Red Rocks, Nevada
We took a mini-vacation and went to Las Vegas last week. As you’ll see by the rest of this entry, we had a lot of fun on our trip.
Thursday: When we arrived at our hotel (The Excalibur) a little after 3:00 pm, we learned that construction contractors had hit a gas line and none of the hotels south of The Bellagio had any hot water. So, we did what anybody would do in that situation, we decided to gamble and drink until the hot water returned.
While walking around Mandalay Bay, we saw Carrot Top as he entered the hotel. He was one of the scheduled performers. Our brief brush with a celebrity.
By 6:00 pm, when there was still no hot water (and no hot dinner to be had) and the slot machines had eaten a fair chunk of our change, we decided to take drastic measures – we would walk down the strip until we found a restaurant with hot water (and hot food). We had to walk all the way to Bally’s to find a warm meal. There, we stuffed ourselves at their buffet. It was very good.
Unfortunately, it was a little too good. I’m not sure if it was the rich dinner (crab, California rolls, chocolate custard, etc.) or whether it was the Yard of Margaritas that I drank, but I had terrible stomach cramps that night. In addition, we discovered that we could count every spring in our bed. Otherwords, it wasn’t a very good night of sleep.
Friday: We awoke (semi) bright-eyed and (sorta) bushy-tailed on Friday. We were excited because we were going to Red Rocks to climb. We weren’t in a hurry that morning so we decided to take a detour. We went to the Luxor so Mike could take some photos of the Sphinx in the morning light.
On our way to Red Rocks, we made a couple of stops. We ate a big breakfast at Denny’s and bought a rock climbing guide book. When we got into the park, we saw a burro-crossing sign. I read in the park’s brochure that there were wild burros in the area. I wanted to see one and it became somewhat of a joke between us.
We were amazed by the scenery at Red Rocks. It was absolutely beautiful! Take a peak at our photos. None of them were Photoshopped – the colors were truly that startling. We pulled into the first pull-out and grabbed our climbing gear. Without thinking ahead, I wore my Merrill slip-ons to hike to the routes. They didn’t have a lot of support and I later paid for that mistake.
We made our way to Panty Wall. There were two groups already climbing on the wall. Mike lead the first route (“Brief Encounter” – 5.8) and I followed on top rope. I decided to lead the next route (“Sacred Undergarment Squeeze Job” – 5.8). One bolt from the top, I couldn’t see the anchors and got a little nervous about climbing it blind. Luckily, a guy from one of the other groups was higher on the wall and able to walk over and ensure that there were anchors on my route. Then, I finished it! I was so excited to onsite it on lead. Mike followed me and cleaned the route.
We decided to move on. We hiked for a while and took a lot of photos. The wild animals were interesting. A flock of 8-10 quail ran away from us, chirping. A chipmunk stalked our lunch. We also saw another interesting bird, which we named “Digger Bird”. The bird was loud when it aggressively dug through leaves and rocks. As we drove around the park loop, stopping to take photos or to look at the scenery, we turned a corner and saw a burro on the side of the road! We were thrilled! We stopped the car and Mike grabbed his camera. The burro didn’t care at all what he did. In fact, it walked directly in front of our stopped vehicle. Others stopped their cars too and got out to look at the burro. It got so close to Mike, that Mike reached out and pet the burro. Later, we stopped at the visitor’s center to look at the tortoise habitat where the famous Max lived. Apparently, he and his ladies were sleeping for the winter. We did get to see a wild bunny hop away from us.
That night, we went to The Burger Bar for dinner and spent $100. Ouch – who knew a burger and beer could be so expensive. It was a very good burger though. We gambled a bit more and collected free beers from the waitresses before we had finished with our previous drinks. Mike made up for our expensive burgers when he won $220 on a slot machine. We ended the night quite “happily.”
Saturday: Mike woke up drunk and frisky early Saturday morning – it was hilarious. I couldn’t (wouldn’t) get out of bed at 5:00 am, so Mike went downstairs for coffee. His coffee turned into Blood Mary’s and he was playing video poker when I later went down to find him. We both gambled for a bit, then went to a mediocre breakfast. Afterwards, we went to the marathon expo and picked up my race packet and ugly shirt.
We returned to the hotel room and took a nap. I was sore from hiking and climbing the previous day and my feet hurt too, so we relaxed most of the day, though we did gamble a bit. I tried to recover for the marathon the next morning. I napped again and Mike took photos out the window of our room (and of me while I slept – not a cute photo). We had dinner at the Luxor buffet, which was good.
Sunday: The marathon started at 6 am, so we had to wake up quite early. Mike walked me to the start of the marathon. The Blue Man Group was at the start line. That was cool. Mike left before the race started to get a spot to take photos. I saw him about the 2 mile mark. The race wasn’t my best. I was tired and the mile markers were very inaccurate. Anyway, I finished the race in 4:24, but I still had fun. I actually really enjoyed myself between miles 14-20. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was pretty during that part of the race.
After the race, we ate lunch and ice cream. I was sore and tired from the race. Mike was sore and tired from walking around the race, trying to find me to take a photo. He couldn’t get to the spot where we agreed so he tried to catch me at the end. Unfortunately, we missed each other. Mike ended up walking the entire 4 hours that I ran. We were both tired. We napped a bit and then gambled some more. We went to bed early that night because we had to wake up early again the following morning.
Monday: Our flight left at 8 am, so we had to hustle that morning. We checked out of the hotel for the last time. We need to remember that we don’t want to stay there again (bad check-in lines, bad beds, loud traffic, mediocre food).
When we got on the plane, the aisle seat near us was empty. Half-way through the flight, a grandmother sitting across the aisle had her young granddaughter sit by us. The girl (8-10 years old) wiggled and ate and kicked and wiggled some more. As we were landing, we ran into some turbulence. The girl puked in the aisle. Nasty!! We had to turn on the air to try to cover the smell. Of course, we were sitting in the back of the plane so we couldn’t depart quickly. Quite the ending to our otherwise fun trip.
And now, we’re paying for our fun because we’re both sick with a cold.
