Have camera will travel

Las Vegas and the Valley of Fire
We found a note on our door this morning, it was from Dorothy, she is in the room next tous. We banged on her door to she if she wanted to come down for breakfast.
Dorothy stood in the hallway talking for a bit, in her night shirt, then she decided she would come down for breakfast. Gail and Judy were already there. We talked for a bit, then we left for Vegas and Dorothy was going to the Dixie centre to register.
We didn’t get far before I had to stop to take some photos of cactus beside the road. Then another stop along the way for a bathroom break.
We got into Vegas to the outlet mall, and realized that Vegas is on pacific time, so we had a half hour to kill. We drove up and down the strip – it doesn’t look so glamorous in the daylight. Then back to the outlet stores.
The trunk on the car decided it had opened and closed enough, so it wasn’t going to close and lock anymore, we fiddled with it for a couple of minutes, and pushed all the buttons, finally starting the car, and opushing the buttons again, and it unlocked, so we could close the lid.
We wandered the mall, had a little snack, then hopped in the car, and off to the Valley of Fire state park.
Once off the freeway, we stopped for a bathroom break. It was a truck stop, and had a casino and firecrackers and booze – your one stop shop so to speak. The road into the park was narrow, but paved, and the speed limit started and 5 then to 55 then down again to 45 and finally when we rounded the corner down to the park to 35.
And what a surprize as we rounded the corner, from hilly brown nondescript desert to red rock that looked like some one had picked it up from Zion, and decided the area needed some colour. WOW! ! !
We didn’t drivevery far before we had to stop to take photos. Nice and warm here too – about 80. We drove and stopped and got out and took photos and wandered a bit. Such neat rock formations, and colour. Red sand too.
We realized it was time to go if we wanted to get back in time for the opening ceremonies. So we headed for St. George, and once we were out of the park, and into cell phone range, I had a message, it was from Dorothy – who else…
Back at the hotel, we banged on Dorothy’s door, and found out that Eric and Hazel had arrived – ya. And right after we got back Al and Grace got here too. The drive was fine they said, lots of snow on the side of the road, but the roads were good. So we had a celebratory drink.
We got organized and off to the stadium, if we can find it, to the opening ceremonies. Found the palce and parked a couple or 3 blocks away, and walked down – some people were almost running, because we were late. We got there just in time, found Dorothy’s cousin, who had a Canadian flag, so we lined up behind him and marched into the stadium – a nice feeling – we could make believe that we were in the Olympics.
The ceremonies lasted about 1.5 hrs, and were pretty good. Lots of fireworks. We wandered back to the cars at a slower pace, and back to the hotel.
Once back we decided we were hungry, now where to get take out from. Just about every place closed at 9, so we ended up going to Wendys, just around the corner. We made it with 10 minutes to spare. Not what we all wanted to eat – but ok – it filled a wrinkle.
We congrated in Dorothy’s room. Francie and Diane had arrived while we were out, so they came down. We talked for a bit, and the slowly toddled off to bed.