Sunday, July 2, 2006

We decided that it would probably be a good idea to wait until night time to make the drive across the desert from Sequoia National Park  to Los Vegas.  So we took our time about getting up and going this morning. Once we drove down out of the mountains we came into an area where there was nothing but orchards for as far as you could see.  Mostly oranges, but there were also cherries, olives, plums, grapes ect.   We passed this small town down in the middle of the grove.  Since we were in no hurry, we decided to drive down through town just to check it out.  There was a Laundromat that looked pretty clean so we stopped to do laundry.  That's when things got a little strange.  There were no white people in the entire town.  Everyone was Mexican.  There was one woman doing her laundry who spoke a little English.  I picked up a newspaper but could not read it because it was in Spanish.  This was a town of nothing but workers there to work in the orchards.  If we would have crossed over the border and gone down to Mexico, there would have been more people who could have spoken English.

We seemed to time it out right, because it was late in the evening when we started getting out toward the desert.  The sunset was beautiful, but it was behind us and there was no place to pull off the road to get a picture.  It was a good thing that we decided to make the drive at night.  It was still 99 degrees when we pulled in to an RV Resort in Los Vegas at 3:30 am.  Apparently, an awful lot of people wait until night to make that drive because the road was packed in both directions all the way there.  

Monday, July 3, 2006

Slept in, then got up and made out way down to the strip.  We started out with a show.  We took the kids to see a magician.  His name was Durk Arthur.  He was pretty good.  He has some tigers in his show.  The kids really loved him.  We spent the rest of the day walking all the way down the strip, stopping at all the attractions on the way.  By the time we got to Circus Circus down at the end, it was pretty late.  We went in and watched a couple of Circus acts, then we started to make the walk all the way back down the opposite side of the road to get to the truck.  We stopped to watch the water show at the Bellagio it was so neat, we hung around to watch it again. (It is different every time)  By the time we made it back to the truck it was around 1:30 am.  We were so tired!  Talk about sore feet.  Then we still had to get baths before going to bed.

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Headed back out to the strip to see some more.  We started at Circus Circus.  We watched a few more circus acts, then went down to Treasure Island to watch the "Sirens of TI".  Pretty cool pirate show, Vegas style of course. (female dancers in very little outfits).  We went to see the volcano erupt at the Mirage, but for some reason it did not go off in time and we left.  In the evening, we headed out into the desert for the fireworks show.  It was very a sight to see.   The fireworks was at a huge park out in the desert.  It was kind of up above the city so you could see the entire city, and the strip. There was nothing to block your view so you could see the fireworks being set off by people everywhere as far as you could see.  Than the real fireworks show was pretty nice as well.  After that, we headed downtown to see the Fremont Street Experience.  This is the famous light show that you always hear about.  It runs at the top of every hour till midnight.  We made it for the 11:00 show and then it was so cool, we hung around for the last show at midnight. (Show is different every time.)

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

We were supposed to leave today, but the kids were not ready to go yet so we decided to stay one more night.  We had to go out to Wal-mart for supplies, then we went back to the RV and went to the pool.  After dinner, we went back out to the strip for one last time.  We watched a couple more circus shows at Circus Circus, then headed back to the camper so we could try to get some sleep before leaving.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

Visited the Hoover Dam.  Despite the fact that we are in the desert, it started to rain on us while we were there.  I guess in desert terms you would call it a storm.  At home it would just have been an average rain.  We left the Dam and drove out across Arizona to The Grand Canyon.  It was a really beautiful drive.  We made it up to the Grand Canyon by about 10:00 pm.  We found a place to camp a couple of miles outside of the park.

Friday, July 7, 2006

Started out this morning to explore the park, but after a couple of hours it started to rain, so we went back to the camper to wait out the storm.  Rain here always comes with lots of lightning, expecially on the rim, so when the rain starts, it is a good idea to get to shelter.  We were out on the rim right before the rain started and everyone's hair started to stand straight up.  That means there is electricty building up in the area and it is time to leave.

After the rain stopped, we went back out to explore some more.  The Canyon is so beautiful. There are so many different colors.  When we were at Hoover Dam and then again this morning  before the rain, the Colorado River was a very dark green color.  After the rain had stopped, the river was red.  The rain water ran down from the canyon, which is red, and now the water is red.  I am glad we got to see it before the rain. 

Saturday, July 8, 2006

Spent the day seeing everything we did not get to see yesterday.  We were planning to try to see if we could get a last minute spot to ride the mules down into the canyon, we would have even extended our stay if we needed to, but Kaitlyn and Kaleb are not tall enough to ride to the mules.  There is no way that we are going to try to hike down into the canyon so I guess we will not see it from the bottom.