I'm spending the night in Sin City tonight, awaiting my early flight to Michigan in the morning. How's that for contrast? 85 and sunny to 25 and snow. I'll be happy to head home to the Whidbey Island's temperate climate in another week.
Yesterday I did a very challenging 8 mile hike, first driving up to about 5000 feet and then hiking along Dante's Ridge, with stellar views both right and left for most of the way. Lots of steep up and down, lots of rocks. and not a single other person after the first half mile. I'll post pictures later as I am too tired to mess with them tonight. And last night I barely had enough energy left to chew my dinner.
I drove down to the southern exit from Death Valley this morning, through Pahrump and on towards Las Vegas. Just a few miles outside of LV I happened upon Red Rock Canyon, so did the 13 mile scenic drive through there. Not enough time to really explore there, but I'd like to go back.
On into Las Vegas to return my car. The car return facility for all the different rental care companies is separate from the airport by several miles. You enter this huge facility and then pass all these different signs, turn here for Hertz, here for Alamo, etc. I turned in where it clearly, so I thought, said turn here for Dollar, but when I turned it wasn't Dollar at all, and there's no clear way out. After several unsuccessful manuevers I was directed to go through the "do not enter" sign which led me to the Dollar exit. Where I had to provide my ID and get permission to exit, as I had forgotten to buy gas, and the charge is some ridiculous thing like $19 per gallon if you don't return with a full tank. After finally returning the car, I found there is no shuttle from the car rental to the hotel, you have to take the shuttle back to the airport and then pay for a shuttle to the hotel. Already being a bit irritated, I decided to opt for a taxi. It can't be more than 3 or 4 miles to the strip, but still cost $20. Then the room at the Luxor, which I thought was a pretty good deal for $60, has an added $26 "resort fee". Oh well, it's only money.
I spent a bit of time wandering around a few casinos tonight but had to get out of there as the smoke really irritates my cough, and anyway it only took me 30 minutes to lose my $40 limit on the slots. One time years ago on a business trip I won about $400 on the quarter slots and I keep hoping for a repeat. That was back when the payoff came out in real quarters, which made it a lot more fun.
Las Vegas is fun but 4 hours is about my limit.
Posted with Blogsy
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