Family Fun in Vegas---No Way!!

Free Vegas Attractions

First stop, once we received the tent, was Vegas, where we were meeting up with the Millers (another FOTR). I wasn't to sure there was going to be much for the kids to do in Las Vegas, but she assured me there was plenty. I always laughed when I saw the commercials advertising the city as a Family Destination, but I digress. The plan was to arrive on the same day and spend a few days seeing the sights. Almost happened as planned:)

When you plan a trip to Las Vegas, make sure you arrive at night to get the full impact of the Vegas strip. We did, and on our first trip down the strip, we were all in awe, then the kids saw what they called the best thing on the strip....the big McDonalds arch all lit up and dancing. After a constant reminder of..No kids not tonight we just had dinner... they settle for the prospect of getting a happy meal there sometime.

After 2 trips on the strip, we headed over to Lake Mead and set up camp for the next few days. That didn't last long, come noon the next day we felt like we were dieing  from heat stroke, camping in the middle of August... not the brightest idea. So we booked a hotel, called the Miller's, and greeted them at the door within 5 hours. We now begin our Vegas family fun. The first thing that surprised me was how cheap the hotels were. Little did I know about "Resort fees" doubled the cost of the room, rookie mistake:) We stayed in Circus Circus, highly recommended for families. With the casino on the ground level and a Circus midway on the second level (complete with circus acts) everyone was happy.

The next few days flew by in a blur, I never realized there was so much free stuff to do. We did inside attractions and shows during the day, and walked the strip from sundown to kid down:) I gotta say, our internal clocks got completely out of whack but our bodies didn't seem to mind.

As for must see kid things:
M&M World: Whats better than a free 3D Movie
The Fountain Show
The Volcano in front of The Mirage
Lion Habitat at MGM
Show in the Sky at the Rio
The Sirens of TI (Treasure Island. Kid Friendly but adult humor)
And The Fremont Experience
were the my kids favorites.

While at the casinos you can sign up for the member cards, and get some free cash to play with. Anywhere from 5-15 dollars. If you stick with the penny machines that could be almost a full hour on their money! and Every 6 months you can sign up again.

We ended up staying in Vegas for 5 or 6 whirlwind days and are looking forward to going back!

P.S. The Vegas experience was complete when we witnessed a streetwalker acquire a date to the night..or hour, don't know.

Theres Always Something

So with the idea implanted into my mind, I began to make plans. We'd start in Montana cross over to Washington, head down the Oregon coast, drive all the way to San Diego, up to Vegas, Salt Lake City, then back home. All the while hitting everything in between. Nows heres what really happened. First, we were postponed for almost two weeks. The water pump on the car went out, oh, such a simple thing, nada problem, we'll just replace it and be on our way. I was so wrong, we had to take everything out of the car just to get the water pump off, including the timing belt and pulley. In the meantime, our plans had changed slightly, we would head south than north, same idea, just reversed traveling. The initial water pump process took 5 days because we didn't have the proper tools. Then another 4 days to get the timing pulley and belt back on and have it timed right so the car would run. That was a challenge since neither of us had ever set timing on a car. With the help of friends and the Internet, we got the car timed properly. Within 2 days, we had the little car packed with all the essentials for what I called our big Camping Adventure. We hooked up the trailer and moved her to storage and headed out west. We drove through Montana, we drove through Idaho, We drove through Salt Lake, which was were I wanted to stop for a few days but nothing was available for us to set up camp, so we drove south to a place called Chicken Creek, where we camped for the first night. Our goal was to be in Vegas where we were meeting the Miller family

for a few days of fun.

Pioneer Beginnings:)

It's been awhile since I have been able to post anything. I know what you are thinking......busy busy busy with working Yellowstone. Well, my fellow travelers and wannabes, that couldn't be further from the truth. First let me say the the drive out here was awesome.....once we got off the highway for the last 2 hour stretch of Nebraska. Earlier in the drive, we lost the newest member of the family, Lilith our Ball Python, to the scorching dry heat of the Nebraska plains, everyone was upset. So let me say that for the most part, Nebraska is best driven at night. Once we got off the highway, we checked out Chimney Rock and Scottsbluff and spent the whole day in that corner of the country. When we finally made it to Yellowstone, we were greeted by 5 buffalo sleeping on the side of the road. We spent 3 hours driving through the park just to get to our campsite, did we see everything on that first drive?......not even close:) But I was able to give my son Marshall what he wanted for his birthday....Snow!! On June 9th there was 6 feet of snow on the sides of the mountain we were transversing as well as a heavy snow fall! He was in heaven:) We arrived at the campground, unloaded and began to unwind. I started work the next day working for as cashier for one of the gift shops. I loved it, this appeared to be a dream job, we were able to tour the park on my off days and get discounts to boot. About 3 weeks into it, I was awaken by a knock on the door from my manager and informed that I was laid off, unfortunately, with the current over all sales being in the red, and dispite cutting everyones hours to 26 a week, they had to start laying off the newest employees,(me being the first) but not to worry, when they picked back up, they would call(yeah right). You have 3 hours to be out....Ok where do we go??? With my next check a few days away, and our finances still not recovered from the 1000 hit it took to get there, we decided to temporarily boondock until we could figure something out. We ended up at a wonderful spot right on the Yellowstone river where we had our own private access to our own swim area . Talk about roughing it in style:) We stayed there for a few weeks, feeling very much like pioneers! River water for all our water needs, including laundry and cooking with only a campfire. I had the best lasagna in that fire pit! Yes it can be done, you can eat more than just hot dogs and eggs, but thats another blog:) After 2 weeks of pioneer life, I concocted our plans. We decided to store our wonderful home and truck and  head west. We loaded up the Metro with out tent, pillows, blankets, food storage, and all other necessities I could cram between the kids and headed off to a new adventure and new chapter. To Be Continued...... Next up. 5 people 1 tent 2 months