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August 12 through September 24, 2022 - Part 1 
Thank you for coming to this web page. I wish that I could have taken you all on this spectactular trip with me. But since I could not fit you all in my car, as you can see, it was a bit full. Please let me know where my typos are as this is long and I will read this so many times that I will not see where they are. 
 I will tell you my story through words and pictures, lots of pictures. The story is long, get a cup of coffee, a cup of hot chocolate or a dram of scotch, sit back and cozy up to the screen. You can click on all the photos and they will open in a new tab; this way you never lose this main page. This page will cover my trip from Chicago out to Las Vegas, then page two, will cover some of my time in Las Vegas, a trip to Los Angeles and the trip back. The map below shows you the route that I took and stops that I made. I left Chicago and headed to the southern states, ending up in Las Vegas; then the trip back, I went through the upper states. I'll give you some stats on the trip at the end of the adventure. 
I have been planning on doing this trip for a long time but did not make a definite yes till this year. Losing my brother Brad, made me realize that you need to do things when you can and not wait for a "right time" or an "I'll do that someday". To quote Mr Dale McKenzie, "This adventure starts right now". We start off on Friday, August 12th in the morning and head to Tulsa, OK. Not much happened on the way there, if you've ever driven highway 55 to St Louis, it is not the most exciting drive. This is one of the longest drives of the entire trip, about 10 hours. Why Tulsa you ask? Well, I have been watching (due to Covid) on YouTube a nice young man named Brian Christopher; he plays slot machines at casinos. Playing slot machines has become his full time job and his company is Brian Christopher Slots aka BC Slots (bcslots.com). Just this year, he partnered with a slot company, and he now has his very own slot machine, and the Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa has three of those machines and I wanted to play it. So, before I even checked into my hotel (La Quinta across from the casino), I went to the casino, got my players card (always get your players card) and played Brian's slot machine and a few more. Did I win? Nope, but I had fun. Now you may notice (how can you miss it) that my hair is REALLY red. Well, we did the red, because in about 10 days, it will be a nice bright pink. 
 I was at the museum for about four hours, and I still did not see everything that they had. It was well over 100 degrees outside, so I did not see the outside displays. There are a couple of paintings of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone that are just breath taking. There are various large displays, headdresses, even a Darth Vader helmet and a statue of a cowboy/president. When in Oklahoma City, check out the museum. Disclosure: The museum sign is one I got off the internet. 
 I woke up on Sunday morning and took a load out to the car; I noticed that my driver's rear tire was low. I thought it was because of the excessive heat. I finished loading the car and drove really slow over to the nearest gas station. I filled the tire up; thank goodness I brought quarters along for the washing machines to do laundry. Because I was going to need them for this tire. I then hit the road for Texas and Fort Worth. I was meeting my friends Rhonda and Mike Lavelle. Rhonda and Mike are friends that Rob, Deb, Chuck and I met at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention many moons ago. We have remained friends and stay in touch with each other. They had recently moved to Texas to be near their daughter. We met at a Lonestar restaurant not far off the highway. We got caught up over the next couple of hours on what all has been going on in each of our lives. After lunch, my tire was getting low again, so I filled the gas tank and the tire. Luckily, my car has a feature where I can monitor the tire pressure from inside the car. So, I kept an eye on it, and it was going down faster than I was comfortable with; I didn't want a blow out on the highway. So, I asked Siri, who is a male from Australia on my phone, to find me the nearest Chevy dealership. He found one in Eastland, TX. I drove to the dealership, knowing full well that it was closed, as it was Sunday, but I could then find the closest hotels to the dealership. 
 Monday morning, I got up around seven; got dressed and sure enough; the tire was flat. I drove really..really slow over to the gas station and did I mention, how lucky I was that I had brought quarters for laundry; but now they were for the air compressors at the gas stations, two bucks worth a fill up. I had a 9:30 appointment, so I went back to the hotel; had breakfast, relaxed, and then loaded up and drove the 45-60 seconds down to the dealership. The first of three dealerships, this trip. It took two patch kits and two hours to fix the tire. While I waited, I called the hotel I had booked in Albuquerque and canceled my reservation for that night. There was no way I was going to be able to make it. I also canceled my Flagstaff hotel for Wednesday night. I was going to be "winging it"; and as my friend Tracy knows, I am not good at winging it, but I had no choice at this point. With all the curve balls we've dealt with over the past two years, we have all learned to pivot. Okay, tire is fixed; time to hit the road. I get to Midland, TX about 3 pm to have lunch, okay late lunch-early dinner with my friend Brenda Nichols. Brenda and I have known each other since January of 1987; let's just say there was a hotel shuttle, an airplane and the band Journey involved; that story is for another time. We met at Ajuua's; we laughed and talked for a couple of hours and then it was time for me to hit the road, again. I wanted to get to Roswell, NM before it got dark out. I saw some gazelle and cows along the way, along with several "pumpjacks". If, I can figure out how to get the video on the sight, I'll link it. I called the Roswell Visitor Center and got a hotel recommendation. I arrived at the Clarion Inn; checked in and then "crashed" for the night (pun intended). If you don't know about the Roswell crash...Google it. 
 Pumpjacks in action. Two ways to view the same video: download or watch on the page. 
It is now Tuesday the 16th. I am up and checked out around 9 am. I knew that I wanted to stop at the visitor center and get recommendations on what I should make sure I see/do in the four hours that I had blocked out for seeing Roswell. They gave me great tips on the four must see things to do and where to have lunch before I leave. Pro tip peeps, always ask the desk front person or the locals about where to eat. They will not steer you wrong. Everything was within walking distance, so I left my car at the visitor center and headed down the block. I first came across a statue for John Simpson Chisum the "Cattle King of the Pecos". You can read about him in the photo. I continued down the street to the UFO Museum (the museum logo photo is from the internet). I met some very nice aliens and they suggested we do a selfie together, but with Covid, they stayed about six feet from me. You could really spend several hours just in the museum reading everything in the displays or even going through their library. I then walked over to the Black-Light exhibit. It was very cool to walk through and see all the creatures from different sci-fi series all in one place. The amount of work to put that together, I applaud the creator. Headed across the street to the VR Spaceport. They had available the Roswell crash from the alien's perspective and the Apollo launch and landing; I chose both. I had not done a VR like this, luckily you are seated in a chair, which is good, because you would be falling over otherwise. Okay, I'm getting hungry, so I head back toward the visitor center and a Mexican cantina for lunch. You could tell they had good food, as they were busy. After lunch, I crossed the street and pointed the car toward Farmington, NM. Farmington is the closest big city to the Four Corners Monument that had decent hotels. I did not make a reservation, figured I find something when I got there. 
 
    There are beautiful stretches of road in New Mexico, Albuquerque has beautiful scenery and some steep hills. I stopped for gas before heading 2 1/2 hours into the mountains (and it's going to be dark in about 90 minutes). I just get back on the road from the gas station and my engine light comes on, no..no..no. I see a turn head on the road and take it. I stop the car, not turning it off, just stopping. And again, I say "Siri, find me the closest Chevy dealership." He does, but it is showing it as being closed. So, I figure, I'll see where it is at and then (like in Texas) find the closest hotel and make an appointment for the morning. Mind you, I am also on a church council meeting video call, via Zoom while I am driving to the dealership, I tried to stay on mute so that I wouldn't distract from the meeting too much. I get to the dealership, and I just happen to see that the service door is open, and the light is green. I pulled in and got out of my car and said, "I need help". Three service guys come rushing over. I explain as calmly as I can what happened. They checked it out and found the errors P00013 and P00014. The service manager and I go to his office and I we go over what's wrong with the car. He assures me that the car is safe to drive to Farmington and then to Las Vegas. He said once in Vegas, that I should take the car into have the actuators checked and serviced there. I repeated myself, I have a two and a half hour drive into the mountains in the dark. I probably said it three times. He assured me that I was safe. They cleared the code, so the engine light wasn't on anymore, but he said that it would more than likely come back on. He gave me his personal cell number, so that if anything happened, I could call him. He did ask that I text him when I got to my hotel, so that he would then know that I arrived safely. He calmed me down and I went on my merry way and back on my zoom call with the council. I will say the hills and rock formations are just beautiful, pictures don't do them justice. It did get dark, and then it rained, and then I had to pee. I finally found a gas station, and when I restarted the car, the engine light came back on. It was dark by the time I got to Farmington. I went to the Hilton hotel that I found the night before; they were now booked solid. She did give me directions to a nearby Comfort Inn and Suites. The woman at the that front desk had pink in her hair, like me. She is also a cosplayer, so we had a lot to chat about. After I got into my room there, I checked out the route for the next day and then clasped. 
 Well, here we are August 17th, the last day of the trip out to Las Vegas. I am going to the Four Corners Monument and then headed to Las Vegas; this is going to be a long day of driving, sight seeing and stopped traffic. I made it to the Four Corners Monument by late morning and stood in all four states at once. A couple took my pictures and the wife said, she liked it when I put my arms out, so when I took theirs; she did the same thing. The area around Four Corners (again) is beautiful; so many color variations. The views are something you can just look at all day. Then it was time to head to Las Vegas. I let the Maps guide me the entire trip. It was going a little haywire, in a 15 minute span, it kept switching routes on me, so I made the executive decision to stay on highway 89 down to Flagstaff. WRONG!!! We ended up at a dead stop for 70 minutes, while they cleared water off the road from a flash flood. I could not get out of my car to go see what was going on, as there was a truck transporting bees and beehives right next to me. They were all covered up, but they were finding their way out of the netting and flying all around the truck. I'm not getting out of my car with the bees there. There was even a young guy walking up from behind us and he took one look at all the bees and said "Hell no", turned around and walked back to his car. After we finally started moving, there were only a couple of more slow downs. It was getting dark, and I'm on highway 93 from Boulder City heading to Las Vegas; you come around a curve heading into Las Vegas and there are the lights of the city. It is quite the sight to see. I pulled into the Home2 on South Las Vegas Blvd about 7 pm. It took quite awhile to unload the car. The Home2 was going to be my home base for the next thirty days. 
 
The next morning, I had hope to drive around Las Vegas and get my bearings down, but alas it was off to dealership number three. I made the appointment the day before, for Thursday morning. I get my car checked in and they arrange a Lyft ride back to the hotel for me. My service guy went above and beyond for me. He research and found out that my car is a "preowned" car; which means extended warranty. Those repairs did not cost me anything, but they did find some items that the Chicago dealership missed. I okayed having the extra work done, which was not a lot of money. I was just not going to be able to get the car till Friday morning. Okay, I guess it is delivery for dinner again. But, during the day, I did get my office totally setup, the hotel room setup for when I come back on the 29th and I got laundry done. I did have to dig into my second container of quarters. The dealership ordered a Lyft car for me in the morning, which was nice of them; normally they do not do the rides back to the dealership, only the rides home. I got my car and thankfully, that was the last dealership for the rest of the trip. I went back to the hotel and packed a couple of bags for my stay at Worldmark, with Rob and Deb. That afternoon, I picked up Deb and Rob at the airport car rental building; we went back to the Home2 as the Worldmark did not have our room ready yet. I could then show them my "home" for the next four weeks. Rob got the text that we could check in, so we loaded my stuff in the car and headed over there. We got a room in one of the buildings around the lazy river. On August 20th, we went and saw Wayne Newton at the Flamingo Hotel. Our table was front and center. They asked as we were walking in if there was a special occasion, and I said that my birthday was in a couple of days, and we are starting the celebration with Wayne. During the show, they do shout outs to the people with the celebrations. I then got during the show serenaded by Wayne and a kiss on the cheek. Yes, I did do the "Marsha Brady", "I'm never going to wash my cheek again." 
 
We went to Ethel M's Chocolate factory and the Cactus Garden on the 22nd. We always love Ethel M's and the Cactus Garden; we see different items and plants each time we go. 
 
On my birthday, we went to the Back to the 80's Cafe, checked into the Paris Hotel, birthday dinner at Vanderpumps and a walk to Bally's to see the Star Trek convention setup. I saw a review of the 80's Cafe by Dale McKenzie on his YouTube channel "Las Vegas Inside and Out". It is an interesting place to visit, very nostalgic. 
 
We went over about 3 pm to see about checking into the Paris for our convention stay. Our friend Chuck was waiting for us when we got there. Rob, Chuck and I got in line, while Debbie watched some of the luggage. The line was long, so Rob went over and got in another line. We were going to see who could get up to a person first. When checking in, we all go up to the same person, so we can see about getting adjoining rooms or at least rooms close to each other. Rob won, he got to a person first and that person could check us all in. While checking me in, he thanked me for being a Platinum member. I said, "Excuse me, Platinum? When did that happen?" Now folks, I do not spend the dollars it takes to be Platinum, but some how I was. One thing the Platinum level give you is free self-parking and free valet parking, woohoo..score, since I'm parking my car there for the week!! We don't get rooms next to each other, but we are on the same floor. We go to our rooms and meet back up just before 5 pm. I made us reservations at Vanderpumps for my birthday dinner. I have on my birthday tiara. Everyone should wear a tiara for their birthday. We get seated at a nice table in the middle of the restaurant. Our waiter goes by "Frenchie". (The picture below with Frenchie and I was taken on a different night.) I get a birthday cocktail which comes on its own plate and has a macaron. The entire meal was the best experience that I have ever had. You used all your senses throughout the meal, sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. We had for the appetizers: Carb Croquettes and Goat Cheese Cakes, I had the Cast Iron Filet, our sides were Dauphinoise and Le Mac and for dessert we had the Grande Selection of Le Grand Puff, Creme Brulee Beignets and Mousse Au Chocolat Bites. Absolutely Tres Magnifique!! After dinner, we strolled over to Bally's to see what was up of the convention props. We ran into some friends along the way. We took some selfies and enjoyed the night. We also made plans to meet up the next morning at 6 am to get in line for the afternoon registration. If you are puzzled as to why we get in line so early, we want the lower number for the upgrade line. You never now when that one or four people will give up their seat in row B and we want them. 
 
Well, this ends the trip out to Las Vegas up to the Star Trek Convention. I did say this was a long story with a lot of photos. So, take a break, refill your drink, hit the loo, and then we'll pick it up on August 29th, the Monday after the convention. Click here to continue to read about my trip to Los Angeles and then the trip back home to Chicago. |