Written by Kim
We checked out of Bellagio this morning after another good breakfast at Black Bear Diner. We needed a bit of fresh air so drove out to Red Rock Canyon which was about 25 minute drive from the strip.
Red Rock Canyon is a state park. You pay $15 to enter and they have a one way about 15 mile loop that takes you on a scenic drive. There are some hard core athletic bikers riding the loop and lots of hiking trails. The weather was gorgeous – not too hot only 84 degrees. We didn’t do any hiking but got out at several overlooks to take pictures. The song America the Beautiful was playing in my head as we drove. God’s beautiful earth! There were lots of signs about feeding the Burros or wild horse and watching for the desert tortoise. We didn’t see any wildlife except a few birds. It was a beautiful drive I highly recommend if you’re out in Vegas.
We stopped for lunch at Grimaldi’s coal fired pizza and had a spinach salad and pizza for lunch. No pictures I just completely forgot until we were done. Fail! After lunch we checked in at the Plaza down at Fremont where we will spend a few nights. It is fun down at Fremont and we wanted to stay down here to see what it’s like. More low budget than Bellagio – like going from Hilton to Holiday Inn but it’s clean so all good. We both remarked as we walked around yesterday that the craziness of Vegas is overwhelming at times but I have to admit Covid Vegas is a bit depressing. Everyone is wearing masks which is good but the impact of the virus is very much “in your face”. Street performers are replaced with homeless and beggars and it is pretty desolate. I remember driving around when things first shutdown from Covid and it was a bit eery. This is the same.
We went back to a Mexican place, Cadillacs, we like in the Golden Nugget. We played a bit of pai gow at Golden Nugget and won a big $40 between us (better than losing we will take it!).
We are here in Vegas enjoying Rudie’s weekend which is a fan club for a guy that Alex follows on You Tube, Brian Christopher. Brian videos slots he plays and Alex likes to watch them. As he says, “It’s better to watch Brian lose his money than for me to play and lose mine”. He plays vicariously through Brian. Alex joined a group slot pull and we both joined the group to play Bingo. Wow – Bingo has changed basically you watch a screen where you enter your player ID. It highlights the numbers as they are called, beeps and flashes when you have 1 number to go. You still yell Bingo when fireworks go off on your screen. Easy peasey. No fireworks for us. Neither one of us won.
That’s it for today. Thanks for following our journey. More tomorrow.
Kim, we did that drive years ago with Sean, in a convertible, top down March of 2004 and it rained, hailed and as little snow as we did that loop!!! Do much fun and so beautiful!!!!