What Happens in Vegas…..

We don’t gamble, we don’t smoke, and we rarely drink.

          So why in the name of all that’s Holy would we spend almost three days in Las Vegas?

          The answers to that and the secret of life will be revealed a little later.

           But first, we are in Day 11. Our travel day from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, a trip that was supposed to take about five hours which instead took almost eight hours. You all know our Wind stories by now and are probably sick of hearing them so, I promise No More Wind Stories, unless they are significant enough to warrant a mention.

          Mention!

          Day 11, yesterday, was mainly traveled through the high desert lands of California, namely the Mojave Desert. This is where Edwards Air Force Base is located, the scene of both various Space Shuttle landings and also the location of where Chuck Yeager broke the Sound Barrier.

          It is also the location of High Winds.

          All of the Winds that I have previously reported to you, have been in the 18 to 20 mph range. These are obviously high enough to wreak havoc on driving otherwise I would not have given them a mention.

          Yesterday (our Travel Day) we encountered winds of double that speed.

          Yup, 38 to 40 mph winds howling across the desert and through the mountain passes, were high enough to have our cell phones go off with Dust Storm Alerts. The bad part about wind is not its speed, but the force that it exerts on our big flat-sided vehicle as we drive.

          The Force goes up exponentially as the Wind Speed increases,

          For Example,

          A Wind Speed of 5 mph exerts 15 pounds per square inch of force on an object.

          When the wind speed doubles the force does not. The force is not 30 psi as you may expect, it is 60 psi. Now lets cut to the chase and look at yesterday’s wind speed of 40 mph and we arrive at a screamingly large (for driving a motorhome) 960 psi!

          That was enough for us to need to travel slower, say, like 40 mph, which in turn, made our travel time increase, say nothing of our stress level, which also decreased the slower that we went.

          Hence aa almost eight-hour foray into Southern California.

          Now that we’re here I can comfortably report on Day 10 of the trip, our last day in Las Vegas.

          In the beginning of this post, I asked a question, Why in the name of all that’s Holy would we spend almost three days in Las Vegas? 

          Well, there are actually several reasons, and you will find them illustrated here in just a few paragraphs. Paula has been here once before about twenty years ago with her cousin. I have never been here, and I have always wanted to see The Strip (as it’s called) and also see some of the older sections of town that still exhibit the original architecture, which is something akin to Art Deco, and also see where the boys from the Rat Pack hung out. Frank, Sammy, Dino, Peter, and a few others put Las Vegas on the map when it came to entertainment and even though I was in NO Way cool enough to hang with them (and too young!) I just love their renditions of the Classic American Songbook, as it has become to be known.

          Did you know that most of the fancy parts of town are not in Las Vegas at all? I wondered why when driving up Las Vegas Avenue (The Strip) past the Venetian and the Strat (the high needle-nosed building with the revolving restaurant at the top) I passed under a sign that read, The City of Las Vegas Welcomes You.

          It turns out that of all of the big-name casinos, only the Golden Nugget is actually located in the confines of the City. The rest are in the unincorporated sections of Winchester, Paradise, Enterprise, and Spring Valley.

          But no one cares!

          It’s like saying “I’m going to Newton” when you’re really visiting the Walmart. No one says, “I’m going to Hampton”. It’s the collective area that carries the moniker of Newton. Most of the time  😊

          We were able to find an original section of La Vegas, known as Fremont Street. They have managed to make this into a more modern, partially-closed to traffic, covered street, but if you walk a few blocks you can see the older places still in existence and a few Wedding Chapels, awaiting both loving and inebriated couples with all the kitsch that only Vegas can muster.

          We went back in the evening because you can only really experience the true spectacle of Las Vegas after the sun retreats behind the surrounding mountains.

          If you have been here before, you know what I am speaking of.

          If you haven’t, then…. Yikes!

          This place is one of excesses in all ways and means that that word can express.

          I wanted to see the buildings and lights after dark and I was definitely not disappointed!

          This place is like Times Square on steroids!

          We were there with about 750, 000 of our best friends who were on the street at the same time as us, and this was a Sunday night! I cannot imagine what it must have been like on Friday or Saturday nights! We walked a few miles, up and down the Strip, with all of the others, gawking at the sights, some of which (the drunks) were not pleasant to see and others (the pretty girls in their “Show Girls” Photo-Op outfits) that were!

          Since we are not the smoking, drinking, and gambling types alluded to in the beginning, we would probably not go back. I know that the shows are great and maybe we should have tried to see someone, but we accomplished what we set out to do and were happy with the outcome. Saying all of that, I o recommend visiting Vegas at least once in your life, if only to be able to say, “It’s Vegas baby!”

          I almost forgot.

          I did say in the beginning that I would reveal not only the answers to the questions, but also the secret of life.

          That is easy.

          It is Chocolate.