Our RV Adventures

I’ve decided to make our new toilet into a flower pot.  Because, so far, I haven’t been able to get it installed due to the fact that new toilet has different base than the old one. I know I’ll get it fixed eventually, but in the meantime, it sure looks pretty.

We picked up Nick and Terry about 12:30pm and drove over to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch.

I had the Mango Habanero wings – sweet and spicy!,  Jan had the Hot wings, Nick had the Honey BBQ, and Terry had a chicken wrap.

Really Good!

Nick and Terry wanted to get some Asiago cheese bagels so we walked about the parking lot to Panera Bread. It all looked so good that Jan picked out some blueberry scones, and some orange ones too.

Then it was over to Outpost PC to purchase some remote control switch units to control our door locks.

After that we headed over to the Atomic Testing Museum.

This museum is actually part of the Smithsonian and has a amazing amount of artifacts detailing the Atomic Age.

The Atomic Age began at 5:29;54 on July 16, 1945 when a plutonium bomb, nicknamed ‘Gadget”, was detonated at Trinity Site on the Alamogordo Bombing Range in south-central New Mexico. The flash was seen 250 miles away and the heat produced was four times hotter than the sun.

One of the displays showed many of the products that traded on the atomic age theme.

Everything from Atomic Fire Ball jawbreakers to Atomic Cocktails to Atomic Hot Sauce traded on the Atomic name.

.They even had an Atomic Energy Lab, from Gilbert, maker of the Erector Set.  I actually had one of these. Maybe this explains why I still glow in the dark.

Next was a collection of Geiger counters.

Since I was a ham radio operator and worked with Civil Defense, I was issued one of these.

The first H-Bomb was detonated in 1952 on Enewetok Atoll in the Pacific.

Earlier bomb tests, starting in 1946 on Bikini Atoll, also in the Pacific, gave the bikini swimsuit its name.

This atomic artillery shell gives you some idea how small an atomic bomb can be.

Next was the Genie Air-to-Air Atomic Missile. Jan’s father worked on this one when he was in the Air Force.

This B61 bomb was designed in 1963 and is still the United States primary nuclear weapon.

Lastly, there is this display of a piece of the Berlin Wall that marked the end of Cold War with the Soviet Union.

The museum gives real insight into what went on during the period from 1945 to 1992 when the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ended nuclear testing by the major powers.

Leaving the museum, I dropped Nick and Terry and Jan off at their rig while I went up the road to Lowes for some more toilet parts. I’m going to whip this thing yet.

A while later, after it go dark we drove over to see the light show on Fremont St., but found a special event going on, with a large crowd. We’ll try again later.

So it was off to IHOP for supper. By the time we got home it was almost 10pm.

It’s been a long day, but a lot of fun.

More tomorrow…

Today started off with a trip to the ATM for some cash and then a stop at the RV park office to sign up for another week here in Las Vegas.

It’s a nice park, not too expensive (only about $125/wk + elec.), and convenient to the Thousand Trails RV Park where our friends Nick and Terry Russell are staying.

The only downside (downsides?) are that the sites are narrow and there’s no real shade.

Speaking of Nick and Terry, we headed over to their rig and picked them up about 12:30 pm and drove over to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant for lunch.

We had eaten at his original restaurant in Key West last year and really enjoyed it, so we wanted to give this one a try.

Jan had the same Monterey Chicken Sandwich that she had in Key West, and really enjoyed it again. I, of course, had to have a Cheeseburger in Paradise. Nick and Terry also had sandwiches.

After we finished eating, we make the obligatory gift shop stop where Jan got her a Margaritaville Las Vegas T-shirt.

When we got back out on the street we encountered these brightly-feathered guys.

So following up on the whole Jimmy Buffet – Parrothead concept, here are some parrot heads.

We next decided to drive the Strip again trying to get some more pictures of the different casinos.

This is Paris Casino. I assume the balloon sign refers to the Montgolfier brothers,who are credited with inventing and flying in the first hot air balloon in the 1780’s.

And, of course, what would Paris be without the Eiffel Tower.

There’s also New York New York which models the New York skyline,complete with the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty..

And, although it’s not a casino, for some strange reason, this flying saucer-shaped building houses a fashion show center

Finishing up on the Strip we decided to check out The Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, otherwise known as the History Channel’s Pawn Stars,

We even saw one of the show’s stars, Chumlee, who seems to be the court jester//comic relief on the show.

Nice tats!

And Jan got herself a new opal ring.

Sweets for the Sweet.

Leaving the pawn shop, we wanted to check out The Gun Store. They have billboards all over town advertising that you can rent and fire a machine gun on their in-store range. We found out it cost $50 for 50 rounds and $25 for each additional 50.

They were pretty busy, so we’ll probably come back tomorrow. Jan wants to shoot a Thompson Submachine Gun, otherwise know as the Tommy Gun from the Prohibition Era.

By now it was almost 5pm, but with our big lunch no one was hungry for supper, so we decided to just get some ice cream at Dairy Queen,

Unfortunately, the Dairy Queen we chose was inside the Boulder Station Casino.  So $10 of ice cream cost me $40, what with our $30 contribution to the Las Vegas economy via the slot machines.

We got back to the rig a little after 6pm, where I resumed fighting “The Great Toilet Wars”

More Reports from the battlefront soon…