10/28/2009 - We awoke to a very cool morning with 35-40 mph wind gusts. We had the heat on all day for the first time this year. I spent the morning finishing my work on our road trip pictures while while Connie read her latest book. In the afternoon we went to the Southpoint Casino to see the movie Law Abiding Citizen, which my brother recommended the last time he called. We really liked it. Click the title to read our review. After the movie we drove to a new restaurant that I heard about that was suppose to be serving New England fried clams. At $13.95 for 12 clams, it was a little expensive, however they were the best we have had since our arrival in Vegas. We will definately have to try it again.
On the way home we got really lucky. We were the second car back in the middle lane at an intersection, when two cars collided head on directly in front of us which also involved two more cars stopped at the light, including the vehicle right next to us. We still are not sure how they missed the guy in front of us, which would have surely forced him into us based upon the force of the inpacts. Counting our blessings, we drove home and watch a sooting show on America's National Parks that we had recorded on the TV. If you haven't seen this 5-part series on PBS, you must make an effort to find it. Not only has it been educational and informative, the photography has been absolutely outstanding. This is a MUST WATCH series. Click here for more info ... The National Parks: America's Best Idea
10/26/2009 - Printed out all of the picture pages I put together over the past week and put them into Connies Travel Album. We then went to the "M" Casino to meet up with one of our neighbors for their terrific buffet lunch. Played poker for the remainder of the afternoon and won $100. We then came home and watched a Netflix, Zodiac, a movie about the serial killings in San Francisco in the 60's and 70's. It was very good.
10/25/2009 - Watched the Patriots win another game and then worked some more on our trip pictures. I finally got everything done except for the pictures of the balloon festival in Albuquerque.
10/24/2009 - It is so easy to get real lazy. I realized today that I havent updated my blog since we went away on our road trip back on the 5th of October. With so much to do and write; info on our trip, book reviews, movie reviews, etc., I decided that I needed to make the updates to the monthly summary, Daily Diary - "October. Go there and scroll back to October 5th if you want to see what we have been up to lately and to find links to some of the great pictures we took on our trip.
10/23/2009 - Today was a busy one. Seeing we were up early we decided to go out for breakfast. Using a 2-1 coupon and comps on Connie's slot card, we enjoy a wonderful free buffet breakfast at the Southpoint Casino. Then using $30 in free slot play they sent us in the mail, Connie made $50 playing slots while I picked up $32 playing poker. We then went to Amelia (click for review). With another coupon, the movies, popcorn and soda were a total of $6.00. After all this we went over to the "M" Casino where Connie had another $10 in free slot play. After three hours, she only won $5, however I picked up $320 at the poker table. We were planning on going to a free symphony concert at the Pavalion, however decided that we were two tired and just went home and had a pizza and watched some TV.
10/22/2009 - My lucky day! Though the last couple of days have been too windy to enjoy the pool, today was just perfect. After some reading we went over to the "M" for a buffet lunch and some slots and poker. After only about an hour of playing I got four 3's on the flop which payed a bonus of $1,000 plus the pot. Life is good!
10/21/3009 - While we were at the pool reading, one of my neighbors, whom I haven't seem much lately due to our trip and his being sickly, came by and noted he was going to the "M" to play the evening tournament andasked if I wanted to go with him. I said why not. By the time we came home around midnight, I have mad nearly $200, a nice little evening. Unfortunately Jim got knocked out of the tournament and lost a little at blackjack.
10/18/2009 - Stayed in and worked on pictures from our road trip. Watched the Patriots slaughter the Tennessee Titans 59-0 in the snow. What a game! Brady had three touchdown passes in 3-1/2 minutes and five in one quarter, for a NFL record. Naturally we loved it. Worked some more on pictures after the game and then watched a Netflix movie, "Mall Cop" that one of our neighbors had given us. It was just so-so.
10/17/2009 - Did the pool thing and read my book in the morning. Worked on pictures from our road trip all afternoon. Went to the Italian Festival held in the outdoor pool area at the "M" Casino with our downstairs neighbors Ron and Garyann. The food was pretty good, though a little expensive. Had seats right in front of the stage for a concert put on by Louis Prima, Jr. We were surprised; it was actually much better than we expected. After the show it was then home and some recorded TV shows.
10/13/2009 - Our first full day back from our road trip we decided to try and get back to our old routine. I picked up our mail from a neighbor who was holding it for us and sat down at the computer and paid bills. I then began copying all of my trip pictures (over 1,000) to the computer and organizing them by subject and location into folders. We then went to the pool, sat in the spa, finished reading the book I had started before our trip, and then went to the "M" for a buffet dinner and some gambling. It actually felt good to be home and have a good meal after eating in what I considered "sub-par" restaurents for nearly a week.
10/12/2009 - We finally made it home after eight days on the road traveling through Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. Totaling of the miles, we traveled nearly 2,000 miles; of which most of the driving was done by our friend and traveling companion Marc. Before getting back to Henderson, we drove through the Hoover Dam, where I got some pictures of the new by-pass bridge being built there. Check here for more info and pictures ... Hoover Dam After unpacking, I went through and deleted nearly a 100 emails, most of which were "junk" advertisements and newsletters.
10/11/2009 - On the seventh day we had a long drive heading to Flagstaff, Arizona. While on the way we were checking AAA Tour Book and found a place to visit just this side of Flagstaff that looked interesting - Walnut Canyon National Monument. Even though this turned out to be one of our most arduous adventures, it was well worth the stop. It was a canyon with more than 300 pre-Columbian cliff dwellings dating back more than 800 years. Click here for more info and pictures ... Walnut Canyon National Monument. After checking into our motel in Flagstaff, we started looking for a place for dinner and found Granny's Closet - Bar and Restaurant. It featured prime rib, hand cut steaks, Italian dishes and an outstanding salad bar. Esablished in 1974, it has 40 HDTV's in the sports bar and the restaurant has been a local's favorite for years. We had the best meal of the entire trip here. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, his is a MUST stop for anyone visiting Flagstaff.
10/09/2009 - On the fifth day we headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a couple of days at the 38th Annual Balloon Festival. On Friday we attended the Special Shape Glowdeo, when all the balloons fire their burners and light up at the same time, which was quite spectacular. On Saturday, we got up at 3:30 am and headed over to the park for the Dawn Patrol and the day's Mass Ascension. Watching hundreds of balloons take flight was truely an awesome experience. Click here for more information and pictures ... Albuquerque Balloon Festival. I even put together a slide show showing the step by step process of getting a balloon aloft ... Anatomy of a Balloon Ride.
10/08/2009 - On our fourth day we left the Grand Canyon headed for Page, Arizona to see "slot" canyons at Antelope Canyon. This was truely an amazing place. Walking through these slot canyons was truely a unique experiene. Click here for more info and pictures ... Antelope Canyon. Next we headed to Monument Valley up near the "Four Corners" area of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Though it made for a long day, we got there just in time for a private "sunset" tour. Just another fabulous experience. Check it out ... Monument Valley
10/07/2009 - On the third day of our journey, we were confronted with a snow squall as we entered the Grand Canyon National Park. Though we thought this day was going to be a "bust" as far as pictures were concerned, it ended up better than we thought. We even got a picture of a rainbow over the canyon. For more information and pictures, click here ... Grand Canyon National Park - North Rim. That night we slept in a cabin at the rim.
10/06/2009 - On the second day of our fall road trip we traveled the entire length of Route 12, which has been dubbed the most scenic route in America. Its 124 miles runs through the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument and the Dixie National Forest. It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful ride of the entire trip. Click here for pictures and more info - Grand Staircase - Route-12. On the return trip we took Route 24 west and then routes 62 and 63 south. The latter two roads followed two rivers that ran right down the middle of a section of the Dixie National Forest. Though nowhere near as scenic as Route 12, it was none-the-less a very nice ride that was highlighted by the "running of the cows". Check it out - Dixie National Forest
10/05/2009 - We left this morning with our neighbor Marc on our road trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico to see the annual hot air balloon festival. Marc offered to do the driving and we gladly accepted. Our first stop was at Zion National Park (click for pictures and more info) in southern Utah. After our visit to Zion we somehow drove by a restaurant we were looking for called the Buffalo Bistro in Glendale and ended up having a horrible lunch at some place about 15 miles up the road in a town so small that it isn't even listed on the map. Our next stop was Bryce Canyon (click for pictures and more info), which we found to be just amazing. We finally ended up at the Americas Best Value Inn in Tropic, Utah. We thought the motel was pretty good and the food at "Clarke's" restaurant next door was OK, if not a little over priced. The good news was that the homemade apple pie was outstanding.
10/03/2009 - Today we headed up the street to the Henderson Pavilion where they were putting pictures on display from a local photo contest that I entered. Needless to say I didn't win anything, but it was fun getting out and taking the pictures. Click the following links to view some of the pictures that I took for the contest. Miscellanous Wash Photos and photos entered into the contest. Contest Entries
10/02/2009 - Except for some time at the pool, I spent the the remainder of the day finishing up reformatting the pages of our "Retirement Journal" that I created using Scrapbook and my new PDF program. Made a nice fruit salad for lunch and cooked chicken and fried rice for dinner which ate over TV shows that we had recorded.
10/01/2009 - We ate a free lunch at Applebee's on a gift card that was given to us by one of our ex-neighbors for helping them out. We had the baby back ribs (a little dry) with FF and onion rings. We then drove to the Strip to view the dinosaur exhibit on display at the former Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at the Venetian. The entire exhibit is to be auctioned off Oct. 3 by the Bonhams & Butterfields auction house, however until then, the 50 lots of fossils were on display for public viewing free of charge. The centerpiece of the temporary exhibit was the 66 million-year-old skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex named "Samson". The 40-foot-long female skeleton contains 170 bones and is considered one of only three to have been unearthed with more than 50 percent of its bone count, says Thomas Lindgren, consulting co-director of natural history for the auction house.
Samson was discovered in South Dakota and sat unassembled in a barn for several years, while the discoverer looked for a buyer, Lindgren says. The skeleton was a notable find because it's the first to have been found with an intact skull. Previous examples have all had crushed skulls, he adds. It also has skeletal features that suggest a new species of T. rex. In life, Samson likely weighed 12,000 pounds, or six tons. Her cause of death is undetermined, but bite marks on the skeleton suggest she sustained injuries shortly before dying, Lindgren says. Among the other fossils was a fully mounted, 28-foot-long duckbilled dinosaur skeleton, a seven-foot-long fossil shark from the Permian period, and a giant shark's jaws, eight-feet tall and 10-feet wide. Click here for pictures T-Rex at Venetian
On the way home we got really lucky. We were the second car back in the middle lane at an intersection, when two cars collided head on directly in front of us which also involved two more cars stopped at the light, including the vehicle right next to us. We still are not sure how they missed the guy in front of us, which would have surely forced him into us based upon the force of the inpacts. Counting our blessings, we drove home and watch a sooting show on America's National Parks that we had recorded on the TV. If you haven't seen this 5-part series on PBS, you must make an effort to find it. Not only has it been educational and informative, the photography has been absolutely outstanding. This is a MUST WATCH series. Click here for more info ... The National Parks: America's Best Idea
10/26/2009 - Printed out all of the picture pages I put together over the past week and put them into Connies Travel Album. We then went to the "M" Casino to meet up with one of our neighbors for their terrific buffet lunch. Played poker for the remainder of the afternoon and won $100. We then came home and watched a Netflix, Zodiac, a movie about the serial killings in San Francisco in the 60's and 70's. It was very good.
10/25/2009 - Watched the Patriots win another game and then worked some more on our trip pictures. I finally got everything done except for the pictures of the balloon festival in Albuquerque.
10/24/2009 - It is so easy to get real lazy. I realized today that I havent updated my blog since we went away on our road trip back on the 5th of October. With so much to do and write; info on our trip, book reviews, movie reviews, etc., I decided that I needed to make the updates to the monthly summary, Daily Diary - "October. Go there and scroll back to October 5th if you want to see what we have been up to lately and to find links to some of the great pictures we took on our trip.
10/23/2009 - Today was a busy one. Seeing we were up early we decided to go out for breakfast. Using a 2-1 coupon and comps on Connie's slot card, we enjoy a wonderful free buffet breakfast at the Southpoint Casino. Then using $30 in free slot play they sent us in the mail, Connie made $50 playing slots while I picked up $32 playing poker. We then went to Amelia (click for review). With another coupon, the movies, popcorn and soda were a total of $6.00. After all this we went over to the "M" Casino where Connie had another $10 in free slot play. After three hours, she only won $5, however I picked up $320 at the poker table. We were planning on going to a free symphony concert at the Pavalion, however decided that we were two tired and just went home and had a pizza and watched some TV.
10/22/2009 - My lucky day! Though the last couple of days have been too windy to enjoy the pool, today was just perfect. After some reading we went over to the "M" for a buffet lunch and some slots and poker. After only about an hour of playing I got four 3's on the flop which payed a bonus of $1,000 plus the pot. Life is good!
10/21/3009 - While we were at the pool reading, one of my neighbors, whom I haven't seem much lately due to our trip and his being sickly, came by and noted he was going to the "M" to play the evening tournament andasked if I wanted to go with him. I said why not. By the time we came home around midnight, I have mad nearly $200, a nice little evening. Unfortunately Jim got knocked out of the tournament and lost a little at blackjack.
10/18/2009 - Stayed in and worked on pictures from our road trip. Watched the Patriots slaughter the Tennessee Titans 59-0 in the snow. What a game! Brady had three touchdown passes in 3-1/2 minutes and five in one quarter, for a NFL record. Naturally we loved it. Worked some more on pictures after the game and then watched a Netflix movie, "Mall Cop" that one of our neighbors had given us. It was just so-so.
10/17/2009 - Did the pool thing and read my book in the morning. Worked on pictures from our road trip all afternoon. Went to the Italian Festival held in the outdoor pool area at the "M" Casino with our downstairs neighbors Ron and Garyann. The food was pretty good, though a little expensive. Had seats right in front of the stage for a concert put on by Louis Prima, Jr. We were surprised; it was actually much better than we expected. After the show it was then home and some recorded TV shows.
10/13/2009 - Our first full day back from our road trip we decided to try and get back to our old routine. I picked up our mail from a neighbor who was holding it for us and sat down at the computer and paid bills. I then began copying all of my trip pictures (over 1,000) to the computer and organizing them by subject and location into folders. We then went to the pool, sat in the spa, finished reading the book I had started before our trip, and then went to the "M" for a buffet dinner and some gambling. It actually felt good to be home and have a good meal after eating in what I considered "sub-par" restaurents for nearly a week.
10/12/2009 - We finally made it home after eight days on the road traveling through Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. Totaling of the miles, we traveled nearly 2,000 miles; of which most of the driving was done by our friend and traveling companion Marc. Before getting back to Henderson, we drove through the Hoover Dam, where I got some pictures of the new by-pass bridge being built there. Check here for more info and pictures ... Hoover Dam After unpacking, I went through and deleted nearly a 100 emails, most of which were "junk" advertisements and newsletters.
10/11/2009 - On the seventh day we had a long drive heading to Flagstaff, Arizona. While on the way we were checking AAA Tour Book and found a place to visit just this side of Flagstaff that looked interesting - Walnut Canyon National Monument. Even though this turned out to be one of our most arduous adventures, it was well worth the stop. It was a canyon with more than 300 pre-Columbian cliff dwellings dating back more than 800 years. Click here for more info and pictures ... Walnut Canyon National Monument. After checking into our motel in Flagstaff, we started looking for a place for dinner and found Granny's Closet - Bar and Restaurant. It featured prime rib, hand cut steaks, Italian dishes and an outstanding salad bar. Esablished in 1974, it has 40 HDTV's in the sports bar and the restaurant has been a local's favorite for years. We had the best meal of the entire trip here. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, his is a MUST stop for anyone visiting Flagstaff.
10/09/2009 - On the fifth day we headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a couple of days at the 38th Annual Balloon Festival. On Friday we attended the Special Shape Glowdeo, when all the balloons fire their burners and light up at the same time, which was quite spectacular. On Saturday, we got up at 3:30 am and headed over to the park for the Dawn Patrol and the day's Mass Ascension. Watching hundreds of balloons take flight was truely an awesome experience. Click here for more information and pictures ... Albuquerque Balloon Festival. I even put together a slide show showing the step by step process of getting a balloon aloft ... Anatomy of a Balloon Ride.
10/08/2009 - On our fourth day we left the Grand Canyon headed for Page, Arizona to see "slot" canyons at Antelope Canyon. This was truely an amazing place. Walking through these slot canyons was truely a unique experiene. Click here for more info and pictures ... Antelope Canyon. Next we headed to Monument Valley up near the "Four Corners" area of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Though it made for a long day, we got there just in time for a private "sunset" tour. Just another fabulous experience. Check it out ... Monument Valley
10/07/2009 - On the third day of our journey, we were confronted with a snow squall as we entered the Grand Canyon National Park. Though we thought this day was going to be a "bust" as far as pictures were concerned, it ended up better than we thought. We even got a picture of a rainbow over the canyon. For more information and pictures, click here ... Grand Canyon National Park - North Rim. That night we slept in a cabin at the rim.
10/06/2009 - On the second day of our fall road trip we traveled the entire length of Route 12, which has been dubbed the most scenic route in America. Its 124 miles runs through the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument and the Dixie National Forest. It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful ride of the entire trip. Click here for pictures and more info - Grand Staircase - Route-12. On the return trip we took Route 24 west and then routes 62 and 63 south. The latter two roads followed two rivers that ran right down the middle of a section of the Dixie National Forest. Though nowhere near as scenic as Route 12, it was none-the-less a very nice ride that was highlighted by the "running of the cows". Check it out - Dixie National Forest
10/05/2009 - We left this morning with our neighbor Marc on our road trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico to see the annual hot air balloon festival. Marc offered to do the driving and we gladly accepted. Our first stop was at Zion National Park (click for pictures and more info) in southern Utah. After our visit to Zion we somehow drove by a restaurant we were looking for called the Buffalo Bistro in Glendale and ended up having a horrible lunch at some place about 15 miles up the road in a town so small that it isn't even listed on the map. Our next stop was Bryce Canyon (click for pictures and more info), which we found to be just amazing. We finally ended up at the Americas Best Value Inn in Tropic, Utah. We thought the motel was pretty good and the food at "Clarke's" restaurant next door was OK, if not a little over priced. The good news was that the homemade apple pie was outstanding.
10/03/2009 - Today we headed up the street to the Henderson Pavilion where they were putting pictures on display from a local photo contest that I entered. Needless to say I didn't win anything, but it was fun getting out and taking the pictures. Click the following links to view some of the pictures that I took for the contest. Miscellanous Wash Photos and photos entered into the contest. Contest Entries
10/02/2009 - Except for some time at the pool, I spent the the remainder of the day finishing up reformatting the pages of our "Retirement Journal" that I created using Scrapbook and my new PDF program. Made a nice fruit salad for lunch and cooked chicken and fried rice for dinner which ate over TV shows that we had recorded.
10/01/2009 - We ate a free lunch at Applebee's on a gift card that was given to us by one of our ex-neighbors for helping them out. We had the baby back ribs (a little dry) with FF and onion rings. We then drove to the Strip to view the dinosaur exhibit on display at the former Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at the Venetian. The entire exhibit is to be auctioned off Oct. 3 by the Bonhams & Butterfields auction house, however until then, the 50 lots of fossils were on display for public viewing free of charge. The centerpiece of the temporary exhibit was the 66 million-year-old skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex named "Samson". The 40-foot-long female skeleton contains 170 bones and is considered one of only three to have been unearthed with more than 50 percent of its bone count, says Thomas Lindgren, consulting co-director of natural history for the auction house.
Samson was discovered in South Dakota and sat unassembled in a barn for several years, while the discoverer looked for a buyer, Lindgren says. The skeleton was a notable find because it's the first to have been found with an intact skull. Previous examples have all had crushed skulls, he adds. It also has skeletal features that suggest a new species of T. rex. In life, Samson likely weighed 12,000 pounds, or six tons. Her cause of death is undetermined, but bite marks on the skeleton suggest she sustained injuries shortly before dying, Lindgren says. Among the other fossils was a fully mounted, 28-foot-long duckbilled dinosaur skeleton, a seven-foot-long fossil shark from the Permian period, and a giant shark's jaws, eight-feet tall and 10-feet wide. Click here for pictures T-Rex at Venetian
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