Sunday, November 3, 2013

FREMONT STREET EXPERIENCE - LAS VEGAS



Last night we drove into downtown Vegas to the Fremont Street Experience (FSE) a pedestrian mall and attraction.  The FSE occupies the westernmost 5 blocks of Fremont Street, including the area known for years as "Glitter Gulch," and portions of some other adjacent streets.
The attraction is a barrel vault canopy, 90 ft  high at the peak and four blocks, or approximately 1,500 ft, in length. From dusk to midnight each hour, on the hour for ten minutes a band is featured on the huge overhead screen. We saw Heart, Bon Jovi and Queen.
While Las Vegas is known for never turning the outside casino lights off, each show begins by turning off the lights on all of the buildings, including the casinos, under the canopy.

The world and his wife was out and as the evening wore on we saw the most amazing, weird, scary and outrageous people dressed up and working for tips to have your photo taken with them. Two bands were playing on different stages, there were bars everywhere and not a sign of trouble.

What an experience, far better than the Strip and all for free!














 


Friday, November 1, 2013

SNOW IN BRYCE TO SUN IN ZION TO JOURNEY'S END

We woke on Tuesday to about four inches of snow, so before we left, we went back to Sunset Point in Bryce to view the winter wonderland – another item off the bucket list, I had always wanted to see Bryce in the snow.






 



Busy Roy cleaning the snow

THIS WAS AT RUBY'S INN - YOU CAN CAMP IN THESE


We lost the snow as we headed south, drove through the amazing Zion/Mount Carmel tunnel and into Zion National Park, this place always fills me with awe and peace, it's truly one of the beautiful places.




CAN YOU SEE THE HOLE IN THE ROCK? WE DROVE THROUGH THIS TUNNEL THAT GOES THROUGH MOUNT CARMEL - AMAZING ENGINEERING!





We spent our last day of hiking by taking the shuttle bus to the end of the Park at the Temple of Sinawava and walked back to the campsite, about 8 miles of magnificent scenery, mule deer, wild turkeys, Stellar's Jays, a Condor flying high, golden trees and the pretty Virgin River with sunshine!

SOUTH CAMPGROUND IN ZION - HEAVEN!









STELLARS JAY


THIS HUGE ROCK AT THE BACK OF ME IS ANGEL'S LANDING - A GREAT HIKE WE HAVE DONE TWICE BEFORE - SO THAT'S ENOUGH TIMES!

LAST OF THE PRICKLY PEAR FRUIT


One last stop at Valley of Fire State Park before we reached Lake Mead Campground, time to clean and pack and grab the last of the sun before we fly home on Thursday 7th November.

BLACK TAILED JACKRABBIT AT VALLEY OF FIRE


We have a lovely site overlooking Lake Mead, they have updated the site by clearing out all the beautiful but poisonous flowering bushes and put in hard standing and kept the same price! Sunshine and 23oC – I think I will do my cleaning at night when the sun has gone down!

This will be the last blog for this time, thank you to all who have taken the time to read it and thanks also for the comments. Roy, my long suffering beloved has again taken me safely around this stunning country, thank you.


In this 80 day travels we have visited 11 States.

Stopped in 47 different campgrounds

Drove 6438 miles

Travelled through four time zones.

Experienced temperatures from minus 10oC to 30oC


“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Albert Einstein
 
 


"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. EXPLORE. DREAM. DISCOVER." - Mark Twain