Two Miles and Four Feet from Home: Heading for Vegas!

We slept pretty good but it was just a bit warm until about 4 AM then it cooled off a bit. Not bad at all I just like it cool at night. Lyn was totally fine and had a great nights sleep. We got up about 6:30 and took our time packing. The plan today was to drive to Vegas and actually stay in a hotel room due to the heat of Las Vegas. We had to get a room that would except Jasper. We finally settled on the Railroad Pass hotel. We had stayed there before complements of some good friends of ours. They accept dogs and only charge $10 extra for Jasper. Yesterday when we were swimming in the river we met a young couple from Germany. They were traveling the USA for a month. I asked them how they got the time off from work and they said they were both teachers and taught math and economics at the high school level. They had been checking out our camper so we gave them the background and they seemed genuinely interested. Anyway as we headed out we said our goodbyes and drove out of our campground watching the sun come out over the cliffs as we did. Today's drive was going to be less than 3 hours. Several days ago on an overlook on Highway 12 we met a couple from Utah and told them how much we loved their state. They asked us which way we were heading and when we told them they said we had to go to Snow Canyon State Park. We promised them we would so today on the way to Vegas we made an hour detour to do just that. On the way we saw a full on grocery store complete with normal prices. We bought a few supplies and while we were there I went to the bathroom. When I went in I heard a guy in a stall talking on the phone while pulling toilet paper from the roll. He was very animate and finally he said "I just do not have the $200 you are looking for ...I have asked everyone. Then he said wait. Some guy just walked in the bathroom let me ask him. He preceded to ask me over the stall if I had $200 he could borrow." I told him I had a strict no lending policy while in the bathroom. He just told the person on the phone. See I have asked everyone. I left him still talking on the phone. You just cannot make this stuff up! :) After that stop we headed to Snow Canyon and in about 30 minuets we arrived in a very rich neighborhood. After going through the neighborhood we arrived at the state park. It looked brand new. The roads and all of the facilities were in great shape. We toured the campground and really wanted to stay but it was just too hot. So glad we went through the park. After we got on the road we arrived our hotel about 12 noon. The time had changed again and now we are a full 3 hours behind Greensboro. We also saw signs that LA was only about 330 miles away. Wow we really are about to see the pacific ocean. The main reason we stopped in Vegas was to see my coworker Cynthia who was their visiting her Mom. She had invited us to come over and hang out and maybe go swimming. We arrived at the house which was totally gated and beautiful in every way. It had an Asian flair to it with all kinds of personal touches that made it unique and beautiful. We brought Jasper and he was able to run around the pool area that had plenty of grass to roll around in. As it turns out the grass was not real but looked great. We may be adding that to our patio back home this fall! Anyway after getting a tour and hanging out for awhile Lyn and I decided to drive the camper down the Vegas strip and just take it all in. Now when I say this house is fancy that is no understatement. Adam Sandler lives just a few blocks away. I joked that our camper was probably bringing down the value of her Moms home and we gave it our best parade wave as we left. Just as we left the driveway we heard a loud scrapping sound and Cynthia was running after us. As it turns out the driveway had a thin piece of metal that ran across the driveway that had somehow gotten hooked on our car. We were still in the driveway and the metal was up under our car. We decided to drive over it and got the car free of it. We did that and tried to put it back but it needed to be bolted down. We were happy that we could put back enough to close the gate and she said she would get some one to bolt it down later. As we got back in the car she closed the gate as bad luck would have it the gate had a little wheel that was actually supposed to follow that piece of metal that we had pulled up. So when the gate started back across it not only could not close it set off an alarm. Not just any alarm by the way but a loud alarm that possibly Adam Sandler could hear. She told us to go on since there was nothing we could do and we were blocking the one way street in front of the house. So we gave her our best parade wave and left the neighborhood before security arrived. Remember when I said we would lower her property value?!?!?!?? Anyway we headed to the Vegas strip and made a wrong turn into the Bellagio Hotel resort. So here we are driving up to this fancy place with the camper in tow and we did what we do best! We did a huge u-turn gave them our best parade wave and headed back out the entrance to one of the fanciest places on the strip. Anywho.... we decided we needed to go back to our hotel and just chill out. After relaxing for a bit we had dinner at the hotel and made plans for the next day. We had planned on going to Joshua Tree National Park but it was going to be too hot there so we decided to head toward Santa Barbra and work our way up the coast towards San Francisco and Yosemite. Anyway I think we have done enough damage for today. Lets see what tomorrow will bring. West coast here we come!