aging

Well, it’s our second day in Las Vegas and after a hearty breakfast (he had a ham an cheese omelet, I had French Toast) in Bugsy’s (the restaurant inside the El Cortez Hotel and Casino); we decided to go over to Hoover Dam to see the bridge they built 880 feet above the Colorado River to the south of the dam.

No, that’s not Dad with me in this photo.

Of course, this was after we check our multi-game Keno tickets to see what money we might have one. We both got some money, but not enough to cover what we had spent on the multi-game tickets.

A view out the window of the El Cortez towards the Las Vegas Strip.

Oh well, we bought new tickets, then headed out.

A view of Lake Mead as we headed towards Hoover Dam.

We actually drove out Fremont Street, which turns into Boulder Highway for most of the way, just to look at all the run down and closed up motels along the way.

The Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino, a nice place to make a pit stop on the way to Hoover Dam. Nice clean bathrooms!

Then, after getting on the freeway, Dad announced he needed to make a “pit stop.” Fortunately, the Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino was just at the next off-ramp – only a mile. So we got off the freeway and went inside the place so Dad could do his “duty.” By the way, it’s a very nice place with lots of interesting history on the construction of Hoover Dam.

My Dad, Jim Eades, looks down upon Hoover Dam from the bridge.

Okay, that was done and on to the overlook for the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which is the actual highway now between Nevada and Arizona.

At the top of the switchbacks trail leading to the overlook of the dam and the bridge.

We climbed a multitude of switchbacks on the walk up to the overlook, which were built very ADA compliant, by the way, with a grade of a 1-foot rise for every 12-feet. We both walked all the switchbacks up and down, rather than take the stairs

It’s a long drop from that bridge to the Colorado River below. But a great view of Hoover Dam. You can see the water level of Lake Mead is fairly low.

Once at the top, we walked out on the bridge on the pedestrian walkway to take in the view of Hoover Dam. We were 880 feet above the surface of the Colorado River below, south of the dam. A scary height indeed. The wind was blowing pretty hard too, so Dad had to carry his “Pop Pop” baseball hat so it would not blow away into the canyon below.

The bridge over the Colorado River near Hoover Dam.

You can still drive, very slowly, across Hoover Dam. But once across, you will have to turn around and drive back across, as it is no longer a throughway for traffic.

Cars still drive very slowly across Hoover Dam.

Then we drove through Boulder City on the way back to Vegas. That afternoon, after myself doing a little bit of my freelance work,  we both went out to “check on our investment” in Las Vegas. (You know, gamble.)

These folks from Michigan were all having Bloody Marys at the Golden Nugget’s Bar 46. (They make an excellent Manhattan there, by the way.)

But before I hit the poker room at the Golden Nugget, I had a Manhattan at its Bar 46, where I met up with a group from Michigan who had flown into town and made that bar their first stop to have their version of Bloody Marys. (Seven of them in all!) They proclaimed them the best they’d ever had.

An interesting character on Fremont Street.

I won some of the money I had lost the night before playing poker by, playing poker.

While walking back to the El Cortez from the Golden Nugget, I did run into a few interesting characters along the way.

I think this guy behind me lost all his money at the Craps tables.

Sadly, neither mine, nor my Dad’s numbers all came in that night at Keno.

Then it was on to dinner at Bugsy’s. We both had Rib-Eye steaks. But in Dad’s case he did have a hard time eating it, so I gladly finished it for him. We also washed it down with three (apiece) glasses of red wine – the wine was free due to the donations we both made in the Keno lounge.

A very fast asleep Pop Pop.

So now that we’ve both had all that wine, we’re both very sleepy. He’s all ready asleep and I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open. So, it’s on to bed, then on to Pleasant Grove, Utah tomorrow.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to the Day One story.

Day one of the 23-day road trip with my 85-year-old father started out innocently enough, we were just going to go to Vegas for a couple nights. After all, he had a few free nights at his favorite hotel: The El Cortez downtown.

But once we hit the road, we encountered our first little problem as we were climbing up to Cajon Pass on I-15, he could not find his sunglasses. He thought he had put them in one bag, the easily accessible one, but no. Oh well, he’d have to live without them if he had left them at home.

So, it was on to Victorville for our first stop, the traditional breakfast at Denny’s on Palmdale Road. We both had the same breakfast off the senior citizen menu, the scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, bacon and pancakes. Then it was time to pay for the meal, which was on him.

Well. we encountered our second snafu. He attempted to use one of his credit cards to pay for the meal, and tip, but the machine rejected it. So he ended up using another card. But why it wasn’t being accepted was a puzzler. More on that in a bit.

Mark Eades stands near the giant ice cream sundae at Eddie World.

Fed and paid for, we went along on I-15 to our next stop, the newest tourist trap along the road to Vegas: Eddie World.

The wall of Los Angeles Lakers memorabilia on a wall inside Eddie World.

The owner is a big Lakers fan, and has a giant wall that shows his love of the Lakers.

Even the toilet handles at Eddie World are clean as with each opening of the handle, a new plastic cover slips over the handle – see Ma? No germs.

One of the selling points of Eddie World is that it has the cleanest bathrooms anywhere along that route, and I have to agree. Even the handles in the toilet stalls are set up with plastic that gets replaced every time someone uses them.

For a tourist trap they have some good food, even build your own pizza that is baked in a wood-fired oven.

They also sell a large variety of their own produced candies, wood-fired pizzas, fresh-ground hamburgers, and there’s even a section with multiple flavors of ice cream. In addition, there’s a jerky stand with a whole lot of varieties of jerky, and a Peet’s coffee counter.

Some of the stuff sold in Eddie World.

After spending some time inside, Dad decided to call the people about his refused credit card. Turned out they had sent him a new one, and he had neglected to validate it. So not only was the card he was carrying invalid, they invalidated the one probably sitting at home. But no worries, he had other cards and would be able to pay his share of the trip.

So now, after some photo ops, it was on to Vegas. We got there, and after checking in at the hotel, he immediately went down to the Keno Lounge and bought his favorite numbers for 100 games, then lost at a video poker machine.

I went over to the Golden Nugget to the real poker room and played for a few hours, but never really got any good cards and after about three hours, had spent my limit for the day.

Back to the hotel, we rested for a bit in the hotel room while I did some editing on a freelance article due in a couple days, then we went out to check out the crazy sights in downtown Las Vegas and have a light supper.

One of the crazy characters to be found on the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas.

Trust me, there are plenty of crazy sights in the downtown area called the Fremont Street Experience including many characters willing to pose for photo ops, for a donation of course.

If you’re heavy enough, and finish your meal, it’s free.

We thought about eating at the Heart Attack Grill, but instead dined on chili dogs at the American hot dog stand that sells Coney Island chili dogs at “The D.” Then went inside to take a look at the girls wearing go-go boots dancing behind the blackjack tables.

An art display sponsored by LYFT in downtown Las Vegas.

Then we went outside to visit Manneken Pis, a copy of a famous statue in Brussels. And, of course, I took a photo of Dad standing by the statue.

We wandered around a bit more, taking in all the lights, sound and craziness, then we two older men decided it was time to shower and bed down for the night.

All in all, a nice start to what should be a memorable trip.