Years ago a national newspaper trade group that I belonged to held its annual convention in Las Vegas, and I used to enjoy an occasional trip to Sin City. The casino buffets were affordable, and even if you weren’t a gambler, people watching could provide hours of free fun.  But both myself and the city have changed over time, I’m not sure if either one for the better.

We took a ride down the Strip the other night, admiring the bright lights and unique architecture of the casinos, and marveling at the crowds. The folks who design the casinos truly are artists, and on a drive down the Strip you can see everything from castles to pyramids, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and pirate ships.

This is a fantasyland for grownups, and whether you like angels, demons, winged goddesses, Elvis impersonators, drag queens, magicians, country superstars, or anything in between, an hour on  the Strip will provide just what you’re looking for. Yesterday, we drove part of the busy road again, to see it in the daylight, and I was glad Greg White was driving, so that I could eyeball everything around us.

The country may be in a recession, but you wouldn’t know that from Las Vegas! The streets, sidewalks, restaurants, and casinos are all packed solid. The lines in front of popular places like Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville were so long that we didn’t even think of stopping for a Cheeseburger in Paradise. 

You probably wouldn’t be surprised to see a line of people waiting to get into a Las Vegas pawn shop, but the folks waiting to get into this one probably aren’t there to hock their wedding rings for enough gas money to get back home. This isn’t your everyday pawn shop, this is the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, made famous by the History Channel’s reality program Pawn Stars. A couple of weeks ago our friends Stu and Donna McNicol were in Las Vegas and stood in line about ten minutes to get into the shop, where they were lucky enough to meet Rick Harrison, one of the shop’s owners, and Stu even got his picture taken with Rick! We wanted to check the shop out too, but decided to come back mid-week, when hopefully, the line would be shorter. 

Playing tourist can work up an appetite, and Las Vegas has more places to stuff your face than fleas on a hound dog! Every casino has a buffet, but unlike the old days when I came here every year, the $1.49 breakfast buffet and $5.99 dinner buffet are ancient history. These days you can expect to pay a minimum of $15 for a buffet dinner, and over $30 per person at many of them! The Village Seafood Buffet at the Rio Casino is very highly rated, but at $38 a person, we’ll never know.

We did find a good deal at the Boulder Station Casino, a few miles from downtown, and not far from the Thousand Trails campground. After registering for our free players club cards, we paid $15 each, including tax, for an excellent selection that ranged from Chinese food to prime rib, barbecued ribs, and a half dozen other entries, along with plenty of sides and a great dessert bar. Everything was delicious, and we promised ourselves we’d go back again while we’re in town.

With our players club cards, we each also got $3 in free slot machine play, and while Greg and I promptly lost ours and went bust on penny slot machines, Jan ran hers up to about $40 and Miss Terry topped out at $54. But alas, they didn’t pay for those elaborate casinos by giving money away, and by the time the ladies’ streaks had run out, Jan walked away with a penny and Terry cashed out with ten cents! But what the heck, we got a great meal at a good price, and we got to play for an hour or so on the casino’s money. The smart thing is to walk away once you spend their money, and not dip deeply into your own pocketbook to keep playing. But judging by the number of fancy casinos here, I don’t think too many people can resist the urge to tempt Lady Luck just a little bit longer. 

Thought For The Day - Tourists don’t know where they’ve been. Travelers don’t know where they’re going. – Paul Theroux  

Terry and I love this area around Traverse City, Michigan. It is absolutely gorgeous is the spring, summer, and fall, though we like to be long gone before the first snowflake falls. Having spent part of a winter here years ago while Miss Terry was being treated for cancer, I can tell you it’s no place to be in an RV!

Grand Traverse Bay, with its amazingly blue water, is a playground for swimmers, boaters, and fishermen. The hills are covered in lush forests, and I think we have seen more wild turkeys here than anyplace in the country. The shops in the charming downtown area offer some neat shopping opportunities. If you like to tempt Lady Luck, there are three nearby Indian Casinos operated by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

We return here ever year for Terry’s annual visit with her oncologist, and also to visit with my cousin Terry Cook and his family. When Miss Terry was so sick, we squatted in their driveway for a couple of months while she was undergoing chemo and radiation, and they treated us just wonderfully. Before then I had not seen my cousin Terry in close to 20 years. We had planned on only a quick visit before Miss Terry got sick, but they made us feel right at home and were a major source of support for both of us during the cancer ordeal. For that we will be forever grateful.

When we first came here, so many years ago, my cousin’s kids, Michelle and Patrick, were teenagers, and now Michelle is a grown woman and Patrick is almost finished with college. That makes us feel old sometimes!

For us, one of the great things about the fulltime RV lifestyle has been the opportunity to connect with family members we had not seen in many years. My cousin Berni Frees and her husband Rocky, whom many of you know from this blog and the Gypsy Journal, have become much more than family, they are two of our best friends in the world.

Berni is about ten years younger than me, and the last time I had seen her she was a little girl when the family came to see me off to Vietnam. We had had no contact in a lifetime, until she somehow learned we were fulltime RVers. She and Rocky were interested in the RV lifestyle, so she made contact and a friendship grew from there. They tried fulltiming for a year or so, and decided it wasn’t the right time in their lives for it, but we still see them a couple of times a year at their home in Muskegon, Michigan.

RVing has also given us the chance to get to know Berni’s sister Vanessa and her hubby Mickey and their kids in Ohio, and allowed us to spend time with my cousin Beverly in Tucson.

Terry was also able to hook up with a cousin she had not seen in years, Carolyn Henley. Carolyn and her husband Mel were also interested in fulltiming, and now they just started on their grand adventure a week or two ago. In Idaho we were able to visit an uncle that Terry had not seen in a long time.

There are many facets to the fulltiming RV lifestyle, and as you can see, the chance to get to know your extended family can be one of them. With relatives scattered from coast to coast and border to border in our modern society, many of us don’t have the close family ties that our parents and grandparents had. RVing can help us renew those relationships.

And of course, the great thing is that if we happen to find a few fruits and nuts on the family tree, we have wheels under our house, and we can drive away!  

Thought For The Day – Faith is a journey, not a guilt trip

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