concerts together, the mall, parties etc. She loves Hair Metal and that community as much as I do. She’s been able to become good friends with many of the 80’s Band members, and so we had SO much fun just talking about bands, music, Vegas, and Cancer.

She has beat throat cancer and is hopefully in remission but has had some seriously trying times.

She is a flight nurse so has a NICE pad, with lots of 80’s posters all over – including Skid row and LA guns right in her living room. Every available piece of wall or counter or shelf has trinkets and skulls and very metal things. A killer horseshoe bar with leather and studded silver stools, a big Addams Family style dining table, and oodles of Buddhas, pillows, rocks, sage……YESSSSSSS I love it.

Funny thing is she met my Ex years after we divorced and never knew he was my ex I think until Facebook came along, and the whole “How do you know Nikki” thing came up with he and his wife. Haha. We’re all good friends and I love that. We sat and chatted about all things Rock and then It was nearly 6:30 before I realized we hadn’t even ordered dinner yet. So I ordered Chinese and we talked more.

It was terrible Chinese food – but we ate it anyway, and then had to get going. She was leaving for a trip back home to Colorado for a bit, so she needed to get packing. We hugged and she said she may see us this Summer in Oregon. I didn’t get a photo, and I didn’t even see her “Rock Room” Ugh. I can be such a ditz some days.

It’s been a LONG time since we hung out – but when I do hang out with friends like her – the real ones – the good ones…I realize HOW much I’ve missed her. Where did 30 years go?

The wind continued to be absolutely horrendous and it made visibility very low. We drove past Fremont street and were surprised to see people down there – but this was not a night WE were going. No way.

We climbed into bed.

BARK! BARK! BARK! WOOF! WOOF! BARK!

That’s what woke us up for the 2nd morning. It was early but not BAD. 8am is the end of quiet time – and I feel like in Vegas – it should be 10AM. HA. Ok we’re up. We’re up. Shit.

The following day I had an appointment for Odie to get a prescription for his flea and tick and Heart Worm treatment. I knew going up in to the North, we would need that again – but he needed to be tested first. I also wanted them to look at his chin – that itches all the time, and get a refill of a medication that helped his itchy paws.

All went well, and afterwards, We headed to Red Rock Canyon National Monument. There, you have to get a timed entry ticket – of which I got for a hour after the vet appointment.

When we arrived the man asked if we had an appointment, and I said Yes – He said do you have your confirmation number? I said sure – well my phone had no signal – no I don’t. Sorry. Red Rock Canyon is not that far out of town and It didn’t even occur to me to get a screenshot. I told him I didn’t have a signal – so he took our name and wrote it down.

Huh. Kind of odd.

We drove to the visitors Center for my souvenir. I buy a magnet to each park we go to for the fridge. There was a man behind the glass doors as I walked up, and he mumbled something and as I tried to open the doors (I thought he was going to give me grief about wearing a mask – something I’d left in the car) They were locked. He was masked up in an N95. He shook his head, slid a map through the crack in the door and said “NO POWER!” I took the map and looked at the people next to me and they gave me the “I don’t’ know?” Look. People were going into the bathrooms, and coming out realizing there were no lights or water.

The lady in front of me when I was walking back said “They could have said something at the GATES instead of people driving up here, getting out, walking up, and THEN finding out nothing is working”

NO kidding right? The guy taking our names at the gate, instead of checking a computer suddenly made sense, though. What DIDN’T make sense was the guy hiding behind a locked door, along with a N95 mask on. Very zombie-apocalypse - like. Weird.

So we began to drive the scenic loop - while Odie stuck his head out the window looking for bunnies. He’s gotten super good at knowing what deer, Squirrels, bunnies, mice, puppies, kitties, horses, birds, Dolphins and more are during all of this. I can pipe up and yell DEER! And he knows exactly what to look for and what they are. Bunnies and Squirrels being the favorite.

It’s a beautiful place and I’d really like to hike around in there someday again. Scott and I took a trip out a few years ago and climbed the back side of the park. Really cool place if you like rock climbing. M, Scott’s friend called right when we were driving in, to tell us he was home for the day – loaded up for his drive (He’s a heavy equipment transporter) for the next day and ready to hang out.

So, we quickly drove the loop, and headed back out.

We drove to M’s place across town, and Odie tried making friends with his dogs. His rottie was not having it – she is pretty small and Odie is always so “BIG” in size and personality – timid dogs usually shy away. She’s super sweet though, so I told him to ignore her and to play with a toy. We ended up throwing the ball around, and she started to lighten up.

The little terrier he has was not interested in much, so Odie just ignored him, as well. We talked for a bit, and his wife hurried home from work. We went to a late lunch at a bar and grill they like and said our goodbyes. It was a quickie thing, but we had to be back to the trailer by 4 so we could get ready.

Scott got me tickets to a concert, too.

The Scorpions have always been one of the OG bands that got me into music. I dabbled in Duran Duran, or Tears for Fears – and had posters on my walls but they were just bands I liked. The Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy, Metallica, and Dio were the foundation of the music that made me.

Sure, I’ve been a fan of many others afterwards in many different genres (even had a quick love affair with the 90’s country scene, when grunge took my beloved 80’s hair bands out) but those are my real jam. So many songs that I can sing every single word – and a couple probably play every single note on a piano if I had long enough to figure it out. I love them, and I was so excited to see them.

They didn’t disappoint. Klaus is obviously getting up there in age (he’s now 73) and needed a sturdy microphone stand and a wide stance to be able to not get off balance. I saw a bit of palsy affecting his right hand, so he made sure to hang on with his right hand most of the night. He took a lot of breaks, in which there was much drumming, and guitar solos, but he’s still amazing. They all look good – and Rudolph and Matthais were awesome. I spoke to Rudolph, many years ago backstage. We were supposed to meet the entire band, but we got only him.

He complimented me on my Tight, black and silver velour mini skirt and jacket, (But I had to ask him twice “Excuse me?” because of his thick accent – I didn’t know what he said, haha) and I felt like a moron. He signed my stick-on pass, and it graced my large makeup mirror along with other stickers and art permanently hung in my room for years. After I’d moved out, and came back to collect a few things I noticed that the pass, and all the other things on the mirror were gone. My mother had scraped all of them off and thrown them away… thinking it looked trashy. I nearly died.

I posted on Facebook that we were there and ready to ROCK!. I got a message from a friend of the family saying “WHERE ARE YOU!!! I’M HERE TO!!!” What? HAHA! He showed up at our row, and we hugged and did the OMG’s I can’t believe you’re here!

It’s actually not a surprise. Colorado isn’t far from Vegas and it’s a really popular place for people to vacation, and I run into people there I know on occasion. Ran into a pilot I knew from back in the day in a parking garage once, lol.

It was a GREAT show. We also got our photos taken initially, and HAD to purchase a couple of them. They were actually REALLY good and we hadn’t had photos taken professionally of either of us in like, at least 10 years. Probably should do that. Anyone out there up for it? We need the kid home, though.

We left and went to the “After party” Planet Hollywood set up. HA. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Whatever 28-year-old kid set that up – LOL……needs a lesson on who they're catering to. We’re not afraid to party after a show. But you can’t funnel a bunch of 50-something rockers into a CLUB with house and EDM music. It was like a revolving door. People went in – and then they went out. Which is exactly what we did.

LAME.

We talked with S, our family friend for a bit, and I saw a “haunted house” slot machine below. We walked down and I put in $20. This is THE ONE! This one I will WIN!.....Lost it all in about 3 minutes. “I’m done.” I said. Stupid. Geez.

We said goodbye and I called for a Lyft. We really didn’t have the money to continue doing anything on the strip. The concert was crazy expensive. $20 beers, a $40 photo pair, a $40 set of drinks inside….the tickets, and the Lyft. We’re done. Plus, there is nothing all that interesting anymore for us and Vegas. It’s too expensive and I get sick of people trying to give you boobie cards or CDs. Vegas Strip doesn’t have the same feel anymore, either. Man, we’re old. I’d MUCH rather be on Fremont and walk around. WAY more interesting people there.

My Phone dinged and It said “Upgrade for $3.00 and get a”….what is it, a premium ride or whatever. I said “OOH ok!” So about 2 minutes later a guy in black Tesla pulls up.

**giggity**

We get in and it was SO quiet. My first ride in a Tesla AND first ride in an electric car. We chatted him up and we asked about the car and whatnot. It was cool to watch the cars and people show up on the big screen he had inside, like a video game.

I want one.

I know, I know….Elon and all that….. I don’t care…I want one, haha.

Never happen – but whatever. One can dream.

The next morning I was jarred awake by dogs fighting and barking at each other through the fence in the dog park. Uggggghhhhhh!!! 7:45 am and I WANTED TO SLEEP IN.

Fuck.

I wanted to open the rear window (if it DID open) and throw cabbage at the owners and scream “Jesus Christ people, SHUT UP!”

That day we were going to meet up with another friend – someone we hadn’t seen in at least 10 years or better. We’d met him through a friend, and even after they’d broken up we kept in touch on Facebook only.

We headed to his place and met up with him and his Girlfriend. His house was gorgeous and was owned by a previous pro wrestler. It was VERY nice. We took off and headed to Boulder City, to a great little street-side café where they questioned us about our lifestyle, and had some wine and I had a big cheese and fruit platter. It was awesome. They are both such great people and I wished we could hang out with them more. We had such a good time.

We did Laundry that night and realized we were out of Quarters. There was no change machine and the office was closed. I scrounged around and finally found enough to just barely get our laundry basket done. I wanted to wash a few things in the truck and a blanket or two but that wasn’t going to happen this time around.

That night I got online and looked up our next stop. We were going to stop at Death Valley National Park – to kind of hit all the national parks we could on the way North. I wanted to verify our route when I noticed something. I did some further research and….yep…. NO facilities there. No water or power. (Dump isn’t as important – there were bathrooms). DAMIT!

We can’t boondock right now. DAMIT!.

I was so disappointed. Gave me a bad feeling, too. I hate that, but something was off. I didn’t like changing my plans. I plan not only for the weather, but I knew it might be tough to change things up and find a place for the next 3 days until our reservations in Fresno.

Scott did some calls while I did searching online, and he found a spot in Bakersfield, Ca. I was ok with that, as a friend of mine lives there and she promised to hook up when we got there – or figure it out when we got to Fresno. I was excited to finally see her – someone I haven’t seen in over 4 decades.

BUT I was going to find out – that THIS trip was going to be the epitome of canceled plans and disappointing trips. Honestly, with a couple of exceptions – I’d have been fine skipping that state altogether.

But, that’s for another time.