LA
As you have seen in our previous post, we had quite the day @ a game show and screening of the new John Shaft movie. The rest of the trip was pretty great too. The following day we sent to see the Hollywood Sign at Hollywood Lake Park. Yes, there is a lake up there, and getting there is a pretty cool drive in the Hollywood Hills. The park is actually a big dog park with an awesome view of the Sign. Then we went to the Griffith Observatory for some great views of LA. For lunch, we ventured to the Grand Central Market in downtown LA. The Grand Central Market has been there for over 100 years, and is a big space with multiple food vendors serving all types of food. Then, we went to the Original Farmers Market next to the Grove for some lunch desert, because we can! 😉 The day after that we were off to see the new Harry Potter land at Universal Studios. It was just OK. We did the studio tours, etc. which we like. On our final full day we just relaxed and caught up on some admin work, sat by the pool etc.. That evening we ventured to Pasadena and had dinner at a place called “Malbec” (one of our favorite wines). After dinner, we were able to hook up with some good friends Damian and Reanne, who had just bought a house, whoop whoop! It was great seeing them.
Small side note here is that while we were waiting for D&R to meet us, we were at a bar that had a few diff TVs. On one of the TVs was a favorite movie of the Chasing72 household: Step Brothers. We got to see the Catalina Wine Mixer scene, even tho there was no sound, we were quite entertained. Highly recommended if you haven’t seen it yet.
Palm Springs
After LA, we headed North to Las Vegas with a one night layover in Palm Springs to hang out with Uncle Jim for the night. It was hot, and Marge was like a barbeque, so we spent the night in Jim’s house. Marge was parked out front. After chatting and catching up for a bit, we headed out to the casino to try our luck at the slots before heading to our fave PS restaurant, LG’s. The casino did us all dirty, but the tableside Caesar salad at LG’s hit the spot. Then, Jim needed some revenge, so we attacked the casino again. Jaime broke even and I lost most of our nest egg while uncle Jim found some luck on the slots and ended up around $100.
Vegas Baby
The next morning was some goodbyes and off to Las Vegas.
Of course, we used google maps and found ourselves zigging and zagging on some small roads heading north to I-15. Eventually, I took manual control and found a somewhat bigger highway that brought us into Vegas from under Henderson. We kept the generator and RV A/C on the entire drive as it was HOT and we were trying to keep the RV cool. Unfortunately, the great people at Winnebago thwarted us as they were trying to protect us. The generator won’t run at under 1/4 gas tank left. Thus, when we got to Henderson, the generator and A/C shut off. I could have stopped for gas, but we were close to the RV park, so I kept on. Well, that little break was enough time for the heat to take over. By the time we got parked at Las Vegas RV Resort and hooked up to the 50-amp power, the inside temp was pretty unbearable in the RV, and the poor little A/C unit couldn’t fix it fast enough. Go figure – a big metal box sitting in no shade in 110 degrees has trouble getting below 95 inside! But it was OK, as we had planned to meet up with our friends “Samas” (Sam and Thomas) for some dinner and drinks, not necessarily in that order.
Samas just moved to Henderson that previous weekend, we got a quick tour of their new apartment, caught up a bit and headed out to a sushi place they like. The restaurant was a little hole in the wall in a strip mall, but it was a traditional sushi place with an all you can eat option. We all went for the all you can eat option, and it was really good (and we’re picky about our sushi)! We had a ton of sashimi, some cooked stuff and a large variety of rolls, all made to order. It was such good quality of food, convo and friends for a great price.
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Note in these pics, we are not flipping anyone off, we are reliving a previous photo of when Thomas’ drone cut his finger and we were having sushi in Mammoth. Good times!
It was a school night, so after dinner Samas had to go prepare for the day ahead while Jaime and I took the truck back to the RV and headed out to the vegas casinos looking for our revenge from the Palm Springs gambling gods. We ubered from our RV resort to the closet big/cheap casino, Sam’s Town. It wasn’t long before my black cloud of gambling death showed itself and I found myself down a Benjamin before I could blink. Jaime did a bit better, as she was able to win around $60.
The next morning we ran a few errands (Outdoor world) 😉 and then went to The Spa and The Linq for some relaxation. Hey, don’t judge! After the Spa we did a little more gambling, and this time the blackjack table was belly belly good to me and I won back my losses from the day before. Jaime lost a little, but overall we were up. Time to quit.
That night we went back to the RV, fully planning to clean up and go back out, but we were both pretty beat and just chilled for the night. I did have to run one more errand, so I took the truck to get food and some goods. While I was out, a cop pulled me over, “Wha??” What’s wrong occifer? “I can’t see a damn thing you are doing with those bikes and bike cover covering up your tail lights!” Huh, I just got that thing and put it on today. He asked for all my paperwork, and I got to show him my new South Dakota license. After a well intentioned kid tried to help me out by vouching for me to the officer, funny as heck, the cop just told me to take the cover off. So, while I was taking the cover off the bikes, I heard an engine roar behind me. As I turned, a car in a parking lot gunned it and crashed into a parked truck. OMG! A ton of people went running over to help and or get their 15 mins of fame. By the time I was done, it was a scene over there, and I couldn’t leave fast enough. I had enough drama for one night.
Off to Zion!! We are hoping its a little cooler.
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