Just 3 words for today

Jersey Boys – wow!

Quality Las Vegas Food

We are staying for 3 days in Las Vegas, in a place we have stayed at before, the Jockey Club on the strip. When we stayed here six years ago, it was a couple of buildings with a huge carpark around it, next to the Bellagio Casino.

The Jockey Club in 2007 [...]]]>

We are staying for 3 days in Las Vegas, in a place we have stayed at before, the Jockey Club on the strip. When we stayed here six years ago, it was a couple of buildings with a huge carpark around it, next to the Bellagio Casino.

The Jockey Club in 2007 after we last stayed.

Las Vegas being Las Vegas, therre is always something new being built. We booked into the Jockey Club online, then drove down the strip to find not one, but two Casinos had been built near it.

The Jockey Club, now surrounded by the Cosmopolitan Casino

Its a great place to stay. We have a suite with a kitchen (a bid step up from camping or motel 6), and its right on the Strip.

We had been saving up our pennies. (We are so glad Australia got rid of 1 and 2 cent pieces, they are such a pain), to play on the slots (pokies). However we found pokies don’t take 1 cent pieces (pennies) anymore so we each inserted a dollar note. Greg lost his dollar within 2 minutes, while Judy won $124.

Just part of the Bellagio Flower Garden- all inside

We went into the city centre to view the Morman temples in Temple [...]]]> Salt Lake city is a nice looking city. There are mountains (currently covered in snow) both West and East of the city. Even in the centre of capitalism there are no houses built on the mountains, so its a great view.

We went into the city centre to view the Morman temples in Temple Square.

Morman temple Salt Lake City

We headed South on the I-15 towards Arizona and Nevada. It was cold in Salt lake City, but gradually got warmer as we got further south. By the time we reached Arizona, it was warm, and we had left the snow on the mountains. We had a great drive on the I-15 through Virgin River canyon.

Virgin River Canyon Arizona

The it was into Nevada, and we got our first views of Las Vegas covered in haze. The it was time to hit the peak hour traffice (5pm) driving into Las Vegas. 6 lanes all crawling along.

It was very cold in the morning -8C, with a thick layer of ice on the windscreen of the car that we [...]]]> We stayed in West Yellowstone, just outside of the park. The town is almost completely closed. Even the hotel we stayed in with a few other guests was being renovated around us.

It was very cold in the morning -8C, with a thick layer of ice on the windscreen of the car that we had to scrape off.

what happens when its -8C

cars across the road that look like they have been buried all winter

We headed south through Idaho, through lots of frozen landscape.

filling at a service station, lots o mud, and slush and piles of snow

Eventually we made it to Salt Lake City. We stayed close to the centre of the city.

If I was clever, I could write a poem. But I’m not, so I’ve just shared a few random words about our day in Yellowstone National Park. It was definitely [...]]]> Geysers. Steam. Bison. Mule Deer. No grizzly bears, thank goodness. Cold. 6 different kinds of snow. Hot water ponds. Yellowstone Grand Canyon. Old Faithful.

If I was clever, I could write a poem. But I’m not, so I’ve just shared a few random words about our day in Yellowstone National Park. It was definitely worth the 2000 km detour.

Dodging for Bisons. We had to weave through four different herds of bison walking along the roads in Yellowstone

45 degrees from the equator

Snow in Yellowstone

The roads inside Yellowstone had only been opened three days before

The boardwalks were still covered in a 1 metre cover of snow and ice

Old Faithful Geyser

After our snow problems getting into Colorado, we were wary of getting caught by snow along the route. The shortest route according to google maps took us through Teton Pass, which according to [...]]]> After deciding that since Yellowstone National park opened for spring on Friday morning, we would detour (2,000km) to Yellowstone National park.

After our snow problems getting into Colorado, we were wary of getting caught by snow along the route. The shortest route according to google maps took us through Teton Pass, which according to the webcam was covered in snow. So we decided to go via I-25 north into Wyoming, and then across the I-90 to Gardiner.

Wyoming is even more rural than Kansas.

Big Horn mountains in Wyoming

Boulder is a lovely town. [...]]]> We spent the day exploring Boulder, then drove back to Denver along the eastern edge of the Rockies. The mountains around Denver and Boulder are spectacular, and the higher peaks are still covered in snow. It’s a very impressive backdrop for residents when they walk out their front door.

Boulder is a lovely town. The main street shopping area is a mall, so it reminds us of home. We happened to find a Borders bookstore that is closing down ( I’ve said it before …. books just seem to find us, even when we’re not looking), so we went and had a look. I picked up 3 gems – my current favourite author Larry McMurtry’s latest book, Hollywood, which is the 3rd part of his memoir, Annie Proulx’s latest and Before the Fall by Kylie Ladd, an Australian author. Greg found a couple too.

I had done a bit of internet research and found out about food carts in and around Boulder. Here they call them ‘gastro truck’, but that has some negative connotations for us Aussies ( I wonder what the Americans call ‘gastro’?). Anyway, I found out about one that serves American/BBQ food – a lot of them serve Mexican food, and they’re great, but I wanted to try a BBQ one. Top of the Hill Grill West sounded good, and they had posted their Friday location on their Facebook page – here. However, before we went to find them a couple of kms from the CBD, we had a pre-lunch hotdog from a little hotdog cart in the mall. Stood eating it and chatted to the seller and his customers & found out a bit more about Boulder.

And then on to our ‘real’ lunch destination. The guys run their food cart out of a very impressive van-turned-into-kitchen. They are in a different location each day, and many evenings, and post their location on their Facebook page. They offered 6 or 8 choices, plus side dishes. The food is all cooked as it’s ordered. I had a Pulled Pork and Coleslaw sandwich, Greg had a Steak & Cheese sandwich, and we shared side orders of cornbread and hand-cut fries. I almost can’t think of enough words to describe how delicious and tasty it all was. Definitely one of the best meals we’ve eaten in the US on this trip.

menu on the Gastro Truck

lunch from the Gastro Truck

Flowers in Boulder Colorado

the Rocky Mountains from Denver

And it only got colder.

We left Colby in rain, that gradually changed to sleet, and then when we crossed the Colorado border, snow. It was difficult driving along the interstate through snow and slush, having semi-trailers pass throwing up loads of water [...]]]> It was a cold morning in Colby Kansas, about 1 C.

And it only got colder.

We left Colby in rain, that gradually changed to sleet, and then when we crossed the Colorado border, snow. It was difficult driving along the interstate through snow and slush, having semi-trailers pass throwing up loads of water and slush over the windscreen, making it almost impossible to see. An SUV following us slid off the road onto the median strip.

Evenutally we drove through the snow areas to get to completely snow-free areas. We are staying a great hotel we got cheap on hotel.com, in the southern part of Denver.

parked having a break from driving in the snow, colorado

We avoided the toll road to Topeka, travelling on a state road. Once we left Topeka it got very rural with not much around.  Onece we past Salina it got very flat.  Our choices of places [...]]]> The long journey over the midwestern prairie. We drove through Kansas City, which is in Missouri not Kansas.

We avoided the toll road to Topeka, travelling on a state road. Once we left Topeka it got very rural with not much around.  Onece we past Salina it got very flat.  Our choices of places to stay were getting more limited as we got into western kansas, as the towns are much further apart.

Eventually arrived at Colby in the evening. Colby has a population 5000 people and is nearly 1000 metres above sea level.

Windgenerator in Kansas

It was then back on the I-40, which we [...]]]> We left camp in the Smokies, driving through the are north, which was very green and beautiful.  Along the sides of the highway, there were fields of wild daffodils, and many blossom trees – spring has only just started in this part of the US.

It was then back on the I-40, which we last left in the Texas Panhandle (north texas). All was good, we drove through Nashville Tennesse without dropping below 50 mph (80 kph), which tells you two things.

1. That the USA Interstates are very good at getting you through large cities with no congestion.

2. We are not country music fans.

Then it started to rain. In the 19 days we have been in the USA, we have seen two cold fronts sweep across the country. Both times there have been severe thunderstorms and tornados. Yesterday a tornado almost completely wiped out a town in Wisconsin. However this is just normal life in the US. They get severe storms and tornados often.

So we were on the I-24 heading north, and it rained more and more and more. The traffic slowed and slowed. It was hard to see the tail lights of the semi-trailer only 100 metres in front. It was very, very heavy rain. We heard on the radio, some areas received 3 inches of rain (75mm) in only an hour or two. There were tornado watch warnings for Tennesse and Kentucky, areas that we were driving through.

The rain continued on and off (although not so heavy) until we got to Paducah Kentucky.