BigWeather's Blog

As was becoming typical on this trip we woke up well before 7am. I don’t know if it is not adjusting to the new time zone (three hours earlier), or being used to cats gently (and not so gently) prodding us to get up and feed them, or what, but it happened every morning. In this case, however, it was likely due to the morning light shining through the yurt’s skylight (through which we could see stars last night) and landing on the bed.

The yurt was very comfortable. The bed was soft (though a footboard kind of cramped me a little) and directly below the skylight was a bean bag-like chair that could unzip into a bed. The wood throughout had beautiful designs and there were prayer flags over the entrance door and a beautiful blue cloth over the headboard. There was a sink in the room with potable water as well as an air conditioner, dresser, and a few tables. The floor was concrete and there didn’t seem to be any gaps between the tent’s canvas and the slab that could let critters in so that was good.

We got up, packed, and took our outdoor showers. The shower was nice, all things considered, and had privacy screening. I couldn’t help thinking, however, that surely some desert critters would like to come get some of the water that dripped off the edges of the concrete pad. Luckily none were seen! At 9:30am we hit the road and stopped at John’s Place on CA-62 around 10am for breakfast. It was a traditional American diner and quite good. Michelle had French toast, eggs over medium, and bacon. I had chicken fried steak (with white gravy!), eggs over medium, and hashbrowns. Additionally, we had a side of biscuits and gravy and unsweetened tea. All great!

Satiated, we headed west to the town of Joshua Tree and the National Park Visitor Center there, arriving around 11am. It was small but there were some nice shirts and magnets as well as a few displays talking in particular about the music connection. The Joshua Tree on the back of U2’s album of the same name was just outside the east boundary of Death Valley National Park — we probably drove right past it — and a post-Led Zeppelin Robert Plant allegedly fell for a lady from Twentynine Palms. Allegedly his 1993 song “29 Palms” is about that time.

We then drove south a few miles through an area of nice homes to the actual entrance of the park and upgraded our entrance pass from Death Valley National Park to an Annual Pass. Though it wouldn’t quite pay for itself with Joshua Tree National Park it’d start saving us money with our next one (provided we visit before July — I suspect we will). As we had other plans for the day we turned around and back the way we came, this time seeing a coyote in the middle of the road!

Back in Joshua Tree we headed west on CA-62 a short distance to Yucca Valley then turned on to some pretty roads through desert canyons to Pioneertown, a small village and still active Western set, arriving right at High Noon. In its heyday in the 40s and 50s many TV Westerns were filmed there like Cisco Kid and Gene Autry’s show. Now it is more often used for music videos and the odd movie. Braving the heat we parked the car and walked onto the main thoroughfare. On either side were Western-looking buildings like stables, a saloon, etc. They had legitimate businesses in them like pottery, gifts, clothing, etc. as well as a tiny “Film Museum”. Sadly the main store that Michelle wanted to check out was closed. We did end up buying a magnet and a metal Joshua tree so that was nice.

As were getting a little hungry we ended up eating at The Red Dog Saloon. I ordered a tea for Michelle and myself a ginger beer. The tea wasn’t really drinkable and the ginger beer definitely wasn’t what I expected (and may not have been). We also ordered some chips and queso with carnitas. That serving size was tiny. To say we weren’t impressed is an understatement. Oh well.

We hopped back in the car and headed down CA-62 through the Morongo Valley (including a quite steep and windy stretch that was very much like Old Fort) until we hit I-10. We went west on that until we saw the giant green T-Rex and Brontosaurus in Cabazon around 1:45pm. We entered the rear of the Brontosaurus and climbed a flight of stairs to the cool gift shop within. They hadn’t any magnets! The sales lady, however, was great and we enjoyed the dioramas of dinosaur eggs and the ancestors of Man that lined the edges. One could pay to go up into the head of the T-Rex but it looked like quite the climb and cramped so we passed. There was also an attached “dinosaur park” with animatronic dinosaurs notable mainly for being in one of Pee-Wee Herman’s movies. We passed on visiting that as well, hitting the road and heading east on I-10 around 2pm.

As there was a traffic jam on I-10 we diverted onto CA-111 and entered Palm Springs. Rich people and golf courses. We hopped back onto I-10 past the traffic jam and got back off near Thousand Palms where we drove past the oases at Coachella Valley Preserve. Sadly they were closed but I was able to take a few pictures. We headed back to I-10 and headed east to the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. Traffic was pretty congested but moving along, the main issue is that there was a fairly gradual but very long climb and the trucks (and there were lots of them!) couldn’t maintain speed. We eventually got off at exit 168 and turned north into the park via Cottonwood Springs Rd. around 4pm.

The southern and eastern part of the park is at a much lower elevation than the northern and western part. Consequently, the park straddles both the Colorado Desert at the lower elevations and the Mojave Desert at the higher. The Colorado Desert supports very different flora from the Mojave — nary a Joshua tree to be seen but a number of yucca, cholla (a small very fuzzy light green cactus), and ocotillo (a deciduous tree that sprouts leaves when it rains rather than by season and resembles multiple tall (6’+) spindly branches attached at the base).

We visited the Cottonwood Visitor Center just as it was closing but availed ourselves on their clean facilities. The rangers were having issues locking the main door and even set off the alarm, haha! In this part of the park evidence the ancient Pinto Culture dating back to 9,000 years ago was found in the 1930s. The terrain was quite dry and marked by expansive washes from flash floods. The hills resembled more piles of small rocks than slabs of granite.

Farther along we came to the Cholla Cactus Garden around 5pm, an area of nearly 170,000 cholla cacti. It was quite beautiful and I got out to take pictures. Unfortunately when I returned there were hundreds of yellow jackets and bees swarming under our car (and the other car — the park was not crowded). They were attracted by the shade and the puddles of condensation from the cars’ AC. I wasn’t able to enter the car but rather had Michelle meet me a hundred feet away in the parking lot, evading most of the bees. Yay!

In addition to natural sights there were some ruins of old mines. We continued north and gained elevation, entering the Mojave Desert. Joshua trees started to appear and the rocks went from dark-brown and block small boulders to light tan large lumpy boulders. We exited the park in Twentynine Palms and drove to the adjacent 29 Palms Inn, arriving around 8:45pm. The inn was built in 1928 and consisted of a retro lobby area with an attached courtyard pool with brightly colored walls and beyond that a bar / dining room area. The rooms consisted of separate buildings of two or three rooms apiece, some backing up to the park and others to the Oasis of Mara that ran through the property.

We had a pleasant chat with the guy in the lobby, Malcolm. He had lived in Jacksonville, NC as his was a military family (and Twentynine Palms itself is near a very large Marines training base). He recommended some restaurants and directed us to our room. Our room was Buffalo Burr, in a building with two other rooms at the edge of the park. It had its own private courtyard, a bedroom, a small hall, and a bathroom. It was quite nice with a old red ceramic tile floor.

We unpacked and relaxed until about 7:30pm then, as we were getting hungry, headed to The Rib Co. A family owned barbecue restaurant (recommended highly by Malcolm) we knew we were in for a treat as soon as we got out of the car and sniffed the air. The cook had a giant barbecue in front of the restaurant upon which he was cooking everyone’s meat. We went inside and ordered. We both had tea. After some corn muffins Michelle had a huge Cobb salad and I had a ribeye with mashed potatoes and a dinner salad. Though a little pricey the service and food were both excellent. We headed back to the room around 9pm and lounged around before heading to bed.

We woke up early and after showering headed to the breakfast buffet around 8:30am. We had low expectations and it failed to meet them. The oatmeal was… red-ish. The scrambled eggs were quite dry. The sausage was OK at best. The toast wasn’t too bad, however, and we were able to eat enough so that we weren’t too hungry. For $21 a piece though we’d hoped for something more. Oh well.

We packed up and headed out just before 10am. As there was nobody at registration Michelle just left the keys on the desk. We got gas at the adjacent station then returned to see if someone was at registration. There was, and they had our keys, so yay.

We headed south down Badwater Rd. towards Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the western hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level. On the way we passed the fancy inn in Furnace Creek, perched upon the hillside and surrounded by gorgeous palms. A short distance down the road we turned onto a non-paved (not dirt, really, more like compacted salt) road and drove a bit over a mile into the valley itself before arriving at a cul-de-sac in the middle of a feature called the Devil’s Golf Course, termed because only the Devil could play golf there. It was an an ancient lake bed, now salt pan, and had some quite large (bowling ball and larger) salt formations. Parts of the area were the pure white you’d expect but a good bit was various shades of gray.

After finishing with the Devil’s Golf Course around 10:30am we headed farther south to Badwater Basin itself. By this time the temperature was a very scalding 116F so we didn’t spend long. We did, however, see a pool (fed by an aquifer) and lots of salt formations. That pool obviously had a very high salt concentration and that is how it got its name — in the 1800s a donkey refused to drink it and the owner called it Badwater. It stuck. In addition to the sign proclaiming that the basin is at 282 feet below sea level there was a marking on the hillside that showed sea level. It was waaaaay up there (nearly a thirty story building’s height!).

Heading back north just after 11pm we peeled off to the right onto one-way Artists Road on the way to a feature called Artists Palette. The road was quite windy through narrow canyons with large dips — including points where until the car hit the crest we couldn’t see the road beyond. About mid-way through the nine mile drive we came to Artists Palette. The surrounding hillside had hues of brown, light green, and yellow mixed with the usual brown and tan. Gorgeous!

Back on Badwater Rd. we drove back to the inn and turned to the right and then back south again, this time on the ridge that overlooked the valley floor where we had just been. Around noon we arrived at Zabriskie Point, an overlook with some amazing Badlands-like terrain and beautiful examples of geological uplifting. It was a short but steep walk up to the vantage point. When there I talked with a couple about how beautiful it was and the guy reminded me that our next vantage point was special as it was connected to the movie Star Wars.

That next stop was Dante’s View, accessed via a seven mile detour off the main road. At 5,000 feet we saw the effect of elevation on temperature. With every 1,000 feet the temperature drops 5F — and at Dante’s View it was 84F as opposed to the 110sF. Breeze too! It was very pleasant. The view itself was amazing, down into Death Valley. We could see Badwater Basin, Artists Palette, the Devil’s Golf Course, and even all the way back to Furnace Creek where we had stayed the night.

The view was used in Star Wars when Luke and Obi-Wan were looking down upon Mos Eisley and the famous “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” line. We’d later learn that some of the other places we’d visited were used in Star Wars and Return of the Jedis — the dunes from yesterday when R2-D2 leaves C-3PO in the Dune Sea, Artists Palette for the R2-D2 in the canyon scenes, Golden Canyon for the shots of Tusken Raiders with a Bantha (really an elephant they brought) just before Luke gets attacked (though his scenes were filmed in Tunisia), and Twenty Mule Team Canyon near Zabriskie Point for the road leading to Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi. Amazing!

There was also a plaque describing the effects of Las Vegas (120 miles away) and Los Angeles (150 miles) on the night sky — even in one of the remotest places in America it is hard to escape light pollution. Another interesting plaque described the Amargosa River that flowed from near Beatty southeast along the eastern edge of the park, hit an area of dunes south of the park, then flowed the opposite direction (northwest) through the valley itself (though only in the rainy season).

We continued down CA-190, exiting the park and turning on to CA-127 at Death Valley Junction. We proceeded south through Shoshone and several other no-stoplight “towns” and past Dumont Dunes (the dunes that forced the change in direction of the Amargosa River). During this drive we also saw some Joshua Trees.

Around 3:30pm we arrived at Baker on I-15 and ate at Los Dos Toritos Restaurant, a Mexican restaurant. It was really great! We both had brewed unsweetened tea. Michelle had cheese enchiladas with beans and rice, I had some tasty asada tacos, and we shared a huge carnitas burrito with red sauce that was superb. The carnitas were very flavorful and were fried lightly crispy. After our meal I walked across the street to get a better view of the world’s tallest thermometer (I didn’t verify it but the town of Baker seemed pretty insistent that it was in fact the world’s tallest) while Michelle waited in the car.

We crossed I-15 and continued south on Kelbaker Road into Mojave National Preserve, a beautiful area of desert with mountains, dunes, etc. We did come across an accident where a car had likely lost grip on the hot road (at these temperatures the asphalt was quite soft) and had flipped. They were receiving aid and luckily looked OK (but that car wasn’t driving away from there). We got to the town of Kelso and there was a Union Pacific train stopped dead on the tracks preventing us from proceeding. With no path around the obstruction and needing the restroom we considered turning back to Baker but that was nearly an hour back the way we came. There was a train depot, however, and despite being closed due to a broken AC it turned out they had restrooms outside that were operational (and clean!). By the time I was through and had chatted with a few folks about the train it started moving just after another train blew by (so it was likely single-tracking). I hustled back to the car in time for us to continue on our way, yay!

Farther south we crossed I-40 (yep, our I-40) and turned right at a Josha Tree sign absolutely plastered with stickers and headed into Amboy. There was a motel, Roy’s, there that Neil Peart of Rush stayed at several times on his motorcycle trips but it had long since closed. The attached gas station was still open but it was a bit dire and the facilities were just porta-potties. It being around 6:30pm and with still a while before we’d arrive at our stop for the night we hit the road quickly and continued down Amboy Rd. and finally into the town of Twentynine Palms. As it was nearly dusk and we wanted to get to our destination before nightfall we stopped at McDonald’s and grabbed what you’d expect (sweet tea, burgers, and fries) through the drive-through.

Heading back to US-62 and up Lear Ave. we arrived at 28 Palms Stargazing Yurts at 8pm. Our Yurt had a gold painted door and Michelle’s name on a placard so we were able to quickly locate ours. Erin, our hostess, drove up on her golf cart and, after a friendly conversation, ran us through some of the peculiarities of yurt living — mainly duck on entry (even Michelle had to duck!), how to use these cool solar-powered “fairy lights”, and how to operate the outdoor BioGas potty and the shower. We had seen little one-room shacks all along the road into town and asked her about them. Not habitable because of a lack of sanitation and clean water but used as a mining camp shack. Also, the town had closed down most of the privately owned camps like her yurt camp and had them get licensed and re-zoned. As she was one of the first to pass the process she had a leg up on the competition.

Michelle and I sat on the picnic bench in front of the yurt as night fell and enjoyed our dinner and the slight breeze, making it tolerable despite being still around 100F. As the sky darkened and the stars started popping out around 9:30pm we moved to some chairs. I installed some Astrophotography software for my phone and propped it on the chair for the four to ten minute exposures while we enjoyed seeing so many stars and the Milky Way. The software also had a mode where it’d show the location of constellations, etc. as the camera was pointed in different directions. Around 10:30pm or so Michelle went to bed but I lingered until moonrise at 12:30am.

We woke up around 7am and, after showering and packing, went down to Cafe Hollywood for breakfast. This time Michelle had the oatmeal with raisins, brown sugar, and milk and I had bacon, eggs, toast, etc. Headed back to the room to finish packing, checked out remotely, and got our car from the valet. One particularly nice guy worked there and he was there that morning which was nice. We hopped on to I-15 around 10:30am and left Las Vegas and its traffic behind. But not its heat.

One thing we love about traveling out in the desert West is they seem to love decorating their highways (especially overpasses) and southern Nevada was no exception. The suburbs quickly faded in the distance, giving way to wide open desert with scattered vegetation — including even quite a few Joshua trees! We turned onto US-95. There were signs from time to time warning that though this was a four lane highway that the area was open range for cattle — yikes! We rode for an hour or so and, after a pit stop, arrived in Beatty, Nevada around 12:30pm. Beatty was a fairly small and dusty town. We decided to try Smokin’ J’s Barbecue, a small barbecue restaurant with lots of Western decoration. Michelle had a pulled pork sandwich (no slaw as it had pineapple in it, blech) and French fries while I had the brisket with jalepeno mac and cheese and that odd side of two plain untoasted pieces of white bread and onions that Texas did too. The brisket was decent (a tad dry in spots) but the mac and cheese was excellent (though scattered bits of corn was very odd).

Our tummies full we headed west to the Goldwell Open Air Museum and it’s adjacent ghost town, Rhyolite. Like many “museums” in this part of the country it was more a collection of art by some odd dude (in this case a Belgian sculptor) in a small area. We went into the Goldwell Museum gift shack and bought a magnet and then toured the site. In addition to an odd Lego-like sculpture of a naked lady as well as a metal oragami swan and a prospector hanging out with a penguin (of all things! — there because the prospector felt out of place like a penguin would) there was a spiral labyrinth made of stone. There was also the signature sculptures of the artist — white sheet-like ghosts, in this case one getting on a bicycle and a group of them arranged like DaVinci’s “Last Supper”.

Rhyolite was just a short distance down the road and consisted of a few ruined buildings. It was founded in 1905 and quickly became a boomtown. One of the first two Senators from Nevada was an investor and built a home as did others. There was a large bank as well as other multi-story structures. The place was so booming that three railroads serviced it and a depot was built around 1907. Sadly, a financial crisis struck in 1907 and ended the boom. While the depot barely turned a profit in 1908 by mid-year more people were leaving the town than entering. The depot finally shuttered in 1919 but was a tourist destination (even hosting a casino and brothel where the ticketmaster used to live on the second floor) in the 1920s and 1930s before it became abandoned for good in the 1940s when fuel rationing for the war effort killed tourism in the area.

We went farther on Nevada 374 and crossed into California and Death Valley National Park around 2pm. From this entrance there were some nice views of the northern part of the valley and it wasn’t blistering hot. After paying the park fee via a kiosk we descended into the valley. First we stopped by a place called Devils Cornfield which consisted of mostly patches of Yucca with their roots exposed. As Michelle pointed out whomever named it that probably had never seen a cornfield.

Next we headed to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, an area with large dunes. However, due to the heat, nobody (not me, not Michelle, and not the gaggle of German tourists that had descended on Death Valley) ventured out to them. We remained content to take some photos, framing the distant dunes with vegetation and dead logs. When we got back to the car it was 117F, a reading confirmed by the Visitor Center in Furnace Creek on their thermometer (at 116F) when we arrived there around 3:30pm. We bought some postcards and magnets, toured their museum (which had a lot about mining and water, predictably), and watched a movie narrated by Donald Sutherland.

Around 4:30pm we drove to the nearly adjacent The Ranch at Death Valley in Furnace Creek, our stop for the night. After a brief bit of confusion we figured out where to park and went in to register. We were placed in room 501 and, after a quick stop to get some ice cream in a waffle cone — Michelle some chocolate and myself coffee — set off to unload our things (not wanting to leave anything in the roasting car). As there were no other restaurants in town other than the on-site ones we read the menus and reviews. The fancy one required reservations and was very expensive ($75 for a steak!) and the other, a buffet, had an eye-popping 1.5 stars (out of 5) so… yeah. I hurried to the general store on-site before it closed and bought a couple of sandwiches (ham and cheese and turkey and cheese), two bags of popcorn, some Cheerios for Michelle in case we couldn’t get breakfast, etc.

After a short rest we ate our dinner and watched some TV before going out and looking at the stars around 11:30pm. While there were more stars than could be seen in Cary and the Milky Way was visible (but faint) the nearby pool area was still lit and interfered with stargazing. Michelle and I sat on rockers outside our room before shuffling in around midnight for bed.

After the late night we woke up fairly late and went down to the casino floor to Cafe Hollywood for breakfast. We had a nice waiter who mentioned something we had heard in Hawaii — that Las Vegas was the ninth Hawaiian island due to all of the folks that retire here for the lower cost of living. We both had hot tea, Michelle had French toast, eggs, and bacon and I had eggs, chicken fried steak and gravy, hashbrowns, and toast. Both were excellent. We then went upstairs to our room to get ready for the day’s adventure.

We set out about noon for Artistic Iron up north in the Fremont Street Art District. Along the way we passed the Circus Circus casino with its creepy sign. How is that place still in business?! Clowns! We also passed under a really neat Las Vegas sign (no, not the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas one!). Artistic Iron had a ton of really cool metal sculptures in front ranging from gigantic dinosaurs to aliens to small plants. We went inside and the sheer amount of metal sculpture for sale from $10 to $1000s was staggering. They ship, but not cheaply, so Michelle and I knew we had to be wise. We made a note of the things we liked and asked if we could keep our noble steed in their parking lot while we went to lunch at the nearby Cornish Pasty Co. at 1pm.

The food was decent. The highlight was probably the appetizer of bread and butter, which was delicious. I also got an appetizer of Scotch Egg but it wasn’t super great — the egg wasn’t completely hard boiled (a big no-no for me) and the sausage wasn’t nice and crisp and crumbly like we get at the Carolina Renaissance Faire or that amazing Broken Barrel in Stanfield, Oregon. As for the pasty, those are basically a complete meal wrapped in a pastry. They go as far back as the 13th century and miners would carry them into the mines for their lunch. As their hands were usually grimy they’d hold onto the pasty via a built-in handle that would later be tossed. Michelle got the Cuban pasty (ham, pork, mustard, cheese, pickles, etc.) and I had the Cottage Pie pasty which was the typical Shephard’s Pie (carrots, peas, mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese, meat) but with beef instead of lamb.

We walked back through the blistering heat to Artistic Iron and checked out the large sculptures in front, including a Samurai on a horse with a cool dragon atop its helmet and a massive T-Rex. We then went back in and decided on a few pieces — three small desert plants, an alien, and a single blue rose. They all fit in a box so shipping wouldn’t be outrageous. We left about 2:30pm and headed down Frank Sinatra Boulevard, a street between I-15 and Las Vegas Boulevard. Not only was it faster (as there was a wreck on I-15) but we got to see the backside of the casinos which was kind of cool.

South of the strip we hopped back onto Las Vegas Boulevard at 3pm and visited the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. There was a fair crowd in front of it in line waiting for pictures so I just took my picture above their heads. The sign was also next to the “parking lot” for all the rich folks’ jets so I enjoyed seeing those! We then drove the very short distance (a few hundred feet) north to the Pinball Hall of Fame.

We visited the Pinball Hall of Fame back in 2013 and greatly enjoyed it. At the time it was off of Tropicana but has since moved to a much nicer (and more prominent) location. I think there were more tables on display too. There’s no admission fee, just the quarters needed to play each table (which varied from a quarter to a dollar, with most around the fifty to seventy-five cent range). Sadly as in 2013 there were a fair number of tables that were out of order, including my favorite — Williams’ Tales of the Arabian Nights. There were still plenty playable, however. After Michelle and I each bought a shirt (no magnets available, sadly) we started playing. Michelle played some Shrek, Munsters, and Star Wars. I played a range of machines from the quite old 50s, 60s, and 70s (including Genie) all the way up to the fairly new (a couple of years old at most) Rush table, which I greatly enjoyed. If they weren’t such a pain to maintain I’d love to have a table! Oh well. I think my favorite period are the older ones. There’s just something magical about them as you can hear the electronics hum as you use the paddles and everything has a nice kachunk about it. Also those old machines have mechanical scoring so hearing the digits rotate is a treat. Some of the tables I played were old enough that they had a second plunger below the normal one that had to be pressed in to load the ball. So cool.

The art of the pinball machines is so amazing, particularly the older ones. I also love how you can see cultural interests expressed through the theme of the pinballs — from 50s with Western through 60s with “groovy” and lots of space themed to 70s and disco and fantasy and even into the 80s when movie licenses started really getting into the business. Very cool. In addition to the pinball tables I also played some arcade machines — Tutankhamun, Burger Time, Dig Dug, and Frogger. Great fun! It being 4:45pm and with a busy evening ahead we reluctantly headed for the exit. We tried to give about $10 of quarters that we hadn’t used to a family coming in for free to be nice and they were like “we’re good”. Oooookay, whatever.

After some not-so-fun traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard and a failed detour near the MGM Grand we made it back to the room around 5:30pm. We rested a few minutes then headed downstairs for our 6pm reservation at P.F. Changs. After the previous night’s failure to get dessert we decided to focus on a few appetizers and ensuring that Michelle got dessert (their dessert menu wasn’t to my taste — meaning it was coffee free, haha). We had tempura fried green beans, lettuce wraps, and pork spring rolls for appetizers and Michelle had the banana rolls with coconut and pineapple ice cream, which she greatly enjoyed.

We finished our dinner around 7pm and headed back to the room for about thirty minutes then returned to the casino floor and to the nearby Bakkt Theater to see Miranda Lambert’s Velvet Rodeo residency. Michelle got a really neat shirt and we took our seats which were aisle with nobody in front (and, as it turned out, to our side). The show started with no opening band around 8:15pm with her song “Acting Up”. The stage was neat and had multiple levels as well as a huge screen that showed images for each song. There was also a walkway into the audience with a small round stage where she could sing with spotlights. There were also some pyrotechnics and despite being well over a hundred feet back we could feel the heat. There was only a short intermission in which the band played so she could change costumes and otherwise it was a string of her hits (“Vice”, “The House That Built Me”, “Tin Man”, “Not Your Mama’s Broken Heart”, “Not Ready To Go Home”, “Wild Palomino”, “Little Red Wagon”, “All Kinds”, “Bluebird”, etc.) for about an hour and a half, wrapping up right at 9:45pm with an explosion of confetti. We had a great time!

Back on the casino floor we noticed it was far more lively (it being a Friday night) than we had seen it previously. I stopped and got a Frappucino from Starbucks and we headed back to the room and went to bed.

Michelle and I woke up earlier than any human should have to, ever, at 4am. We got our showers and finished our packing. Genetta came down at 4:45am and drove us to the airport. It was surprisingly busy for 5:30am. We checked in, zipped through security fairly quickly (though we both got patted down after the scanner because we’re shifty or something), and got to the gate with just under an hour to go. I went and got us some La Farm (two plain croissants for Michelle and two pain de chocolate for me) and got back to the gate shortly before boarding around 6:30am.

We were in the fifteenth row, so not very far back. The flight was pretty uneventful — we both finished our La Farm and I had some ginger ale and the tiniest bag of cheddar Sun Chips imaginable. I watched The Fablemans, a semi-autobiographical movie about Steven Spielberg. It was a bit of a downer despite being a really good movie. Michelle slept most of the flight and listened to Zac Brown radio on Spotify via the in-flight entertainment console.

We landed just after 8am. Almost immediately I knew we were in trouble — there was a store there called Kalifano that sold a lot of cute metal sculptures. Some were small and others larger and pretty expensive. We decided that if we didn’t find anything while on our trip maybe we’d get a small Wall-E or something (it was cute, Michelle adored it). Also so odd to just see gambling machines spaced along the terminal’s walkway. We headed to the tram to go from concourse D to baggage claim. Just as we were walking up our luggage was spinning by — guess it was a good thing we spent some time in that metal store!

We stepped into the hot Las Vegas air and hopped on to the bus connecting the airport to the rental car center. The driver was very friendly and loaded our luggage. We ended up talking with an older couple from Columbia, Missouri that were in town for a UFC fight. Once at the rental car center we headed to Hertz. Despite a small line it moved quickly and we were processed by a nice lady from the south fork of Long Island. We chatted a bit while she processed us. We then hauled our luggage out to the lot to pick out a car (so odd that modern rental isn’t reserving a specific car but instead a level of car and they just turn you lose to drive away in whatever is in that level). One problem, though. The level was empty, we watched the last one drive off. We ended up being told to pick one from the next level, which we did — a GMC Terrain, a mid-sized SUV. It has one annoying thing, however — the gear selection are buttons in the dash beneath the radio. We thought we’d seen it all!

We left the rental car center and went up Las Vegas Boulevard past the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and the Pinball Hall of Fame enroute to our hotel for the next two nights, Planet Hollywood. We got there a bit before 11am and were allowed to pay $50 to check-in early. Whatever, it’s extortion but we were tired and wanted to get our luggage out of the hot car rather than drive around Las Vegas tired for a few hours.

After relaxing a bit in our room (2061 in the north tower) we went down around noon to the Casino floor to find a restaurant. What’s crazy is smoking is still allowed on the Casino floor — I figured that was a thing of the past. Michelle even later saw a “cigarette lady” in the outfit with the tray of cigarettes and everything! We decided on Gordon Ramsay burger (yeah, the “b” is lower-cased and it’s super annoying). We ordered some truffle fries with a house-made ketchup that was good and an mushroom garlic aioli that was amazing. Michelle had a Euro Burger with goat cheese, truffle aioli, roasted tomato, arugula and a unsweet tea while I had a Stout Burger with Guinness mustard aioli, gruyere cheese, mushrooms, and crispy onion strings and water. Both were amazing!

Unfortunately I had begun to develop a headache during the meal. Pretty common for me on travel day. Instead of doing something productive we ended up heading back to the room after making dinner reservations for 6pm. We rested until around 5:30pm and then headed down to dinner at P.F. Changs — yeah, I know, we were trying to avoid chains but… P.F. Changs. We both had unsweetened tea and shared an appetizer of pork spring rolls that were excellent. Michelle had sweet and sour chicken and I had their Mongolian beef. Neither disappointed. We had hoped to also have dessert but were way too full. Our waiter was excellent, his familiarity with North Carolina was pretty much limited to Asheville. He had visited it in the past and wanted to retire there but he said it was now too expensive to move there. He’s not wrong.

We were hit with the oppressive heat as we exited P.F. Changs onto Las Vegas Boulevard around 7:15pm. We walked a short way to Walgreens and picked up some supplies — Motrin for my headache, sunscreen, some water, a water bottle, a couple of magnets, etc. Headed back to our room in time to catch the sunset around 7:40pm. We relaxed a bit more before getting our car from the valet and heading toward The Neon Museum of Las Vegas located well north. Along the way we were treated to the garish lights of the strip as well as the Bellagio fountain doing a show. We arrived at The Neon Museum with four minutes to spare for our meetup at 9:30pm for our 9:45pm tour. Whew!

The building / lobby for the museum was the former La Concha hotel, designed by Paul Revere Williams in the 50s or 60s. He was a famous black architect and designed not only the hotel but homes for several stars. He also designed affordable housing and built neighborhoods for the city’s largely black (and, at the time, segregated) workforce. We visited the gift store and bought a couple of magnets then visited the restroom prior to our 9:45pm start time.

Our guide Tia was fantastic. She led us in a loop around both the boneyard (where neon signs that are beyond repair or awaiting restoration) and the main area with the restored signs over a period of forty-five minutes, telling us some excellent stories about the signs themselves and the history of Las Vegas. Las Vegas was founded in 1905 as a stop on the Union Pacific between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. It was built on the location of an aquifer and means literally “The Meadows” from the greenery the aquifer made possible.

In the unrestored “boneyard” they had a really cool lamp that was originally in front of the Aladdin Hotel. It was there in 1967 when Elvis married Priscilla at the hotel. Also there was a portion of the Horseshoe sign and even that small portion had over 1,000 incandescent bulbs!

Moving into the restored portion the one that immediately stood out was the very long sign for the Moulin Rouge, the first casino that allowed black clientele. The sign, written in cursive, was designed by the same lady who designed the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Betty Willis. Sadly the casino would only remain open for five months when the government shut it down, reputedly for tax reasons. Yeah, doubt. The Moulin Rouge, despite its short life, served as the meeting place between the NAACP and Las Vegas leaders and led to the Moulin Rouge Agreement in 1960 which led to the casinos being integrated — a full four years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Another impressive sign was that of the Yucca. This beautiful sign had both a lot of green and was topped with white. Our guide explained that most neon signs are actually argon. Neon shines red when a charge is run through it whereas argon shines blue. In order to do the green they’d coat the tube with some other color (like yellow) that would cause the blue of the argon to appear green. Really cool!

Most of the signs were produced and owned by YESCO — Young Electric Sign Company. They lease them out to the casinos and, when no longer needed, they are returned for stripping, retrofitting, and now sometimes preservation. Before OSHA metal spikes protruded from the signs that those who maintained the signs would use to climb and change lightbulbs. Yikes!

Despite never being a frontier town (as it was founded in 1905) Las Vegas billed itself as one for marketing, even going so far as having a cowboy mascot named Vegas Vic that appeared on various signage. Signage wasn’t just for casinos and hotels, however — even tailors and milk companies used them.

In the 1990s Las Vegas tried to clean up its act and become more family friendly. Part of this was Treasure Island having elaborate naval battles between the pirates and British navy (with the pirates always winning, of course). The museum had one of the giant fiberglass skulls that were at the casino at the time. Though massive they are also very fragile as they are only a quarter inch think. Sadly, one of the skulls was destroyed in transit but the other made it. It is displayed on its back, however, to prevent it from damage — but Google Maps clearly shows it! The family friendly movement didn’t last long and by the early 2000s Las Vegas was back to catering to adults.

Another interesting piece was the 82 foot tall guitar from the Hard Rock Cafe. It was modeled after The Who’s Pete Townsend’s Gibson. To prevent it from falling over the museum drove a pole 30′ down beneath the ground. As the guide said, “it may rock, but it won’t roll.”

Wrapping up the tour was the neon sign from the La Concha hotel, a cool duck from a car wash, as well as two neon sign art installations done by Tim Burton — including a really cool “Lost Vegas” sign made to look far older than its 2019 creation date. The exhibition only lasted a few months before COVID killed it, sadly, but at least the museum has the pieces.

The tour finished at 10:30pm but we also had a light show called “Brilliant” to see at 11pm. We hung out a bit before heading across the street to the Boneyard Park where we were met by our guide, Josh. He walked us past a mural with notable people related to the signage including Betty Willis. We went past some signs that were in not-so-great-shape then to a courtyard surrounded by signs and two large posts (with benches around them) in the middle. “Brilliant” has three programs and it’s random which one will be shown.

Ours was apparently “Atomic” and covered the 50s and the testing in the area. The music was great and it was amazing how precise the projection technology they used was. I was skeptical about the show going in but by the end I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finally around 11:45pm we got back into our car and drove south back to our hotel, crashing just before 1am.