The Long Way Home

Granpa's still bummed about the missing camera.  I'm just very out of phase.  I do not like this Vegas place. I do not like its vibes and space.

Granpa has had a plan all along to go home through Red Rock Canyon.  It's just 17 miles west of the Strip, and the road its on circles back into our highway home.  Again, we have no clue what to expect, but co-workers said it's a must.  Once more, off we go into the wild blue yonder, bummed and phased out, but ever the intrepid explorers.

Nestled in the Mojave Desert, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is almost 200,000 acres of a young person's paradise. Along the mere 13 mile scenic loop are 30-plus miles of hiking and biking trails as well as opportunities for horseback riding and rock climbing.  There is a visitor center, bookstore, and wildlife.  LOTS of wildlife:  wild burros (we call 'em donkeys in Texas), bighorn sheep, mountain lions, bobcats, a few wild horses, golden eagles, red tailed hawks and the tiny hummingbirds.  There are even occasional sightings of brides and grooms!

Over a million folks - well, make that a million and two - visit here each year from all over the world. But we weren't the first ones here.  Folks have been camping out here for about 10,000 years.  As kids will be kids, they left graffiti behind just like kids of today, only we marvel at their "petroglyphs."  While the kids were off into mischief, mom, just like today, was home grinding the corn and making supper.  You can still see the rocks and fire pits as proof!

But we have come to check out the color of the geology.  You see, a gazillion years ago, two of earth's plates came crashing into each other (kinda in slow motion of course).  One plate was red sandstone and one was grey limestone.  Today that spot is called the Keystone Thrust Fault.

The stunning red color comes from centuries of rust.  No, really!  Rust is oxidized iron and over the eons the iron oxide created the deep crimson colors that gave the place its name.

There were folks climbing all over the place.  

There were even moms and dads teaching their children how to rappel!

I agree with all of the websites giving this place four and a half stars.  I don't know if it was gaining distance from the Las Vegas strip or the grandeur of this place, but I do believe I'm coming back into phase!

It's a New Day in Vegas

There was not so much as a cup of tea served to guests at the Palms Place, so we found a great restaurant for breakfast and then went in search of what we actually came to Vegas for:  a museum.

Let's see what there is to choose from...

Carroll Shelby Museum
Atomic Testing Museum
Boulder City - Hoover Dam Museum
Bruno's Indian Museum
Clark County Heritage Museum
Imperial Palace Auto Collection
Las Vegas Natural History Museum
The Mob Museum
Thunderbird Museum

Central Nevada Museum
Downtown Neon Gallery
Goldwell Open Air Museum
Las Vegas Art Museum (at UNLV)
Las Vegas Signs Project
Walker African-American Museum
Neon Museum
Nevada State Museum
Searchlight Museum

Think we can manage all of those in a single day?  AND take a trip through Red Rock Canyon on the way home?  Ahhhh, no.

So Granpa opts for the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, and we get there just as the doors open. Remember, Granpa still has the blues about losing his newest camera.  All he has is his poor old Olympus and my iPhone (because his Android based phone won't hold a charge.)

This puts me in mind of a story one of our sons tells of an owl coming down in the woods behind his house.  He and one of our grandsons were tiptoeing around trying to find it when some tiny movement almost under his foot caught his eye - and then the owl lifted off soundlessly and flew away.  Obviously, this guy was a fan of "stand your ground" and had no intention of flying off.  (At least that's how the taxidermist staged him.)  Owls pose like this to make predators think that they are larger than they are and scare them off.

We've talked many times about adding a peacock and some peahens to our menagerie back in Texas, but I hear they can be really, really mean and that they make a great deal of racket.  I suppose I will, however, forever mull the idea over in the back of my mind because they are so-o-o-o beautiful!



From a really large bird, we go to the smallest bird, a hummingbird.  They are also beautiful but totally unable to be domesticated.  I have see folks get them to land on their hands, but they should never be caged.  How large is that hummingbird nest and egg?  Well, compare it to the print on that name tag! February is when the hummingbirds start showing up in East Texas after their winter migration into Mexico.  Can't wait to get back there and hear them humming all around our porches!



The museum also had a section of aquariums full of live critters.  This one pretty much reflected what Granpa looked like:

We learned that toads (not frogs, toads) don't drink water through their mouths.  Instead, they absorb water through very thin skin on their lower abdomens called a seat patch.

There were had animated dinosaurs:

And animated hatching of dinosaur eggs - but they didn't make much noise, and it was kinda slow-motion stuff.

Now, we believe in Creationism, and I get pretty testy when folks try to explain away a worldwide flood - especially when we see evidence of sharks inhabiting what is now mountains in a desert.  But then again, I don't believe in global warming either.  How arrogant of mankind to think that their presence on this planet will kill it! And the fuss over cow flatulents creating too much carbon dioxide.  I'm thinkin' a brontosaurus put out a whole lot more flatulents than any cow ever did!  Ditto for volcanos, too!

There were also had live seahorses!  The light blue spot on the side of its neck is in fact a fin which is it's means of locomotion.  (See my blog post on the seahorse I saw, caught, released and video-taped in Kaua'i.  http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2011/08/monk-seals-and-seahorses.html )

And, for my friends Paul and Joann Steinfort, live snakes:

There were scads more things to see in here - and they were all wonderfully showcased - but they topped it off with none other than King Tut, who probably felt perfectly at home in the Nevada desert.

I wonder why emoticons are not available based on this hieroglyph decoding chart ...

There Is More To Vegas Than Casinos

Okey-dokey.  We're in Vegas, for better or worse.  Got a deal at Palm's Place Resort, I go in to register, and they won't let me.  Reservations were made in John's name - gotta be John.  Back out to the car, he grabs his camera bag and overnight suitcase and goes in while I park the car.  He's done and waiting for me when I walk through the door.  Up to the 12th floor and we walk into our huge room.  A little worn, but nice.  The monster flat-screen TV's have a personalized welcome for John. (They could have made it a bit more personal by saying "Welcome, John Watts..." but John liked it.)

There are in fact TWO huge flat screens practically side by side.  One is for watching from the sofa, the other is for watching from bed.  Oh, and there's one in the bathroom, too, for watching from the Jacuzzi tub.

There's a full stainless steel kitchen, but we're only going to be there one night, so no cooking going on.  The view of The Strip is pretty good. 

The sun is setting, so I ask Granpa to take some pictures from the balcony before it gets dark. Lookin', lookin', lookin'. The camera bag is NOT in the room.  We both know that he had it on his shoulder when he went in to register.  Obviously he left it in the lobby where he was sitting waiting for me.  He's sick with misery!  While he goes down to the lobby to ask if the camera was turned in by some good Samaritan, I spend some private time musing on how much I don't like Las Vegas. (But, of course, it was our fault, not Vegas's.)  This actually makes us even - I left a camera bag on the plane the last time we came home from Hawai'i.  He didn't fuss at me then, no need for me to fuss at Granpa now.  Besides, he's mad enough at himself.

He's not any happier when he comes back, so I know instantly there was no camera turned in.  No worries I say.  It's okay.  We have the old Olympus and both cell phones, too.  But he's not a happy camper.

I give him time to settle his stomach and deal with the misery, and then suggest we go on out to eat. We find a really nice Chinese restaurant with super nice staff and great food.  That helped to settle Granpa down, but now he's got the same gut instinct about Vegas that I had.  The people may be great, but the vibes are not so good.

When we check out, I ask about the camera again.  The desk clerk off-handedly said that we could get on the hotel website and register with their lost-and-found.  If it's located they will ship it to us. That wasn't the most encouraging conversation, but I did exactly that when we got back to Kingman. 

Almost two weeks went by without a response.  We bit the bullet and ordered another camera.  I managed to get Granpa to upgrade from the lost Nikon -- but he would only order a refurb.  It took a week to receive the new one, and Granpa was walking around feeling naked without his camera.

The day the new Nikon was delivered ... the old, lost Nikon was also delivered to us.  We are now the proud owners of TWO Nikons (so I guess I get the old one??)

Las Vegas

Well, Granpa has finally forced me to agree to a night in Las Vegas.  I don't want to.  It's not that we're gonna step foot into a casino or even step out of the hotel after dark, I just plain don't want to. That city gives me the creeps.  Would I live there?  If the Lord directed our steps.  But we'd live in the suburbs, and it would probably seem pretty normal.

I love the snow-capped mountains in the background,

but I don't cotton to the smog hanging over the city.

Those electric power towers look like ships masts.  They are all over Las Vegas.  Wonder why?

But before we even get into the city, God blesses ME with something I never expected to see just on the outskirts of town!!

No, they are not statues.  They're very real.

They are magnificent!! and standing right beside the highway!!

I wonder how the obvious leader got the tip of his horn broken off?

Granpa took so many fabulous photos.  I wish I could share them all.  

Everyone hates other people's vacation photos; everyone loves animal pictures.  

Outback Steak House, Laughlin, Nevada

Uncle Donald gave Granpa an Outback gift certificate for Christmas almost a year ago. Granpa thinks it's about to expire, so we go to the nearest Outback for lunch.  Unfortunately, it's located in Laughlin, Nevada which is "across the river."  That means it's all casinos.  Fine, says I, we'll eat at Outback, but we will not go near a casino.  Granpa inputs the address to Lil' Miss GPS.




No! No, no, no!  Say it ain't so!!  Outback Steak House is inside the Aquarius casino!!!

Aargh.  Satan is a pretty clever devil!  But he has picked the wrong two folks to play with.  Granpa and I are quite capable of walking through a casino and not pulling on a one-arm bandit - even a penny slot.  I just get aggravated at the people who join hands with Satan in his efforts to start us down a slippery slope.  I mean, we can't even eat a good steak without having to run a gauntlet of temptation.

But we are here at noon, and the place is pretty much empty.  Oughta look like this all the time.

This, however, is something I have yet to figure out...

Granpa Decides To Go Home Thru...

...the east entrance of the Grand Canyon - hoping for some sunset pictures!  Aw, isn't he sweet!

See the Colorado River at the very bottom of the photo, at the very bottom of the Canyon.

They aren't as stunning as we had hoped, but that's okay - because God had another surprise in store for us.  LOL!

Not just one, but two!

Folks.  You hardly ever have to even leave your car to see the things that we see!  

What's stopping ya'?

Headed back to Kingman Again

Since we have to pass Bryce Canyon (unless we want to take a dirt road due south to Paige - which I would LOVE to do, but Granpa says no)  Since we have to pass Bryce, and I have my Senior Pass into all National Parks, we decide to do a quick drive through Bryce.  I still love the hoodoos!

A few of the deer look at us like we're crazy.  "Hey, guys!  Weren't you just here a week or so ago?"

I suspect a few of you think we're crazy, too, but you have to understand our belief in God's blessings in our lives - and who are we to waste a single solitary one of them.

The Fog Thins - Barely

Granpa grows impatient.  He's determined to get some pictures because he's wanted to come to Kodachrome for decades.  He remembers passing what he thought would be an easy path to walk. We're two old coots, totally alone in this isolated place, in a fog so thick even the sun can't peek through.  What can go wrong?

Things start out easy enough.  The trail is flat and leads back between two high rock faces. If we stand close enough to each other we manage pretty clear pictures.

The path begins to rise.  Wish I'd worn different shoes.  Granpa is ever the gentleman and offers his hand up, is very patient as I search for the best footing.  It's not that the climb is that steep, it's just that I'm cognizant of the fact that we are very, very alone out here.


The fog lifts just a bit, but still not even a hint sunshine.




We're now on the top of the mesa.  It's pretty. The trail is clearly marked, so we just keep moseying around.  Pretty soon we realize we're not finding a "down" trail.  The harder we look for one the more interesting things we find - like the tracks of a mountain lion, and they're fresh!


We've had no breakfast, and the hiking has really made us hungry.  (I wonder if the cat is hungry, too!)  We are very ready to get off this mesa no matter how pretty it is.

I begin to imagine crouching tigers and hidden dragons everywhere.  I love a vast and vivid imagination - except when the imagining may be all too real!  Grandpa is laughing at me, but he seems to be lookin' for a way down a bit harder than before.  (Can't fool me, old man!)

Ultimately we decide to backtrack instead of going farther and farther afield, er, a-mesa.

Still, the fog hasn't left.  We feel as though we are between heaven and earth.  We can see greater distances, but sound is still muted. We feel very much alone.  I can just imagine a mountain lion on the top of that rock, waiting to pounce.  I'm glad I learned to wrestle with our Great Dane.  Makes me feel like, uh, I don't know... like maybe I wish our Great Dane was with us!

Kodachrome Basin State Park

Out of the east portal of Zion into the deepening dusk.  We pass herds of deer grazing on the side of the road - 20 to 30 deer in a herd.  There are wild turkey mixed in with the deer, too!  I try for some pictures, but it is just too dark.

We have confirmed reservations at the family-owned Grand Staircase Inn on Kodachrome Drive.  For the last half-hour of the drive, we had passed no other cars from either direction.  We arrived at 8 p.m. to discover that we were the only guests of this large hotel.  The owners of the hotel weren't even staying there; they arrived at almost the exact same time that we did, checked us in, and left. There was a heavy fog rolling in - odd for the desert. It was all kinda spooky ... Do-dee-do-dee!

The room was absolutely spic-n-span clean, big ol' flat-screen TV, enormous shower and sumptuous bed.  All for $54!  We were pretty tired from the days driving and sight-seeing, so we showered and crawled into bed.  The cell phone alarm was set for sunrise-minus-a-few to allow us to capture some amazing color in Kodachrome.

Rise and shine!  Throw on a few clothes, open the door and ... the freezing fog is so thick that we can't see our hand in front of our face!  Ever faithful, we get in the car and inch our way down the road toward the State Park.  Things lighten up a bit with the sunrise, but the fog seemed determined to hang tough.

Granpa turns off the ignition and hunkers down to wait for the fog to burn off or lift.  Remember the phrase, "freezing fog?"  I plug in the inverter, pull out my teapot and brew a nice hot spot of tea.  

Kinda romantic actually.  Two ol' coots cuddled up together feeling like the only people on the planet, listening to love songs from the 60's ...  Love IS eternal especially in a fog.

Getting Out the East Portal of Zion

Granpa has paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for his cameras over the years.  We have thousands of pictures just from the last five years of traveling.  The newer cameras take great pictures because they have a gazillion digital pixels.  Even the cell phones take good pictures!

But looking at a bunch of snapshots is absolutely NO reason to say you've been there.  You can't imagine the grandeur.  You can't see the panorama - even though we have cameras capable of doing a panorama shot.  You don't see the subtle changes in light when a cloud passes.  You can't smell the things around us or feel the wind or sun or snow!  It. is. not. the. same.

When we're runnin' down Route 66 you don't get the sinking feeling in your stomach due to the ups and downs or get goose bumps when there's a screechingly tight hairpin turn on the side of a mountain - with no guard rail!   You don't get the thrill of going into tunnels drilled through mountainsides, honking the horn and feeling the sudden darkness surround you.  It's just not the same, is it?  Or being absolutely stunned by what presents itself when you come out the other side.

Someone once said that if I put too many pictures out there, you won't feel a need to go.  If that's true, I'm guessing you've never seen anything like this in person.  Otherwise these photos would make you crazy to get there yourself.

Where's "there"?  Oh yeah, this is how you get outside the east end of Zion - through a bunch of tunnels that even have giant windows in the side to let fresh air in.  Because we were there in the off -season, and it was getting ever closer to sundown, we could chance stopping in the tunnel long enough to snap a quicky.