4-18-09 Saturday (Food Poisoning)

We said our goodbyes to Gary & Joe, stopped at the office to fill our propane tank and hit the road. All by 10am! Amazing.... I know.

The plan for today was to have lunch at a Perkins in Bullhead City, Arizona on our way to the Grand Canyon campground (Trailer Village). Jim and I have been craving Perkins pancakes.

This was the only Perkins for 400 miles. I don't know how 1 store out of a franchise can survive. I got my pancakes with a side of peanut butter. I spread it on like butter, with butter too, of course, and then topped with syrup. Just heaven!



We stopped off at a KMart for some things we've had a hard time locating, like Damp Rid refills. We got to the Grand Canyon campground "Trailer Village" at about 6:30pm. Just as we arrived I started feeling sick. Jim wanted Wendy's for dinner. I barely finished my chicken sandwich and had to go wait in the Jeep. Once we got home and well into 3am or so, I threw up 3 times. I had chills, possibly a fever. Eventually it came out the other end too! Ugh. The only thing Jim and I had differently at Perkins was that I had peanut butter.

Above: Elk wandering the campground at the Grand Canyon.

Above: Dasher, "Why do these people bother me?"

4-17-09 Friday (Sin City)

We spent most of today attending to chores. Jim's mom and stepdad (Ann & Morgan) will be meeting us in Arizona (from Florida) this Sunday. We'll all be touring the Grand Canyon together. We wanted to get the RV nice and clean for their visit. Even though they're not staying with us, we'll be having dinner at our pad a few nights. Having company is a great excuse and motivator to clean up! With the washer still on the fritz (part will come to us in Flagstaff next week), I did 5 loads of laundry at the campground facility. $1.75 per wash, $1.50 per dry. Wowsers!

Using one of our trusty Friday's coupons we went out for lunch, then to Sam's for and Walmart for groceries.

My dad called and again my mom is in the hospital for C-Diff. This is her 5th visit to the ER for this. They've brought in an infectious disease guy, we'll see what happens. She says they'll release her in a few days but she'll have to be on some antibiotic for 6 months or more???? Sigh.

For evening entertainment we met up with Gary and Joe. Jim wanted to go to the Rio and see the Show in the Sky that they have. Gary drove us, we watched the show and it was pretty cool. OK, but I have a bitch. The sound system was terrible. The announcer and singers sounded very garbled.

Above: Joe & Gary

Above: Show in the Sky float.

Above: Show in the Sky float.

This leads me into another bitch. People, Vegas is SIN city, leave the kids home! I don't care if they have places for kids. You have to walk past people handing out photos of topless women with strip club ads on it. Is gambling, sex, prostitution, pole dancing, and the like an image you want your kids to see? You haven't been to Vegas and have children? Too bad. Go to Disney. You should have thought about that before having children. Be a responsible parent and keep the kids out. Owwww, I almost fell getting off the soap box...

So, here we are at the Rio, home of the Chippendales. There's children here. The Show in the Sky starts above the casino. We're up on one of the second floor watching. One of the overhead floats has a scantily clad woman making sweet love to a pole. Maybe she's just seducing the pole? Other float have men and women "dirty dancing". The stage on the ground below drops out. Up rises a giant bed where more scantily clad men and women dry hump and such. Oye.

We left the Rio and headed for the Mexican restaurant. I think it was called El Portal. It was OK. We digested dinner at Gary and Joe's coach. Joe is a music video fiend. We watched a few music videos, chit chatted and Jim and I departed.

Above: Joe enjoys a big-ass margarita.

Above: Joe & Gary's RV.

Above: Gary in the RV kitchen serving up cocktails!

Above: Entertainment system!

Above: 1 of MANY control panels.

Above: Coffee central!

Above: Checkout the cool cooktop!

Above: Video of their coach's door!

Above: The show.

4-16-09 Thursday (Lola, She Was a Pole Dancer...)

I hope that if you enjoy the blog, you haven't missed any posts. Because I was behind, sometimes 2-3 entries are posted in one day. I certainly don't want you to miss the Lucky Cheng Adventure.

Back in March, Jim reunited with fellow High Schooler, Dona Scholes. Dona's mom (Rosa) and dad (Don) retired to Vegas about 5 years ago and love it. Rosa and Don were school teachers when Jim was in school. We met up with Rosa and Don at Boulder Station casino. We hung out at the Railhead along with several of their friends/neighbors. A live band played 40's/50's/60's. I had so much fun watching some of these 70-80 people dancing the afternoon away. Some were wearing high heels. Sheesh! This was a 2-4pm event for the older folks. Afterwards, the 4 of us went to the buffet and the others went home or to gamble. The buffet was delicious! Does this buffet make me look fat? We had a blast with Rosa and Don!

On the way home, we stopped off and snapped a few photos of some things you might only find in Vegas. You might be in Vegas if....

We returned to the coach and caught up with Joe and Gary from next door. They were too tired from the day's convention to go out so we hung out in their coach until about 9:30 or so. We made plans to go to the Rio tomorrow afternoon. I'll get photos of them tomorrow. Say cheese!

The Lucky Cheng Visit of '06

Sometimes, what happens in Vegas ....... gets told in a blog. A few days ago I told you about being here in Vegas in 2006 with friends. I've asked Pearl to type up a story about our 2006 Vegas adventure to "Lucky Chengs". Here's the story as told by Pearl Taylor:

In early 2006 our friends, Tim & Carl, began planning a trip to Las Vegas. They'd been there the year before, and had so much fun they wanted to return, but share it with friends this time. Enter Laurie & Pearl. Tim & Carl simply had to invite us because we are soooooooooo much fun. :o)

Anyway, after a Friday night talking about, and planning this trip, Jim & Garret were also invited. Now, we'd traveled with Tim & Carl before, and we were part of the large group that stayed at Disney several years prior, along with Jim & Garret. However, the six of us had never travelled together. Let the fun begin!

All of us got together several times to discuss sightseeing ideas, must-sees, and other ideas for the trip. There were a few "must-sees": Tim really wanted to go see Cirque de Soleil's Zumanity again. He'd enjoyed it his last trip & was anxious to see it again. Laurie & I wanted to visit Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon. Jim & Garret wanted to take the Star Trek Tour. We all wanted to see the various casinos and maybe catch a show along the way. And finally, Tim said if we did nothing else we HAD to go to the drag / dinner show at a fabulous restaurant called "Lucky Chengs". Okay, we had a plan. As travel day got closer we began to finalize the sightseeing. Things began to come together, and soon enough, we were off. I'm leaving out a TON of small stories that are still laugh out loud fun for us, because this story is about Lucky Chengs.

In order to guarantee seating for our large group of 6, Tim had made advance reservations online, and prepaid for everything. We would reimburse him once we were there. It took us all quite some time to get ready for the big evening. (Remember, we're talking about fabulous gay men who take longer to shower, dress, primp, and re-iron all clothing.) Once dressed, we all climbed in to our rented minivan, and headed off to the restaurant. Tim had mapquested directions, and we'd left early so we could get seated, and order before the show started.

We drove up the Las Vegas Strip, and turned into the plaza where the restaurant was located. Hmmm, no big marquee sign. Maybe this was a Vegas secret. We walk through the parking lot and find the front of the restaurant. No one is waiting outside, not a lot of cars in the lot. We can hear music playing, and someone singing, and we agree that they must offer karaoke between floor shows. We all finish our cigarettes, and head inside. The "foyer" is small, and sort of plain. We are greeted by an employee who asks if we need help, Tim steps forward and shows her the confirmation ticket, and we are seated. There is no traditional menu. We were given a piece of paper which listed our choices of a few appetizers, entrees and desserts. The ummm waitress comes over and introduces herself, practically falling all over all the men at our table. We're settling in so the mood is still light. We make our food selections, order drinks, and start looking around.

First off, the only other people in the restaurant with us are a group of young women having a bachelorette party. Oy. They were loud, drunk, and totally annoying. Then there was us. That's it. I leaned over and asked where the stage was, for the show, and it was pointed out that the elevated platform with the plywood backdrop WAS the stage. Ooooh. Then, our salads arrived. Yay, we were all pretty hungry. Everyone was eating, and talking, and having fun, and I had just commented to all how tasty my salad was. I had my fork heading toward my mouth when the ummm waitress took my plate (still quite full of salad) and then took the fork from my hand, telling me I was finished. Wait! I was eating that! Well.....see that should have been the big tornado siren letting me know I wasn't in Kansas and this was NO Dorothy. As we are all laughing, shocked, stunned, angry....Tim asks when the floor show starts. We are all stunned when we are told we missed it. There's no show. Huh? The website said 2 seatings, 2 shows. Tim bought tickets for the late show. Apparently it was going to much later, as in the next night. Now, if you know Tim, or any of us for that matter, you know this isn't going to be the final word here. Tim wants to see the fabulous drag show dammit. Bring on the dancers. He speaks with our umm waitress, and then the uh hostess, and then they speak with the owner and the uhh house Diva and then they come back to tell us that they will put on a SPECIAL SHOW, just for us. Excellent. Sounds like a good idea. So while the diva prepares to entertain, the uh hostess pulls up a chair at the table and begins to chat with our men-folk.


Now our men-folk are handsome, and witty, and sometimes charming ~ but most of all, they're OURS. Laurie & I do not share well. These are OUR gay guys. Hmmph. We might have been okay with it if the uh hostess hadn't deliberately turned her back to us. This will not stop us, of course, we barge right in to the conversation. She asks the men where we're from, are we having fun, blah blah blah. We explain briefly about our group dynamic, and then say that Laurie & I are the only ones that Garret (the slut) hasn't slept with. It's a group joke and we laugh about it quite often. Mind you, Laurie said this, but our charming hostess turns to me and says "you obviously have some unresolved anger issues because he won't sleep with you." Hello???? I'm a lesbian. Last I heard Garret and I don't have the equipment either one of us finds appealing. And I'm not really the angry one....not until then anyway. Bitch.

I digress though, the fabulous JUST FOR US FLOORSHOW is about to begin. Dim the light, (yes light) here comes the uh singing hostess. She jumps up on the platform with the pole (not the stage, but another plywood box with a stripper pole) and begins to coil around it like a snake with rigor mortis, and lip sync to "Roxie Hart" from the movie "Chicago". Ok. Lip syncing is okay, but she does it badly, very badly. And try to seductively do the snake with rigor dance and then, and then, and then (you have to know the soundtrack) the album skips, and skips, and skips. Causing our drag queen to stomp off the stage err box and yell, loudly, that they were ruining her act. ::::sigh::: drama queen. So, they re-start her music, and she starts over. Oy. Then, after several minutes of that....the DIVA comes out to entertain us. She sashays over to the box, errr, stage, and climbs up. Bring up the spotlight. Cue the music. Take a deep breath. WTF!?!?! She's doing the SAME song. The same version, from the same movie, only on the other platform. Oy. Laurie and I are giggling, I think Tim wanted to slap someone, Carl's head was about to pop off, Jim needed more diet coke, and Garret was trying even harder not to laugh, and none of us are drunk enough to sit through any more. Tim gets up, we're leaving. So, all of us get up and head out. A few minutes after we leave, the shock begins to fade, and the humor starts rearing its ugly head. We are all very sarcastic and cynical. You must realize that the further away we got the harder we began to laugh, and then make snide comments and then laugh some more. The only concern now was getting Tim's money back.

The story has taken on a life of its own. We now refer to anything that is too good to be true as another "Lucky F***ing Chengs". We say its the one memory of Vegas none of us will ever be able to forget. We have photographic evidence that I hope Garret can post here so you can see the range of expressions. Sadly we have no photos of the beautiful drag queens. We now have a benchmark for all things terrible and hideous...."was it as bad as Lucky F***ing Chengs?" And maybe best of all....if we ever do a New York trip together...the MAIN location for this FABULOUS dinner / floor show is there! Woohoo! I can't wait. Viva Las Vegas!

Above: Laurie & Pearl so excited for the show. Uh and no, Laurie isn't wearing an earmuff to match Pearl's shirt.

Above: Decisions, decisions. When does the show start?

Above: Pearl burps at Tim. Not really. She's laughing hysterically since her unfinished food was abruptly taken.

Above: I'm not real sure, perhaps Tim is showing off his fine jewelry?

Above: Nevermind what I look like. "Holy Pole Dancer in the Background.... Batman."

4-15-09 Wednesday (A Terrible Time)

I really love Vegas. I think it's the neon. Perhaps it puts off some subliminal reaction or such. I came here with the no big deal attitude because we've been here before. The funny part is I feel happier, chipper, and constantly singing parts of Viva Las Vegas in my head! I know.... I'm strange.

It was Jeep oil change time, and a little over due so we went to Terrible's Quicklube. Terrible's is a pretty big western chain I suppose. They have a casino in a neighboring town too. Anyway, they offered a free car wash with the oil change. We got our money worth as the Jeep was layered with dirt. We had enough to start our own desert! What a fantastic job they did on the wash. It was a full service wash and pretty awesome for a "free wash".

I've not been to a pawn shop in a really long time. We decided to stop into Super Pawn and browse around. Maybe a deal on a flat screen TV? Surely, the economy would provide many high tech choices? Not so much. They had plenty of box TVs. Boring.

Next door to Harrah's is a small resort/casino called Imperial Palace where they house an extremely large car collection. The cars here are mostly antique and many are for sale. Most ranged from 80,000 to 2.8 million. Jim liked this.



Sometime yesterday a monstrously large huge bigger than life motorhome pulled in a spot next to us. This thing is almost all black & blue, with flat smooth windows and is very ominous. 2 satelite dishes on the roof, 1 glowed with a blue LED bulb. It has a dishwasher and garbage disposal. I might just be a wee-bit jealous. I think my 2 words to describe this coach are mesmerizing and ominous.

On our return from errands, we pull up next to the ominous beast and Jim's spots a Galeana Fort Myers (our hometown)sticker on their Jeep. As we exit our Jeep, 1 of the owner's walks over and engages us in conversation since they've spotted our Florida license plate. Their names are Gary and Joe and they are here for a convention. They live in Lauderdale but have property in Fort Myers. Gary gave us a tour of their 45' RV. It is gorgeous! It's a Newell coach. You can go to the website and see sample photos of what one may look like. Anyway, these guys have a company. Go visit cudacoffee.com, go buy something. They could use the extra money to get central vacuuming (private joke). We talked with them for a long time and we'll probably meet up with them tomorrow.

Time for the Harrah's buffet (Flavors) and then to see Rita Rudner. Jim had to get another players club card (he left it in a machine somewhere) so I stood on the long buffet line. The buffet was good as usual. The Rita Rudner show was funny. Jim was disappointed that he's heard a lot of her material, saying that some of it was pretty old and he's glad we didn't pay.

We walked to Paris and went up into the Eiffel Tower which was pretty cool. It's even better with the 2 for 1 coupon! It costs $12.50 for adults. Jim wouldn't go near the edge. He's gotten worse as the years have went on. Jim says we saved even thousands, since we no longer need to go to France for him to be scared of the height.

Above: On line to go up the Eiffel Tower.

Above: A view from the Eiffel Tower.

Above: A view from the Eiffel Tower.


Above: Video view of Eiffel Tower

On the way back to the Jeep, we stopped off at the Flamingo and went to their habitat where we saw flamingos. It's an older casino, but I think it's one of the better known ones.

Above: A shot of our view from the RV dinette.

4-14-09 Tuesday (The 1.5 Million Dollar Vacation)

You must want to know the outcome of the time share sales thingy? OK. So our reservation was for 12:45. It's supposed to take 2 hours. We were moving a little slowly and drove to Harrah's with the intention of grabbing something small to eat before the presentation. Of course we were running behind and couldn't find a food stand in Harrah's with something we wanted. Finally we found a deli. We'd share a sandwich. It took forever for it to be made! It left us 15 minutes to eat and run across the casino to the Wyndham Vacation Sales Center. The plus side is the sandwich was surprisingly thick. We got into the sales center and it was huge and had a lot of suckers, uhhh I mean potential clients as well as gobs of employees. This was a one on one sales pitch, not a group presentation. We were assigned to Vladamir who originated from Russia. Nice guy. He asked us many questions, which seemed to find out our weak spots. Through a series of questions we answered, he came up with a formula and result. How much for our typical hotel room, how many weeks vacation, how many more vacations in our lifetime + 10% inflation, equaled how much it will cost. For us, 1.5 million. The numbers all seemed fair. We watched a short movie. We took a tour of one of their resorts a few blocks away. The tour included a 1 bedroom and a 4 bedroom. Both with kitchens, living rooms, etc. Nice. Vlad wanted us to fill out a credit app. We rejected stating not until we were ready to buy. The Finance guy steps in to double team us. During this process, I asked a lot of questions. I wanted to know about maintenance fees, average points to do something we'd "typically" do, etc. I explained we made a pact that we wouldn't make any decisions today until we brainstormed about our concerns and what nots. He didn't like that. The finance guy made us some bonus point offer. We again said no. Mr. Finance scratched stuff all over paper to illustrate points. I asked for that stuff and he said no, they needed it for the file. They both turned us over to another guy on our way out who innocently asked what we thought about the sales guy and what not. You know, LIKE a survey but then the pressure came back on. He offered us another really good bonus of sorts, but we said no. He was pissy, told us to follow him for our free gift and threw out the papers I wanted right in front of us. Now he didn't know I asked for them but the issue was that keeping it in their file was a lie and this guy threw them out AND with an attitude. We got our Rita Rudner vouchers and left. (We're going tomorrow night.) Almost 3 hours later. I'm sure it will still be worth our time.

So what about this timeshare stuff? Well, a 10 year loan, with interest would be about $300 a month. The points can be used for rental, airfare, etc. There's a lot of good to the program, and I am interested BUT not right now. No jobs = no financing. It's something we'll revisit down the road.

A funny thing was all these bonus offers were "today" only. This is the deal for today. Don't give me that shit, I'm not an idiot. If I come back tomorrow and say I'll buy only if I get this and that, you'd let me walk away? Not.

Well, I'm sure that was much more information than you cared to know....

After the brainwashing, we came home, went to Camping World, and a few other stores. The evening was a trip to Fridays with our coupons. The link I included is to the blog entry where I included them! Has anyone used them? Anyway, we used the appetizer one, then sat at a table and had steaks. A good meal for little money.

Circus Circus has a big top of sorts within the casino. We spent the rest of the evening playing slots and playing carnival games and watching a trapeze artist as well as a juggler. So many people are down on Circus Circus. Yeah it's old. It's kinda neat. An indoor theme park, a circus, gambling, shopping, it's got a lot. The shopping is all vendor booth type stuff. This place caters to the clientele it was designed for. Families with children. I saw some messy areas. Some hodge podge areas. It's really not that bad....... I'll say it before someone else does....."but then again, we live in a trailer." Oh, and it's not a trailer, it has an engine, so that would be a motorhome, moho, RV, or in our case, the TURD.

I'm amazed that water and soda is so expensive here. $2.50 - $3.00 for a coke or bottle of water. In the casinos especially, one would think it would be better priced. A few Indian Casinos we've been to have a free self serve soda fountain. Yeah I know the cocktail waitress comes around and drinks are free but they are tiny. The drinks, not the cocktail waitress. Speaking of servers, the older or outdated the casino, I've noticed the cocktail waitresses follow suit. They're wrinkly, and stuffed into a swanky cocktail dress. Ick!

I took some photos and videos of the circus performers. They were good, however the photos and videos...not so much.

4-13-09 Monday (The Vegas Buzz)

To Vegas baby! We've been to Vegas in 2006 along with our friends Carl and Tim, Laurie and Pearl. We got to see 90% of Vegas including the Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon. This trip will be about the other 10% and maybe revisiting the places we liked a lot.

In the picture above, I know it looks like I have a beard, but I don't. Strange shadowing? Anyways, left to right: Carl, Garret, Laurie, Jim, Pearl, and Tim. May 2006.

We arrived to Las Vegas, at the KOA at Circus Circus. After check in and set up, we decided to have lunch. I must tell you that the best buffet we ate at in 2006 was sure to be a frequent place of ours on this trip. We decided if we were going to OVEReat at a buffet, we should walk there. We didn't realize it was 2.7 miles EACH way. Oh well, once you get going, ya can't stop! The buffet, called Flavors, is located at Harrah's. Did I tell you this buffet is huge and the best? I'm trying to catch up on all these posts so if I can I will describe the buffet stations in a later post. For now, you can click on the link above and look at their virtual tour.

When we arrived to Harrah's, an employee standing close to the doors had coupons or flyers in her hand but seemed to put them behind her back when we made eye contact. Whatever compelled me to say, "Whatcha got?" worked to our benefit. Long story short, if we attend a time share tomorrow we can have free tickets to this or that or $100 cash. Jim wanted to see Rita Rudner which is an expensive show. The woman coaxed us on what to say or not to say... You know like lie and tell them we have a house, we're NOT in an RV and NOT at Circus Circus and we're NOT unemployed. I mentioned we came for our favorite buffet and she hooked us up with 4 coupons. 2 for 1's!

So just under 6 miles of walking with a full gut... and I mean full... we returned to RV, made a grocery list and went shopping at Walmart. Jim got a haircut, I shopped, we came home, Jim disassembled the washer/dryer to diagnose the failed part.

We then WALKED to Treasure Island (2.3 miles each way) to see the Sirens of TI show. It was OK. Jim liked it.

OK, back home and here's some tidbits of info. The A/C is working normally now. I couldn't even tell you what its problem was but I'm glad it's normal for the time being. I was surprised they started a double-decker 24/7 bus service that runs the strip every 15 minutes. The monorail location sucks, so maybe that why they decided to come up with better service.

At the end of the day my legs were so sore and I was exhausted. Now at 12:30am, I went to bed but Jim decided to clean the outdoor furniture. I guess he was burning off his diet coke caffeine buzz..... crazy man.

Do I really need to comment?

Below: The slideshow is fast paced. Pause the video if you want to see any of the photos up close and personal.

4-12-09 Sunday (Wet Clothes)

Sometime this morning, my cousin Carissa texted me “Happy Easter”. If it wasn’t for her, we would have forgotten about it. We didn’t even have a special menu planned for dinner. That’s OK, when it’s just the 2 of us, holidays aren’t a big deal.

We had another great day of Death Valley sightseeing. Spectacular! What a beautiful country we have. Before exploring overseas, try seeing our own country. You’d be amazed. We’ve been impressed with Death Valley and believe it or not, it ranks very high on our favorite places list.

Within Death Valley, we visited "Scotty's Castle". We took a tour, it was interesting, the end. It has a fascinating history. It was a castle, nor Scotty's. Discuss.




Above: Cool stove. I took tons of photos but am a little burnt out on slideshows right now.


After the "castle" it was onto seeing a giant crater. Ubehebe Crater to exact.

A walk into Mosaic Canyon turned out to be real pretty. The canyon walls were lined with multi-colored rocks that appeared to be in concrete. It's all natural though. See the photos below. Also there were giant chunks of polished marble all over. Real nice!


The unfortunate thing is we didn’t plan enough time here to see everything Death Valley had to offer. We didn’t know it would be so grand of a place. Oh well. We saw the main attractions… we hope.

I washed some clothes this morning. I didn’t want to dry them while we were gone because of that noise. This evening, when I turned the dryer on it made the noise but then it got real loud. I turned off the unit, restarted it and the noise went away. When I checked the clothes later, I discovered that while the noise went away, the heat did too. Damn! They managed to get ¾ dry before it died.

4-11-09 Saturday (The Revolution)

We got up early! Without internet connection we were out of the RV by 9:30. Woo-hoo! We took Dasher and a picnic lunch with us expecting a long day. Death Valley is very misleading. I thought of it being vast desert waste lands but in fact it was very beautiful. I think I read it only gets 2 inches of rainfall a year, but it’s still surprisingly beautiful. Mountains all over the place! The variation of colors and textures on these mountains made me feel like I was in all different places. Maybe like the mountains came from different parts of the country. You’ll see what I mean in the video. Oh! And the wildflowers in Death Valley! All over the place. How does that happen? Some day I'll research on it.



I switched on the A/C for a few minutes before bedtime. The A/C control unit made some strange noises, like sizzling noises and the front A/C unit didn’t get a steady flow of power. For safety, I decided not to run both units. In case it’s a park power issue, we’ll try it out again at another campground.

As if A/C problems aren’t enough, the washer/dryer unit started making a loud noise during dry cycle. It’s an appliance revolt!

Above: Slideshow.

Above: Drive through Titus Canyon.

Above: 360 view from a view point