BigWeather's Blog

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.