We arrived in Vegas the evening of April 26. We’d reserved a site at the Sam’s Town KOA for a week. Our plan for this short stay was to do a bit of site seeing, a bit of shopping and a lot of rest. The drive home from Lo de Marcos is quite a long one, so making this pit stop at approximately the half way point was much needed.
I can’t say enough about the KOA, it was beautiful, well taken care of, clean and had great amenities like 50 amp sites, cable tv, a coin operated laundry, a nicely gated outdoor pool and spa, a quaint little gift shop/supply store, really nice dog runs and great staff. Plus there was a casino right next door - Sam’s Town Casino. We’re not big Casino goers, but it was a nice place to walk around in the air conditioning.
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| HeyZeus checking out the pool |
We got a walk in every day with HeyZeus and Heffay, sometimes at the same time with Dan taking HeyZeus and Heffay walking with me. Temperatures were HOT, in the low to mid 30’s celsius each day, but nicely cooling down to the mid teens overnight. Just what I like!! And the sunsets….gorgeous!
There was a considerable amount of wind on most days though, something I think is fairly “normal” for Vegas. Most of the time we were there we had to keep our awning in and on one night we even pulled the slides in as the awning covers on them were getting battered pretty badly, risking them getting ripped off and/or severely damaged. In fact, the wind was bad enough that we booked one more night to make our stay 8 nights when originally it was only for 7. It just wasn’t safe driving our huge rectangular beast down highways with winds that strong.
While there we contemplated doing some touristy things, but many included lots of walking which isn’t something that Dan can do. Especially in the heat. And, being only at the 1/2 way mark to home, it was important not to overdo it and to get some rest and recovery for our back, neck etc. Man, we sound like old farts don’t we? LOL
Even though we took it easy, we did accomplish quite a bit. We visited the enormous Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. It was beautiful inside with many displays of stuffed animals as well as a trout pond inside and a huge aquarium.
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| Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, Las Vegas (link) |
We also did some shopping at Costco. Sounds boring I know, but we hadn’t been in a Costco for six months and we or more like “I” was curious to see what was different in the Costco in the US. I know Dan could’ve gone without visiting a Costco lol! Not surprisingly they had a lot of similar products. What was an eye opener though was that for some items the prices were very similar if not identical to the prices up here in Canada. Of course that meant that it was actually more expensive down there than up here with the exchange rate, but only for some items. We were also looking to get some of the Kirkland brand muscle relaxant (their brand of Robaxacet) but to our surprise, it was not available on the shelf or behind the pharmacy counter. When I asked the pharmacy tech she looked at me as if I had two heads…muscle relaxant pills? No, they just had the muscle relaxant creams and skin patches. I couldn’t find it at Walmart either.
Another thing different is their Kirkland brand ibuprofen. Up here there is just one Kirkland brand, in different strengths and either tablet or gel caps. Down there they had Kirkland ibuprofen resembling Advil or Motrin and the pills were different in shape and even colour. Those were a good price, on sale for $6.99 for two bottles of 500. We’re set for ibuprofen for awhile. We also got some Kirkland dog food for Heffay. Poor guy had been eating pretty crappy dog food while we were in Mexico as Puppy Chow was basically one of the only kinds available at the grocery stores where we shopped. We had picked up some good quality food in Petco in Mazatlan on our way down, but those two big bags didn’t last us long given how much he eats. We were happy to get him on some better quality Kirkland Natures Domain dog food. He was happy too!
Other shopping we did was for a new mattress. We were able to get a Purple Original mattress.
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| https://purple.com/mattresses/purple-bed |
We’d been researching new mattresses for the RV, but were limited to a low profile mattress that had to be no more than 9.25 inches in height. We’d read great reviews about the Purple mattress. In Canada however, we couldn’t find anyone that sold the Purple Original which fit that height requirement. The smallest one we could find up here was 11 inches in height and that wouldn’t work because our bed is on a slide out and when it comes in has to fit underneath our wardrobes. We were super excited to find the original was available in Vegas. We found a dealer and had it delivered right to our RV at the KOA. They also took away our old mattress which was a nice bonus! It was an expensive mattress, but man is it worth every penny. Hands down the most comfortable mattress we have ever owned!!
We also switched out our uncomfortable couch for two wall hugger recliners. We’d donated the couch to one of our Mexican friends while in Lo de Marcos. These recliners were a much better deal in the States than we could have gotten in Canada, even with the exchange rate. These too we had conveniently delivered right to our RV site at the KOA. The new chairs make SUCH a difference, they are much more comfortable and also open up the space more allowing us to fit in a new cat tree for the boys!
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| Two new recliners! |
As you can figure by now we spent a fair amount of money for our short time in Vegas. Because of that and because our plan was to rest in Vegas, we didn’t take up any of the tourist attractions while there. We did however take time to drive down the strip. Traffic was crazy, as expected, but that meant we drove slow and could see more of the sights.
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| Paris Ball and Planet Hollywood (Eiffel Tower in background) |
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| Eiffel Tower |
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| Caesars Palace |
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| Twin of the Trevi Fountain in Rome |
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| Closer pic of the Trevi twin |
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| The Bellagio & Bellagio Fountain |
Perhaps the most “exciting” part of our drive down the strip was when Dan pulled over into an area in front of the Bellagio and asked me to “zip across to the pharmacy” to get some Motrin. He’d had a headache all day, and instead of waiting until we got home thought it would be “quick” to just “zip” across the street to the pharmacy. Let’s just say, that was a BAD decision, lol! He pulled off into a quardened off section in front of the Bellagio fountains. They’d just finished the NFL Draft events the day before and were taking down the stage and stands that had been set up in front of the fountains.
When Dan made the suggestion I looked at him and asked him if he was serious. I didn’t think it was a good idea. I wanted to be sure he was serious…and he was! I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea and that they weren’t going to let him park and wait there…but he said “it’ll be fine, I’ll just tell them I’m waiting for my wife”. I’m laughing out loud as I write this! “Okay then” I said as I got out of the truck shaking my head.
Of course, it’s not just as simple as crossing the street in Vegas, you have to use the overhead walkways or crosswalks available. That meant walking back half a block to get to the overhead walkway, going into a building to access the escalator to the walkway and then making my way across. And wouldn’t you know it, the pharmacy was packed - surprise surprise lol! So, after standing in line, I made my way back over the walkway and toward where Dan had pulled over knowing full well he wouldn’t be there when I got back. I was sure he’d be approached by the numerous security guards patrolling the tear down section for the NFL Draft events. And, sure enough that is exactly what happened. Within 2 min of me leaving the truck he was approached by some not so friendly security who threatened to call the cops on him. Of course he moved on. Best thing for me to do was to wait where he dropped me off so that he could circle back through all the traffic somehow. We only have one cell phone, so there was no way for me to contact him to see where he was at.
Good thing we still had our huge kayak on the roof of the truck. That made him easy for me to spot and get ready to make my dash! What an adventure! He did eventually make his way back and I quickly scooted out into the roadway to hop into the truck while it idled in the slow moving traffic. Thankfully, I did it before any security had a chance to see me and yell at me. It most definitely would have been faster to just return to the RV to get the Motrin we had there. We had a good laugh about it, it was so contrary to anything Dan would normally suggest. Like I said, an adventure.
A few other things we did while in Vegas was to treat ourselves to some good meals. It had been more than a decade since we’d been to a Red Lobster, so we headed there one night. The meal didn’t disappoint, but the bill sure hit the pocket book hard. We also visited a few other restaurants and had good meals. One of my goals while there for the week was to cook as little as possible. What’s life if you don’t splurge on what makes you happy every now and then right?
Our short time in Vegas didn’t take too long to pass by. On the morning of May 4th we hit the road for the final leg of our journey home. We’ll likely return one day to take in Freemont Street and some of the other fun things Vegas has to offer.
Total cost accommodations for 8 nights was just under $745 Cdn
Total cost restaurants was just under $400 Cdn
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