Bee Gees Tribute Band

For our last evening and show on the strip we chose the Australian Bee Gees.  This show has gotten rave reviews by all the critics in Vegas. 

Once again we were not disappointed.  These guys did all the Bee Gee's hits.  As part of the show they asked everyone to cheer when their country came up on the video monitor.  We were amazed that the majority of the audience were foreigners.  There was a large group of Canadians up front, Brits behind us and we sat with couple from Australia.







Without a doubt the best entertainer in the group was the individual to the right.  He sounded exactly like Barry Gibb, the only Bee Gee still alive.  He also had his mannerisms besides looking a lot like him.

Vegas Strip Evening

It's Friday evening and the Vegas Strip is really hopping. Earlier in the week when we drove in for the evening, it was quite easy to find a parking spot, but not on the weekends.  The whole town is packed, the slot machines are humming with all the people visiting for the weekend.  Tip:  Don't visit Vegas on a weekend.




Earlier in the week we bought tickets for another couple of shows.  As Kathy said, we'll probably not be back.  For this evening we picked "The Bronx Wanderers".  It's a family group founded by Vinney Avinolfi, who worked with Dion and the Belmonts as they were getting their start in the Bronx, home of other greats such as Frankie Valli and Bobby Darin to name a few.




Here is Vinney's son Vinney who plays with a number of top groups when they come to Vegas.  He's an amazing artist who plays multiple instruments and can sing just about any one's music including Bruno Mars.  These guys sound better than the artists who originally performed many of the hits in the 60's and early 70's.

The show at Ballys, lasted almost 2 hours and wrapped up with standing ovations from the audience.  Following each of the shows we've attended thus far, the entertainers came out to meet with the attendees to sign autographs and take pictures.












Following the show we headed to the Bellagio to watch the dancing fountains choreographed to  upbeat music.  The shows last for about 10 minutes and vary throughout the day

The Bellagio is also know for it's displays in the Conservatory that change seasonally.  This Falls display was animals with a fairy tale theme.

With the evening winding down we exchanged picture taking tasks with a another couple who were also enjoying the view.

Time to head home in our rental Ferrari.

Hoover Dam

This morning we headed to Hoover Dam.  It's construction began in 1930 and was completed in 1935, 2 years ahead of schedule.  Over 21,000 men work on the construction of the Dam, as many as 5,200 per day.  They were paid an hourly wage of 50 cents to $1.25.  There were 96 construction related deaths.  Some 4.3 million cubic yards of concrete were used to build the dam.   That's enough to pave an 8 inch thick, 16 feet wide, highway from New York to San Francisco.





Here we're looking at 2 of the 4 intake towers that take water in from Lake Mead supplied by the Colorado River.  It powers 17 turbines that provide the power to over 1.7 million homes.

Our tour began deep down in the dam where 4 diversion tunnels were dug to divert the water around the dam construction site.  The drawing on this display shows the path of the water during and after construction.

The water drops over 500 feet to propel the turbine generators.

Here's a picture of five of the turbine generators at the base of the dam.  In 1939 the government learned of a pair of Nazi
agents' scheme to bomb the dam to destroy its power generation capacity.  Their ploy was discovered and shut down.

Throughout the dam there is a series of tunnels and stairs  as well as several small elevators that today are used for tours and equipment movement.







Kathy is standing at the end of one of the intake tunnels that  is used to supply air throughout the interior of the dam.

These tunnels are not very high.  Anyone over 6 ft. had better duck.

To the left is the new Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Bridge that was constructed in 2010 to replace Route 93 that went across the dam.  It relieved a lot of traffic jams across the dam and afforded visitors of the dam more access. This bridge was the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the United States and incorporates the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. 

A Cool Morning for Biking

We decided last evening that we needed to get some exercise this morning.  With the morning temps in the high 60's, we headed for the Sunrise Trail.  It runs about 14 miles out into the desert where is crosses a small river and leads you to the Westin Resort and Spa at Lake Las Vegas.

As you can see here, it's a nicely paved trail that winds back and forth and has a number of short but steep inclines.  About 8 miles into the ride we started climbing into the foot hills towards Lake Las Vegas.  Here is were it started getting difficult for us seniors.  Two of the hills were so steep that we hardly made it to the top.  Upon reaching the bridge over the river, we decided to turn back.  Kathy was getting low on water and the temps had quickly risen to the upper 80's.  All in all it was a good ride and we now have more respect for the heat of the dessert.

So now it was time to cool down at the pool.  Kathy did a few laps while I laid low in the cool water.








This evening we headed to the Vegas Strip to see the sites and enjoy a dinner at Robert Irvine's.  Our son Ryan recommended this restaurant as it is a favorite of his each year he visits.  The service was excellent and the food was delicious.  Afterwards we walked around the strip and gazed at these unbelievable resorts.

Of course a trip to Vegas isn't complete until you take in the Fremont Experience.  The Fremont Experience is the closed off section of Fremont Street in the old downtown area.  It's filled with casinos, bars, restaurants and entertainment venues.

On to Vegas

The drive to Las Vegas from St. George was quite interesting as we drove through several connecting canyons and descended from 5,000 ft. to 2,000 ft.  We encountered at least 3 long and steep hills that ranged from a 5-7% grade.  The 5% are no big deal, but when you get to 7% and over you have to start out fairly slow at the top so you don't pick to much speed.

Even though we're in the mountains, it's mostly desert until you get closer to Vegas where they irrigate the fields to grow crops.

 As we descended to the valley and Las Vegas and we saw the smog in the air, we almost wondered if we wanted to head back to the mountains.  Part of the problem stems from the nearby fires.










Thanks to my son Ryan, we received free tickets to see Rich Little preforming at The Tropicana Laugh Factory this evening.  Ryan holds his DJ convention here each year in March.

Rich Little turned 80 this year but you wouldn't know it when you see him perform.  He did over 30 impersonations this evening.  My favorites were, John Wayne, Ronald Reagan and Johnny Carson.

A New Muffler for the Old Gal

My new muffler arrived bright and early this Monday morning.  John, the owner of City Wide Muffler for 46 years says he's installed a lot of mufflers on motorhomes but none like mine.  I'm not sure whether that was a compliment or a complaint.  In any case it only took him about 2 hours and we were set to go.

We decided at lunch we're going to head for Las Vegas for a little R&R from all the hiking over the last several weeks.  Since it's afternoon and about 300 miles to Vegas, we're going to stop in St. George, Utah for the evening and finish the rest tomorrow.

Bryce Canyon

After an 1 1/2 hour drive from Cedar City we arrived at one of the most beautiful National Parks in the country, Bryce Canyon.  With our change in plans we were not able to find a campground in the immediate area.













It's an absolutely stunning park.  Unlike Zion where you are on the canyon floor looking up, here you view the park from the top looking down.  This means we were at a higher altitude of about 8,000 ft. which was much cooler during the day, mid 70's.









All the views and pull offs are to the east, so we chose to drive to the south end of the park to begin  our tour. On our way to Rainbow Point we saw a couple of areas where fires in previous year had destroyed much of the vegetation.

The bundle of trees stacked into a tepee to the right are fire debris that can be burned at a later date to reduce fuel for fires that may occur in the future.

This is Rainbow Point, the southern most part of the park. The smoke you see in the background is that of a wildfire that began a week ago.  There are no plans at this point to put it out, but to let it continue to burn under their control.  It's about 5 miles from us.  Years ago they attempted to put out every fire.  Today they believe controlled fires help to rejuvenate the forest.








Our next stop was Ponderosa Canyon where we hiked back a trail through the woods to this overlook.  Most of these trails are quite easy trails, however there are other trails with dangerous switchbacks that go down deep into the canyon.

Natural Bridge was one of our favorites views.

And here is Swamp Canyon.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see that there are trails down below.  As a matter of fact you can hike nearly the entire bottom of the canyon.

Kathy and I used Inspiration Point as the stating point of our hike along the rim to Bryce Point.  It was several miles of hiking along the rim with several climbs and descents.














There were a couple of sections like the one to the right where there was a drop off on both sides of the trail.  Kathy was a little apprehensive as we hiked along it.  All I heard her say was "don't stop".
















Of course I had to stop for a picture when I saw the drop off on the left side of the trail.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but if you started to slide here you wouldn't stop until the bottom, a thousand feet below.

As we began our assent to Bryce point we came across this neat old Juniper with it's root system exposed.  In the background is Bryce Point.












Okay, here's a better picture of Bryce Point.  It's one the more popular view points for tourists.  There were a number of tour buses unloading in the parking lot about a 1/4 mile away.  The ranges were turning away cars because the lot was full.











I mentioned earlier that you could hike to the bottom of the canyon.  Here we're at Sunset point, probably the most popular overlook in the park.  You'll notice that Kathy was hugging the inside portion of the hill as we descended into the canyon.













Here we are at the bottom of the canyon looking up at the spires.  There really quit beautiful looking up but I think I like looking down from the top better.

Here's a small but rather pretty waterfall we came across during our hike at the bottom of the canyon.
Later in our hike back I stopped to soak my tired feet in the cooooold water.

On the drive out of the park we came across two of these arches that we believed where cut through the stone to allow cars to pass through.