Yesterday I realized that we were having a déjà vu experience, wondering if we would get out of Las Vegas today or not. Exactly five months ago we were in Indiana at Elkhart Campground with Greg and Jan White, watching the weather and wondering if the high winds there would die down so we could hit the road! Now here we are with Greg and Jan in Las Vegas, wondering if the wind will die down so we can hit the road. History does repeat itself! 

Yesterday the wind blew hard all day, and we were glad we were not out on the highway in a high profile vehicle. Today the wind is supposed to be considerably lighter, and if it is, we’ll pull out about mid-morning and head for Kingman, Arizona.

If we take the direct route, over Hoover Dam, it is 106 miles to our destination in Kingman, Arizona.  RVs can cross the dam unless there is a heightened alert status, but traffic can get very congested going down to the dam and back up. The longer route, through Searchlight to Laughlin, Nevada, and then to Kingman, adds an extra 25 miles to the trip, but usually has much less traffic congestion. We’ll probably choose that route.

But again, it all depends on the weather. If the wind is still blowing hard, we’ll just pay the Thousand Trails preserve for an extra day and wait until tomorrow. One of the great things about living in an RV is that you have your house with you, so it doesn’t matter where you are, because you’re at home. So why press our luck driving in hazardous conditions if we don’t have to?

We have had an absolute blast playing tourist here in Las Vegas with Greg and Jan. It has been like going on vacation from our permanent vacation, and all four of us agree that we have seen things and done more than we would have if we had not all been together. But I have to be honest with you, I miss working. I couldn’t do this on a regular basis.

I have been able to get enough information for several stories for the next issue of the Gypsy Journal, but I usually spend several hours a day at my computer researching and writing. We’ve been so busy for the past two weeks that, except for writing my blogs, I haven’t gotten much work done at all. I’m not complaining, it’s been a lot of fun and we have made some incredible memories. I’m just ready to get back to my regular routine.

The last time we were in Kingman, the service on our Verizon air card was terrible, and from what I understand, things have not improved since then. Mohave County, Arizona seems to be stuck in the dark ages of technology, and nobody told the folks in charge that it’s not 1950 anymore. So if the connection is as problematic as it was last year, there may not be as many photos on the blog for the next few days.

Of course, that all depends on if we actually do get out of Las Vegas today.

Thought For The Day – Forgive your enemies…once.

One thing I really wanted to do before we left Las Vegas was visit Fremont Street for the Fremont Street Experience. Glitter Gulch, historic downtown Las Vegas, was where the gaming industry began, and the old casinos here paved the way for the newer, fancier paces further south on the Strip.

Glitter Gulch got its name both from the glitter of coins dropping into slot machines, and the glitter of the neon signs that light up the night like daytime. The big places on the Strip may have unique architecture and big name acts on stage, but downtown Fremont Street is still classic Las Vegas.   

Never content to sit idly and watch the world pass them by, the folks who operate the old casinos downtown knew that they had to come up with an idea to compete with the new places springing up all over, and the plan they came up with is a winner.

Several blocks of Fremont Street were closed and turned into a pedestrian mall, and a four block long overhead canopy, equipped with a $17 million digital video display system featuring  state-of-the-art LED technology with 12.4 millions bulbs and live action capabilities was installed .

Last night we decided to hit Fremont Street, and I’m really glad we did! To me, it was the best part of our visit to Las Vegas. The crowd was smaller than on the weekend, and we spent a couple of hours just soaking it all in.

There are certain moments that define our lives, and one of them for me was when I came home from overseas. Several of us packed ourselves into a taxi for the ride from the airport to the base, and the car radio was blasting out a song I had never heard before, but came to know well, Don McClean’s American Pie.  The song is the anthem of the Boomer generation that grew up in the 1950s and 60s, and I never hear it without it taking me back to that late night taxicab ride.

So when the canopy above me lit up with a psychedelic display, and the words to American Pie started booming out of the huge speakers along Fremont Street, I was enthralled. I stood there, my head craned upward as images from the past were displayed overhead, tapping my toes and singing along to the music, a huge smile on my face. For a few moments, I was 19 again. I can’t explain it any better to you than to say that you have to experience it for yourself. I didn’t want the song to end.

After the song was over, the lights came back on, and an all girl singing and dancing act came onto a stage to entertain us. They were a hit with the crowd, especially the young guys who all crowded up close to the stage for a better view.

When the band ended their act, we just enjoyed people watching for a while.  For a buck you could pose for a picture with an Elvis character and his pals, or a Las Vegas showgirl. I thought that the girl beat Elvis and Austin Powers hands down.

Later on, the lights dimmed again, and there was an overhead tribute to the Doors. It was good, but I didn’t like it nearly as much as I did American Pie. We could have hung around a while longer for a Queen tribute, but we were getting tired and decided to call it a night.

We are supposed to leave Las Vegas on Wednesday, but a storm system is moving through the area, and strong winds are predicted today and tomorrow, with gusts over 50 miles per hour. If the weather is that bad, we’ll either see if we can extend our stay here at Thousand Trails for a day or two, or find someplace else where we can wait until things clear up.

Thought For The Day – If both of our troubles were hung on a line, you would take yours and I would take mine.

In our nearly eleven years as fulltime RVers, we have stayed at many of the Escapees RV club campgrounds, from Washington state to Florida, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arizona, to name just a few. One we had never visited was the Escapees Pair-A-Dice co-op in Pahrump, Nevada.

Pahrump is about 50 miles west of Las Vegas, via State Route 160, a good, mostly two lane road that passes through the Toiyabe National Forest, climbing from 2300 feet in Las Vegas to 5500 feet at Mountain Springs Summit, before dropping down to about 2300 feet in Pahrump. Locals call this drive “going over the hump.

Yesterday, after an excellent brunch at Blueberry Hill Restaurant, one of a small chain here in Las Vegas, we took the trip “over the hump” to Pahrump. I’m sure glad we never tried to make this trip in our old MCI bus conversion! The V-8 engine in Greg White’s Dodge pickup was getting a workout as we made the climb.

We know a lot of folks who really like Pahrump because it is quieter and much more laid back than busy Las Vegas. But I have to be honest and say that we were just not impressed. There is little, if anything aesthetically pleasing in the community, just a lot of businesses stretched out along the main highway, a casino or two, a scattering of RV parks, and lots of subdivisions springing up out of the desert.

The office was already closed for the day, but we drove through the Escapees RV park, which was pretty full. But the few people we saw out and about didn’t seem too welcoming as we drove past and waved. Basically, the campground is all gravel and dirt, with some desert landscaping. It’s just not our cup of tea.

We did stop to check out another RV park that had been recommended to us, Terrible’s Lakeside Casino RV Park, a short drive off the main highway, and not far from the Escapees park.

This place was was pretty impressive. Many of the RV sites are situated around a small man made lake, there was plenty of grass, and lots of trees to provide shade. The view of the snowcapped mountains in the distance added to the ambience. The only drawback some people would find is that is that there were a lot of kids running around, though they all seemed to be well behaved.

Pahrump is in Nye County, where prostitution is legal, and Pahrump is home to two legal brothels, the Chicken Ranch and Sheri’s Ranch, which are located next door to each other.  Well, who can go to Pahrump and not at least drive by to check something like that out?  Not us, obviously.

We stopped to take pictures of both houses of ill repute, and noted that both offered free tours, and that ladies are welcome. Terry and Jan decided that seeing the places from the road was probably just fine, thank you very much!

Business seemed to be rather slow, there were just a few cars in the parking lot at either place, and I don’t know how many were there just to shop the souvenir stores that both businesses have. But if you saw me there, that’s all I was doing, shopping for souvenirs! That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

Actually Miss Terry is pretty open minded, and said I could go in and take the tour. But then she said something about me having to go into quarantine for 30 days afterwards, so I decided to pass.

Terry has the sharpest eyes of anybody I have ever known, and she constantly amazes me by pointing out wildlife I would never have seen as we zip down the highway. She spotted this hawk in a tree at the Chicken Ranch, and I told Greg it was probably a chicken hawk.  Hey, I have to get my material where I find it!

All too soon, or not soon enough, depending on whom of us you ask, it was time to get on down the road. So we waved goodbye to the brothels and headed back to Las Vegas. Judging by their signs, they’re friendly folks, aren’t they? They welcomed us to uhhh… return.

Bad Nick Doesn’t have time for such nonsense, so while we were out exploring the seamier side of life, he was home writing a new Bad Nick Blog titled Dumb A$$ Report, Vol. 2. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

We’ve enjoyed watching the new Who Do You Think You Are? series on NBC, in which experts help celebrities trace their families’ history. Isn’t it amazing what a person can accomplish with the knowledge, experience, and the right tools?

I have been researching my family tree on Ancestry.com for a few months now, and while I have been able to trace my maternal grandfather’s line back to the 10th century in England, I have run intro a stone wall on my dad’s side. With both of my parents and all of my siblings gone, as well as all of my uncles and aunts, I had very little to go on. Basically, everything stopped with my paternal grandfather.

I asked my friend Judy Bayless, who presented two excellent seminars on genealogy at our Yuma rally, for advice, and she volunteered to look into it, since she happened to be in Salt Lake City, which has the largest genealogical research facilities in the world at the LDS Family History Center. Their extensive records are not just limited to Mormon histories, and anybody can go there to conduct research.

Within 24 hours Judy sent me my grandparents’ wedding certificate, and information she found out about them from census records and city directories dating back to 1892! Wow! Thanks for all of your hard work,  Judy.  You helped me make a big step forward.

Judy also discovered a possible connection between my paternal grandmother’s family and her own husband Walt’s! How cool is that! I always liked “Cousin” Walt!

Genealogy is a hobby that fits perfectly with the RV lifestyle, because besides doing online research, we can go back to the places where our ancestors lived and research local records, find their graves, and even walk on the land where they worked and lived.

It can also put you in touch with long lost family members. Over the years, I had lost track of my older brother’s family, and though I have tried to find them many times, I never got anywhere. Recently, while doing some research on Ancestry.com, I came across his name in someone else’s family tree. I sent a message to that person, who turned out to be my brother’s granddaughter. As it turns out, my brother’s sons and daughter had also been searching for me, and we plan on visiting them all when we get down to Florida later this year. Hmmm…. I wonder if I can convince one of my nephews to install a full hookup RV site in his yard for his old Uncle Nick? Wouldn’t that be nice!

Thought For The Day – If you shake your family tree hard enough, some nuts are bound to fall out!

Yesterday we found three neat places away from the Las Vegas Strip to explore, and our friend Jan White got to check one more thing off of her personal bucket list. 

My pal Jan may seem like your average retired RVing lady, but underneath that peaceful exterior beats the heart of an Annie Oakley! So when she learned that The Gun Store, located on Tropicana Avenue, has an indoor range, where customers can bring their own guns to shoot, or rent firearms from the store, including machine guns, Jan was raring to go!

The store has an impressive collection of fully automatic weapons available for rent, including military style M-16s, Soviet AK-47s, Israeli Uzis, and everything in between. But Jan had her sights set on the most classic of them all, a Thompson submachine gun. This is a weapon I know intimately, and highly respect. The .45 Tommy gun won fame during the wild gangster days of Prohibition, and saw action in every American war from the Banana Wars of the 1930s through Vietnam. It was my preferred weapon during my time in the Army, and even though it was older than I was, I trusted my beat up old Thompson more than any M-16 I was ever issued. 

Terry and I stayed outside of the actual range area, looking though a glass wall while Jan was shooting. A couple of young guys were standing next to us watching the action, and one marveled that “that girl” was going to shoot a Tommy gun, predicting that it would “knock her on her butt.” I told him that I knew “that girl” and I was willing to bet money on her performance if he was. He decided not to take the bet, and it was a good thing, because once she got the feel for the weapon, Jan really tore up her target! “That girl” made me proud!

A block or so from the gun shop, we spotted a place called Fox’s Spy Outlet, and I just had to stop and check it out. Inside the small shop, we found all kinds of neat gadgets, like this stun gun disguised as a cell phone, tiny surveillance cameras, and miniature recording devices. There was even a camcorder disguised as a fountain pen!

One thing I liked was Rex, an electric guard dog alarm that senses motion outside of your door and sounds just like a ticked off German shepherd. I don’t want to own an animal at this point in my life, but I want one of these things! That will scare the bad guys off at night!

Another neat item, which I have seen before, was this hollowed out Country Time lemonade can that is actually a safe for cash and small valuables. The shop also had other secret safes, including fake food containers and books. Clever stuff.

A block away, we came to the Pinball Hall of Fame, a nondescript building packed with vintage pinball machines and arcade games dating back to the 1950s. They are all in working order, and you are welcome to slip a coin into any of them and play! How cool is that?

We spent an hour or so just wandering up and down the aisles, looking at the neat old machines, and watching the evolution of arcade games through the years. Compared to today’s high tech electronic toys, this stuff was really primitive, but it sure brought back some memories. Greg White and I compared notes, and decided that between the two of us, we’d slipped enough dimes and quarters into games like this over the years to make a good sized down payment on a nice motorhome!

We’ve enjoyed getting to know the side of Las Vegas away from the casinos and gambling halls. There’s a lot to see and do here that most tourists never know about. 

Thought For The Day – The cure for insomnia is to get more sleep.