Finishing up March with Creative Every Day’s theme of stories, I’m going to tell the story of our trip to Vegas.
To wake up in Vegas, we had to get there first – not my destination of choice. But my granddaughter was playing a soccer tournament with the Bombers and she thought her mom (my daughter) needed someone to drive with her. So Gramser, being up for adventure most times, came. We also brought two other grandkids along. The people waking up in Vegas would be Jennifer, Ali, Sarah, Daxton and me.
We set out up Highway 58 through Tehachapi. It’s a gorgeous drive any time of year, but Spring -
Orange trees in the foreground, green hills. Trains.
Always many trains. In fact, we go by the world-famous Tehachapi Loop. It is world-famous, really. Ask any train buff. The Loop is a real feat of engineering. In order for a train to be able to go up the steep grade, engineers devised a loop in which a train that’s 85 boxcars or longer will actually loop over itself as it ascends. The Loop is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. No, I didn’t know we had those kinds of landmarks either.
Tehachapi has lots of wind farms. I love looking at the windmills. I did a post recently about wind farms in Palm Springs.
So far, since the trip had just begun, the photos are pretty good – not too many bugs on the windshield.
This was a good omen – others heading the same place we were. Go Bombers!
After Tehachapi, the road descends into Mojave, which has a real spaceport – Scaled Composites is located at the Mojave Spaceport. That’s Burt Rutan’s company, the one that developed the Voyager, and along with Richard Branson, Spaceship One that won the Ansari X Prize. Then the road goes past Edwards Air Force Base, famous for space shuttle landings most recently, but mostly for the flyboy culture when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier and pilots along with astronauts hung out at Pancho Barnes Happy Bottoms Riding Club. The book and movie The Right Stuff fills you in.
Then we go past Boron, home of one of the world’s largest deep pit mines. Past Barstow where we were so happy to have a Starbucks stop, and on to the wonderfully strange town of Baker. Baker is famous for the huge thermometer that advertises the scorching summer temperatures.
Four of the five of us are at the bottom – can’t get the whole thing from so close. But there are other “landmarks” I always look forward to in Baker. One is a motel – the Bun Boy? Really.
Then, the Mad Greek is always good to gawk at.
Never tried the food there. But for the first time, we stopped at the Alien Jerky store.
Got four aliens right here. Three of them emerged with t shirts. Alien shirts.
Unlike aliens, we were under antiquated automobile transportation, so we pressed on. You can see the the windshield has picked up a few bugs. Next landmark was Primm – a little fake town with outlets and a casino. Actually, I don’t want to besmirch Primm – maybe they were a real town before the Casino.
That’s Primm up ahead. By now the car was rocking and rolling. We didn’t need no stinkin microphones!
The driver and shotgun positions were filled by responsible older persons who just sang their heads off without mics. I mean, we didn’t want to look stupid to passersby.
We always have such a great time together.
Last stretch – almost there. The team was staying at the Red Rock Casino and Resort, technically in Mesquite, and we were glad to be off the Strip.
We checked in, headed to our rooms, which were pretty terrific, and gawked at the television in my bathroom.
See the mirror? The television screen was right in the mirror. We Bakersfield folks are easily impressed. I turned it on and it landed on the South Park episode about scientology. Pretty funny. Tonight I took a bath and watched the Angels and Cleveland play. Last night I watched Dancing with the Stars. It was fun, but I’d never get my reading done if I had a television in the bathroom. I get my magazines read while soaking in the tub.
So we were hungry! And went to the Mexican restaurant in the resort. It was actually outstanding. We topped it off with $5 in the slot machines – and I won $25! Thanks, Jim. You can beam me up now. Tomorrow I’ll talk about soccer.
