My vacations with my Mom are pretty epic. I was sitting in my living room working when I had this idea: I am cold, and I want to go somewhere warm for vacation. The Mariners are in Peoria (we've always wanted to go see a Spring Training game) and Lisa lives in Tucson. Let's see if we could build a vacation around those three things. I proposed the idea in early February, and she said let's look into it.
We spent the next few weeks building an itinerary. We booked hotels, tours, bought our Spring Training tickets and our rental car. We let Lisa know when we were going to be in Tucson and kept in contact with her as the days got closer. I had about $200+ in cash on me from various side jobs that I had saved. I planned on using that money for our meals.
Just days before I found an error on one of our tours and it would have been a disaster. Mom was able to get a hold of them and fix it before we left. Seriously, it would have been awful if we were not able to correct the date. Thank goodness they were kind enough to change it for us without any grief.
I put in my leave, and it was approved at work, and I went to the bank to let them know I would be in Nevada and Arizona because I was going to have to use my card for the rental car and whatnot.
Throughout the week, I made a list of things to bring for the various places and outings we had planned to go and see while on vacation and started gathering them to put in the obnoxious orange suitcase. Mom, on the other hand, didn't have as much free time as I did, since I work from home, and somehow managed to get all of her stuff done that week and packed up. We hit another snag...who was going to take us to the airport on a really early Friday morning? Both Doug and Ben work and Dad wasn't going to do it. Hmmm, Mom called Rhonda and she was nice enough to take us to the airport as long as we brought her back red dirt from Arizona. That was totally doable.
It was all set. Now, we just had to wake up at 4 a.m. on Friday morning and go. For me, getting up in the morning is so much harder than staying up late to get on an airplane. I am definitely not a morning person.
The alarm went off at 4:00 a.m. and of course Ben wasn't too fond of hearing me get up and get ready that early since he still had to go to work. I got ready to go and made sure I had everything including the last-minute things. I made a blueberry bagel to eat along the way so I wasn't starving when we got to the airport or on the airplane. I said goodbye to Ben, gave him hugs and kisses, told Doug I was leaving and gave Oliver and Wade a bunch of pets, head kisses and hugs and told them to guard the house.
Mom arrived just after 4:30, used the bathroom and got her luggage out of the Expedition. Rhonda showed up just after 4:45. We packed our suitcases in the back and drove off. Rhonda needed gas and stopped at the one in Nisqually before getting onto I-5 north towards the airport. We didn't hit traffic until Des Moines/405 junction. We got to the airport and noticed that airport traffic is much worse in the mornings than they are in the evenings...when we typically traveled.
We made our way through the traffic, and she pulled over in front of the Southwest Airlines sign. We got out, grabbed our suitcases and thanked Rhonda for taking us to the airport. She told us to have fun and she will follow our adventures on Facebook. We checked in at the kiosk, printed off our boarding passes and bag tags and stood in line to drop off our suitcases.
We walked through security, had no problems and then walked to our gate, B10. We sat there and waited for a bit. We saw some college-aged kids sitting near us and we found out that Taylor Swift was having a concert in Vegas that night, no wonder we couldn't find a cheap hotel for one night. I got up to fill up my ThermoFlask with city water and bought Mom a bottle of water at one of the Hudson stores.
Mom watched Survivor on her phone while I got out my laptop and worked on the unnecessary inventory of Grammie and Grandpa's house that I was tasked to do. It was due on April 6th, and I had a lot of work on it left to do. We found out our plane was going to be a half hour late because the plane before them was a half hour late. Not sure why but I am assuming it was because of the weather in the Midwest. We were in the later part of group B and boarded our plane. We were worried that we weren't going to get seats together because Southwest is open seating. We got lucky and found two together, behind the wings, in the middle and window seat, and had some storage above us for Mom's extra bag. Our flight took off just after 8:30. I was glad to get away from the rain and the cold.
We sat next to a guy who was most likely going to one of the Mariner's Spring Training games. We got comfortable, Mom closed her eyes for a bit, and I watched a newer Anna Kendrick movie, Alice, Darling (2022). It was about a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship who unwittingly becomes a participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends. It was not my type of movie, but I enjoy watching Anna Kendrick.
The movie ate up most of the two and a half hours and we actually arrived in Vegas on time. We must have made up time in the air, but we had to wait for a gate to become available to deplane. We had to sit and wait for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I texted Erika to let her know we made it to Vegas.
We finally had a gate open up, we waited a few minutes for our turn, got off and immediately used the restroom. We walked around to a few of the shops and then went to baggage claim to find our suitcases. I didn't even have to check which carousel our flight was because I could see my obnoxious orange suitcase from a mile away! We grabbed our luggage and figured out how to get to the rental car facility via the rental car bus. We got on and took a short ride to the rental car facility.
We grabbed our stuff and walked inside. This was the first time I've ever been taken away from the airport to get a rental car. I found our paperwork, the appropriate rental car agency, which was Thrifty, and stood in line for about 30 minutes. When it was my turn, I had forgotten that I should have gotten a credit card because they have to do a $500 deposit hold on a debit card. I paid for the 8 days outright a few weeks ago. He gave me my paperwork and showed me where to go to pick up the car. I walked back over to Mom and told her let's go.
In the garage, I handed the guy my receipt and he pointed to where our car was. We got a white VW Jetta with Arizona license plates. I found it ironic that we got a Jetta because Doug had wrecked his less than 5 months prior. We loaded up the car with our stuff, got on the road and called Dad on our way down to Jean, just south of Vegas, to check out this weird roadside attraction I wanted to see and to get a couple geocaches. We get there and see there is a parking lot off to the left. There was a lot of people here. I didn't realize this place was that popular. We found a place to park and walked out to the stacks of colored rocks.
We took a couple photos with the rocks and was even asked if we could take pictures of other people. We must have a certain quality about ourselves that makes people want to talk to us, ask us questions and take their pictures. Mom wandered around while I grabbed, Yuck! A Tree. (GC9R1XJ) which wasn't that far away from the weird roadside attraction. I told Mom I wanted to get the other two before we left. She said that was fine and sat in the car for about 10 minutes.
I walked the quarter of a mile to Stonehenge in the Desert (GC6H1TZ) and I was super careful to look out for snakes as I made my way out there. I have no idea why this person hid the cache so far away from the rocks. Oh well, I made the find, got our names on it and put it back. I hustled back to the car to let Mom know I was going to walk across the highway to get the virtual cache, Many Years Ago (GC8FDD). I hustled across the highway and walked the short distance to a sign, that I am sure no one ever pays attention to.
It talked about when the last spike of the railroad was placed by track crews constructing the railroad from Salt Lake to Los Angeles. This was the exact place they met up and was signified by a sign. I got my answers and walked back to the car...I actually saw a snake but not sure if it was a rattlesnake or not. I wasn't going to find out! I got back to the car and asked Mom what we wanted to do next. We both agreed that we should find a Walmart to pick up some drinks, ice, snacks for part of our trip. We put the nearest Walmart into my phone and saw where it was. I put the address into the Nuvi and away we went!
We missed our first turn but eventually got recalculated and found the Walmart that we needed. We bought drinks, a gallon of water to pour into our bottles, blueberry muffins, bananas, oranges, Fritos, Milky Ways, Twizzlers Pull n' Peel, ice and some sunscreen--we were going to need it. I had packed a collapsible cooler with me in my suitcase because I knew we would need that as well, and it was easy to pack and travel with.
From there, Mom was getting hungry, and we needed something before we walked around the strip. I just found the nearest fast-food place along the south end of the Las Vegas Blvd. We decided to stop at the Burger King because we needed something. We haven't eaten since 4:30 a.m. and it was now 2:30 p.m. We both ordered the same thing, a Whopper Jr., fries and a strawberry milkshake. I haven't had Burger King in years but man, it sure hit the spot. I made sure to find the geocache, Typically Found on Sunday (GC9R7A3). It was an Easter egg hidden under a lamp skirt. We checked in with Doug for a few minutes to see what he was up to.
We made our way up Las Vegas Blvd, The Strip, to try and find a parking garage before the Taylor Swift concert began. We ended up parking at the Mirage, the first hour is free but then you had to pay for additional time. I paid the $15 for three hours because I didn't want to mess around and waste time. We had somewhere to be at 7 p.m.
We walked through the Mirage and out to The Strip. I checked my phone to see if there were any Adventure Labs to do and there were several. I picked just one because it would have taken a really long time to do all of them. I ended up only doing three of the five waypoints due to time constraints. We walked across the street and onto the left side and walked south down the strip. Mom wanted to see the Rat Pack plaque, so we went there first. It was an interesting spot to check out.
From there, we continued south, weaving in and out of shops that looked interesting, into the casinos to answer Adventure Lab questions and taking pictures of The Strip. At one point, we were in a shop getting t-shirts for Erika and Doug and chatted with Erika for a bit. We went into the M&M Store to get some M&M's for Dad since he is hard to bring home stuff for. We continued south and turned around just before the New York New York Casino and Hotel. We had to be back at the rental car soon, so we didn't dilly dally too long. We did stop at the Bellagio Fountains for a couple minutes before making out way north to the Mirage.
We got back to the rental car and hoped we could get out onto Las Vegas Blvd without any problems. You could see the traffic and people multiply as it got closer to Taylor Swift's concert time. We did manage to get away from the busiest part of town and made our way north to the Fremont area. Both of us have never been up this far north of The Strip before. This was new territory for us. I had the address loaded into Nuvi for the Neon Boneyard Museum.
We pulled into the parking lot, which was pretty tight, grabbed what we needed and went to go check in with the lobby volunteers. We showed them our printed-out confirmation code and she checked us in and printed us off actual tickets. We waited a few minutes until our time slot and a lady came in and gave us the rundown of what we were going to experience, see and hear. She also told us the rules, so we were safe, the property and signage were safe.
This museum was founded in 1996 and is a nonprofit. It is dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs for educational, historic, arts and cultural enrichment. It contains more than 250 unrestored and restored signs. The collection chronicles changes and trends in sign design and technology through the pieces ranging from the 1930s to the present day.
We went in a counterclockwise direction as she explained the history, the science and the impact neon signs have had on the culture, economic, and education of the US southwest. I didn't know much about neon signs but after that tour I learned a lot. I highly recommend it to others who need something to do in Vegas that's educational and helps out a nonprofit organization. While we were there, I did the virtual cache, Signs of the Times (GCHYED), which is much easier if you pay for admission to get in than just to take a picture of the building and say you were there. I chose the duck neon sign that used to be at a car wash. It was donated to the museum a few years ago.
We went into the gift shop, and I got a few things and Mom also got a few things. I use my stuff for crafts like scrapbooking and she makes quilts out of her t-shirts she collects from various vacations. From there, we put in our hotel address and made our way through Fremont trying not to run over anyone. We were staying in the Golden Nugget, and I didn't realize it was valet parking. We had to be on a specific part of the block so we could have our rental car parked. We waited in a short line for a few minutes and then we were helped. They asked us if we needed help taking our stuff to the room and we politely declined. We got everything we would need out of the rental and hauled it into the lobby so we could check in.
Everything was good, we were given our keys and hiked through the casino floor, around the restaurant and finally to the bank of elevators. We went to the nineth floor, wandered around the maze of hallways and finally found our room, 9111. We piled our stuff in, took off our shoes and relaxed a bit.
I was hungry so I ate one of the muffins, some of my Fritos, a yogurt and an orange while I talked to Ben for a bit. We were both so tired from the long day we just decided to get cleaned up and ready for bed. The next day will be just as long after figuring out the route we were going to take. I was just happy to be on vacation and somewhere sunny and dry.
Some notes on the day:
Between home to the airport and driving around Vegas we drove 88 miles.
Rode on an airplane about 870 miles from SeaTac to Harry Reid (not sure when it changed from McCarran).
Walked 23,142 steps which is about 9.5 miles of walking.
We found five geocaches, of those five two were virtuals and three were traditionals, with three waypoints to an Adventure Lab.
We've never been to Fremont, this was our first time and we enjoyed it.
Not sure when the next visit to Vegas will be, hopefully soon so we can experience something different when we are here again.
Next Adventure: Nevada/Arizona Vacation: Leaving Las Vegas, Kingman, Route 66, Williams, Bedrock City and the Grand Canyon
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