Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Aug. 25, 2010 - Las Vegas, NV
We stayed at a really good KOA last night in Las Vegas. It has 366 RV spots right at "Circus Circus". They have extra long pull-thrus up to 80ft! Super wide, so awnings work great, and some have lawns and patio furniture. If you don't have an RV, you can still stay here in one of their super shiny Airstream trailers. Staying here and unhooking your car to go further downtown, or walking right into Circus Circus is very convenient.
Rich was excited to take me to my favorite restaurant; Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace. I was looking forward to the Yucatan Chicken Taco that I had the last time we went there. We got there as soon as they opened for lunch, in fact, we were the first ones there!! We had the goat cheese queso fundido for our appetizer. Rich and I made this dish at our Bobby Flay cooking class at Pans on Fire cooking supply store in Pleasanton. It was nice to confirm that ours was every bit as good as the original!!! Bobby would be proud of us :) For our entre', Rich had the Ancho-Black Bean Grilled Salmon (naturally), and I got my Yucatan Chicken Tacos! Fantastic! We both scraped our plates clean! It was the best lunch EVER! We still had a little room for our Lime and Blueberry Tart with crushed Blueberry and marshmallow swirled vanilla ice cream.
Drove back to the RV to hook up and head home, but we had some trouble with the left blinker on the jeep :( Rich had to undo the electrical connection, and tighten all the wires. Not to challenging, except it was over 110 degrees, and made worse by the fact we were on a huge asphalt parking lot with absolutely no shade! It only took about an hour or so, and we were on our way, heading for home, or as close as we could get.
Aug.24, 2010 - Las Vegas, NV
After leaving Grand Junction, we went through the really cute town of Fruita,CO. We came here because there was another photo op. from the coffee table book! This time it was a statue built to honor the "Miracle of the Chicken"! This is the miracle: a farmer chopped the head off of one of his chickens for dinner, but the chicken didn't die! In fact, he lived for 18 months without a head! This is no joke. He survived by being fed with an eye dropper through his open esophagus. He toured the United States and was featured in many news papers and Life magazine! The town of Fruita celebrates this miracle every year with a big fiesta and parade downtown! We took our picture of "Mike" the headless chicken and headed on to Las Vegas.
Aug. 23, drive to Grand Junction, CO
After we left Colorado Springs, our plan was to drive to Moab, UT. It was dinner time when we were approaching Grand Junction, so we looked at a map and decided that staying here made more sense since it was a more direct route, keeping us on 70 towards Las Vegas, our next stop. We wanted to drive around Moab and see some of the Canyons park, but better we do that when we can take a day or two. Another thing for next time :) The KOA in Grand Junction was right next to a really good Mexican restaurant, so we had a good dinner. It was a long day of driving, so it worked out well.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Aug. 23, 2010 - Giant Beetle, Colorado Springs
We headed out today for a long drive across Colorado to Utah. Before we left Colorado Springs, we wanted to visit the huge beetle that was pictured in our coffee table book of things to see while road-tripping across the United States. We didn't realize that this statue was at the entrance to a collection of insects reported to be one of the largest private collections in the world! I LOVE BUGS!!! So we just had to go in :) I must have snapped about 100 pictures! It was amazing! I have never seen such huge moths, beetles, spiders and butterflies in my life! This collection was gathered by John May over a period of more than 70 years, beginning in the late 1800s. Everything was meticulously displayed, labeled and organized. There must have been hundreds of species represented, and easily 5 times as many sub-species! This is a must see for anyone who visits Colorado Springs! We discovered a few more interesting things in the area, but they will have to wait until our next visit.
We left the museum and headed out for our 7 hour drive through the Rockies, and on to the Utah border. We had lunch on the road at 11,000ft! What a gorgeous view! I think I am going to have to have a vacation home in the Rockies :)
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