Longest Trip Report Ever in One Stinkin Post..

PART 1: (Long)

DISCLAIMER:

This family trip and report focuses a LOT more on the journey to Fabulous Las Vegas than Sin City itself, so if you are more of a ';Vegas Tourist'; than a ';Traveller'; to Vegas you might want to wait until ';Part 2'; and skip to ';Day 6';. If you are a road warrior such as myself, you might find some interesting moments along the road trip. I sure did. Total miles driven = 1,345.

DAY 1: Sharks and Eels in the Desert and Green Chile.

Flew from Texas to one of my fave towns, Albuquerque, NM. Rented SUV and proceeded to ABQ Aquarium and saw some sharks and a bunch of MEAN lookin moray eels. This exhibit was not a large as Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, but also cost much less. Dinner was Green Chile Enchiladas and Chile Rellenos at Los Cuates, good grub.

DAY 2: Route 66, Volcano, Wolves, and Ribs.

A lot of this trip was planned around driving old sections of Route 66 from ABQ to Oatman,AZ. so we headed out of ABQ south toward Los Lunas on The Mother Road. A detour at Grants took us to a Wolf Sanctuary where they keep rescued wolves. Very interesting grizzled old guy gave a tour explaining all about the animals and the myths that surround them. Highlight of my day. Son wanted to walk up to see Bandera Volcano, so we did. 30 minutes later we were lookin at a not very impressive hole in the ground. ';Tourist Trap #1';. This SHOULD have been the lowlight of the day, but wasn%26#39;t. We stopped at a convenience store in Gallup, NM to get ice and water and some dumbass store worker decided it would be a great idea to leave a case of soft drinks tucked under the shelves, right where I would later stumble upon it and hit the not so soft concrete floor elbow and ribs first. First I was pissed at myself then the soreness in my ribs took over. Then I got over it and moved on. Oh yeah, ONLY another 200 miles to drive that day to Flagstaff. Stop at Indian

Trading Post in Arizona and buy 6 yr old son a REAL Indian arrow made by a REAL Indian. Actually pretty nice souvenir.

DAY 3: Meteor Crater, Painted Desert/Petrified Forest and Jack Rabbit Trading Post.

This was ';nature'; day for the most part. Started with MC which is supposedly the largest meteor crater that is accessible to the public. Yeah its big and impressive, but the most fun was one of the exhibits where you could create your own meteor size, speed, and everything and see what it would do to the earth. Of course mysom picked the biggest and fastest meteor and comet and obliterated the Earth. Good for him. Proceeded to Painted Desert (not that interesting really) and the adjacent Petrified Forest, which was pretty cool. Most of the REALLY big hunks of petrified wood are in the park, and the small ones are for sale about ten feet outside the park. Bought a couple and moved on. Ended the day at one of the coolest Route 66 souvenir places ';The Jackrabbit Trading Post';. Google that name and see what its all about. My son could not wait to get there and get his picture took on the ';Big Hop Hop'; as he called it a couple years ago. Explored the ruins of ';Two Guns';, a bunch of rock structures where tourist were lured in the 50%26#39;s and 60%26#39;s to see caged Mountain Lions and Snakes. Actually pretty cool stuff.

DAY 4: Easy Rider, Sno-Cap and WALKING Route 66?

Started the day on a old section of Route 66 at an old closed up gas station where some scenes of ';Easy Rider';were filmed back in 1969. A couple old posters were still there along with photos of Fonda, Hopper and Nicholson.

Drove a lot more of Route 66 into THE best Route 66 town I know of, Seligman. This is where ';Historic 66'; got started about 15 years ago. Angel Delgadillo got mad because I-40 skirted his town and businesses were forced to close so he got the old route renamed Historic 66 and now folks come from all over the World to meet him. He%26#39;s a great guy and the Sno-Cap is a great place for burgers, fries, and plenty of JOKES. Angel%26#39;s bro Juan ran the place but passed away a couple years ago, now his son has it. Got back on the road headed toward a neat stop at Hackberry General Store, which is in the middle of nowhere.

As we were pulling into the parking lot, we passed a guy walking and pulling some sort of wagon. this seemed VERY strange as it was 100+ degrees. The guy was beat and sat down outside and we started talking. Seems he is WALKING the entire length of Route 66! That would be from chicago to Los Angeles and right around 2,448 miles. Why? He is the spokesman for the National Pain Foundation and is making the walk to show folks that having chronic pain should not limit your life. He was stopping in clinics along the way talking to the folks .We talked for about 30 minutes and he seemed like a very sincere guy on a mission. We wished each other well and we were on our way at 70 mph and he was on his way at 2 mph. If you are interested in his walk at all, google ';Where%26#39;s Dennis Kinch';.

DAY 5: Route 66 to Oatman, Burros, Gold Road Mine, Golden Nugget (Laughlin) and Homeland Security.

Started the day at the Powerhouse in Kingman, which is a very nice Route 66 museum and visitor center. Then we hit the ';Old Road'; toward Oatman, which is THE absolute funnest section of old Route 66 to drive (especially at night). This 20 or so mile section goes up into the mountains and has about a zillion switchbacks. How any of them old timey rigs from the early 20s and 30s made it I%26#39;ll never know.

Once in Oatman you are instantly transplanted back in time to the late 1880%26#39;s or so (almost) with old wooden shops with wood sidewalks up and down the street. Oatman was a big-time mining town back in the day and now is a big time TOURIST town similar to Virginia City up towards Reno.

There are the ever present ten to twenty burros wandering around across the road looking for carrots. Its fun for the kids to feed the burros, but buy your carrots at the grocery store before you get to Oatman or you will pay jacked up prices for the privislege of feeding THEIR animals. BTW, these burros are all descendants of the ones used in the gold mines way back when. All the store owners seem to know them by name. These animals have it pretty good actually. At Noon every day there is the BIG FAKE gunfight in the middle of the road and the bad guys always lose, SHOCK. The ';actors'; collect donations from the tourists for the Children%26#39;s Shrine Hospital and for five bucks you get an autographed photo of said gunfighters.

After leaving the burros behind we proceeded to the Gold Road Mine for a tour. It was OK, but not worth walking into again. Now back thru Oatman toward Laughlin, roughly 30 minutes away.

I like Laughlin a lot for a number of reasons. First, a drive down the ';Laughlin Strip'; takes you by ALL of their 8 or so casinos in about 15 minutes if you hit a couple lights as opposed to moving about a car length in 15 minutes in Vegas. Also, you can to walk to nearly all of the casinos on a sidewalk along the edge of the Colorado River, very scenic. And you also have the cool option of a water taxi for $4 to get to any of the casinos that way. Two other reasons I like Laughlin are low room rates for good quality lodging and the casual, lazy feel of the town as opposed to the rush-rush that is Vegas. As far as gambling goes, you can pretty much get any wager you need in Laughlin, same as Vegas.

Pulled into Golden Nugget and this place is as good or better than it had been prior to ownership changes. Valet parking was at least a 10 second wait and the same guy had our bags to the rooms before we called for them. Overall, GREAT customer service from check-in to check-out.

The rooms had been updated since 2004 when I stayed there and the ';tropical'; motif has been replaced by a more subtle golden/tan kind of deal, whatever. I don%26#39;t care one way or the other as long as the bed and pillows are comfortable, I can crank the A/C to achieve 68 degrees in the room when its 108 outside and the view is not of the parking garage. Rooms passed inspection A-OK and for $39 a night I%26#39;m down with that all the time.

Wife and son headed out to a VACANT pool at 5pm, when was that EVER achieved at a Vegas pool? The GN pool is small but since there are only about 200 rooms and mostly OLD guys stay there, I doubt if its ever real crowded. Has a great view of the Colorado River.

SS headed to sportsbook where there was exactly ZERO futures bets worth playing. I like these deals but the casinos evidently don%26#39;t like paying them off at reasonable odds so now they are getting very stingy. Not that I wanted to bet this, but Texas A%26amp;M at 85/1 to win the College Footbal BCS this year? WTF, are you kidding me? They should be 85/1 to win the Big 12 and about 8500/1 to win the BCS. Oh well, guess I%26#39;ll just keep the futures tickets I already have on Texas, Penn State, Florida State, and LSU.

Didn%26#39;t feel like playing at an empty craps table so did what I do best, drive around and explore stuff. Hadn%26#39;t been over Davis Dam in awhile so thought I would do that little excursion and maybe a little of Christmas Tree Pass toward CAl-Nev-Ari since I had an SUV. Little did I know that I was about to become a possible security risk for the United States of America.

I started the drive over to the dam Dam along the west shore of the Colorado River and was perplexed when I saw a sign that said, ';Davis Dam Road Closed';. Wondering why, I just drove on past the sign. When I got to the road leading up to and over the dam Dam there was another sign that said ';Road Closed'; and some concrete barriers ';kind of'; blocking the road about 100 yards away. Since they were only ';kind of'; blocking the road, I decided to investigate further and rive up to them. That was a BAD IDEA.

About 10 seconds after pulling to the side of the road and getting out to check out the barrier deal, here comes a black Tahoe or Suburban out of the dam Dam parking lot heading my way. Wow, maybe their coming out to personally greet me and take me on a tour of the dam dam! That would be wrong. When the big, shiny black vehicle stopped about 10 yards in front of me and two guys with guns strapped to their hips got out and said, ';Sir, please step to the front of your vehicle, turn and face it and place your arms on the hood, I knew this was NOT the private tour guide.

We had a nice little conversation about WHY I needed to be where I was, but the most scary part came when one guy asked if he could ';take a look'; into my vehicle and ';Do you have any weapons in the vehicle?'; Ooops, I DID.

That dam REAL Indian arrow purchased from the REAL Indian at the REAL Indian Trading Post a couple days back. I mentioned this to him and he was ';kinda'; amused, but not really. These guys are just too dam serious I guess. Anyway, I showed the guys the thing and and they seemed relatively assured that I did have have any plans of attacking their dam dam with my one arrow and no bow. They cautioned to obey the ';road closed'; signs from now on and to feel free and drive away from their dam dam and have a nice day. I feel so much better now knowing that if someone attempts to drive over the dam Davis Dam and maybe do some fishin off it that good ol%26#39; HomeLand Security will do everything in their power to put a stop to it.

Headed QUICKLY back to GN to relive this tale with wife and six year old son. SHE was not pleased at all, HE wanted Daddy to take him and go ';do it again';. My opinion was somewhere in between.

Took a six pack of cold ones to the VACANT pool to chill and later spent 30 minutes at VP (+$5.75), got some take-out Joes Crab Shack grub and I was ready to hit the hay. Checked the temp in the room, 68 degrees, Awesome... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I%26#39;ve had enough excitement reliving this wonderful day, so PART 3 (DAYS 6 and 7) will follow later.

DAY 6: ';Bonnie and Clyde%26#39;s Death Car';, Old Las Vegas Hwy, and the Orleans.

Headed out of Laughlin after a quick swim in the Colorado River at a nice little county park on the Arizona side of the river. I could see the dam Dam from there but was not going to give them HomeLand Security folks ANY reason whatsover to talk with me again, this trip anyway so we stayed FAR away from any ';Road Closed'; signs.

Wanted to take the Christmas Tree Pass short-cut to Cal-Nev-Ari but wife was not down with that idea. Maybe it was the ';little'; incident about 10 years ago when this was attempted and less than 1/4 mile down that road, our rented Ford Explorer lost all forward gears, necessitating travelling in reverse the mile or so to the cafe at Cal-Nev-Ari when the road was two lanes with a skinny shoulder.

Therefore, we went the normal way toward US 93? then the north to Searchlight and then west ot I-15 to Primm where the infamous REAL ';Bonnie and Clyde Death Car'; is rather proudly displayed in the Primm Resort Casino. My son was fascinated with it, I had previously been fascinated with it and wife was not so fascinated with it. Took some photos of my son with his hands up standing in fron of Clyde and his shotgun and watched a re-inactment of the famous ambush where those gangstas Bonnie and Clyde (and their rig) got blasted to smithereens near the Texas/Louisiana border in 1930 somethin. Man how I miss those REAL old-timey gangsters runnin arpound the country robbin banks and killing police officers by the dozen.

Total gunshot holes in car = 167

Total gunshot wounds in Bonnie = 50+

Total gunshot wounds in Clyde = 50+

Needless to say, they were pretty dead by the time the gunsmoke cleared.

Since that was the ONLY reason I ever stop in Primm except the time I coasted the last five miles down the LONG hill on gas fumes, we proceeded to head toward Vegas. Little known fact that most folks don%26#39;t know (or don%26#39;t care) is that coming from Cali to Vegas if you get off I-15 at Jean and head east a block you will hit the current southernmost part of Las Vegas Blvd.

Yes, the OLD Las Vegas Highway into town. Its a neat little two lane highway travelled mainly by folks that have businesses along ait and the one or two ';old road geeks'; that like that sort of thing . I like it because there ain%26#39;t much difference between 65 on that road and 75 on I-15, EXCEPT there are NO other cars on MY road and eighteen wheelers all over the place on THEIR road.

Anyway, take this road sometime and there is NO WAY you will miss the FAMOUS ';Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas'; sign because you go right by it.

We then proceeded to drive a little of the Strip at right around ZERO mph and turned on Tropicana to the Orleans Resort and Hotel or whatever the full name is. I stayed at Orleans once and that was 10+ years and was very impressed, so much so that I honked it here all the time.

Needless tosay I was very pleased by the very quick and attentive Valet Parking guy (even with lots of cars in line) and the quick and easy check-in to our very nice and FREE room. Our room was located very near the elevators (as requested in the reservation) on the 11th Floor of the ';New'; Tower (or so I was told), with a FABULOUS view to the south of the roof of the Orleans Casino and a GIANT American flag over some business. Very Nice.

A/C was already on ';high'; when we arrived and room was a very pleasant 70 degrees compared to the outside temp of around 105. Checked out the two free ';Fun Books'; for mainly drink coupons and was happy to locate a total of four beers and two cocktails. That should last about 30 minutes or so at the pool for wife and self. Went to check out pool and was very pleased with the pool, surrounding grassy area, the atmosphere and folks there. Some old guys and some families with a number of kids (all well behaved).

One problem was that we got there at 6:30 and they were actually closing it at 7pm. HUH? Why? It is summer, it is 100+ degrees and it does not even get dark until 8:30. Well, since this was the one and only complaint about our stay at Orleans, I cut them some slack.

Dinner was at the Orleans Buffet. The one thing I remembered from the prior visit was the great boiled crawdads and that%26#39;s what I was lookin for. they did not disappoint. Got back to the table with them piled high on a plate and proceed to dismember them. Young son had never eaten them before but loves shrimp, so I told him they were ';really red shrimp with the heads still on';. He bought that explanation and dug in. His face lit up and he gave me a big thumbs up and said, ';These aren%26#39;t shrimp, they are much mo better';. OK, so he%26#39;s somehow related to Justin Wilson. Anyway, I told him what those things really were and he said ';Crawdads are my favorite food, thats all Im eating at the Buffet';. (This was also his first crack at a buffet that did not consist entirely of pizza.)

Other seafood choices there were good also. They had some sauteed trout, baked cod and decent cold shrimp. Other cajun/creole dishes like jambalaya and gumbo did not look so appetizing when its 100+ outside. Maybe in the winter. Overall the Buffet was good, but only worth the $12.95 because of the crawdads. Take those crustacians away, and I%26#39;ll be over at The Prime Rib Loft.

After dinner, checked the Sportsbook for any appealing wagering and found none, so proceeded to room. Good night.

DAY 7: The Ellis Island ';World Famous $4.95 Strip Sirloin Steak Special'; Has Apparently Left The Building.

Got up, checked out of Orleans (quick and easy) and headed to my USED TO BE favorite place in Vegas to grab a ';cheap and good'; hunk of grilled dead cow meat. Based on the two steaks we received, my opinion has been revised to ';cheap and average'; hunk of grilled dead cow meat.

Ordered two of the specials medium-rare with salads and baked taters. Salads were fine and larger than I remembered, but the steaks were disappointing from the moment they were placed in fron of us. Seems like every other steak I%26#39;ve had there was at least 1 1/2 inches thick, nicely charred outside and about 4x4 inches. These steaks appeared almost to have been ';butterflied'; as they were about 1/2'; inch thick and covered much more of the plate than my infamous photo. The steaks were barely charred at all and evenly cooked and slightly rare which is OK with me, but not up to the ';old'; EI standards. The waitress even looked slightly puzzled and mentioned something about ';why they fileted'; the steaks. Well, wahtever, they were still a good deal at five bucks and son loved their home-brewed root beer, so it was OK but not great.

Based on this experience, I will give EI ONE more chance next time and see if it was just a mix-up. It was only 9am when we ate, so maybe the guy mistakenly gave us the ';steak and eggs'; steaks, I don%26#39;t know.

After that , I proudly left our $14.00 Coleman cooler purchased a week earlier in Albuquerque outside the Super 8 next door. I figured any folks that HAD to stay at that rat hole would probably need a nice new cooler more than us.

That%26#39;s about it, headed to the airport and flew home.

Total Gambling on this trip: Invested $100 in VP for 1 hour +/-

Total Gain/Loss: +$6.50

Time Spent With the Family: Priceless...

';This is the end,

Beautiful friend,

This is the end,

My only friend,

The end...';

Longest Trip Report Ever in One Stinkin Post..

You report is surely the longest one I have seen! After all your hyping of Ellis Island, I am shocked that they did not give you a better steak. I am sure your recommendations have accounted for many thousands of $$ in promotiion and business for that organization. Now, I will not feel that I have missed something!

Longest Trip Report Ever in One Stinkin Post..

Steve-enjoyed your report. Question just out of curiosity. What makes you stay downtown vs the Strip.

WOW staunchsteve what a fantastic epic posting,could you please clarify the Justin Wilson comment,is this the J W of Rusport champ car fame ? or somebody else ?

Followed all your previous post on your trip and read them all. I can tell you it was just as good the second time as the first. You pointed out a couple things I will have to check out. Thanks!!!

';could you please clarify the Justin Wilson comment';

Justin Wilson was probably the funniest and best TV Cook Show host ever.

He%26#39;s da one dat put me onto dem der crawdads, I garontee...

http://www.justinwilson.com/

So wot %26#39;bout the race team driver then!

tulip wrote: ';What makes you stay downtown vs the Strip.';

Downtown vs. the Strip is an easy call because you can walk EASILY to all the casinos in less time than probably one or two on the strip and save lots of $$$ on rooms. Golden Nugget is typically $59-$79 nt compared with $100+ for a similar Strip 4 star property.

I choose hotels in Vegas based on great customer service (i.e. quick, friendly, efficient employees), ease of getting in and out of the hotel as I come and go frequently, value and quality/condition/comfort of the rooms.

Because of all the DEMAND for hotel rooms on the Strip, few offer any real VALUE. Also, nearly all of the hotels are either very large and hard to get in and out of (MGM is a prime example), or the smaller, older ones are not comfortable places to stay.

The two places that usually qualify as good value for what you are getting on the Strip are Mirage and Monte Carlo and Bellagio is fine if they are offering a special rate and you feel like splurging.