Viva Las Vegas!

From the sublime peace of the mountains and desert it was now time to move back to civilization and our destination was Las Vegas, the absolute antithesis with its glitz, glamour and gaming.



We needed to maintain Maggie's septic system; that sounds better than 'dump', doesn't it? Our tanks were getting full and we were low on water. All the RV parks in Tecopa & Pahrump charge $10 for this duty and one of them doesn't even include filling with water. But a couple of days ago, we stopped in at the RV park in Shoshone because we'd be passing right by it and asked the lack-lustre manager how much he'd charge and he said “no charge; just pull into one of the camp sites and help yourself.” Now isn't that hospitable. As is usual, I was guiding Fernie as he backed Maggie in towards the sewer valve. Walking backwards and gesturing for him to turn, I obviously hadn't properly scanned the terrain because all of a sudden I tripped over a largish (a foot across) rock that was protruding up about 10 inches from the ground. I flailed wildly to try to regain my footing and I must have spun around because I was about to fall flat on my face.....the ground was rushing to meet me but there was another rock roughly the same size about five feet further along and it was about to meet my nose. Splat! Owwwwwww! it really hurt........I actually didn't yell out loud though; it was all internalized and I was seeing stars. My left hand, by the pain in my wrist, must have helped slow the collision because if I'd hit full force, surely my nose would have been broken to bits.

The rock in the foreground is the one I tripped on and the one behind it is what met my nose.

And if you double click on this photo, you can see the bloody imprint of my nose

From Fernie's perspective, he was watching me in his mirror when suddenly, I wasn't there anymore and he saw me sprawled out lifeless in his rear view camera. Good thing he stopped and didn't run over me.......see, it could have been much worse. And luckily, there was nobody around to witness such an embarrassing event. He rushed out to help me up and was aghast to see my blood covered face. He retrieved my glasses which had flown off, and my keys and cell phone that flew out of my pockets. My glasses have a couple of deep scratches on them but luckily they're just below my line of sight so can probably manage to use them until I get home. I do have separate reading glasses. I had packed two bags of peas in the freezer when we left home in case Fernie needed them for his hip so they came in handy now. By the time I got them out and wrapped them in a facecloth, my nose which was still dripping with blood, was double it's size. I managed to finish guiding Fernie in, all the while holding the peas on my throbbing nose; even managed to help hook up our tow vehicle, then went in to take a good look in the mirror. YIKES!

Be forewarned: the following pictures are not for the faint of heart or those who'd mourn my lost beauty :-)

This was taken immediately after.

This one the next day; is anyone going to believe Fernie when he says he's innocent.

And the day after that. I look a bit like Rihanna after Chris Brown had his way with her.

I saw a cross between Rudolph and Jimmy Durante. Cherry red at the tip, a blue bruise was already starting to form across the bridge. Why did this have to happen when we're on the way to Las Vegas when we'll be surrounded by people. This past week, we've lived a solitary hermit-like existence, but no, I had to do it now. I continued to ice it for 15 minutes every hour, on the advice of my daughter who I skyped so I could whine to her about my sad story.

After makeup - still pretty grotesque but I wasn't going to let my vanity stand in the way of enjoying LV

We used Pahrump, 60 miles west of LV, as a spot to do laundry & replenish supplies It's a typical Nevada town with gambling its main industry. We asked at Terrible's Casino in the center of town if we might spend the night in their large parking lot and they warmly welcomed us. The laundromat was almost next door and Walmart and Albertson's were just down the street. The Nugget Casino even had a special dinner, a 2 for 1 buffet... $8.99. Hoping the lights would be dim enough that I didn't scare the other diners, I took pleasure in not having to prepare dinner. What more could we want. I was sort of afraid though that some old guy would call out "Hey Lady, did yer ol' man clean your clock?". Pahrump! Now there's a name....makes me think of the Xmas carol,The Little Drummer Boy – pah-rump-a-pum-pum. It's not too scenic of a town....it's more like the desert burped and brought it up.

Now that's better if you ignore the nose; I bought a couple of pairs of big sunglasses and wore them constantly.

I woke the following morning struggling to open my slit-like eyes. They had almost swollen shut. A stint with the frozen peas took the swelling down enough for me to see myself in the mirror. Eeeeeekk! my eyes had gone black and the nose still looked like an uncooked slab of liver.

Poor Las Vegas! The current economic crisis is crippling their major industry. Other than the addicted gamblers who will continue to play under dire circumstances, normal people are just not spending money on gambling and dining out and shows. The chain of Station Casinos, known as 'locals' casinos, are in trouble and I believe filing for protection. The earliest signs of the recession were seen in Las Vegas with thousands of property foreclosures and the resulting dumping of real estate values.


Our friends, L&J invited us once again to park Maggie at their house near the Summerlin area of LV. They live on a quiet street and we see so much more of them that way. L&J managed to snag 4 tickets to see Le Reve at the Wynn at 2 for 1 prices. These offers are only for 'locals', so aren't we lucky to have 'locals' for friends. Le Reve, a Cirque de Soleil production is all in or on water. The theater which is in the round, surrounds a large and deep pool where staging emerges and submerges throughout the performance. It was an amazing performance that was too fantastical to truly describe.


We dined out in a different restaurant every night and found it was amazingly reasonable to do so, especially with the 'locals' specials. One night when the bill came, Fernie & Larry each put down their credit cards and asked the waiter to 'split it in half'. He was a tall, heavy set man of Asian descent (& he contradicted the stereotype – he wasn't a mathematical genius). He rationed his words, didn't crack a smile and managed to avoid us as much as he could. Thank goodness for the busboy who did more than his share. The surly waiter returned and said 'we couldn't do the split exactly, so one is a bit more than the other'. We expected a penny difference because how difficult is it to divide by 2? Imagine our surprise when it differed by over $2.......we were hysterical with laughter; they obviously don't hire their help for their brainpower. As Jean said “I'd hate to share my chocolate bar with him”.

Our daughter recommended a restaurant at the Palazzo (there's also one at the Venetian) which had been recommended to her by her brother. It's called the Grand Lux and they serve such humungous dishes that the servers warn “If you haven't been here before, the plates are very large and you may share if you wish”. Isn't that amazing for a restaurant on the strip? Fernie & I chose Caramel Thai Chicken (also suggested by 'you know who'). It was to die for and I swear it was really enough for three....but we didn't leave even a grain of rice. Gotta go back there next visit. This same daughter (oh, that's right – we only have one) told us of a new vodka they'd sampled in a Yaletown winter festival (that's in Vancouver) so we bought a bottle of the Icelandic Siku and imbibed it almost daily 'on the rocks' with a squeeze and slice of lime. It was so smooth, it massaged the tonsils – we liked it better than Grey Goose. Happy hour with L&J is a pleasant routine; somedays it would be margaritas, ruby vodka tonics or wine but we never missed. Not that we're drinkers???

Las Vegas has the best dog parks we've ever found, so each day we'd take Caesar over for an hour of ''sniffin' & peeing”. The park for small dogs was about the size of a football field and it adjoined a park for large dogs which was even bigger. Caesar met bassets, schnauzers, dacshunds, chihuahuas, yorkies, mutts – just about every dog imaginable. He couldn't hear them or see them, but his tail wagged like a pendulum and his sniffer was put to full use as they'd run over to greet him. You meet some odd characters in Las Vegas dog parks. An old (eightyish) & toothless chap had a little black pomeranian that he'd rescued. Little Suzie wouldn't leave his side and when they were ready to leave, the old geezer put little wraparound goggles on Suzie, mounted her into a chest carrier and off they roared in a puff of smoke on a beatup motorcycle. “She used to have a helmet, but it fell off her while we were riding one day and we couldn't find it” he told us pleased at our interest.

Another day, a middle-aged woman who fawned all over Caesar told me she'd babysit for him anytime we wanted to go away; and when I told her we weren't from LV, she invited us to stay with her anytime we came back. I don't think we'll take her up on her offer – she was clearly 'touched'.

We awoke every day to the typical weather....sunshine and more sunshine – no complaints from us! So we explored different corners of the city by geocaching which in LV is absolutely unimaginative. We did some urban caching and if we find one more micro lamp post cache, we'll scream. Of course, we found time to poke into casinos here and there, but there's a little bit of “been there, done that” feeling.

Some of our 'only in Las Vegas' moments:

Romance Las Vegas style

A couple getting 'hitched' at a drive up wedding window.

Tatoo parlour; maybe if I get a rose on my chest, nobody will notice my face.

Picture behind the toilet in the ladies' room

Is he drunk or just tired? And why is he wearing that crown?

There's only one thing we miss when we're on the road and that's internet access, so this year while in Las Vegas, we decided to splurge and purchased a 'mobile internet USB modem' and signed up for a Verizon plan. It's great! As we roll on down the highway, I'm surfing and Skyping and downloading and answering email. We also blew some $'s on a larger LCD TV for our bedroom – it's just 23 inches so not exactly big screen but in our tiny bedroom and compared to our old one, it's huge. Fernie got his first 'old age pension' cheque in February (yes, that's right – he's 65) so we figure the first two months are now spent.