Day 6...Valley of Fire

We're going on a 5 hour tour to the Valley of Fire today, so had a Danish and a muffin in our room this morning.  The Valley of Fire is Nevada's oldest and largest State Park.  The rock formations and colours are amazing and so, so beautiful!

 At the Visitor's Center I managed to get pictures of some of the plants and of this family of mountain sheep on the hillside...it's amazing how they can climb up there.  When we first saw them, they were laying down but then stood up.  AMAZING!!!!

This place is massive and every time you turn around there's another picture opportunity.  They say when the sun is setting, the rocks look like they're on fire!  We didn't see that, we only saw it in daylight, but I can only imagine!!!

When we got back to the hotel we had a few hours then went on a bus tour of the Las Vegas Strip at night.  Lots and lots of lights.  The casinos are huge complexes with waterfalls, lagoons, pirate ships, roller coasters, you name it!  They even have flat bed trucks driving up and down the strip with basically, big screen TVs mounted on the back advertising all the things going on in Vegas. Both sides of the "TV" and the back end all had pictures playing, and to think this is all in the middle of a desert!!  I found it to be too claustrophobic, everything is so crowded, big and busy! I'm really looking forward to Laughlin...hopefully it'll be more peaceful and calm, being right on the river!

Day 5...On to Las Vegas

Baggage pull, 7:00am, on the bus by 8:00 am. Our drive today was through the desert.  Saw a tower that generates solar power.

Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project

Power Project

The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is a 110 megawatt net solar thermal power project with 1.1 gigawatt-hours of energy storage, located near Tonopah, about 190 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It is the first utility-scale concentrating solar power plant with a central receiver tower and advanced molten salt energy storage technology from SolarReserve. The project, developed by SolarReserve and owned by Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC. was anticipated to cost less than $1 billion. EPC Contractor was ACS Cobra, which carried out the engineering design, procured the equipment and materials necessary, and then constructed and delivered the facility to Tonopah Solar Energy. Planned energy output was up to 500 GW·h annually but real data place generation at about 200 GW·h/year, less than half.


Throughout  our travels through Nevada we saw many solar "farms", different from the Dunes Project. There were masses of solar panels, from a distance they would look like a lake but they were hundreds of solar panels hooked up to transmission wires.  At one point the highway went very close to the "farm" and we could see the solar panels mounted on frameworks and apparently the panels could "follow the sun".  I was wondering how they could service the panels if needed but on these frameworks it would be simple to walk between the panels.  From the panels they had all these transmission wires and towers to add the power to the grid.  Very interesting!!!

We went past an ammunitions storage area, some old towns and the turnoff to the infamous Death Valley.

On our way to Las Vegas we passed an ammunitions storage area, some old towns and the turnoff to the infamous Death Valley. 

On our way to Las Vegas we passed an ammunitions storage area, some old towns and the turnoff to the infamous Death Valley. 

Went through lots of desert today and passed some old towns and an ammunitions storage area.  Apparently we were very close to the turn off to Death Valley, but didn't go there. 

We went past an ammunitions storage area , some old towns and the turnoff to the infamous Death Valley.

We got to Las Vegas and the Golden Nugget will be our home for the next three nights. We're on Freemont Street and above the street is a domed ceiling/screen where they have a show every night. We found Vegas to be very busy and crowded...and it's not even the weekend!

Day 4...Reno

Today we could have gone to Boomtown then to Meadowood Mall with the bus, but we decided to walk around Reno.  We used to fly down here quite a bit for a 3 or 4 night stay and a couple of times we took the express bus and came down, but we haven't been in Reno for many years, since they no longer have the flight packages they used to have.  It was nice to walk around town and see how things have changed and the casinos that are still there...a trip down memory lane!!

The Colonial is where we used to stay when we took the bus down.

 The Hotel El Cortez has been here forever...we never stayed there, but know people who did.

The Cal Neva used to have a bacon, egg & hashbrowns breakfast for $.99 and they always had the best Canadian exchange rate if you changed money on the floor when you were gambling.  The last time we were here we got $16 US for $20 CAN.  That's 80%, this time it was 70% so about $14 US for $20 CAN. We didn't change any money this time!

 

Silver Legacy.  Inside the dome is a model of the machine they used to extract the silver ore.

Day 3..Canyonville to Reno

Earlier start today.  Baggage pull at 7am and leave at 8am.  We weren't very hungry so made coffee in our room and had some snacks with us, so had that for breakfast.  Down I-5, crossed into California then turned off at Mount Shasta and went through Susanville to Reno.  Lots of snow on the sides of the road.  It was pretty and was neat to watch for deer or other wildlife footprints in the snow.

At one of our stops today we saw this Tesla charging station.

Checked into the Silver Legacy in Reno.  As we were getting off the bus there were some more charging stations. Silver Legacy, Eldorado and Circus Circus  are joined together by a walkway.  Sometimes it gets confusing because the same casino card can be used in the three casinos, but if you play in Silver Legacy you have to cash out your ticket in Silver Legacy...the same for Eldorado and Circus Circus.  Some of our food vouchers were good at any of the 3 casinos but there were a couple of them that could only be used in Silver Legacy...sure did keep the brain active,  to say the least!

Day 2 Marysville, Wa to Canyonville, Or.

We were up early. Our baggage pull was set for 8 am and the bus leaves at 9 am.  We went for breakfast, (we each had a food voucher) then checked our room to see that our bags were gone and got on the bus.

It was nice to drive through Seattle on a Sunday...not so much traffic and because Bart was doing the driving we could look out the windows and see the scenery.  It's been several years since we've driven through Seattle so really enjoyed it!  We usually stop for two "coffee breaks" (30 minutes) and a "lunch break"(1 hour) then stop for the night. Coffee breaks were usually McDonalds or something like that. Today's lunch stop was a Ilani Casino. 

They had neat seat guards on their toilets.  You push a button and a clean plastic sleeve slides around the toilet seat.  We first saw these years ago when we were on a Riverboat Casino in New Orleans.

 

Our stop for tonight is Seven Feathers Casino in Oregon, again very nice rooms.

Hit the Jackpot...Bus Tour...Day 1

Last December we received a brochure from the company we went to Haida Gwaii with.  The tour that caught my eye was a 14 day tour to southern Nevada and Arizona and back...a big circle.  We booked it and so did my cousin who lives in Chilliwack.  It'll be nice to spend some time with her.

The cab came and picked us up and took us to the bus, my cousin and several other people were already on board.  Stopped at the West Coast Duty Free store at the truck crossing and picked up the rest of the people who would be travelling with us and our Host.  Stephen is the same fellow who hosted our Haida Gwaii trip, so we're looking forward to a great holiday.


Our first overnight is at the Tulalip Casino.  They have beautiful big rooms with a fridge and an interesting shower with 3 showerheads!

They also gave each of us a $15 food voucher and a $20 slot play.

My and my husbands' dinners....yummy!

 My cousin had a light dinner but splurged on dessert!

Gambled for a bit, we were both up a little bit, then went to sleep in our very comfortable king size bed!