May 23, 2004 - Las Vegas
Well, another benefit of being with people who like to clip coupons as much as Barb does, is that we get a variety of free things to do. Such as this special used car lot. Used to be a museum, but has changed its focus a bit. This is Vegas, after all.
The subtle intricate details of this Silver Arrow really caught my fancy. The little eyebrow over the windshield, the tiny little window above the rear window, the suicide front door, the easy-to-remove fender skirt and the lack of running boards all made this car a beauty in my eyes.
It's hard to really describe some of these cars, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. Pretty pricy stuff for the most part. There was a 2002 Thunderbird that was only slightly inflated over the street value, and it was sort of surprising to see it there. Not every used car showroom comes equipped with its own bar, either.
This car with all its fancy styling makes me wonder just how much Carroll Shelby really had to do with its design. Barb and I had a Sunbeam Tiger way back when, and it was one of Shelby's success stories, but the styling was real simple. An English car, the Sunbeam Alpine, had very clean simple lines, and Carroll simply stuffed (in our case) a Ford 289 V8 under the hood with the Ford 4-speed transmission. Simple, very fast, and interesting handling characteristics.
From one kind of beauty to another. Hard to choose which we like more. Probably the natural kind. Can you rate natural beauty with terms like "quality"? Does the Grand Canyon have more quality, say, than the local city park on the river? Well, whatever. We were surprised by how beautiful this state park was, and how much variety there was to enjoy. Oh, this wasn't free, by the way. Cost us all of $6 for a car full of people, which we paid with a grin.
One of the first critters Barb spotted was this Collard Lizard (about a foot in length). When I walked up to get a better shot, it scampered under a rock, but still hung out at both ends. Then while I was putting boots on (much preferred over sandals for desert walking), Barb scampered up to see what kind of critters might be living in these caves.
I suppose I should put out the "red rock warning" flag. Only they're not all red rocks! We climbed up the stairs, not because we knew what was up there, but to find out why other people were doing it. And our parents asked if our friends jumped off the cliff would we do it too? Imagine that. Felt like I should go "baa, baa" as I did it.
At the first landing, we stopped so I could catch my breath, and it was at that point that we remembered why we usually stay home on the weekends. The Nissan Z car club was doing some sightseeing too. Saw licenses from OH, PA, TX, CA, and some others. They'd apparently (according to Frank & Susie who stayed on the ground to talk to them) had some kind of meeting here in Vegas.
Graffiti and holes in the rock. That's what's at the top of the stairs. Of course, because it's old, we call the graffiti "petroglyphs" and attach some kind of meaning to it. But I'll give you this. The kids that did this who-knows-how-long-ago, sure were in good shape. The stairs weren't here then, and it would really take some effort to climb all the way up here just to paint your girlfriends name on a rock. Or to scratch something with deeper meaning on the rock. The holes (and we saw lots just like this) were apparently caused by erosion. Sort of hard to see this as a sea bottom sometime in the past. No critter bones or sea shells in evidence that we could see.
There were plenty of petrified logs laying around behind these fences. Susie guessed the fence was there because they didn't want the logs to get away. But while we looked carefully at each of the logs, they all looked alike to us. But since each sign was different, I included them here. Atlatl rock was what they called the rock with the petroglyphs up there at the top of the stairs.
Funny thing is, the beehive rocks actually do look like beehives (duh!). Usually it's impossible for me to see things that aren't really clear. The constellations in the sky for instance. The big dipper and the milky way are about the only things that make sense to me. The little dipper is even lost on me. And then there's that formation sticking up there all by itself. What happened to all its buddies? How'd it get eroded like that when all the surrounding ground is just regular desert. Behind it you can see the different colorations in the hills.
There are several campgrounds in the park, with RV spaces as well, in addition to these picnic areas. No hookups, but still it's the kind of place that would be fun to hang out in for a few days or so. There are a bazillion (that's a lot) trails leading off to who knows where that really needed to be explored. But not with the heat pushing 100 degrees. And of course, there were flowers that needed to have their picture taken.
The flowers were quite plentiful for as warm as it was, and we caught this ring-tailed lizard as it made it's escape from us. There were two of them messing around with each other I was told, but by the time the crowd caught up to me and dragged me back, there was only this one.
Once we got to the visitor center, I had the chance to point out that in fact, Florida does have big bugs! And more multi-colored scenery.
This park should be on everybody's "gottadoo" list when in Vegas. The pictures we've posted here represent only a fraction of the "you gotta catch this" pictures we actually took. And for the record, Frank took many of these as I was driving and we wouldn't let Barb out of the car and back into the sun. It was a very warm day, and she actually gets little blisters from the sun even with good sunscreen and her face turns too red from the heat.
Hopefully before we leave we'll take the time to re-visit this park. There's a trail we really want to take some morning when it's cool that will take us back to Mouse's Tank. Mouse was a renegade Indian who used the area as a hideout in the 1890's. He ended up in a shootout which killed him. Wonder why they named the tank (name for depression in rocks which hold water) after him when he wasn't a very good guy..
One of the joys of getting older (there really are several joys to the process) is having grandchildren. This little guy was born to Doug and Kerry April 10, in St. Louis, MO. The first two pictures are with his big sister Robin (15 yrs old), pianist, and the one in the kitchen is with sister Holly (12 yrs old), violinist. Huck has plenty of loving caretakers. We promised the kids we'd meet him before he graduates from high school. We're pretty much planning on staying on the west coast doing as little moving around as possible to conserve fuel ($$) for the run to Alaska next year. The fuel prices won't keep us from moving, it's just that we'll go slower and stay longer. <soap box on> Really makes me angry that the tree huggers have such powerful political clout that we can no longer use our own resources for ourselves. It's about time us normal folks started our own "movement" and got this country back on the track, socially, morally, spiritually, and economically. We're rotting from the inside out, just like all the ancient civilizations before us, and we don't need to let it continue! If you feel the same way, write me and we'll talk about what you can do to stop the downhill slide. If you feel differently, write me and show me where I'm wrong.<soap box off>