Take the Dam Tour!

Hoover Dam
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This morning we woke up early to get on the road to Boulder City, home of the Hoover Dam. It’s an architectural wonder and gives the city of Las Vegas the precious water it needs to thrive in the middle of the desert. It took us about an extra hour to get to the dam due to security checkpoints. The wait was worthwhile as the view was spectacular. The dam is much taller than we had pictured and not quite as wide. We drove across the dam and back, finally pulling off the road to take some pictures. They offered a dam tour but we didn’t have the dam money, so we left Boulder City and headed back north through Vegas towards Highway 375 -- also known as the Extraterrestrial Highway -- which heads directly into our next stop…Area 51.

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We drove through a rainstorm and were virtually the only car on the road for about two hours. No gas stations, no rest stops, completely surrounded by mountains, we continued through the cold desert towards a little town named Rachel and the only real thing to see out there, the A’le’inn.

The souvenir shop/café/UFO museum is not really anything more than a hyped up trailer on the side of the road. It would be a huge tourist site if it weren’t in the middle of a desert, 150 miles from civilization. We went in and looked around at the “evidence” and bad pictures of spacecraft and fuzzy creatures. It seemed that everyone at the ‘Inn was a regular; we were probably the strangest things in there. The site has been used in many films and TV shows, including Independence Day, although it honestly wasn’t all that interesting. A bad storm was brewing over the mountains, so we had a decision to make.

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We could stick with our plans to continue across those mountains toward Death Valley and hope to find a hotel before this darkening sky slipped to night, or do something we hadn’t done once so far on the trip – turn around and head backwards to Vegas.

We chose the latter.

We got back to Vegas with a renewed excitement about the city. We now had the time to see the sites we had missed last night, including the Mirage’s volcano, The Bellagio fountains and the Fremont Street Experience. We give the volcano a 7 out of 10, the fountains get a 9 and Fremont Street gets a 3 because of the unnecessary scantily clad women. On our way back to the car from Fremont Street, we happened upon the “Neon Graveyard”. All the old signs from the casinos back in the heyday are now on display along the street. The best part of the night was still ahead of us. While we were driving back into town, we heard a commercial on the radio about a great deal for a room at the famous Stardust hotel and casino!

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Apparently, we could get a deluxe room and a free buffet for two for only $49.99.

We were so there!

We talked to the gentleman at the front desk and made sure there wasn’t a catch. Not only was there no catch, we also got tickets to a show at the hotel that night. We also found out from him that the Stardust would be closing in October and was scheduled to be demolished in early 2007. “This city doesn’t have much of a memory,” he said.

He gave us the Honeymooners’ special: a room on the floor just below the penthouse. Sinatra used to sleep above where we were staying! We had a great view of the strip and the mountains. We didn’t stay long, though -- we had to get to that buffet.

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The Vegas buffets are all they are cracked up to be.

We won 10 dollars playing video poker and felt pretty victorious. We bought 10 dollars in beer and went to bed.