Day 6 - Las Vegas to The Pacific!

I think it was the excitement that got me up early, well early for having been up till 3 or so.  9 am and I was ready to go.  Problem is I wasnt quite ready to leave.  I had to see this shark tank pool deal.

Worlds Largest Thermometer

Pools in Vegas have become hot spots during the day.

 Rehab and all have spawned a whole new way for Casino Owners to draw in folks.  The Golden Nugget had a DJ out spinning at 10 AM.  Carrie and I couldnt have cared less about the music and bodies, it was all about the water slide and shark tank. I will do my best to paint the picture.  Imagine a pool, a really big one.  now imagine that smack dab in the middle is a HUGE aquarium made of glass.  

Inside are sharks, coral, fish and rays, swiming around freely.  It is freaky as hell to see a shark coming right at you, glass or no glass, while you are swimming in a pool.  Now imagine a water slide that goes right through the shark tank and spits you out at the bottom.  Pretty sweet, right??  We were the only people on the slide, and must have ridden it down 12 times each.  Did I mention that there was an elevator to get up to the top of the slide??  ooh I didnt, well, there was an elevator to get up to the top of the slide.  We later found out it was for the employees to deliver food and drink from the upper area where the bars were to the pool deck.  By later I mean on our last trip down when we were asked why we were in the elevator at all.  I thought the soaking wet floor was answer enough, but suffice it to say that was our que to get back up to the room and hit the road.  

There was a stop that I knew we were not going to be able to make, well two actually.  They were places I had almost driven out to while in college just to do, but thought the better of.  Area 51 and Roswell New Mexico.  It was Fox Mulder who got me interested.  Well - honestly the aliens thing was interesting to me way before that, but I think I got really intrested when X-Files came around.  I used to watch it every week, and then even the re-runs that they showed late at night.  I was slightly saddened that I wouldnt be able to get down to the crash site at Roswell, or the base at Area 51.  I was disappointed to read that the government had closed off the two most common area 51 viewing areas.  I just couldnt fathom driving 8 hours to see a black mailbox.

Didnt see anyone arguing with her!!

Say what you will, but there is something rather intriguing about an area closed off so tightly, and with a security perimeter 10 miles out.  Not to mention the unmarked aircraft that fly back and forth from Vegas Daily shuttling the workers to and from work each day.  There is just too much strange not to think that if there were something, somewhere, that it might as well be there.  

Alas the closest we would come on our journey is this alien jerky stand - which was awesomely decorated I might add.  We stopped in and got some alien jerky and browsed the store. 

Calico Ghost Town

This was to be our last stop before hitting California, and the Mojave Desert.  The desert was beautiful and I remember thinking that it would be a neat place to take a short hike, just to say you had done it.  It was strange to be on the freeway through the desert, so we bounced off it and decided to take some of the old road through - which we had apparently joined back up with .  We saw the worlds largest thermometer, another check on our seemingly ever growing list of "worlds largest" things. 

Calico Ghost town I looked like a neat stop, and we decided to get off and check it out.  An old abandoned gold rush town, seemed like a neat stop as that was what drove folks west in the first place. 

We hopped back on the old road on our trek to LA. 

The route 66 books I had read said numerous times, that if you were in doubt of if you were on route 66 or not, look for the railroad tracks and the old telephone lines.  I couldnt help but think that the picture below was about as good a proof as I would imagine you could possibly get. 

Route 66 - right next to the tracks in California

The Old Road throuch California

Not a beer can dinosaur, but a beer can forest!!

We were heading west, and it wouldnt be long before our date with destiny.  We had already covered around 3000 miles and at this point I was starting to be ready to be out of the car. 
Apparently there were still a few neat stops to be made.  We happened across this beer bottle forest somewhere out near Victorville California.  I decided to grab a few shots of it before heading back on our way.  Apparently this goes for art out on the open road, and let me tell you, there wasnt much to see, so I cant say that I dont agree. 

Worlds first McDonalds

It was rather ironic I thought that we started our journey near Des Plaines Illinois, and were about to end it near San Bernadino California.  The interesting thing is that these are the respective homes of the McDonalds empire that we know today.  It was not all that long ago that the McDonalds Family had this one location in California.  A Milkshake salesman took the idea and franchised the store in Illinois, known as store #1.  The ironic thing is that the chain food establishments and big box stores are primarily responsible for the demise of so many a Route 66 ventures.  They book end the road.  It was strange to be in the store, it was nothing like the places that exist now.  it looked like a museum, a crappy one at that.  But then it made you realize that it was just a regular place.  It didnt start as the big evil empire it is today.    

Regardless - there were plenty of great places to

Carrie and I going down into the mine at Calico.

eat that werent fast food.  Of course we had found our fair share.  Upon striking out in amarillo texas - we happened upon a whataburger - and as Carrie had never had one, we gave it a shot.  On our way though California, we dropped in at the first Del Taco, where you can get a side of fries with your tacos.  It was interesting enough to stop and give a shot, as we had to be motoring on.  Driving through LA was going to be a chore, and I knew it.  We had a date with the pacific, and I'll be darned if we werent going to get there before sunset.
Thats one thing I missed about living in New Buffalo, and even Fort Myers, both on the west coast.  Chicago and Southeastern Florida definitely have a lot going on, but no sunsets.  Carrie will argue that there are still sunsets, and I suppose technically she is right, but not at a beach, into the water.  That is a sunset to me, and we hadent even hit the city limits of LA yet and the sun was starting to hand a little low in the sky. 

We were heading west into los angeles, and happened across the town my grandparents used to live in when I was a kid.  Upland California.  We spend every summer vacation out there for as far back as I could remember.  The cousins would come over, we had a great time.  We used to make my Dad take us up to the top of Mt. Baldie and go hiking.  That all came to a screaching hault when my brother let it out of the bag that we came across a rattle snake.  Mom flipped out and it was back to whiffel ball in the back yard after that.

There was a neat statue that was in Upland, the westernmost edition of the Madonna of the Trail series of statues.  They extend across the country on famous trails and roadways.  This one was dedicated in 1929 and has stood on route 66 ever since, watching over the westward travelers.  We had made is safely after all,

3200 and some odd miles and we were so close we could smell it.   

We still had the bulk of Los Angeles proper to trek through.

The Route headding into Santa Monica

There is a lot said about traffic in LA.  As far as I could tell it was worse that true.  There were cars everywhere.  We got on the freeway to try and shave off a few minutes, in a last ditch attempt to get ourselves to Santa Monica before sunset.  It was past rush hour, and we were at a complete standstill.  It was traffic as if there was an accident or something anywhere else on the planet.  The difference was there was never an accident, and it didnt matter if you were comming or going to town, it was absolutely slammed every time we got on it.  Burbank, Beverly Hills, Culver City, it simply didnt matter.  I remember thinking to myself that I wondered where they filmed all those episodes of CHIPS and where the hell OJ found all that open road.  It was baffling to me.  Either way - we hopped off the highway and decided that we would be better back on the old road and thought it prudent to make the last 10 miles down the old route.

 We headed south, then west and made it to Santa Monica, with little time to spare.  The king palms flanking the street on either side.  It just felt like we were getting close.  Around a corner, through the town, the anticipation was somehow exciting and bitter at the same time.  We had come so far, 9 states, the worlds biggest fork, the grand canyon, the St. Louis Arch, Sean and Lindsays wedding.  We had crammed so much into so few days.  You couldnt help but feel a little nostalgic about the trip.
The ocean came into view and the neon from the fishing pier sign began to come into appear between the trucks in front of us. 

We made our way across the intersection and through the archway of the pier.  We drove down the pier as far as we could go and walked out over the ocean.  We had made it.  Lake Michigan to the Pacific, and actually the atlantic ocean back in Florida before we left.  It had truely been a journey.
There was a bit of a nagging feeling that I couldnt shake however.  Remember earlier when Carrie read that the real end of Route 66 wasnt the Santa Monica Pier??  Well, we had to go find it, the plaque that was placed in the park a few blocks down.  It was a little smaller than I had figured, but we had fount it.  Carrie seemed vindicated as it did indeed read that the end of the route was there.  It used to be the end of the route before it was re-routed.  Either way we had now officially made our way to both points.  I was so elated that I decided to get a

picture laying on the marker.  It was about that time that I realized that the marker acted as a sort of community bathroom for the area homeless, and boy was there quite a contingency of them.  It wreaked of unine.  I immediately removed the sweatshirt, which was one of my favorites, and it hasent been worn since.  That said it was a casualty of the trip, and if I had to do it again, I might just do it again,,,, I just would have changed first.  

About that sunset.... We got there just in time to catch it, and it was amazing. 

I am not gonna lie, it was a bit of a relief to know that we did not have to get back in the car and drive 500 miles again, we were going to stick around LA for a few days, see some friends, see some sights, and relax before heading back home.  9 states, 3200 miles, and a 1200 mile journey to the starting line.  I was left with a sense of fulfilment, and a sense that I'd love to do it again, maybe in an RV, with a family, some day.  See some of the sights that we had skipped. 

Was I insane, or had the old road sunken its claws into me??  Either way it was a great trip, and I found it hard to leave the pier for the night to head to the hotel.  The great roadtrip, quite possible the greatest roadtrip, was now in our rearview mirror.  

Day 5 Holbrook AZ to Las Vegas NV.

 

I know.... I know...  you looked at the map and figured out that Las Vegas isn't exactly on route 66.  But there had been so many old movies and there was the "old town" part - I decided it should be part of our trip.  I imagine that many a westward traveler made the same stop along the way.  We decided that the only rule was that it had to be one of the old places up near Downtown that we stayed at.  One that we could have stayed at if it were 50 years ago, none of the famous new fangled "Strip" glitzy glam places.  No-sir, no modern lazer light show, tigers or fountains for us.  We were on a journey into the past!  We stayed in a gal darned  teepee the night before for goodness sake!!!

Wigwam #11 - our home for the night.

About the Teepee - yeah back to the teepee - or wigwam as it was so referred to by the proprietor.  It had air conditioning, a wall unit albeit, and just 2 other plugs.  So I had to cycle the video camera, regular camera, computer, and cell phones through to get them charged for the day ahead.  For it was Carries pick to stay in a wigwam, what I was really looking forward to was the Grand Canyon.  I had flown over it a bunch of times on trips out to California, but had never had to pleasure of looking her over from ground level.  And no dead battery or full memory card was going to prevent me from getting some good pictures.  So I woke up, unplugged the cameras and got the computer and  phone plugged in, camera memory card nice and empty.  Jumped in the shower, and went outside to survey the grounds.  It was a beautiful morning, the rain had stopped and the sun was out, and honestly - although the wigwam was cool, it had to be about the most uncomfortable bed in the western hemisphere.  Somehow, Carrie was still knocked out.  I think the idea that she was sleeping in a teepee overshadowed the terrible bed.  Holbrook was not a large town, but was one of those towns that embraced the old road.  There were a number of old style motor-coach motels- much the same as Tuccumcari, where we had stayed the night before.

Not exactly a beer can dinosaur - but close enough.

I had told the crew at work that I was going to travel Route 66 for vacation, and one of the guys I worked with kept mentioning "the beer can dinosaur".  Now I never found the beer can dinosaur, but I did find some dinosaurs, next to a bar,,,,, and a rock store.  What those three things have to do with one another I have absolutely no idea, but I figured it might be about as close to a beer can dinosaur as I was going to get.  For your viewing pleasure I have added a couple shots.  Hopped back in and rustled Carrie out of bed,,,it was finally grand canyon day!!

On our way we went, as there were a bunch of places we were going to hit that day, and a bunch of others that we would have to skip unfortunately.  I had wanted to see a free roaming Bison on our trip - and the fact that we were leaving the plains states for the desert had me convinced that we needed to head to a sanctuary to find them.  Additionally, we had passed a few "must do" stops the night before on our mission to get to the hotel.  It was dark and raining, and unfortunately we just didn't have the time to head back.  It was going to be a half a day out of our way to the bison sanctuary, and it was 120 square miles, so our odds weren't that great. 

On top of that we had already decided to skip the petrified forest and painted desert ( hey - have to leave some stuff for the NEXT time we do the trip right?) and headed instead west instead - towards Meteor Crater.  Anyone who has flown into Los Angeles has probably flown over Meteor Crater, just as I had- but I cant imagine many have actually been down to it. It had been on my list of places to explore since my first trip flying west - well first one I remember anyway, when I was 5.  Its pretty huge from 40,000 feet so I was rather intrigued as to how it would appear up close and personal.  Come to find out that they even did some moon mission training down at the center of the crater.  Apparently the folks at NASA figured that this was about as close as they would get to lunar surface - if you look really close at the second picture you can still see the remnance of the "mission."  It was great to finally



Ruins near Meteor Crater



see the crater, they have a guided tour around the rim, but it was 2-1/2 hours so we decided to skip as we had a lot to cram in that day.  So onward we trekked, back into the car and westward bound. Low and behold, all of the sudden a radio advertisment for "the greatest zoo in the west" came on "Bear-a-zona" it was called.  And wouldnt you know it, they had free roaming buffalo.

SOLD!  Yeah I had imagined a bison on a hill eating grass, but this would do, and we were GUARANTEED to see one to boot.  It was on the way to the Meteor Crater, and would work just fine.  We jumped off the expressway and hit the old route for a little while - for a famous stop - the "Here it is" sign - at the Jackrabbit trading post.  Funny to get that excited over a sign, but it was one that I had seen on the cover of so many Route 66 books and videos - that it kind of felt like we had found one of the originals, and that was because we had.  The signs and establishments are vanishing at an astinishing rate, even the books I had read were comming out with new revised editions to update the new and recently closed establishments.  The recession had been hitting them hard.  And with gas prices in the $3 a gallon range, I would imagine that there were far fewer road trip vacations than in previous years.

 In addition to those that were mentioned as now closed in the books,  we had found 3 or 4 ourselves thus far that were no longer operating even since the updates.  So this was kind of a big deal, and I am glad we stopped, if even just to see the sign.  Bear-a-zona was next on the list - well actually it was never was on the list- it just sort of plopped in our laps.  Alas there were free roaming Bison - and we werent going to miss it!!! 

It turns out that "Bear-a-zona" was only a few miles off the route, and was pretty reasonably priced.  They saved the bison for the end, and we saw a few bears along the way.  Of particular interest was this little guy who seemed to be watching me out of the corner of his eye the whole time we were there.  They had quite a set up - was a sort of drive through zoo where the animals have free reign.  It was pretty cool - minus the fact that the Bison seemed to have absolutely no interest in doing anything but laying under the trees.  We did see a couple white bison - which are considered sacred by many native american indian tribes.  I have to admit I had no idea that there was such a thing as a white bison, and apparently they are not all that common, especially these days, as bison as a whole were nearly hunted to extinction.  They have made a slight comeback - but nothing along the lines of the dominance they once exuded over the planes.  Will have to make the trek out to Yellowstone in the future for the a shot at seeing a herd.  Hopefully not too distant in the future.  We drove through the zoo twice, as they

sell you a day of unlimited access as their least expensive option.  Was cool to see the animals roaming free and coming right up to the car, well except the buffalo, whom seemed rather content over in the corner of the "pen". 

We hit the bathroom - and then it was on to the - for me any way - highlight of the trip - or so I had hoped.  My good friend Nick always spoke highly of forign lands - Europe, New Zeland and Australia, - and I always retorted, " dude I havent even been to the grand canyon yet - why would I travel to another continent if I havent even explored this one yet."  Much to Nicks delight - I was about to end that argument, or at least have to come up with another one.  

Hermits Rest

The Grand Canyon isnt exactly on the main drag of route 66 - but again - this wasnt meant to be a traditional route 66 vacation - we were exploring the country.  I had read a decent amount on the grand canyon - as I had been excited to go for quite some time.  There were so many choices, the national park, the reservation with the glass bottom walkway, the north rim, a nights stay down at the phantom ranch, river tours, helicopter tours, etc.  We had tried to cram so much into the day that I was starting to get scared that we hadent left enough time to properly explore the canyon, so I wanted to make the most of it.   

There was a larger than I thought line to get into the park.  I say larger that I thought as I have absolutely no base for comparison.  I was starting to sweat - were we going to have to spend the night here and skip vegas??  It would toss my carefully planned vacation into turmoil.  Had I gotten cocky in thinking I could jam so much into a day??  We had been successful thus far, but this was the biggest attraction of our trip, both literally and figuratively.  We were finally in the park - and I had the map open plotting my course.

The general concensus among the folks I had messaged back and forth was forget the "main overlook" and head straight to Hermits Rest.  Suprisingly at the fork in the road where we needed to turn - it opened right up for us.  Apparently there was a bus ride involved and a decent hike that most didnt want to take.  At this point not only did I need a bit of a short cut - but if I didnt have to deal with hordes of people it would be more than just an added bonus.  Those of you that have spent any prolonged period of time in a car with me, know that I am less than patient with people.  Heck - if you have ever met me you probably know that, but anyway, it looked as though the sun was going to shine on our big day. 



My first canyon view



Parked the car and walked the 1/4 mile to the bus station that would take us out to hermits rest.  The first picture was of my first look into the canyon.  Honestly it is my favorite.  One of those monents and pictures that is enblazoned into my minds eye.  I think I just sat there and stared for a moment, and I am pretty sure we even missed a bus.  It looks like a beautiful painting hanging in front of you.  There really arent words that can describe it.  So massive, so many colors.  It was total optical overload.  Lucky for me the camea did a pretty good job of capturing the moment, I think anyway.  

The bus ride to hermits rest was one of the most beautiful I had ever taken.  That said, it seemed to take forever.  I'm sure it was only 20 minutes, but the stops, one after another - I was getting stir crazy.  Luckily people were getting off at many of the stops - so our mostly full bus was hardly a third of the way full when we wound up at our destination.  We headed past the herds out on a trail to the back of the buildings.  Hermits rest has been on the site welcoming visitors to the head of the Hermit Trail since folks were traveling by horse drawn carraige.  Who was I to argue with nearly 100 years of history.  The view was marvelous.  We spent a couple of hours there looking around.  Unfortunately we did not have time to hike down the canyon, but we did make our was a couple of hundred feet down the trail just to get the feeling that we were " in " the canyon.  

Colorado River

On the way back to the car we decided to get off at a couple of the stops.  All were specific points where you could either see the river, or a particularly interesting view or rock formation.  

The interesting part - for me anyway - was that there wasnt nearly as much railing as I feared there would be.  I couldnt help myself - and Carrie got a pretty decent picture of me with the video camera out on the edge of the canyon.  It was pretty amazing.   

Hoover Dam at night.

Content with our canyon stop, I wished we had more time to stay, I really wanted to hike down the canyon, and wanted to see more.  Alas, it struck just about then that we still had 300 miles or so to go on our way to Las Vegas, our stop for the night.  It was back to the car and on our way.  We drove and drove and drove.  there werent too many stops as it looked as it was going to be about midnight when we pulled in as it currently stood.  This was with the loss of an hour of sleep as we had lost a time zone. 

It was a suprise to say the least when we found ourselves at the Hoover Dam.  I knew it was outside Vegas, as I had seen numerous tours offered from hotels on previous stays, but had never made my way out to see it.  What a pleasant suprise.  It was the 11 at night and we had come across a fantastic site, completely without planning.  That was one of my favorite moments of the whole deal.  I took the access road over the dam - as I thought it might be neat.  What I didnt figure is that they'd let us drive right across the dam!  How cool.  It was night and I couldnt see a whole lot, it was rather impressive even then. 

As we came off the dam and wound our way around the mountains, it was obvious that something amazing was up ahead, as the halo of the lights came into view above the mountains.  It was time to pick a place to stay.  I handed over the reigns to Carrie and she drove the remainder of the way into sin city. 

I was so amped about the day, and that we had made Vegas for our nights stay, albeit later than I would have liked. 

That was one of the plans for our trip.  There was plenty of night driving to be done, but fitting it in to portions of the journey where there werent things we wanted to see was the real trick.  We could have made the grand canyon at 10 at night, when it wasnt open and couldnt see it, and that wouldnt have done much good.  Vegas on the otherhand, looks more beautiful, and heck, even more normal at night.  Under the lights, thats how vegas was meant to be seen.  Speaking of things that were meant to be seen, the Welcome To Las Vegas sign that you see on every roadtrip to vegas montage ever caught on film.  We found it, and again, great success. 

We decided on the Golden Nugget Hotel / Casino - it was in the old downtown area, and was one of the famous signs I remember seeing in those old 50's and 60's movies my dad used to watch on sunday afternoon before the Cubs games.  Little did I know it had undergone a complete overhaul / rennovation.  There was a shark tank pool complete with a water slide, night club, and of course, a huge buffett.  $49 for a two bedroom suite - SOLD!!  The room was magnificent, and I would highly reccomend hitting Vegas on a Tuesday night if you ever go. 

The rates are phenomenal!!

One more deal that I had thought had died in vegas, the $5 bet and free drinks.  Both are alive and well in the older downtown Freemont Street casinos.  It was late, but we found some $3.99 prime rib and even managed to win $90 at the roulette table.  It was indeed, a good day.  About 2:30am and it was time for bed.  Tomorrow was to be our grand finale and we needed to get a good nights sleep.