Roadtrippin

We spent the morning exploring the rest of the Bellagio and then went over to Caesars Palace. We bought some giant souvenir cup drinks outside Caesars. Sometimes we’re such tourists 🤣😂

Caesars Palace is pretty remarkable. First of all, the place is huge! There’s great big columns, water fountains galore and tons of high end stores. We went into The Walking Store and Eddie bought me so new sandals to wear. They came with a free pair of gel inserts which he took in his size and put in his steel toe boots. He said he feels like he’s walking on clouds now!

As we walked down the Roman themed corridors we wound up in front of The Atlantis Show fountain right as the show was starting. It was pretty cool to see especially since we were literally standing in a hallway of a hotel!! We really lucked out on the timing.

Fun fact about Caesars Palace- Evel Kenieval attempted to jump the fountains in the front with his motorcycle and almost died in the process.

We checked out of the Bellagio and drove down the strip to the timeshare. For those of you who don’t know, my parents booked a 2 unit timeshare for the week we were going to be in Vegas. Their friends from New Mexico are coming to meet them out here. We are so thankful and grateful they gave us a unit to stay in while we’re here so we could unpack the car, do laundry and not live out of random hotels for a week. I hope they know how appreciative we are.

Before we got to the timeshare, we stopped at the Harley dealership. After renting that Electra-glide the other day, Eddie has been considering getting one. We like to collect shirts from all the dealerships we stop at when we travel, but now Eddie’s looking at bikes!

After we left Harley, we met up with my parents and checked into the timeshare. It’s a beautiful place right down the street from the strip. I immediately unpacked and started on the laundry. We went to the casino next door for dinner. On our way out, I found a giant digital slot machine and my eyes were glued to it. It was the size of 3 machines put together. I knew I had to play. I put in $20 and hit max bet (which was $15!). I’m not sure what I did, but I won $155! I took the cash and ran. 😜

After dinner Eddie and I decided to go swimming in one of the resorts 5 pools. Eddie doesn’t know how to swim so he just sat on the stairs in the pool. He claims all he knows how to do is sink, but I’m happy he’ll at least get in the water.

So far, I have not seen all these grasshoppers I kept reading about in the news last week. We saw more in Arizona than we have here!

I’m not totally sure what we’re doing tomorrow. I know we’re going to head out to the strip in the morning and go from there. We bought some food from the store so we can start our day off with actual breakfast instead of alcohol. It was a fun, slightly blurry day, but I don’t know if I can do it everyday. I’m not 21 anymore 🤣😂

We FINALLY made it out of Oklahoma! That was torture! It didn’t help that it was 104° out so we couldn’t even roll down the windows to enjoy all the endless amounts of nothing.

Towards the end of Oklahoma, we stopped in a town called Clinton to get our passports stamped at a Route 66 museum. There’s about 4 or 5 Route 66 museums in every state. We are learning that they all basically have the same stuff.

Shortly after stopping at the museum, we arrived in Texas! We stopped at a rest stop that had breathtaking views and Texas shaped grills. Eddie was mesmerized with the never ending rows of wind turbines. There were so many! He later researched it to find out that Texas has the most wind turbines of any US state.

We drove by the leaning tower of Texas. It’s a water tower that was purchased to be used but upon inspection, was deemed inoperable. A man named Ralph Britten purchased it to use to market his family business. He intentionally set it in the ground crooked to draw attention. The business has long since closed, but the crooked water tower remains one of the most photographed landmarks on Route 66.

Before turning in for the night, we stopped by the Cadillac RV park to check out the cars and the 2nd amendment cowboy. It was cool to see at night while it was all lit up. Tomorrow will we check out the actual Cadillac ranch during the day.

Tomorrow, we will be straying off of our Route 66 path and heading down to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Following that, we plan to visit one of Eddie’s friends who lives in southern Arizona. We’ll pick up Route 66 in Arizona and New Mexico on our return trip home.

As far as gas goes: we filled up twice today. First at a QT in Tulsa at 14923 miles. We had about 1/8 of a tank. It’s was $2.559 per gallon and we put in 21.183 gallons for $54.21, making it the cheapest gas we’ve gotten so far! The second fill up was at a Chevron in Amarillo, TX. We had a little more than 1/8 of a tank and gas was $3.199. We put in 19.505 gallons for $62.40. So far, my car has been averaging 19.7 miles per gallon!!

A few additional notes- I have not seen or heard from the cricket I saw jump in the car last night. I saw 2 dead cows on the highway and I cried. I almost accidentally stepped on a bug in Texas that was the size of my fist. We finished our audio book, so tomorrow I might have to begin singing to Eddie in the car. We’ll see how far I make it 🤣😂

Hope everyone is enjoying their night! More tomorrow.

We spent the whole night running around the Bellagio. We had tickets to go see O by Cirque Du Soleli, which plays at the Bellagio. The show was unbelievable! It’s a water based show that takes place in a 1.5 million gallon water pool! Not only were the performers acrobatic, they were synchronized swimmers, scuba divers, long jumpers, divers, and fire handlers. We were in disbelief at how long the performers could hold their breath for and couldn’t figure out where they went after jumping in the pool. Some of them just disappeared. Some people literally appeared from the ceiling! The construction of the stage was mind blowing. Eddie was at the edge of his seat trying to figure out how they did it.

The show got out around 11:15. We gambled a bit (nothing big) and then went for a short walk outside the hotel. The fountain show had ended for the night by this time, but we’ll catch the night show another night when the sidewalk isn’t so packed.

We went back to our room around 1am, which was already way past our normal bedtime lol! If we were back home, it would have been 4am. But it’s our honeymoon and we’re not following the rules. We had been drinking since 5:30, so the natural thing to do at this point was order room service chicken tenders! We ate and watched the next episode of Orange is the New Black.

The bed in our room was so comfortable. We slept in because neither one of us wanted to move from that bed. Around 11, we decided to get up to start our day. We took our morning meds, took showers and had a well balanced breakfast consisting of twisted tea and bourbon. Now, we’re sitting outside at a bar at Caesars Palace enjoying some GIANT cocktails. This is what your supposed to do in Vegas, right??!! All that matters is we’re having a blast.

We’ll be checking out of the Bellagio around 3pm and heading over to the Las Vegas Visitors Center (to plan out what we want to do while we’re here) and to the Las Vegas Harley Davidson dealership to buy some souvenirs and look into renting another bike. Then, we’ll proceed to check in at the timeshare down the street. It’s only about 110° today so it’s much more comfortable than the 114° it was yesterday. Maybe we’ll go swimming tonight at the resort. I read it has 5 pools. Today will be a pretty relaxed day as we did A LOT yesterday.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday!

Quick update on Jeff- He is happily baking in his pot in the cup holder of the car in the parking garage at the Bellagio. Eddie finally got all of the prickers out of his lip and tongue. I still don’t completely understand the whole story he tells me about what happened while I was in the bathroom, but he seems like he understands he should NOT do that again.

We made it to Las Vegas! We’re staying at the Bellagio and have tickets to O by Cirque Du Solei at 9:30pm. we have the most beautiful room! I love our view and amenities. We’ve wandered around the hotel, ate dinner at one of the restaurants and gambled a bit. Right now we’re staring out of our room window at all the lights. I’m speechless. There are so many lights and I love it here!

We are staying IN the hotel because it is 113° outside. It’s not too bad in the shade; it feels more like 100°. In the sun, it feels like your skin might melt. I really wish I had some eggs to cook on the sidewalk.

Eddie is not much of a gambler. He would prefer to play the games from Vegas Vacation, like, guess a number or tic tax toe. Me, on the other hand, could sit at the Wheel of Fortune slot all night! Maybe he’ll keep me from blowing money at the casino. Or maybe I’ll be the bad influence that causes both of us to go home empty handed. Either way, we’re having the time of our lives out here!

Ponderables-

1. can you have a “second” honeymoon (like, to try to top the first one) ?

2. what would you do if you hit a jackpot in Vegas?

3. how much force does the Bellagio fountain have to shoot water that high?

4. how much does the electric bill cost to light the Vegas strip.

I will start this post with telling you the temperature. It’s 109°. There are no excessive heat warnings, schools are not closing, and the weathermen are not going on and on about how hot it is. The only problem I had was that my phone overheated! 😱 Such a different mind frame.

Anyways, we had always been planning on going to Hoover Dam. We didn’t realize, however, we were going to pass through it on our way to Las Vegas. We figured we would stop now instead of having to drive back out again during our time in Las Vegas. I think we’re on a roll, this is the third hole in the ground we’ve seen in the past 24 hours!

The drive in was pretty intense. There were K9s, police, armed guards and check points. Luckily Eddie didn’t say anything stupid to get my car searched like he did last summer when we went to Canada.

I was snapping pictures from the car window because it was so beautiful! Everything we’ve seen has been nothing short of spectacular. It’s upsetting that we don’t have many beautiful attractions like this where we live.

This turned out to be the perfect attraction for Eddie and I. He loves power and electrical things and I love water and waterfalls. I’m sure if Eddie could have gone tinkering in those giant generators, he would have.

We walked around on the rim and took pics. The water level at Lake Mead looked pretty low, but as it sits in the sun at 109° I’m surprised it’s not a raisin.

When we went to leave, Eddie wouldn’t listen to me when I told him to go right. Instead he went left and drove us back to Arizona. 🤣😂 Now we’re heading the right way and should be in Vegas in about 45 mins. We already booked a room at the Bellagio and got tickets to Cirque Du Solei O.

We stayed at a beautiful Hampton Inn in Kingman, AZ last night. I couldn’t believe how big the room was for such a good price. We got in around 9pm (pst) and immediately took showers to wash off the desert highway dirt from our 250 mile motorcycle ride.

Since it was so early, we hooked up the fire stick and watched an episode of Orange is the New Black. We just started so we’re only on season 1, episode 11. It was nice to have a beer and relax. We also slept in this morning. Well, almost slept in. I woke up around 8:30am to the crash of a garbage truck outside the hotel. It sounded like thunder and I jumped awake and woke up Eddie. That man puts up with so much ❤️

Since we were up, we figured we’d head back out to get our kicks on Route 66. I really don’t know what that actually means. We followed the route until we got to The Trovatore motel. It boasts that it has the longest Route 66 map. After walking around the hotel for 10 minutes looking for it, I realized that the map was painted on the concrete/stucco exterior of the hotel! While it was cool to see during the day, it would have been even better at night when the neon was lit up.

From the hotel, we drove through the Route 66 post office and on to Mr. D’z Diner for breakfast. They had the best homemade caramel root beer. We were going to buy some to take home but they said they don’t bottle it anymore. The breakfast was delicious and the diner was decorated in 60s decor.

After breakfast we went across the street to the Powerhouse Visitor Center to get our passports stamped. They gave us a couple of pieces of turquoise with our passport stamps. The visitor center is in an old powerhouse building, which provided electricity to northwest Arizona before the Hoover Dam took over. The building now serves as a visitor center, Route 66 Museum and the world’s only Electric Vehicle Museum. We walked through the whole place and took pictures of all of the displays, cars and neon signage.

Right before we left, I went to use the bathroom while Eddie went to look at power/electrical stuff. When we met up again he had that look on his face. That look where he knows he did something stupid and he doesn’t want me to get mad. Apparently he decided to play with Jeff, his new pet cactus that Meg and Dan gave us the other night in Glendale, AZ. Jeff has been living in his pot in the cup holder of the car. Eddie seemed to think he was drying out. He’s a CACTUS!! That’s practically their job. I’m not quite sure what transpired next, but the end result was his lips were covered in cactus needles which I then proceeded to pluck out with tweezers. Never a dull moment with this guy.

Before getting back on the road, we stopped at a Mobile station to get gas. We had about 1/4 of a tank and gas was $3.599 per gallon. We added 17.613 gallons for $63.39.

On our way to Vegas now. Can’t wait!

We filled Route 66 from the motorcycle dealership in Flagstaff to Seligman, AZ for dinner at the famous Roadkill Diner. The menu was hilarious. We split a splatter platter as an appetizer (chips and salsa). Eddie had the Tire Tread Buff (buffalo burger) for dinner and I had the Hit and Run (chef salad).

When we finished dinner we went to the bar/gift shop area and bought some souvenirs. The area above the bar was covered in dollar bills that people had signed and stapled to the ceiling. After searching for a bit we finally found an empty spot to staple our honeymoon dollar bill. If anyone ever goes there make sure to look for it!

Eddie walked into a makeshift jail outside of the restaurant. He asked me to come visit him in there but it was dark and I wasn’t taking any chances with these giant bugs I’ve been seeing out here. Once I mentioned the bugs he came running out of that jail as fast as he could. The bugs are really like small rodents out here.

After dinner we drove around the section of historic Route 66 in the town. The town Seligman calls itself the birthplace of Route 66. When interstate I-40 was built, Route 66 suffered. The townspeople of Seligman positioned the state of Arizona to denote Route 66 as a historic highway.

I loved looking at all the old, nostalgic looking shops and tourist traps. I’m also completely in awe of neon. Eddie is really excited to see me in Las Vegas because he knows I’ll enjoy all the neon lights out there. I’m sure most of Vegas is LED now but most of the lights that still work on Route 66 are neon.

Right now we’re heading to Kingman, AZ for the night. That’s one of the last towns on Route 66 in Arizona. We’re going to spend the night there tonight and tomorrow we’ll head to Vegas for the next week! The signs say we’re about 300 miles from Los Angeles. I can’t believe we’ve almost made it across the country! What a wild ride!

WOW! I don’t really know what else to say about the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful. The views were spectacular. My pictures don’t do it justice.

The motorcycle ride to and from was the best! Flat roads with 75mph speed limits! We rode 250 miles on that bike today. Every curve or hill brought on a new view we were even more enamored with.

We saw another creepy raven at the canton. They’re really big out here and they caw like in the movies when people are walking in the woods or something.

The only thing I could have done without was the brief thunderstorm we hit on the way back. The rain actually felt nice and refreshing after the hot, sunny ride to the canyon. I did NOT enjoy the crazy lightening bolts though. I kept telling Eddie to pull over and hide somewhere but all he seemed to hear was “drive faster”. We were completely dry by the time we got back to the bike dealership. It was a quick storm, but still scary.

Heading to dinner now.

After we rented the bike, (it took almost an hour to fill out all the paperwork) we picked up Route 66 again. We went and got another stamp on our passports at the Flagstaff Visitor’s Center.

From there, we got stuck at a train crossing for about 20 minutes. These trains out here are no joke! Once the train passed, we went to the Twin Arrows ruins. The two arrows (made of of telephone poles) are all that remain from the Twin Arrow Trading Post that closed in 1998. There’s quite a lot of stops along Route 66 that are just the remains of what once was.

We rode past Two Guns. Two Guns is an old ghost town. It used to be filled with businesses that serviced all of the travelers on Route 66, but closed down once the interstate (I-40) was built. Now it is nothing but piles of rubble.

At this point we knew we had to start heading up north to the Grand Canyon, but we were only 20 miles from the meteor crater so we figured we’d head there first. By now Eddie had gotten real comfortable with the motorcycle we rented so he was cool with riding wherever I wanted. This bike has a rockin radio/speaker system, comfy seats and gps.

The meteor crater is a completely preserved meteor impact site. It’s about 550 feet deep and roughly a mile in diameter. It was totally worth stopping to see. Plus we got to see a large, creepy raven on the roof of the building.

Since we stopped at the meteor crater, we had to drive straight through (2 hours) to the Grand Canyon. The bike we rented had to be returned by 5pm when the place closes or we’d have to keep it overnight, stay another night in Flagstaff and bring it back in the morning. We have other plans for the night so we’re working to get the bike back by 5pm.

Next up, another large hole in the ground. 🤣😂 Stay tuned.

We are currently in Flagstaff, AZ renting a motorcycle that we’ll be riding for the day. The plan is to hit a few places on Route 66 (since we’ve reconnected with that path) and ride up to the Grand Canyon.

We are renting a 2018 Harley Davidson Electra-Glide for the day. I am super excited because it has a full dress with a comfy seat for my butt, armrests for my arms and saddlebags and a trunk for all my stuff! The Harleys that Eddie own don’t even have a seat for me and I have to bring a gel butt pad to sit on when we ride. I’m looking forward to a comfortable ride with breathtaking views.

We have to bring the bike back at 5:00pm pst (8:00pm in CT) so I won’t be posting much, if at all, until later tonight.