Ohio
to Nevada... by way of Minnesota
So that's why they call it
Northwest Airlines... Wednesday,
August21st
THE RECENT unexplained mid-air explosion of TWA flight 800 has made
the security delays at many US airports even longer than they were before.
We were advised to arrive at least an hour and a half early for our 9:15
am flight to Minneapolis, and we do arrive in plenty of time to eat breakfast
at the McDonald's in the Northwest Airlines wing. We are surprised (well,
shocked, actually) to find ashtrays, in a McDonald's, inside the airport
(we sure won't see that again very often).
The flight to Minneapolis takes about an hour and a half, and we arrive at
9:45 (Central time) to find
De
nny waiting for us. It sure is good to see him again. He has
brought along a videotape he'd made of a television special he wanted me
to see, and I brought him some humorous printings I thought he'd like. We
eat lunch (breakfast, really, since it's only 10:00 am here) at a restaurant
in the airport, hug, take a couple of pictures, and board the flight for
Las Vegas.
Linda with our friend Denny King in the
Minneapolis-St. Paul airport
Linda has a window seat as we fly through clear skies toward the Wild West.
The snowcapped mountains in Colorado amaze her, and she is excited to discover,
several minutes before the pilot announces it, that we are crossing over
Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. She is able to recognize them entirely
from pictures and videotapes we have seen. The plane also flies over the
Grand Canyon, and, although it's the western part of the canyon, near lake
Mead, that we are able to see, it's very impressive from the air. Mary, Lou,
and Lizzy, who had arrived about an hour earlier from Philadelphia, are waiting
for us when we finally get up to our adjoining rooms on the fourth floor
of the hotel.
Las Vegas and the Monte Carlo Resort &
Casino
Vel-VEETA Lost Wages!!
| AND WHAT A GRAND and glorious place this is.
The Monte Carlo Resort
and Casino was only an artist's conception in January when Mary was
making reservations. In fact, the original plan was for us to stay at another
resort, but when our schedule changed we were assigned to this one instead.
Until we actually arrived, we were not sure it was completed. In fact, there
is a great deal of construction going on all over Las Vegas and we did worry
that we'd find the poor Waters family sitting on a pile of scrap lumber when
we met up with them. Linda's first reaction to Las Vegas is sheer amazement
that there are banks of slot machines in the airport. She resists the urge
to just stay there for the whole vacation and we go out to claim our luggage
and rent the car. We were expecting to get a Ford Contour, but get a free
upgrade to a Mercury Sable instead (Mary and Lou also upgraded, to a Dodge
Intrepid, but they had to pay extra for theirs). |
|
 |
|
The Monte
Carlo Resort & Casino is built to resemble… well, Monte
Carlo. That is, it looks like a somewhat more modern version of the famous
Casino
de Monte Carlo in Monaco. In fact, there are paintings of the original
(in the 19th century) on the walls in the hallways and they look very similar.
Besides the casino, there are restaurants and shops (in fact a whole area,
called Dream Street, which looks like an olde tyme outdoor street on a cool
summer evening) and a multiple swimming pool area which includes a hot spa,
a wave machine, and a flowing stream with waterfalls. This evening we sit
around the pool while Mary, Lou, and Lizzy swim (Linda doesn't feel like
swimming and I'm too burnt out by this time). |
Hoover Dam
And the Wild, Wacky, Wonderful World
of Concrete…
Hoover Dam, and our tour guide, the world's greatest
expert on concrete
 |
|
 |
BUT BEFORE WE do anything, in fact within minutes of our arrival,
Lou wants to go visit
Hoover Dam.
It isn't just that he's anxious (all right, he is anxious, but maybe not
that anxious), but he doesn't want to miss the last tour, which will
begin at 5:00, and it takes a while to get there. Besides, Lizzy wants to
swim in the pool, so we need to get back before it closes (the pool isn't
open all night long like so many other things here are). Mary and Linda stay
behind to feed the slot machines in the casino while Lou, Lizzy, and I go
in their car to see the dam.
The drive to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam is through very rugged red rock canyons
and is our first introduction to the awesome scenery that we will be
experiencing. We take the tour, led by an extremely fast-talking guide who
seems to think that the best way to avoid questions from the visitors was
to talk incessantly about things like how much concrete was poured into the
dam, the mean average curing time of concrete, types of concrete, and just
about anything ever known about concrete. It worked. We learn more about
concrete than I would ever hope to know, and not one visitor asks a single
question!
After the tour (which lasted about an hour) we choose not to see the
twenty-minute film (about Hoover Dam and the concrete), and go out to walk
across the top of the dam instead. Although it is impressively deep, both
Lou and I remark at how much narrower Hoover Dam is than we had expected
it to be. One side of the dam is located in Nevada and the other in Arizona,
and there are large clocks on each side, labeled "Nevada Time" and "Arizona
Time", because the time changes as you cross from one state to another.
Unfortunately (if it mattered), both clocks have long ago stopped
(at different times) and no longer keep time at all.
South
Las Vegas Boulevard, known throughout the world as simply,
"The Strip"
By the time we return to the hotel and hang out at the pool for awhile, it's
getting dark. We all jump into their car and head out onto "The Strip" to
see the lights of the casinos and to find a place to eat. Las Vegas is a
major eater's paradise. There are fine restaurants everywhere, open all day
and night, and all competing to give the best food at the lowest price. We
have discount tickets to
Maxim's,
and go to the Tree House Restaurant there for prime rib (full dinner - $3.
99, with large, excellently cooked portions). That's without the coupons,
which were for the buffet (an even better deal, but with a long line we wanted
to avoid).
By the time we get back to the hotel we're
all beat.
And full.
And tomorrow morning is not very far
away…
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Story and original photography copyright ©1996-1997 by John Lipman. All
rights reserved.
Descriptions, observations, and characterizations expressed are solely
those of the author.
Background music is copyright ©1996, 1997 by
Michael D. Walthius. All rights reserved.