| Las Vegas, Death Valley, Manzanar, Big Trees, Big Money July 12, 2001 to July 20, 2001 Trip Photos This is another one of my solo father/son trips that we have been doing for the last few years. Austin was 18 at the time and I turned 44 during the trip which was quite handy as I will relate later. Thursday Left Rochester on time via American Airlines at 9:45 AM. I like American because they have instituted a more leg room configuration on most of their aircraft. Believe me if you have flown at all you appreciate this especially on a relatively long flight. Our flight was uneventful and connected through Chicago. I don’t like connecting through Chicago anytime but especially in the summer as the slightest weather hiccup can cause many problems when you have that many flights flying into one location. But Lady Luck as I will describe later in this report started shining on me very early this trip. We arrived in Las Vegas at 1:11 PM and took the Alamo shuttle over to get our Chevy Blazer ($312.65 for 8 days). The line was fairly short for Alamo so we only had to wait about twenty minutes. I have since switched to Dollar for my car rentals because they are first cheaper and much quicker as long as you have Fastlane. We were staying at the Suncoast this trip for the first time. And since I didn’t have any gambling history with them I had to (yes, it’s true) pay a deposit for my rooms. Oh the shame! But it wasn’t too bad at $59 a night and I couldn’t blame them for not just trusting me on my gambling habits so there you go. Check in was smooth as the Suncoast always is. The rest of the day was just resting and gambling for me and video games and pay per view movies for Austin. I had one nice gambling win for $1,000 on a dollar deuces wild video poker machine. Friday Today’s adventure was to rent wave runners for the first time in either of our lives. We headed out to the Lake Mead Marina at Lake Mead. I had reserved two wave runners via email and phone previously. I can’t remember exactly what they cost but let’s say they were in the $200 for 2 hour range all together. Now Austin and I aren’t exactly dark skinned. Our natural state is looking like we were washed up on some river bank. If you are familiar with Lake Mead and southern Nevada you know that the UV factor is just a step or two below the surface of the sun. So knowing this we are putting 45 SPF sun block on before getting the wave runners. As we are doing this two concerned boaters come back and see Austin and say, “Guys, make sure you put plenty of sun block on. It’s pretty bright out there.” As I said we were already doing that and didn’t have too much of a problem other than it of course being very bright. Riding a wave runner is an absolute hoot. When I first stared out and opened it up it was scary how fast the water was going by. I remember thinking, “What would happen if I fell off this thing.” I don’t know but I do know that you should avoid finding out. We had a lot of fun racing and fooling around. Austin had received the wave runner with the slightly larger engine so he routinely beat me but then again doesn’t the young lion always end of beating the old lion. It is just my place to guide this lion in the ways of the world. Saturday We spend the day today running around and visiting casinos and using coupons that I had through my membership in the Las Vegas Advisor . For the on line version membership costs $37 per year. If you watch any Vegas shows on the Travel Channel I am sure you have seen its publisher, Anthony Curtis. Membership gives you access to its monthly issues as well as to its forum pages. I link the forum pages and in particular the trip reports. You also receive a coupon book called the Pocketful of Values each year. We used a lot of these coupons that related to riding/attractions today. We rode the roller coasters at the Primm Casino (very jerky, hurt my neck), NYNY (nice) and the Sahara (very cool, but very short). While we were there we also road the racing attraction at the Sahara. We used buy one get one free coupons on all of these rides. We also, once again, road the Big Shot at the Stratosphere. The Big Shot is the absolute best amusement ride that either of us has ever ridden. It sits on top of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. You sit with your back to the center pillar and then it shoots you up 100 feet or so up the column and bounces a couple of times before it comes back down. The cool or terrifying thing depending on your outlook is that when it initially shoots you up you can’t see anything below you but the ground. It looks and feels like you are suspended a 1,000 feet up in a small plastic seat! I challenge you to avoid involuntarily gripping the harness holding you in. Sunday Today we end Phase One of the vacation trip and move to Phase Two. We are off traveling! First stop is Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley National Park. Now, believe it or not Austin and I have been here a total of three times. As you may have gathered I love the Southwest. It isn’t just one thing but a combination of its beauty, history, weather and attractions. Scotty’s Castle is one of those quirky stories of America that I just love. Only in America could you have a millionaire build a mansion in the remote desert because he liked to hear the stories told by an old prospector names Scotty. Once again we drove the 100 or so miles to Scotty’s Castle and took the tour and then proceeded to drive across Death Valley with our next destination at Lone Pine, California where we would stay the night. There is one thing that you can count on in Death Valley in July and that is heat. As we drove across the valley the car showed the outside temperature at 117°. As we pulled out of the valley on the other side there was a pull off where you can see the stark beauty of the valley. I took several pictures, it was awesome. Now where was my son during this display of nature’s greatness? If you have read any of my other trips reports you can guess. He was sleeping. There is something about Austin and a car that I don’t think that he will shake off. When he is in a car that’s moving and he isn’t the driver he sleeps all of the time. We all enjoy our vacation in our own way and I guess this is one of Austin’s ways. We continued on our way to Lone Pine, California in the Owen’s Valley. We were staying at the Dow Villa Motel in Lone Pine and checked in without a problem. Lone Pine is a very small town and the hotel is located right on the highway, Route 395. After checking in at the hotel we drove north on the highway to the Manzanar Relocation Camp . At this spot during WWII at its peak a population of 10,200 United States citizens and Japanese detainees were housed here. Such was the fear of a Japanese attack on the West Coast and of spying and sabotage that an executive order was issued by Franklin Roosevelt to round them up. This order was upheld by the Supreme Court. If you are a student of history you will also know that the Supreme Court also upheld slavery. Now here we are in a modern time and United States citizens are being imprisoned because of their ancestry. Also please remember that a similar fate didn’t befall United States citizens of German or Italian heritage. Don’t ever take your freedom for granted. You must fight for it all the time. These people were imprisoned despite the Constitution. Sorry, but I get very worked up when I come across things like this. After spending an hour or so at the camp when then headed back to Lone Pine. We had some time to kill (is this a full day or what) so we went golfing at the Mt. Whitney Golf Club. Austin and I aren’t going to quit our day jobs for golfing but it was a lot of fun in a beautiful setting with Mt. Whitney in the background. I ended up losing all of my balls by the 17th hold and we had to share a ball on the last hole. Monday Today is July 16th which is the 44th anniversary of my birth. This fact will come in handy later on today. We are on our way to Sequoia National Park. When I was planning this trip I tried to figure out the easiest way to Sequoia National Park from Lone Pine. I came to find out that there isn’ t an easy way. It is one of those classic “you can get there from here” stories. I ended up meandering my way through the mountains south of Sequoia National Park (with Austin sleeping of course) and then finally getting on the road to the main entrance to the park. At this point having my birthday today came in handy. We were traveling down the road to the main entrance to the park and anxious to get there and I may have been somewhat exceeding the posted speed limit. Well, sure enough a California Highway Patrol car comes by me traveling in the opposite direction. I look down at the speedometer and then in the rear view mirror just in time to see him stopping to turn around. I have to say I was embarrassed getting pulled over with my son beside me. The officer comes up and asks for my license and the rental agreement. I waited of course fully expecting a ticket but then he looks at my license and then looks up at me and says, “I guess I can’t give you a ticket on your birthday.” I had forgotten about my birthday but was certainly grateful for his generosity. We arrived at the gate and I paid the fee. Now I always buy a National Park Pass, both as a convenience and to give a little bit back to the Park Service. When then drove up through the park to the Wuksachi Lodge where we would be staying the night. Along the way we stopped to explore some of the trees including the General Sherman tree which is the largest tree in the world by bulk. I have to say however, that despite how beautiful the area was and the trees certainly were large it wasn’t quite what I expected. The trees here are extremely large around and tall but not immensely tall, I have seen pictures and movies of the redwoods on the California coast and they are the tallest trees in the world and fit more into my picture of big trees. We checked in at the expensive Wuksachi Lodge ($189 plus tax, but what do you expect in July?) and wandered around. At the lodge the attendant made it very clear regarding proper bear procedure. Austin treated me to dinner that night for my birthday and it was a lot of fun. Before going to dinner I had to drag Austin away from his phone call to his girlfriend, Jen, back in Rochester. Before we left Austin bought a 1,000 phone card at Sam’s Club and before we returned home he had used every minute of those 1,000 talking to Jen. As you might imagine we were very tired after our adventure filled day and went to bed very early. Now the problem with that for me is that I will sleep for a finite number of hours regardless of how tired I am. If I go to bed early I will only get up early. Early this morning translated to getting up and not being able to go back to sleep at 2:30 AM. Since we had a very long drive back to Vegas in store for us I said what the heck let’s get going. I took a shower and got dressed. I then dragged Austin out of bed and he started showering. I then took some of the luggage out to the car. There was no moon that night and it was dark, dark dark. Not a single light in the parking lot. So imagine this scene, I am wandering out through the pitch black looking for our car while all the time I am thinking about all the bear warnings I have heard today. So I get the idea to use the night vision part of my Sony camcorder to see the way. And actually it worked pretty well. I also was filming while I was walking because I wanted a record for my family to enjoy of the bear attacking me in case I didn’t make it. At least they would be able to sell it to “Animals Gone Wild, Part 15” and make a few bucks. Well, sorry guys but I made it. We stopped by to check out and leave the key and I got the impression that the night clerk didn’t see too many people checking out at 3 AM. He looked at me, then looked at the clock and then looked back at me as I said, “Just dropping off the key”. He asked me if everything was all right. Not the normal is everything all right that every service worker should ask you but a real concerned, “Is every thing all right?” I said fine and thanks. On the way back down the mountain to the main road we saw a deer standing immediately beside the road and got a chance to stop and take a picture of him/her. Tuesday It takes at least an hour to get from the lodge to the main entrance gate but of course eventually you get there. As I also wrote earlier there aren’t really any direct routes to Sequoia so you go along some highways and byways until you eventually hit Rt. 99 through the valley. We hit Bakersfield and then traveled across some mountains towards Edwards Air Force base. As we were crossing the mountains we came across the first large windmill farm that I have ever seen. There was hundreds of very large electricity generating windmills along this pass the highway was taking. In the community of environmentally aware citizens, which I consider myself in, there is a lot of thought going on about windmills. On one side they are ugly. And usually the best places for them are on the tops of mountains or ridges which usually mean wilderness areas. But on the other side they are clean energy. No coal or oil fired power plants polluting the skies and getting us involved in areas of the world we shouldn’ t have to. I personally think the good outweighs the bad in this particular issue. The next part of the trip until we got back to Las Vegas is pretty boring. Mile after mile of desert as we wound are way past Edwards Air Force base (no shuttles landing today, darn) and then connected to the interstate at Barstow, California and eventually we found ourselves back at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino. Now before I left the hotel I talked to the casino host, Donna Sinclair and asked if it was possible to get perhaps a small suite when we came back. Well, she delivered and more. As we walked down the hallway to our room we kept looking for our room number and back the time we got to the end of the hall we realized it was behind a pair of double doors at the end of the hallway. Now if you have ever stayed in a suite before you realize that having a room behind a set of double doors is normally a very good thing. This suite was amazing. It was the largest suite I have ever been in. It included a great view of the strip as well as a huge living room with wet bar and two baths including a very large whirlpool tub. Now I like to gamble, on this trip playing $1 video poker but this room seemed much beyond that. It was great. The only bad thing now happening to me is that I started to feel a little under the weather which would get progressively worse to the end of the trip. But some good things would happen that would make me almost forget my misery. After checking in and getting something to eat Austin and I split up. I went to the bar to play some video poker and Austin to the game room and then to the hotel room to go on line and also watch a pay per view movie. I have a deal with Austin that when we are on our big vacation together he can watch one pay per view movie a day on my nickel. He usually ends up seeing everything he wants to see. So as I sat down at the bar I decided what the heck I would play $2 video poker for awhile since I was already up $1,000 or so and was feeling good about the room, the vacation and well, everything. So I decided to play for just a bit. $2 video poker translates into $10 bet per hand. I play at probably 800+ hands per hour so you can see I would put $8,000 per hour into the machine. Now before you fall off your chair, I am not losing $8,000 per hour. You certainly have wins during that time but playing $2 video poker for an hour and having a losing streak which very often happens you could easily lose $2,000 or more which was much, much more than I was willing to lose. As fate happens that was not to occur. Not fifteen minutes I drew two deuces and then pulled two more for four deuces. As I am playing deuces wild video poker that pays 1,000 credits or $2,000! I proceed to ask for a check to make sure I take this one home. It was a very good end to a very good day. Wednesday Today is a bit of an exciting day. Austin and I are going sky diving! However, it started early for me as I always get up early in Las Vegas. I was feeling progressively worse so rather than toss and turn in the bed I decided to head on back down to the casino. After my luck on the $2 video poker machine I decided to scale it back a bit and play my normal $1 video poker. Things were going up and down when I pulled 3 cards to a royal flush. And you guessed it; I pulled the other two to complete the royal flush. Royal flushes pay 4,000 credits or in this case $4,000!! Man, life is good! I took this payout in a check also as I already had my $2,000 check and probably $2,000 in cash. Got paid and went outside to call the Mrs. and inform her of my latest good fortune. I then went back to the room and woke up Austin and showered him with some cash. After breakfast we headed out to Sky Dive Las Vegas for our adventure. Austin and I were going to sky dive for the first time. For beginning sky divers you jump in tandem with an instructor. It is not a cheap adventure as the price at the time was $199 each and I also ordered a $100 video/photo recording of Austin’s jump. We arrived and signed in and had a short orientation session on what to along with an instruction video. I would be lying to say that we weren’t apprehensive at all however in my pseudo-macho was the deal was sealed after I talked to a group of girls who had just finished a jump. After all, how could I not go when girls went? So Austin went first and survived and then I went. Up first in a rickety single engine plane and then the door opens at 12,000 feet. The cold air rushes as you and you shuffle over with your instructor close to the door. He instructs you to put your foot on the wing strut and lean out the door. This was the most scared I was during the whole event. But then soon he leans out and you tumble over a couple of times and then free fall for about 25 seconds and then float to the ground. After we rolled out of the plane I was no longer scared. It was now a lot of fun. As we descended my instructor wanted to know if I wanted to steer and of course I said yes. It was a lot of fun and despite the money I would do it again. That evening we had dinner with a co-worker of mine Dick Snow and his wife Francine. Dick was the manager of a location I oversaw in London, Ontario and is quite the character. We had dinner at the Via Veneto restaurant at the Suncoast and as they say a good time was had by all. Afterwards we took them up to show them the suite and they were suitably impressed. As is our custom Austin and I parted ways after I dosed myself with some Advil to kill the discomfort from the sore throat or flu or whatever malady I had. Back down to the video poker fun and again Lady Luck was smiling. I was again playing a $2 machine and again his four deuces for a $2,000 check. I am now holding a total of $8,000 in checks, I am on vacation in the west with my son, I like my job, love my wife and am in pretty good shape! Could life get any better? Well, at least as far as Vegas is concerned it can which you will hear about shortly. Thursday Today is the day before we are to leave to go home. Today I had planned to drag my son along with me on a tour of the Nevada Test site, as in the atomic bomb test site. Now isn’t that something any 18 year old would be thrilled to see? Eight hours in a bus touring the desert remains of nuked buildings and cars seemed very interesting to me but unfortunately it was not to be. If you are interested in this tour the Bechtel Nevada offers it once a month. But today I changed my plans. I was feeling bad, real bad and I just couldn’t see spending eight hours in a bus in my condition. So my plan was to do nothing at all today but I had promised Austin that I would take him to Game Works on the strip next to the MGM. We arrived there and I parked at NYNY and walked Austin over with him to Game Works. He asked me if I wanted to stay but I said I would go back over the NYNY and bide my time away with some video poker and a couple of beers to soothe my pain. So back across the bridge over Las Vegas Blvd. I went and settled down at a triple play video poker machine with a progressive jackpot for the Royal Flush. What all this techno speak means is that it plays three hands of video poker at once. Since this was a 25 cent machine that meant that a maximum coin bet (which you should always do) will cost $3.75 (15 x .25). Progressive jackpot means that a small percentage of each wager is added to the Royal Flush payout which continues going up until it is hit. Well, as you probably guessed I sat down and about twenty minutes later I hit the highest jackpot of the three possibilities at $1,527. I think I am a good video poker player and I have enough bankroll to play my selected denomination. But to hit these types of jackpots is just plain lucky. To give you some perspective on this the odds of hitting a Royal Flush are approximately once every 40,000 hands. I play at approximately 800 hands and hour therefore I should hit a Royal Flush about once every 50 playing hours. I probably played a total of 50 hours this trip and hit a total of three Royal Flushes and numerous four deuces. Once again it is proven that it is better to be lucky than good. Friday The trip home was uneventful. We had an early flight and arrived back in Rochester at 4:30 PM met at the airport by my lovely wife, Maggie. The bottom line money wise on the trip is that I brought home $10,000 more than I took. This was far and away my best trip for winnings and also one of my best vacation trips with my son. I keep thinking that as he gets older he isn’t going to want to continue on these vacations with his old Dad but each year there he is and I am certainly glad. He is a good kid. |
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| Las Vegas, Death Valley, Manzanar, Big Trees, Big Money July 12, 2001 to July 20, 2001 |
