Vegas & Death Valley

(Click photos to enlarge. Click on video to play in the blog or double click to play in youtube)

(Additional Photos Click Here)

Not a fan of Vegas. I don’t gamble, much. I don’t drink, much. And it’s tough just to get around. After 3 1/2 days I am ready to get outta town.

It was an easy flight, an 8:30am flight, with a four hour layover in Salt Lake. Probably the luckiest thing happened in SLC. I got a standby seat on an earlier flight. Instead of four hours it was only 50 minutes in SLC. Another reason to carry-on your luggage.

The room at Hooters Hotel and Casino was only $35 a night and that's about what it was worth. The bed was comfortable, but, like it's motto, the decor was delightfully tacky, yet unrefined. The whole hotel had a rundown feel and look to it. On check-out I got a surprise. There was a $7.50 per night resort fee for use of the facilities. Who knew it cost money to steep in a hot-tub with white trash. At check-out I muttered “Just another reason not to come to Vegas.” and the older woman behind the counter said, “You got that right.” You can live here and not be a fan of Vegas.

The NAB was fun. It's kind of a Star Trek convention for people that are into professional video equipment. The big buzz was on 3D (yes, with the funny glasses), mobile DTV, and HDDSLRs. The last one was very interesting, shooting incredible video on large format still cameras. I have a Canon 40D and when I bought it, six months later the 5D and 7D came out with video capabilities. Of course! Video cameras now are incredibly small. I was enthralled with the Sony MC 50. It's 6”x3”x2.5”, has audio in/out, manual iris & focus, shoots 8hrs of HD all for about $1500. Wow! 20 years ago I made a trip to Pasco WA to shot a documentary on the Miss Madison hydro. Me and 200 plus pounds of video equipment. Luggage not included. Now, I could take just that camera in my backpack.

I ran into some people I know; Jeff Miller, Ginny and Greg Buzzell and Tom Navarro. That's how small the biz is. Go to Vegas and find people ya know.

Outside of the convention was so, so. The TBNK guys and myself got together to eat at Toby Keith's; don't like him, his music and his food didn't fare much better. Shapely, cowgirl waitress' in tight jean shorts was the only up side. Gordon Bieresh was more like it. I really enjoyed this place in Phoenix, always good food and great beer. Then we ate at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in NY NY. The people watching was great. There was a lined that formed to see one of Cirque du Soleil 320 plus shows in Vegas. I could have sworn one girl was in line twice with a different man. My worst eating ordeal was a 45 minutes bus trip to go six blocks to Wynn, (I said it was tough to get around) the restaurant I wanted to eat at had a 90 minute wait. I made the long trip next door to the Venetian to a place near the canal. It was two hour venture just to end up with $20 nine inch pizza. Beer included. On the gambling part, (first off, I don’t care what ya play. To win money, there’s nothing more fun than yelling at a horse to cross the finish line.) Jason showed me a simple bet in craps. I started with $20 and left with $47. Which IS better than I ever did at the track.

Thursday I took the suggestion from a photo website I belong too, Ohio Valley Camera Club. One of the members suggested Red Rock Canyon, just southwest of LV. What a beautiful drive. High, jagged peaks sounding a valley floor. The premier geological formation is, because of fault activity, the the oldest rocks are higher than the youngest. The park road is one way with plenty of places to park and hike. Interesting scenery and interpretative center (also known as a museum). For the month leading up to the trip I was having trouble with my gout. I finally went to the doctor and got some steroids to take down the swelling. Well, three days of walking on the strip and NAB did not help. I was popping ibuprofen like they were Chicklets. Not being smart enough to bring my hiking shoes, but instead my tennis shoes, is not the best way to climb over rocks and uneven trails. It's a great park for climbers and there were a few out getting thrills from their skills.

View Full Album

I went to Mt Charleston, on my drive to Death Valley, and ate at the lodge. Lunch at 7700 feet. It was still early enough to have snow on the ground, but sunny enough to be warm enough to eat outside. Chili in a bread bowl. Tasty.

Spent the night in Shoshone, CA (pop 50) at the Shoshone Inn. An old motor inn that look from the 50s and hadn't been upgraded since. I mean, they still use keys! The room was Spartan and the bathroom was small. The A/C was open-the-bathroom-window-a-little-and-turn-on-the-inlet fan. There was free internet, unlike Hooters, and the pool was quite interesting. It was three tenths of a mile down the road and it too had seen better days. The unique thing is it was fed from an underground spring of the nearby hills. 90 degrees of pure relaxing and I had it all to myself for about 20 minutes. A burger and a beer at the Crowbar Cafe & Saloon and then early to bed.

Friday early, I was off to Death Valley National Park. In the morning, before sunrise, the temperature was cool. I hoped to get a sunrise picture, but it was still cloudy. I had the road to myself and rarely passed a car. The winter and spring had brought a fare amount of rain to the valley and the wildflowers were in bloom. It was an interesting sight to see an expanse of beautiful yellow desert sunflowers coming up out of what looked like barren, rocky soil. One interesting flora was parasitic plant called Dodder, also known as Witches Hair. The orange color glowed in the morning sun. The scene changed when I reached Badwater Basin, a dry lake bed and the lowest point in North America. I walked out to the center of the lake. The salt is about a half inch thick and it gives the appearance an even the sound of walking across granular snow. I took my foot and scrapped back the salt. Underneath was a thin layer of water as if it were ice. Standing in the middle of the lake I had the feeling that ice could give way and I would fall in. The salt forms various, geometric shapes. Closer look at the deposits showed hair-like formations. A few miles down the road was Devil's Golf Course. A field of small, boulder formations with sharp, jagged, saw-tooth salt deposits on top. I only walked about 10 yards in to the course, but thought it was a little too precarious and my balance not steady enough to go farther. I imagined that if I fell, the rocks would rip into my flesh like something in a Stephen King novel. After the sun came up the temperature started to rise and by the afternoon it was 95 in the shade. There were plenty of places to explore; the Artist Drive & Palette, Mosaic Canyon, Mesquite Sand Dunes, Zabriskie Point . I managed to hike in many of these spots, even with bad feet. I'm such a whiner. If you can make it to Death Valley for the spring flower bloom, it's worth it.

It was about a 2.5 hour drive to Vegas and I was about 30 miles from the airport, but still had five hours before my flight. So I turned around and drove about 40 minutes back over the mountains to find a place to watch the stars come out and the moon chase Venus across the sky.

I got a little concerned at the airport, the two gates on both sides of my flight were getting rowdy. One overbooked and was asking for 30(!) volunteers to take a $300 voucher and an extra nights stay. How do you over book a flight by 30! How do you make money giveing away $9000 in vouchers plus rooms? That didn't happen to me, but on the 12:30 (Saturday) AM flight and I was hoping to get some sleep, but there were 3 screaming babies, all within 6 seats from me. Even earplugs don't help stop that. The looks on people's faces, as they made their way to back of the plane, only to realize they to were not getting any sleep was at least humorous. I land at 7:30 (3hr time difference), I get home about 8:15 and go straight to bed. At 9:30 mom calls to check I landed safely. My fault, I told her I would call when I landed, but didn't. I get back to sleep, and at 10:30 all the neighborhood dogs start barking. (reminder, call animal control Monday).