I arrived in Vegas fairly early in the morning. I went to the hotel via shuttle, walked out of the hotel & pretty much right onto the shuttle! I went to the New Frontier Hotel (in the mid-strip region) whick was to be my "home" for the next few days. I walked up the strip, heading for the free magic show! I walked past New York NewYork, Caeser's Palace, Bellagio, Paris, and headed for the Tropicana. The magic show, Lance Burton "the best afternoon magic show in Vegas" was good, if a littlee cheese-y. Afterwards there was a free aerialst/singers/dancers/balancing act in the casino. the aerialist 2 brothers that "flew" over the crowd were spectacular!!! Then I headed back to the hotel. On the way I stopped at the M&M factory & purchased some M&M's in colors I have never seen in the M&M spectrum before! By this time I was getting tired (that is a LONG walk!) and already had a blister from those darn shoes (reminder - ALWAYS wear comfortable, well-broken in shoes!) so I stopped at the theater & watched 2 Fast 2 Furious. I continued my hike, stopping at Paris and ate at Ah Sin. Then I went up in the Eifel Tower. It was just getting dark. & I got some pretty nice shots of the Bellagio waters across the street. I continued my hike until I got to the hotel, hit the sack fairly early because I knew the bus was picking me up at 6-ish the next morning!

& pick me up it did. However, it was a shuttle which then brought me to the bus! We headed out on the FULL bus. We stopped at the Hoover Dam. There was a ERY obnoxious family, Daddy & son sat in front of me, Momma & daughter sat across from me. The boy & girl kept getting louder & louder as the trip progressed. At one point, both Momma & Daddy were asleep & the kids just yelled at each other over thier heads. We watched an informative viseo on the Hoover Dam. At least 2 other people asked the kids to sit &/or hush.

We had lunch at the "Thelma & Max Grand Canyon Restaurant." It is where the Grand Canyon Railway starts its journey. There was a model train of the train that ran around the rafter continually. After a short visit to the gift shop (an integral part of EVERY stop!) we continued on our way. We watched a video about the Grand Canyon on the TVs. The grand canyon was, of course, too grand for words. You will have to look at my photos for a visual description! One of the first things I heard was a strange sound coming from 1 of the trees and discovered there was a very brave raven begging for food. He ALMOST sounded human! We made 3 or 4 stops (hitting 5 or 6 gift shops along the way!)There was a very neat photo gallery/gift shop at the first stop, with photos of the history of the tourism trade at the Canyon. Some brothers had started the gallery many years ago & it was still in business today.

On the way "home," we watched an informative video of the history of the Canyon, its flora & fauna. After a stop at another gift shop, we watched a movie that featured the Hoover Dam. I had to ask the boy in front of me to sit down twice so I could see the TV.

There was a beautiful sunset, unfortunately my pictures through the bus window do not do it justice. About one third of the people got off the bus and caught a shuttle to the far end of the strip. The bus dropped everyone else off at their hotels, (the New Frontier being the last stop!) When the rude family got off, everyone left in the bus cheered!

I downloaded my digital pictures into the computer (I had taken both the digital & the 35 MM cameras)checked to see if the confirmation call had come for the next days Pink Jeep trip to the Valley Of Fire State Park, (it had!) & went for a short walk on the strip. Again, since I was being picked up early I got to bed fairly early.

The Pink Jeep picked me up at the hotel about 8AM. There were 4 of us, including the driver, & a couple from Chicago. Our first stop (this may surprise you) was at a gift shop! our second stop was at a GIFT SHOP on an Indian resevation. We had a light lunch here (on our own - the Pink Jeep supplied a light snack & all the bottled water we wanted) and I bought a small ceramic tile of a huimmingbird family that is now part of my bedroom wall. Our driver bought some buffalo jerky that he shared with all of us.

We took a short trip into the "Buffington Pockets." It was down a rough dirt road. We got to see some of the local floraand some unusual rock formations. there was an old dam that someone had created long ago to make that dry barren desert land a ranch. The photos I took were, unfortunately, not of a high enough quality to subject my audience to. There were CatClaw bushes, Creosote Plants, & small cacti. There were a couple birds overhead - that was the extent of the fauna.

After entering the park, our first stop was the "Beehives," a natural erosion of huge rock that resemble beehives! What is even more unusual is thet threre were several of them! The driver would suggest several times throughout the trip, "Would you like for me to take your picture?" The next stop was at "The Seven Sisters." There are seven outcroppings. We were too close to catch the magnificence of this on film - I got 1 of the "sister" to pose for me. If you look at the picture, you can see that they have built p, very picnic areas in the shade of the sisters - very subtle, very convenient (for when it is not TOO unbearably hot. The weather during this trip was very comfortable, why I think it may have been cooler than it was at home in Austin at the same time! The driver related the story of a man (he had given himself a military title) who had died of thirst on this trail. He had tied his horse & dog to the buckboard, and they all died of thirst. Had he been able to decipher the petroglyphs (more on THAT later) or simply let the horse or dog run free, they would have probably discoverd the water just over the next rise! We went to the park gift shop (are you picking up on the trend here?) for a restroom/momento break. There we saw the first of the chubby lizards. The Native American would chase these, the lizard would run into a hole and inflate itself. They would poke them to deflate them (perhaps using the sharp points of the CatClaw bush?), pull them out & eat them. These lizards were the only fauna we saw, but it was during mid-day, most of the animals would come out during a cooler part of the day. We drove past the "Elephant Rock," a natural erosion feature that has created an arch, but it looks very much like an elephant. It was on the other side of the jeep, I thought we were going to circle around to get a photo, but we did not. It is a great feature & you can get a professional's photo of it if you do a google search using "Elephant" & "Valley of Fire". We saw several other erosion fomations - a dinosaur head, a poodle head, a face on the rock, etc.

It was time to head to "Mouse's Tank" in the "Petroglyph Canyon." Mouse was a "renegade" Indian who hid from a posse in what thereafter became known as Mouse's Tank, a natural, hidden area that caught & stored water. The petroglyphs are drawings on the rock faces. The driver explained to us that the curly circles meant there is water nearby. Some of the other symbols are fairly self explanatory - the big horn sheep, the hunters. There is one that might be a spear/sword of one of the Spanish Conquistadors, & others that may be the shaman, or maybe a SPACE ALIEN!?!?! This is an area of the country that is famous for its "visitations!" The rocks form a natural black coating of varnish(?) that the Indians would scrap off to make the drawings. We drove around to some of the other "photographic sites" in the park. In the pictures, you can see the area where a light colored rock borders a brown colored rock. This reminded us of a Chocolate/vanila ice cream cone -mayve we were just getting hot, tired, & hungry, I don't know! We headed back to town, we had already stayed approx 90 minutes longer than the tour was scheduled for. The driver did not complain, we were his only trip for the day. This was a great way to take a tour - naturally, I would have liked to take a bit more time for some of those special photos, I would have liked to be there at sunrise or sunset to perhpas catch some of the local fauna, but the driver was knowledgeable, courteous, talkative, and very sweet.

We got back to the hotel around 2PM. I unloaded and headed for the other end of the strip (via city bus), hoping to get up into the Stratosphere. I wasted too much time in other places along the way , so I never made it there. I had to be at the Flamingo by 7, and wanted to change clothes on the way. I had time to check out a couple shops that I wanted to see & got a few gifts for people.

My collegue & I met at The Flamingo for Gladys Knight. The show was good, I felt she relied a little too much on the comedy routine supplied by her brother, one of the original pips. He was funny, she was good, but I had hoped to just hear her belting out those old familar Gladys Knight tunes. She did do alot of that, & it was great! The band was large, the band was tight, the backup singers were wonderful!I felt it was a tad self-indulgent, she had a short video of herself to end the show.

After the Gladys Knight show at the Flamingo on the Strip, we took the bus & went out on Fremont Street! We got a slice of pizza at a little stand while waiting for our third party to arrive. She finally did show up, with a dramatic story. She had left the other's new digital camera in the taxi and they went off to try to get it back. She had shared the taxi with a waitress, they managed to track the waitress down! She had taken the camera (didn't want to leave it there for the taxi driver - it sounds like it was a VERY eventful taxi ride with a VERY unpleasant driver!)Anyway, they got the camera back, but we never got to hook up. I watched the Fremont Experience 3 times and hung out in the Golden Nugget. I got up $220 dollars on a nickel slot waiting for them, but lost it, waiting for them!

I caught the bus back to the hotel, unloaded my stuff, and took a taxi out to a couple local clubs (hey, this was my last night & I DID NOT have to get up early on the next, my last day, day in Vegas!) The clubs were small and poorly attended (it was late on a week night.) I stayed a short while & caught a cab back to the hotel.

The trip to the airport was uneventful. Once there, we learned that the weather in Dallas was REALLY bad, & all flights there were delayed at least 2 hours. They actually were encouraging us to stay in Vegas for the night (at our own expense) and re-schedule for the next AM. Most of us decided to take our chances. It was a pretty bumpy ride home, but we made it, evidently inbetween storms. The connecting flight got me back to Ausitn about 3 hours late. It was a whirlwind trip, a trip I will always cherish, but it was good to be home again!