Thursday, January 14, 2016
I woke up a little early at 5:30 am and since the hotel's Subway concession was open 24 hours, I made my way to it for my breakfast. Actually, almost everything in Vegas is 24 hours so this was no unique thing, but I liked Subway and it was a known value. Got a turkey and bacon sub for now and another BMT for later. While munching on my turkey sandwich breakfast, I tried to post to this blog on my Kindle and, well, you can see my failure as I wrote about it a few posts back.
I had a little more pep in my step this morning. Maybe it was my bright blue fleece I was sporting? Maybe it was the fact I was actually consuming less calories than if I were back home? Maybe it's Maybelline? Who knows but it was very much welcome since I figured I'd have a bit of walking to do today. I was headed for Hoover Dam.
The pre-arranged, pre-paid tour shuttle van showed up early as I waited for it outside the front entrance to the hotel. The driver greeted me and we were quickly underway with him talking up a storm non-stop. I was the first guest for the trip and we spent the next hour or so picking up the rest of our Gilligan's Island bunch: The chatty sisters from Michigan at Harrah's, the quiet old couple from Ohio at Holiday Inn Desert Club and the Hispanic dad, mom and teen daughter family from Nebraska at Treasure Island.
I'd booked this tour by way of Travelzoo so it cost only $45 but it was well worth even the full $60 price. Our guide, Bud, was informative (albeit not always 100% accurate) and his mellow Bob Ross-like voice made his non-stop diatribe infinitely more endurable. I got some decent video of the dam (as close to the edge as I dared...pussy me) with the new bypass bridge (which I climbed up to the pedestrian walkway of, walked out on and somehow failed to capture video of that endeavor) and an overview of Lake Mead.
After an hour and a half at the dam site we all got back on our dam bus and our dam driver Bud took us to a mountaintop site overlooking the damned lake that the dam dammed. Damn!
Back in Vegas, I saw my fellow passengers safely back to their homes away from home, Bud drove me to my digs downtown, I slipped him a $15 tip and quickly scurried past the cadre of dealers who, tonight, were actually dealing to customers rather than checking me out. I had my previously procured BMT waiting for me in my bedside table drawer all room temperature gooey-like. Damn I was pooped.
I woke up a little early at 5:30 am and since the hotel's Subway concession was open 24 hours, I made my way to it for my breakfast. Actually, almost everything in Vegas is 24 hours so this was no unique thing, but I liked Subway and it was a known value. Got a turkey and bacon sub for now and another BMT for later. While munching on my turkey sandwich breakfast, I tried to post to this blog on my Kindle and, well, you can see my failure as I wrote about it a few posts back.
I had a little more pep in my step this morning. Maybe it was my bright blue fleece I was sporting? Maybe it was the fact I was actually consuming less calories than if I were back home? Maybe it's Maybelline? Who knows but it was very much welcome since I figured I'd have a bit of walking to do today. I was headed for Hoover Dam.
The pre-arranged, pre-paid tour shuttle van showed up early as I waited for it outside the front entrance to the hotel. The driver greeted me and we were quickly underway with him talking up a storm non-stop. I was the first guest for the trip and we spent the next hour or so picking up the rest of our Gilligan's Island bunch: The chatty sisters from Michigan at Harrah's, the quiet old couple from Ohio at Holiday Inn Desert Club and the Hispanic dad, mom and teen daughter family from Nebraska at Treasure Island.
I'd booked this tour by way of Travelzoo so it cost only $45 but it was well worth even the full $60 price. Our guide, Bud, was informative (albeit not always 100% accurate) and his mellow Bob Ross-like voice made his non-stop diatribe infinitely more endurable. I got some decent video of the dam (as close to the edge as I dared...pussy me) with the new bypass bridge (which I climbed up to the pedestrian walkway of, walked out on and somehow failed to capture video of that endeavor) and an overview of Lake Mead.
Back in Vegas, I saw my fellow passengers safely back to their homes away from home, Bud drove me to my digs downtown, I slipped him a $15 tip and quickly scurried past the cadre of dealers who, tonight, were actually dealing to customers rather than checking me out. I had my previously procured BMT waiting for me in my bedside table drawer all room temperature gooey-like. Damn I was pooped.