Saturday, May 28, 2011

Viva Las Vegas



What Happens In Vegas Is A Lot Of Fun!



I spent three weeks in Las Vegas mostly having fun creating slide shows. I did one on Hoover Dam with the new bypass bridge. I took Pictures of the bridge while on it.....



....from it.....



....and of it from Hoover Dam.



I also took the Hoover Dam tour which covered again all the places that the tour went before 9-11. One of the places in Las Vegas that I enjoyed seeing was the Neon Boneyard.



This is a museum that has a large collection of old sings from extinct casinos and business in Las Vegas. The museum has restored about 15 or so signs to working order and has them displayed on the city streets and inside the Fremont Experience. It was like a treasure hunt to locate them. I photographed them for the slide show. Some of them I photographed in daylight and at night. Here are a few of the signs in the yard:







Here are a few signs from the Fremont Experience area:





I stopped in to pay a visit to the Pawn Star's Establishment.





Of course no visit to Las Vegas would be compete without a date with a showgirl.



I think we will just let that part Stay In Vegas!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Death Valley Continued

After descending back down to the valley floor, we continued our tour of the Westside Road. Our next stop was the grave site of Jim Dayton and Shorty Harris.



We also stopped at the Bennett's Long camp site where in 1849 the group almost died from the elements before they found a way to proceed west. They gave this valley the name of "Death Valley".



We completed the tour of the Westside Road and headed back to our camp in Furnace Creek. We stopped along the way at Bad Watter, which is the lowest spot in the U.S. (-284 feet).

The next day we headed to the ghost town of Rhyolite. I caught this picture of a ghost trying to get on a bicycle



Look what taking a picture of that ghost did to my camera!




There are just a few crumbing buildings left in Rhyolite, once a town of over nine thousand people back in 1909.





After Rhyolite we traveled through Titus Canyon and on to Scotty's Castle and took the Hourse Tour. We did not have time to take any of the other tours before they closed for the day.












We had a very enjoyable 4-day stay in Death Valley and we are planning to return next March.