A great visit to California and a trip to Lost Wages

Badly worn tire

Well, into each trip a little rain must fall. We had some real rain and some unexpected financial rain drop into this trip. We never complain about the real rain as most of the places we are visiting out west can really use the moisture.

But when I went to have an oil change today (Tuesday, Oct. 4) my fears of a left front problem with the Tahoe were confirmed. A couple weeks ago I noticed some excessive wear on the left front tire on the inside tread.

Today, it had gotten much worse and the tread was worn down dangerously smooth on the inside of the tire, which forced me to have the two front tires replaced. These are the original tires on the car and all four have 80,000 miles on them, so not a big surprise.

Jim, Joan, Tim, Brittany, William

Tires for this bad boy are not cheap and what I suspect is a tie rod problem will need to be addressed when we get to Tucson later this week. To preserve the new tires, I had the tire folks put the new tires on the rear of the car and the two older tires, both with acceptable tire tread on the front of the vehicle.

If I’m going to wear down another tire, it’s going to be an old one not one I just bought. The tire folks assured me that while they tried to tighten up the tie rod to minimize the vibration it is safe to drive for another 1,000-plus miles until I can get to a Chevrolet dealer in Tucson.

That was $600 we were not expecting to have to come up with on the trip. It will also put a crimp on our plans for Las Vegas.

Back to our trip to California. We had a good time with the boys and Brittany in Santa Cruz, even if it was kind of a quick visit. We are pleased with the progress Tim and Brittany are making in their education and always enjoy our visits to William in his beautiful mobile home near the Monterey Bay.

We stayed at the Bay Front Inn about a block from the Santa Cruz Wharf and Boardwalk. It was a very nice motel at a very nice price.

Me

Unlike the rest of our trip we ate out most meals and all with the family.  It was fun to give Brittany, the granddaughter, rides to some of her work shifts.

Anyway we were back at Cynthia’s Tuesday night for our last night in California before heading to Nevada and then Arizona. Eventually we will be headed to Tucson and my Navy reunion. The weather has taken a sudden turn to the cool side and it looks like it will be unseasonably cool as we head through Arizona.

Cousin Cynthia is a great hostess, cook and friend and we miss her already. This is probably the fifth or sixth time I (we) have stayed with her and we really appreciate all her efforts in putting us up. We look forward to the time we can return the favor.

Joan in "The Habitat" at the Flamingo Hotel

We left Cynthia’s early Wednesday and found the going wet for most of the trip to Las Vegas. Neither Joan nor I have been here for more than several decades and we found the city much changed since the last time we were here.

Joan saw something quite rare on the trip through the Mojave Desert. Torrential rains were falling for much of the trip making the driving interesting and sometimes challenging as the windshield wipers had trouble keeping up with the volume of rain.

At one dry point in the drive we were chasing a tumbleweed down the highway, which may be an indication of how high the winds were.

We also passed a road, I believe in Eastern California that was spelled “Zzyzx Road.” Man, would that be a big Scrabble score if you could use proper names.

With the on again, off again rain (mostly on) the temperatures fluctuated between about 70 and 40 and the 40 came at the top of Tehacapi Pass and for a moment I thought we might get some snow.

It was also incredibly windy, so I was very glad I did not have the trailer in tow on this trip. Traffic was moderate for most of the trip until we arrived in Las Vegas when it slowed to a crawl. We arrived about 5 p.m., but that includes about 40 minutes to drive about 4 miles through the Las Vegas freeway system.

This morning (Thursday) I got up early and walked from the old downtown Las Vegas (that’s where the Golden Nugget is) to The Strip. It took me about three hours and I estimated the walk at about 8-9 miles.

On the way back I took Las Vegas Boulevard so I could walk by the “Pawn Stars” pawn shop, which had a long line out front with people just waiting to go inside for a peek. I like the show, but not enough to wait in a long line to go inside. I will put up some photos after I remember to take my camera on my walk on Friday morning.

Also passed by “The Little White Wedding Chapel” which is the place Joan’s sister Patty and brother-in-law, Keane, had their drive through wedding about 10 years ago. There was a plaque at another wedding chapel announcing it was the location of Jon Bon Jovi’s wedding, but no such plaque for Patty and Keane at the other chapel.

After I returned back to the hotel from my walk I collected Joan and told her I had found cheap transportation down to the strip. For $7 you can talk the bus for 24 hours up and down the line between the old downtown and The Strip.

When we caught the first bus to The Strip the machine that sold the $7 tickets was broken so we rode for free, which meant I didn’t buy the $7 ticket until our return trip back about 6 p.m. so I will be able to use it all day tomorrow saving us another $7.

We gambled a little, but we used the free slot play that was offered at each casino for newcomers who signed up for the various promotional offers. At one casino we got $50 of free play, but most were $5 or $10 and we just went from one to another. At the last one, Joan won $50 and I won $23 on the free play so we are probably a little ahead of the game.

Fremont Street Experience

Tomorrow we are going back to the Strip to see more of the fountain displays and other free stuff. No shows for us on this trip. We had a great Greek salad for dinner at Planet Dailies. Later we watch the beautiful free light and music show at the Fremont Street Experience. The overhead light show is made up of 2 million lights on a metal canopy that is three blocks long.

The old downtown strip has been converted to a walking mall with the classic old casinos and each night there is a light and music show. I took some pictures, but they won’t do it justice.  Probably this is the last post until Saturday night as the Internet at the hotel costs $12 a day and I won’t pay that, so I borrowed a signal to put this up tonight.

To end the evening Joan and I watched the end of the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees divisional playoff game in the lobby bar at the Golden Nugget. When Papa Grande through the final strike to end the game in the Tigers’ favor we both yelled out “Yes,” which seemed to attract a lot of attention. We slinked away to our room.

Should also point out that it was warmer in Lapeer, Michigan for the past two days than it was here in Las Vegas. That promises to be the case through tomorrow. It has been cold in the mornings and very mild (60s) in the afternoon.