Las Vegas

We were in Las Vegas with Bill and Karen. We stay at the Thousand Trails Park on Boulder Blvd. The guys played pool their favorite place being Best Billiards. Tonight we were watching Max play.

We went downtown to Fremont Street and had a great time watching people and walking through the different old casinos.

Bill & Karen with Dave who his staying with his son and family here in Vegas.

We went to 2 shows Fantasy and Rock of Ages. Dave’s daughter-in-law Yessie stars in Fantasy and Troy his son stars in Rock of Ages.

Fantasy plays at the Venetian. Both of the shows were outstanding.

We found out there is a Wetlands area in Henderson so we took a morning and drove out there to look it over. We drove around the area with one of the rangers.

She directed us to the new Wetlands Visitor Center which was wonderful.

Many interesting displays.

Many great photo ops

I took an afternoon and joined my nephew Dylan and his friend Jamie on a hike at the Red Rock State Park. He took us up Ice Box Canyon. The trail and climb was amazing. We didn’t get clear to the box canyon because of the sun going down.

Some of the rocks we climbed over.

Jamie and Dylan

On our way down.

We are in the shadows.

Another trip we drove up to Mesquite to visit with Linda and Larry at their condo. Had great Bloody Mary’s by the pool and she fixed a wonderful lunch.

This is the view from their place.

We had so much fun in Las Vegas we are going back this October for 3 weeks.

Vasquez Rocks 4/2013

The last time we visited this park the trails were closed because they were filming a commercial. They have built a visitor center since that last time.

We took the geology trail first.

Very interesting rock formations.

Large parking area with easy excess to to the trails and rock climbing.

Dick climbed this rock formation for his action shot. A giants wine goblet.

My action shot, well all right not much action crouching in this overhang. Good place to head for cover if it rains.

And it looks like it could rain at any time.

The rain held off until we got back to the car.

We had a fun day.

Next stop Las Vegas.

Sun City AZ

We stopped here on our way back to Indio, CA to visit with Al & Doris good friends we met years ago when we were just starting out. We stayed at the Paradise RV Park in Sun City. It is an Encore park well laid out and really very nice. Al came over and helped Dick get the connection from the motorhome and our car wired correctly so now we have lights when we tow.

We joined Al & Doris for a concert in the park and a picnic. The Navy Band Sea Chanters is the US Navy Band’s official chorus. They performed a variety of music ranging from traditional choral music, including sea chanteys and patriotic music to opera, Broadway, and contemporary music. 

Doris and I.

When the sun went down it turned cool I was glad I grabbed the blanket from the car.

It was one of the best concerts we have been to.

The next day we drove over to their home and Doris fixed a great lunch and then off we went to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. The museum was founded by Robert Ulrich former CEO and Chairman of the Target Corporation. The collection includes over 15,000 instruments from nearly 200 countries and territory's and the largest museum of its type in the world.

The Teak sandstone on the exterior was imported from India.

We entered not knowing what to expect, we picked up wireless headsets and a map and were told that there would be a demonstration of the the Decap Organ in the Mechanical Music Gallery which features instruments that play on their own.

When you walked up to a display or a monitor your headset would come on and you would hear an explanation of what you were viewing or the music from the instrument. Where it came from or how it was made.

They have a Conservation Lab and you can watch them work on instruments that are being restored.

The Artists Gallery featured instruments, video concert footage, photographs, performance outfits, and other items linked to world renowned musicians and music innovators. Each small area or stage would have a song from the artist or a video of the concert.

Also on the ground level they have the Experience Gallery the most unique gallery I have seen. You can actually play what ever instrument that is here.

Al trying out this instrument

And we all had fun with this one.

Doris with her turn

I had fun on this one.

Dick with his friend.

They had guitars, ukuleles and other instruments that you could play.

The upper level housed the Geographical Galleries, musical instruments and music from all the countries in the world. The videos were of musicians playing songs from that country and in some cases using the instruments that came from that country. 

Ireland.

England.

The last gallery was titled Special Displays highlighting iconic American manufacturers. Martin Trumpets.

Steinway & Sons, D’Addario & Co and of course Fender Musical Instruments.

We did not have the time to stop and look at everything and listen to all of the videos so another trip to the Musical Instrument Museum will have to be planned when we are again in the neighborhood.

Mesilla, NM

We got a recommendation from a friend about this town very near Las Cruces and in my plans for heading back to CA I found my notes from them and decided we needed to spend 2 days and visit this town and eat lunch at La Posta which came highly recommended.

We got a very early start from Fort Stockton and when the sun came up it was gorgeous.

Mesilla is a very old quaint town. Soldiers raised the US flag in this plaza 11/16/ 1854 marking the signing of the Gadsden Purchase.

The Butterfield Overland Trail came through here 1858 – 1861 it was the forerunner for the Pony Express. They were going to bring the railroad through here but the town didn’t want it so Las Cruces became the more important city and this town remained the quiet little town.

Lunch at La Posta was excellent. The restaurant is laid out in small rooms each decorated a little bit different.

The salsa was the best we have ever had and we ended up buying some to bring home.  

We had a great day in Mesilla so if you are ever in Las Cruces take a little time and visit here you won’t regret it.

Texas and Back

Nacogdoches is a very pretty town, a college town with the Sam Houston State University in the center of it. The Visitor Center is downtown on Main Street.

 

Thomas Rusk Statue.

A new sculpture was dedicated while we were here.

On Valentines day we took off and drove up to Kilgore and toured the East Texas Oil Museum

Interesting layout in the museum. Old trucks,

old cars,

Step into a full-scale town of stores, people, animals, and machinery.

We stopped in at the General Store went to the Drugstore where they have this juke box.

Rutted streets

At the Barbershop you can listen to the news of a new gusher.

There is a theatre where you can watch historical footage of the boom period and what it feels like when you get a blowout gusher. We took an “elevator ride to the center of the earth to where the oil deposits lie”.

Mural of a city block in town that was wall to wall oil rigs.

Today that city block is a park with the replicas of some of the oil rigs.

We left Nacogdoches on Friday 2/22 for Temple TX and the Elks Club. From Temple we took Highway 190 to I-10 near Fort Stockton. No traffic on Saturday nice highway and interesting to be driving across Texas and seeing something other than trucks and freeway. We stayed the night in Fort Stockton at the Eagles.

Next stop Las Cruces, NM