Day 28: Hoover Dam & Las Vegas

We woke up today to the sounds of rumbling engines and a terrible car show announcer. It was a quick morning, we packed up easily and set our sights on Las Vegas. We were pretty far out in the sticks at this KOA, so we were expecting a very small car show. We were wrong. There were so many cars they had a hard time getting them all in the place! Erin had said prior I should enter the bike in the show. I bet I would have been stuck in the rat rod category it was so dirty! On the way onto the interstate we stopped to get gas but headed to the next one when the first was going to charge us extra to use our credit card...

The whole trip to Vegas was freeway and Interstate, and it was HOT but uneventful. About halfway we stopped for gas and lunch at Arby's (just the lunch, Arby's doesn't sell gas). While pumping there came some big trucks into the station that had been out in the desert playing around. Some were pretty wrecked. All had a Monster Energy Drink sponsor logo on them. Eventually we got into Vegas and got to our hotel. We stayed at the Paris Hotel right on the strip across the street from the Bellagio. The whole hotel was Paris themed. Walking in the hotel was supposed to be like walking down the streets in Paris or something. When we got there I went straight to the parking garage, but Erin made me go back to the front and drop her off so she could check in while I parked the bike. Good thing too, because she had just gotten to the counter by the time I had parked the bike, unhitched & chained up the trailer, and gotten all our stuff. She estimated 50-75 people in line when she got in line. Our room was on the 25th floor and overlooked another parking garage, but it was nice with a tub and a shower (not in one, two separate things!) We somewhat settled in then headed back out to see the Hoover Dam before it got dark. We had chained the trailer to a pillar in the parking garage so we didn't have to tow it. On our way we decided that we had just enough time to go to the Las Vegas Harley Davidson dealer before they closed at 5pm. Just enough time means 20 minutes. We went in and did some hard shopping in those twenty minutes getting us each two shirts and a lot of gifts for other people too (but I can't tell you who because then they wouldn't be a surprise and that's just no fun). The dealer saw my Leathernecks shirt and said that I get 10% regular priced merchandise too for being a veteran. Most Harley places don't do that.

It was a quick drive to the Hoover Dam. We got to drive across the dam with no traffic, which we were worried about before coming. It is kind of weird driving on it after seeing the dam in pictures and documentaries. Up close, it doesn't seem as big as it should be, or at least it's not as wide as it seems to be. We drove across to the Arizona side and parked for some pictures of the reservoir side of the dam. (Note Erin's finger in the upper right, not exactly Ansel Adams...)

 

We then went back to Nevada and went into the parking garage to go to the visitors center. Right as we parked an attendant came over to tell us that the visitor's center was already closed and that we would still have to pay to park and all we could do is walk on the dam; he said we should go to the bridge to view the whole dam and to walk on it because you can't see the dam if you drive on it. We were more interested in riding across the dam than walking on it and really had come to see the visitor's center but since we couldn't we just moved on to the bridge. It was nice of him to tell us that. The bridge is fairly new and is in memory of Pat Tillman and someone else. It is part of Hwy 93 and keeps more traffic off of the dam, which was previously the only way to get into AZ from that area. It was a short hike but totally worth it.

 (It was too windy and he needed some assistance)

 We texted this to our mom's. My mom said we looked very happy and brown!

We went back to our hotel and enjoyed a wonderfully hot shower before trying to hit the town. It was late and we needed to eat. But our first stop was to get wristbands:

To the hottest nightclub? No... To VIP access to all the Vegas shows? No...

To the buffets. Yes, All-You-Can-Eat blissfulness at any of 6 buffets in Vegas at any time during a 24 hour period. We had one primary goal in Vegas...buffets. We don't gamble. We just don't. The only time we hit the casino floor was to find the door to outside. We do eat. A lot. A whole lot. A whole lot of the time. Buffets were our hot ticket.

Most buffets closed at 10pm and at 9pm we went to the buffet in our hotel (which was supposed to be one of the best) and got our wristbands and chowed down. Now everything was Parisian, but it was all delicious. They even had that whole crab-leg thing that people go crazy for:

Erin was certain hers came from the Northwestern or Time Bandit (if you're not familiar, our favorite show is Deadliest Catch about crab fishing in the Bering Sea and those are two of our more favorite boats). We also enjoyed made-to-order crepes and great fish and prime rib. We got some frozen custard on our way out...sorry, as we rolled our huge full bodies out onto the mock streets of Paris.

We made it onto the strip and just walked around, taking in the sights. As we walked past the Bellagio their fountain went off in time to Frank Sinatra's Luck be a Lady. We went into Caesar's Palace and just walked around.

Can you tell we're tired?

We went back to the hotel and went to check out the pool. We were thinking about swimming but it was closed so we went back to the room, took ANOTHER hot, wonderful shower and CRASHED out in the big glorious plush bed. 

Today we traveled 330.4 miles for a total of 8010.0 miles across America.