It’s been a busy few days since my last post.  I’ll try to get caught up here.

We found a (somewhat) quiet corner of the truck stop in Barstow for Thursday evening as I mentioned in my last blog post.  Here’s a picture I took Friday morning before we headed on up I-15 to Las Vegas.

About 150 miles later we passed the Welcome to Nevada sign:

We found a RV park by using the “Points of Interest” option on the Rand McNally GPS.  Of course, I researched it quickly on the internet to validate it’s authenticity.  It was a very reasonable $20 per night.

We ended up at the Main Street Station Casino, Brewery, Hotel & RV Park near the famous (or infamous) Fremont Street.  That’s on the North side of Las Vegas.  I called ahead to confirm a spot and they assigned me to site 200… and what are the odds – we were parked right next to another Alpine Coach!  With only ~1,400 Coaches ever built between the years 1999 and 2009, that’s a somewhat rare occurrence.  Unfortunately, we never got to meet the owners in the two days we were there.  They were always seemed to be out and about at the times we were in the park.

It wasn’t long after we arrived that we were met by my brother Steve, his long-time girlfriend Cheryl along with my Mom and Stepdad in their chauffeured Escalade.  They have a time-share of sorts with Wyndham Resorts which is where they were staying.  The limousine service is courtesy of the resort.

They took us to Caesars Palace to enjoy the Bacchanal Buffet.

The food was excellent albeit rather expensive.  All the dishes are prepared by Chef’s.  Here’s a link to learn more if interested: http://www.caesarspalace.com/restaurants/bacchanal-buffet.html#.VCorPUtGGQc

 And then we  supported the local economy by playing the slots.

Here’s an indication of how our evening went… notice that the “7’s” aren’t on the payline 🙁

Here’s my beautiful Ma and wonderful stepdad!  Love ya mom & Jimmy.

Obligatory picture of one of the Las Vegas signs.

We spent the rest of the evening touring the Fremont Street Experience.  For those of you that have never been, here’s a link: http://vegasexperience.com

The light show is pretty cool.

And there were lots of characters walking the street… many of whom I couldn’t post to this blog in order to maintain something less than an “R” rating.

This is the zip-line that runs above the street.  You can see some people getting ready to go in the second picture below.

These folks got stuck and had to be rescued.

We ended up at the Heart Attack Grill, http://www.heartattackgrill.com for a late night “light” snack 🙂

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to my Mom, Stepdad, Steve & Cheryl after a hearty breakfast at the Plaza Hotel’s Hash-a-go-go http://www.plazahotelcasino.com/dining/hash_house_a_go_go  They have to get back home to Las Cruces to go on diets 🙂

After breakfast and goodbye hugs… Stilla and I then spent the rest of our Saturday checking out a few local tourist attractions… the first was one of my favorite’s, the site of American Restoration.

The free guided tour through the shop was really neat, but they don’t allow photos inside because customers haven’t seen their finished restoration projects yet.

I pulled the truck up front for a photo-op.  Rick didn’t come out to offer to restore the Harley for me 🙁

I did get the T-Shirt at the gift shop though.

Next, we went by the site of Pawn Stars.  I honestly have only seen a few episodes… not one of my favorites, but it was cool to see.

This Elvis painting was for sale at some outrageous price.

We must have arrived at just the right time… there was quite a long line forming as we exited.  Must be a popular site, or a tour bus might have shown up.

Then I tracked down where Counting Cars is filmed at Counts Kustoms http://www.countskustoms.com was located and we headed over there.  I bought the T-Shirt.

Stilla and I visited Fremont Street again to close out the evening and took in some of the street band music that plays in a few different spots along the covered street.

On Sunday, we hit the road again for Saint George Utah.

We continued on I-15 and went through the corner of Arizona after leaving Nevada.

It had clearly rained the day prior as evidenced by the very soggy desert.

Interstate 15 passes through a pretty cool canyon at one point.

And here’s the Saint George, UT Elk’s Lodge 1473.  Now this has to be the most scenic Lodge we’ve stayed at to date.  Travel distance for the day was around 120 miles.

We pretty much had the RV Park portion of the parking lot to ourselves.  Only two or three other rigs there.  We heard that we just missed a busy weekend, the lot was full this morning.

Here’s a couple pics of the lodge.

The view from their deck.

And this was our spot below the cliffs.  It’s only $15.  Electric hook-up only.  Wish we could stay here longer, but son William is due in from Germany on the 5th of October, so we have to be back in Colorado Springs.  Also, we have a small problem with the rent – we haven’t gotten any for the last month or so…

Til next time… stay tuned.