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.

Some years ago, for reasons I know not, I decided I must see Old Faithful.  Of course, that meant a trip to Yellowstone National Park.  I was completely unprepared for what awaiting – and Old Faithful is the least of it.  Although it is quite astounding.

This geyser is called Old Faithful because it faithfully erupts on schedule:  if an eruption lasts more than 2.5 minutes, it will erupt 91 minutes later.  If the eruption is less than 2.5 minutes, it will erupt 65 minutes later.  The eruptions can send up to 8,400 gallons of boiling hot water to a height of 185 feet.  I didn’t realize how exciting this would be until I sat, along with dozens of other people, on benches surrounding the area and saw this with my own eyes.  Wow!

The park service has a web cam set up at Old Faithful.  check it out.

Marvelous as it is, Yellowstone is a wonder of hydrothermal features.  My fellow-teacher Barbara Moorhead and I drove around the park, stopping at each trail, and were “shocked and awed” by what we saw.

West Thumb Region

This is Yellowstone Lake.  I couldn’t believe it – here was a lake with thermal features within it!  The most interesting is the Fishing Hole Geyser, or Fishing Cone.

The geyser is so-named because early visitors would stand on the rim, catch fish in the lake, and dip the fish into the geyser to cook.  I saw a photograph in the Lodge there but can’t find it on the internet.

You know that patterns intriuge me.  Look at these great stones in the lake and the texture/pattern/colors of the water!

The Abyss Pool is near the lake in the West Thumb region.  It’s a hot spring, 53 feet deep!  The next photo shows the entire pool.  Temperature – 172 degrees Fahrenheit!

The ground around these hot springs is actually very fragile because it is a mix of algae and cyano bacteria,  heat-loving micro-organisms.  They can create dramatic orangey-brownish colors.

This next feature is a thermal vent, also in the lake.

This steaming pool is the Black Pool, which is a wonderful blue color.  It’s 132 degrees and 30 feet deep.

The Lakeshore Geyser is also by the lake, and sometimes the vent is actually covered by the lake!

Finally, in this area (and I mean finally because it’s the last photo, not the last feature) are the Paint Pots, also known as mud pots.  It was totally cool watching the “mud” sputter and pop.

I’m not sure of the name of this next feature.

This entire area is surrounded by a boardwalk that you can see in the distance.  So much to see in just one place.  You can get more information on the West Thumb region here.

Anyone reading this who hasn’t been to Yellowstone – well, all I can say is GO.  It’s a photographer’s paradise.  This is the smallest bit – the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone will astound you, all the other regions with thermal features will knock your socks off, and if none of that does it, try the bison!  I had never been impressed with bison – the ungainly, strange creatures.  I am now.  They are bizarre and magnificent and all over the place.  A terrific experience awaits the visitor.