The last 4 days by Sylvio

 

Continued, Thursday 1/26/12

Well, we went to Bite….Bite sucked. Our room at the Stratosphere was basic and functional.  Kind of a dumpy hotel for Vegas Strip’s standards.  But the hotel’s tower is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River and we got to go up to the top observation deck as much as we wanted, for free.  We went up before the show, right at sunset and the views of the city were expansive. 

Back up in our room for a little while listening to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and then it was time to go into the theater to see the show, where it was Lucy in the Sky with Dracula.  I think that Marcie mentioned that this was a topless, vampire show, set to a classic rock soundtrack.  The music was really bad.  It was the kind of “classic rock” that you hear on radio stations where they think that Motley Crue, Van Halen, and Pat Benatar are “classic”.  So after realizing that this was not a joke show, I started wondering what was going on.  Did they really think that this is good?  But yes, they did, because they had clearly put a lot of time into choreographing their cheesy Salt n’ Pepa type dance moves in sync with each other.  Then it got really weird.  I started wondering; How come none of these girls are hot?  Isn’t this Vegas?  These “girls” had had a lot of plastic surgery done to enhance their femininity.  But in my opinion they could not get a job at the Foxy Lady.  Then I realized: One of them was a dude.  I saw it clearly as it’s face was lit up by the stage lights.  I whispered to Marcie “ I think the one in the red is a dude”.  She goes “I think so too”. Pause.  Marcie: “Now that I look at them, they’re all dudes!”  So, all the vampire strippers turned out to be transvestites, we think.  Next thing I remember, we were racing for the door.

Later that night we went back up the Stratosphere tower for views of the city lights.   And then walking around the north end of the strip was interesting.  We went thru the old Sahara hotel/casino.  It’s closed down now, as of recently, but we could still walk around the deserted grounds.  It was a little spooky, because it was now like 1 in the morning and we kind of thought that there would be an unregulated homeless camp back there.  After that we sat in our windowsill and watched the comings and goings at an Asian massage parlor across the parking lot.

Vegas kind of gives me the creeps. It seemed like nothing there was real.  It was all just some sick fantasy of money and electricity.  I did not want to touch any of the door handles.

Friday

Next day we milked it, in the hotel room for a while and then headed off to Whole Foods Las Vegas for some groceries.  Marcie drove the whole way while I drank beer.  Lagunitas Esrpesso Stout, warm.  I recommend it.

We drove south from Vegas thru the very flat desert where it looks like all of those speed junkies take their homemade rocketships on wheels and try to break land speed records.  Though only a few people were flying kites this day, so the land speed records might just be speculation.  Anyway, we continued thru Searchlight (casting) NV, and Needles, CA which typically registers the hottest daily temps in the US in the summer.  We had lunch at a great dinner type restaurant called The Wagon Wheel.  Enormous portions.  I had corned beef hash, two eggs, hash browns, biscuit and gravy, and coffee.  Dang!

Then we arrived in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.  There was a Blues, Brews and BBQ festival going on there but we did not want to pay the $5 each to get in, so we walked around a little down by the lake and then drove out 4-wd style in the desert to set up camp.  Finally it was warm enough to hang out outside for the evening and we made the most of it with a nice fire and another excellent dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.   

Saturday

Next day I went for short climb up the adjacent mountain while Marcie slept.  Then she made up banana pancakes and tea for breakfast.  Delicious.  So after that we hit the road south and then west to California.  Soon after we crossed the state line our rear driver’s side tire blew out as we were going about 55mph.  30 minutes later we were back on the road after changing out for the spare.  It is possible that we punctured the tire last night when we were 4wd-ing looking for a campsite.  But then again, we did go at least a hundred miles the next day before the tire blew, so I don’t know.  

Anyway, after a couple more hours driving thru the desert we reached Joshua Tree National Park in California.  We have been there a bunch of times before, but since we have the park pass we decided to go for a hike and maybe set up camp for the night.  When we drove out to the campsite it was kind of cold and really windy, like 40-50mph.  So we just went for a hike.  It was a 3 mile round trip up Ryan Mountain.  Nice hike.

So as it got dark we drove out of the park and found a place in the desert to cook and eat our dinner.  That night’s menu was sliced beef with polenta and broccoli in a curry sauce.  Hearty goodness. Then we drove out to a coin operated laundry business and did the wash.  Thanks to all of our readers for suffering thru these unglamorous low lights from the road. Then over to the Pacific Crest Trail in the town of Hesperia, California where we slept in the back of the truck for the night.

Sunday

We woke up Sunday morning in the back of the truck and quickly got our stuff together for a hike out to Deep Creek Hot Springs.  This is one of the best hot springs in the southwest and it’s in the San Bernardino National Forest so no one owns it and it is pretty much unregulated.  It was a 6.7 mile hike one-way out to the springs, but that was way more then Marcie originally intended to do, so at first that caused a little bit of friction between us.  But she went.  It didn’t help Marcie’s enthusiasm at all when we had to cross a section on the trail, high up on the cliffs, where a rockslide had washed the trail out.  Soon though, we were cruising along like the breeze up the canyon side trail.  After about 3.5 hours of hiking we arrived at the springs.  There were a bunch of people there, including some naked ones, but we climbed along some rocks that most of the other people there were not willing to and as a result we got a hot pool to soak in all to ourselves.  Lunch was peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches and then it was 3.5 hours and 6.7 miles back the trail to the truck.

We were pretty worn out after that so we drove up the mountain to the area where we used to live when we lived in Southern Cal about 3-5 years ago.  There was this restaurant in a town called Cedar Glen that had the best burgers and we both had been dreaming about getting some for the last couple of days, especially so during the last few miles of our hike that day!  Unfortunately the restaurant had changed its name, owners, and menu.  But we ate anyway.  Marcie: Taco Salad.  Me: Cheeseburger with Bacon, Onion Ring and BBQ sauce.  Then we drove down to San Bernardino to a Motel 6 for the night. 

Las Vegas

                                                         Arizona Desert Campsite/Lake Havasu

Joshua Tree National Park

Nevada

Fire Cove Breakfast  To Lake Mead?

 

  "New Beige" in front of Lake Mead

Fear & Loathing

 

1/26/12

I am currently sitting in our hotel room at the Stratosphere on the strip in Las Vegas.  We have to pay 11.99 for 24 hours of internet access and since I have an iphone for emergencies we aren’t getting wifi for the computer.  Lame!  They have a network that looks open labeled “Travelers wifi” and another labeled “Hot Sexy Girls”.  I’ve tried both, but to no avail yet, so I’m just writing this on my computer and I’ll just post them later, I guess.

This morning we woke up in our truck and both decided that it was the best night’s sleep in the truck thus far.  Last night found a wildlife management area with picnic tables and camping areas, and no one else there.  When we turned in it was a little early, 7pm,  but it was dark and we gained an hour after crossing the border in NV so we called it quits for driving and climbed in the back to read our books and get some sleep. 

When morning arrived we drove on to another federal recreation area of some sort, near Lake Mead, and drove out a 4x4 road to cook our breakfast.  This area was called Fire Cove and we drove most of the way down an arroyo, it seemed.  We had a nice spot to pull out our gear and cook some oatmeal and hot tea.  Then we biked and hiked about 2 miles to the edge of Lake Mead.  It was a nice morning activity and Jon spotted a Bald Eagle.  At this point we were about 70 miles from Vegas so we kept driving the scenic route there and eventually we came to a Red Rock pull off.  We had lunch and did a little 1 mile loop hike in the rocks.  The hike was pretty spectacular with a lot of red rock sandstone formations and caves. 

Now we are in the Stratosphere hotel, which is at the far north end of the strip and I had thought that we would possibly go walk the strip to check out the scene but we are pretty far from all that.  We picked up some food at the Whole Foods salad bar for dinner and now we are going to start having some drinks and gearing up for the big show tonight.  We are going to see Bite, which is a classic rock, topless, acrobatic, vampire show.  Should be a pretty good show!  It’s at 10:30 so we have a little while to go but I’ll let you know how it goes on the next blog….I wonder if I’ll get bitten.

Utah, the Beehive State

"New Beige" in front of Capital Reef National Park

Capital Reef                                                      Chimney Rock

Capital Reef        PetroglyphsRoad View Overlook

Bryce Canyon

  Zion

Desert Lake Dinner in Hurricane, Utah

1/25/12

Utah - what a state!  We spent three nights and four days in Utah.  We visited five national parks and hiked over 20 miles.  We have seen some of the most panoramic views, traversed some of the country’s most dangerous roads and spent more time in this state then any other since we left Ohio.  We hoped to spend a night or two in our truck to cut down on expenses, but it was pretty darn cold so we didn’t spend any nights in our truck.  One night at Hot Karl’s place and two nights in motels put us a little over budget, but we couldn’t freeze and they were pretty good motels with hot tubs and continental breakfasts.

Over the past four days we have visited Canyonland, Arches, Capital Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.  We drove through Escalante National Monument, but didn’t really see a good place to stop and hike from the main road.  At these five parks, we hiked through many different rock formations and colors, up and down elevations, and even through snow.  On almost every hike there was an element of steep cliffs or mountain ledges that were a little scary, for me especially, when some of them were covered with slick snow or ice.  But if I can’t push myself out of my comfort zone on this adventure then when can I?  Jon did buy me one of those hiking poles for the Bryce Canyon hike because it was really snowy and we were on the edge of steep cliffs.  It really helped so I’m going to use it now for hikes that involve an increase or decrease in elevation or snow.

Tonight we drove over into Nevada and gained an hour but didn’t have anywhere to be until Thursday when we have a reservation at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas as well as plans to attend Bite which is a topless, acrobatic, classic rock, vampire show.  Sounds quite interesting and will probably be entertaining to say the least.  Dinner this afternoon in Utah was really pleasant.  It was the first night that we cooked outside and weren’t cold.  We had a nice view of the sunset over a lake in Utah and even got out our camp chairs to sit and enjoy our dinner.  So, now we are camped in the truck at a wildlife management area near Overton, NV.  The sign says we can stay for up to eight days.  I wonder what happens if we stay for nine?   Tomorrow, off to Vegas baby.  I’ll let you know how Bite is but I’m sure you can imagine.  I’m expecting Vampire, Stripper Cirque du Soleil to classic rock music.

Arches National Park, Utah

This morning we awoke at the Moab Outward Bound House, courtesy of Hot Karl Krebs, and after a hot breakfast made our way to Arches National Park.  Hot Karl was our local naturalist guide and we did about 4 miles of hiking.  The weather held out for us and we were able to have a nice half day in the park before we parted ways with Hot Karl and made our way to Capital Reef National Park.  In the park we first hiked to the Delicate Arch which is "the" arch that everyone sees when then see Arches National Park.  Next we went to the Windows area where we did a little hike around there but they were working on the trails since it is the off season so we got to see some masonry work being done.  I am just continuously amazed by the sights in Utah.  Its magnificent and majestic.  Today we drove through about 90 miles of nothing but piles of dirt, sand, and rock before we reached the Capital Reef National Park.  We decided to get a motel for the night so we can get up early tomorrow to get a hike in at both Capital Reef and Escalante National Parks.  The day after we plan to head to Bryce Canyon and possibly Zion and Thursday we'll land in Las Vegas for a little hotel action. Until then. We're going to use the hot tub right now!

Balanced Rock

Jon and Hot Karl under Delicate Arch

Petroglyphs

The Windows

North Window

Canyonlands, UT (by Sylvio)

1/23/12

Sunday we awoke in Dove Creek, CO in our motel room.  There was about 4 new inches of snow covering the truck.  We got on the road quickly after filling up our thermos' with free coffee in the lobby, under the glaring gaze of the miserly motel owner.   

Soon we crossed the state line into Utah.  We were then leaving the Rocky Mountains and entering the Canyon Lands.  This is an incredible area of red rock canyons, creeks and craters out in the desert.  We stopped at another roadside attraction: this one was a giant stripped mountain sticking up into the air, but what really set this one apart was the cave opening that we could see from the road.  So, we stopped.  After jumping the cattle range fence, entering the cave and taking Marcie’s requisite multitude of pictures we started to walk back to the truck.  As we walked we noticed that there was a police cruiser parked next to us.  Oh shit!  If there is one thing that ruins a good time it's a cop.  Luckily, it was only coincidence that Officer Porky was parked there trying to catch speeders.  So away we sped...

... Into The Needles section of Canyonlands National Park.  This remote part of the park was unstaffed and thus free!  The drive in was about 40 miles of breathtaking scenery until we got to the Squaw Flat campground where our hiking trail started.  At first Marcie did not want to start a 7-mile backcountry hike that late in the day (11am).  But, we went anyway.  The hike was through Squaw Canyon, up over the mountain separating it from Big Spring Canyon and looping back to our truck.  I have to say, I’ve done a lot of hiking and this one was right up there with Half Dome at the top of the list of my outdoor experiences (See Photos).

So back at the truck we drove back out through the park stopping at Newspaper Rock where there are magic symbols inscribed into the rock by ancient man.  These petroglyphs are over 2,000 years old and still as clear as they were on the day that those prehistoric Picassos carved them.  So significant!

Almost forgot... on the way out, near the park boundary, we saw a western mule deer on the road ahead of us.  As we slowed down to let it get off of the road we noticed that there was a bunch of deer in the bushes.  The more we looked the more we saw; 10, 20, 30 deer, until there must have been around 100 deer in a giant herd up on this high desert mesa!

Then, on to Moab, UT.  Stopped at the Moab Brewery for dinner and drinks with an old friend, Hot Karl Krebs!   Portions were huge, service was slow, beer was excellent, especially the Black IPA.  After dinner Hot Karl invited us back to his place at the Outward Bound house for more beers, dominoes, and a bed to sleep in.  Thanks Hot Karl!