Road Trip Day 10 - Flagstaff to Las Vegas

Flowers of Sedona AZ

Day 10 started in Flagstaff, Arizona.  I headed south on Hwy 17-89A to Sedona to see the red rocks there. Flagstaff is a beautiful city of about 63,000 people located at 7,000' elevation.  It is surrounded by Ponderosa Pines and reminded me of Lake Tahoe.  Absolutely beautiful!

The road to Sedona was very interesting.  It was very, very curvy and dropped me down about 2,000 or 3,000' in elevation to an world of incredible beauty.  Kind of like the red monuments of southern Utah but with some green, too.  Very much a tourist destination with the historic district filled with people checking out the scenery and the shopping.  Sedona has the only McDonalds in the world with turquoise arches instead of "Golden".  Seems that the only way the town would allow McDonalds to open a restaurant was if the arches could be turquoise.

I found a fabulous quilt store in Sedona and left with some "Sedona Colors" in a bundle of batiks.  It was one of the top ten stores a few years back.  Very nice!!

From the quilt store I headed further south to take the Red Rock Loop for an overview of the area.  Absolutely stunning beauty!  I can see why people go there for vacations!

Next stop was to be Las Vegas, NV.  I had not been in Las Vegas for at least 50 years.  When I was here last, it was a dusty little town.  We would come to Vegas for weddings, mostly.  We could not afford much and I do not remember much except getting extremely sick from drinking too much Ten High and 7-Up.  That is probably too much information but, just for the record, it does not take much Ten High and 7-Up with no ice to make anyone sick.  Not a very good memory.

Hoover Dam

On the way to Las Vegas is the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.  I had the time so decided to take the little detour and check it out.  Way too many people there but managed to get a few pictures.  This would be a fun place to come in the winter and take the tour of the dam.

California and the Southwest US are having an extreme drought.  The water level in Lake Mead was very low and this is only the beginning of the summer.  Very concerning!!  Check out the dark tips of the little islands in the lake.  That is usually all that is showing above the water.  And the boat ramps are about a quarter mile long.  The white part of the shore lines are usually under water.

I have decided that Las Vegas and places like Las Vegas are definitely not my cup of tea!  This town is crazy.  First of all, it is too crowded.  Next, I am not a gambler.  I just went to the Mandalay Bay Casino so probably have not seen some of the grandeur of the town.  The hotel lobby at the Mandalay Bay reminded me of an airport check in desk with people lined up waiting, waiting, waiting.  This is a holiday weekend so maybe that is it.  I will drive up the strip and maybe stop at one of the other monstrosities here and see if it is any better.


The gambling machines are so elaborate now that I am not sure I want to figure out how to use them.  We used to walk up to a machine, drop in a coin  and pull the lever.  Now all one has to do is sit there and push a button now and then and wait for the machine to decide how much of the credits (real money but just referred to as credits) is there for more button pushing. Even the roulette wheels were automated with each person sitting in front of a little touch screen placing their bets with just the touch of a finger.  No more of the excitement of those silver dollars and half dollars weighing heavy in your pockets.  

There was a bright spot in this adventure to the casino.  I found the Starbucks and got a new mug!  

It only took an hour at the casino to know that this is not a place I need to return to.  Especially, now that I have my Las Vegas Starbucks mug!!  

Day 11 will take me up to another Red Rock Loop (thanks to Lorie Rheams for the suggestion) and then through Death Valley on my way to Bakersfield, CA.  

Still heading west!  Ho!