What's more All-American than a road trip to Vegas?

answer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A road trip to Vegas via Route 66!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Trip- Monday

Driving Historic Route 66, even if it's just part of the California section, and even if it is in the "wrong" direction seemed like a good idea... but so does driving the entire Pacific Coast Highway, or hiking the John Muir Trail.

There's a reason this road's abandoned, and the towns are all deserted!

I'm gonna lose a filling between the Mustangs stiff suspension and this dang road!

                                                                          

Victorville

             

Victorville has the California Route 66 museum and the Roy Rogers museum. But, it was the "wrong" direction so we skipped it.

 

Barstow

         

The Barstow Route 66 Motel is trying to capitalize on the Route 66 thing, and by being the cheapest motel in Barstow. Their press clipping claims they've got rid of the "druggie" element that had frequented the motel.

Sounds safe & respectable.

 

Daggett

              

Daggett is home to the Southern California Edison Company Solar II Generating Plant. It's a 300 ft tower illuminated by 2000 large heliostats (motorized mirrors) computer controlled to track the sun and focus reflected energy onto a receiver atop the tower. It's supposed to have eerie twin glows on the sides of the tower. We never saw them. The view of the facility from highway 15 although somewhat further away is actually better. But we still didn't see the glows. Cool technology, though.

Amboy

Well, this is what I was waiting for. An actual historic Highway 66 café still in operation. But after SEVERAL miles of BAD road, and nobody on the road but us, I couldn't believe the place could possibly be open. And it wasn't!

Discretion being the better part of valor we bailed on the Route 66 road trip. Just past Amboy there's a road heading north that intersects Highway 40. We took it in a heartbeat, even though it meant skipping such high points as Newberry Springs, Ludlow, and Needles.                                                                                 

Laughlin

        Laughlin's right on the Colorado river and right in the middle of the desert. It's HOT! We wondered if we would be able to get a room, but the huge gaudy lighted casino marquees were advertising $19.99 rooms. We were even able to upgrade to a room with a "river view", but it set us back $29.99.

Did I mention it was HOT, it was 122 degrees when we left Tuesday morning.

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 Tuesday

 Drive to Vegas

It's HOT, but the air conditioner's working fine! The scenery is spectacular in a desert sorta way, really a nice drive up to Vegas.

VEGAS- There are casinos everywhere. Big gaudy casinos seemingly in the middle of nowhere, miles from the strip, miles from downtown, no other casinos around them? Seems odd.

Bellagio-

Check into the Bellagio

The Bellagio is real nice. But see the lake/fountain thing at night. It's nice, but it's just squirtin' water. And skip the opera one, or maybe it's just me?

Gawked, lost the required money here, then headed for the Strip.

Hey, it's HOT, okay maybe not Laughlin hot, but hot.

We're hopping between casinos, but it's costing at least $20 at each one to cool down (we're such big spenders). Kathy hit it big (okay 1000 quarters, everything's relative), at the Barberry Coast, so we keep stopping back by there.

Fremont Street Experience-

Freemont Street Experience

They put a cover over the couple of blocks of Downtown and do a light and sound show. It was to revitalize the Downtown and it worked, sorta, Lots of parents and kids wandering around gawking at the ceiling every 30 minutes.

The cab driver said they are toting folks down there continuously, where before they had maybe 2 trips a night.

But they've lost some of that that sleazy, scary charm of the old downtown.

Old Downtown?

The Pioneer Club is closed and a tee-shirt shop operates in a portion of the old club on the corner. "Vegas Vic's" arm doesn't work any more and they had to trim his hat a bit to get the Freemont Street Experience "dome" in.

But Binion's Horseshoe club is still trying to make a go as an old school Las Vegas style casino.

Casino Boy Says:Holy gangsters! This is the last place left where you can experience old Vegas!

The casino is full of beautiful dark woods, with low ceilings, dark lighting, and the ghosts of gangsters and other unsavory characters floating around.

If you want to feel what Las Vegas felt like before the corporations started encouraging people to bring kids, stay and play here.

Dinner at Binion's Ranch Steakhouse

As a nod to old Vegas we planned a dinner at Binion's Ranch Steakhouse. It is touted as "one of the city's finest steakhouses, elegantly appointed and possessing a view that would make any dinner spectacular. A swanky atmosphere that is not necessarily reflected in the prices. Fly up to the 24th floor on a device called an elevation-o-tater, and enter the elegant wood-paneled room to enjoy good, no-nonsense steaks and prime rib and such."

Well the "elevation-o-tater" wasn't working so we took the regular elevator. When we stepped out I thought we'd stepped back 40 years! I wasn't sure if they'd let us in, being shabbily dressed in slacks and polo shirt, but they did. The view is pretty spectacular and they do give you plenty of food. And it ain't no California cuisine, we're talking meat and potatoes!

And it does have "atmosphere", I expected to see Sammy Davis Jr. or Frank Sinatra walking through the place.

 

 

 

 Wednesday

 Gawking, Gambling and Blue Man Group

More "Casinoing", this time on the newer parts of the Strip. The newer Steve Wynn properties, Belagio, MandalyBay and Monte Carlo are nice in a plush sorta way, but not really very interesting.

Excalibur is just plain cheesy.

New YorkNew York, to my surprise was pretty cool. It's very disneylandish in a fun kinda way. It's too dang hot to ride the rollercoaster (I hate 'em anyway) but it's pretty cool that they have one there.

The Luxor looks pretty cool at night with those lights running up the sides of the pyramid. An you gotta give them credit for hosting the most non-Vegas entertainment in Vegas- Blue Man Group. This is the show to see, we had a great time.

Blue Man Group

"Blue Man Group performances somehow marry an infantile reveling in all things gooey and messy with an acutely post-modern critical sensibility - plus riveting tribal-rock drumming, on custom-made instruments created from assorted lengths of PVC tubing." -from a review

Thursday

 Leaving Las Vegas

Just a long drive home. Thank God for air conditioning and Mustang V-8 power!

 

Hmmm, didn't see Elvis this trip? 

 

 

 

 More Nonsense?