We aren't gamblers, so our week in Las Vegas hasn't been one of high rolling dice or cards or slots. We stayed at Desert Eagle Campground on Nellis AFB for a week on the recommendation of a fellow camper at NAS Corpus Christi. Nellis is the home of the Thunderbirds and when they're here, they practice everyday, visible to the campground. Unfortunately, the Thunderbirds were away while we were at Nellis, but we still got to see fighter F16s flying every weekday. There is also a Thunderbird Museum, which we visited on our last day there.
In front of Thunderbird Museum Nellis AFB
Our first day of site seeing in Vegas took us to Hoover Dam. That's quite a place! How fast it was built and that it's still working well after over 75 years is fascinating. 21,000 people built it working 24/7 for 4 years. The workers got two days off per year: Christmas and 4th of July. We wondered what it must have felt like for those people who built it, to see it working and have it be such a wonder to the world. Must have been quite a source of pride.
On the way to Hoover Dam we stopped at Lake Mead. We were amazed at how low the water is in Lake Mead. There are water lines from it being about 180 feet higher in the past.
Lake Mead 8 May 2023
From the rim of the dam
On the Hoover Dam tour
Hoover Dam turbines
One day during our Vegas stay, we woke up early for a long day of driving to see Joshua Tree National Park and Lake Havasu. Driving through Joshua Tree National Park was phenomenal! Just beautiful any way we looked! It was quite enlightening for Anita, especially. Anita didn't expect Joshua trees to be a cross between a tree and a cactus. Also, the name "Joshua" made us wonder if there is a biblical association. As we drove, we came to to Devil's Playground which was rock formations that just looked different from the others along the drive. We eventually came to a formation called Hall of Horrors, which were these awesome rocks that looked like stage curtains hanging.
Lake Havasu is beautiful and we even tried a little free fishing from a dock, but it was 101 degrees, and there was lots of loud boat traffic, so we got not even a nibble. We had learned during a trivia game a couple of months ago that "the US London Bridge" is in Lake Havasu. We didn't know that before then.
According to the Internet: In 1831, when London Bridge was completed over the River Thames (in London). It actually replaced another London Bridge that dated to the 12th century. The new bridge carried traffic until the 1960s, when the weight of modern cars became too much for it to bear and it began to sink into the Thames. The city of London sold it to Robert McCulloch, the founder of Lake Havasu City.
McCulloch was looking for an iconic attraction to spur interest in the town, which was (and still is) a fair distance from major roadways. He put in a bid on London Bridge, which London had decided to auction off instead of demolishing it. There wasn't much competition, and his bid of about $2.5 million was the winner.
The disassembled granite bridge was put on a cargo ship and sailed through the Panama Canal to Long Beach, California. From there, it was trucked to Lake Havasu City. It was reassembled, piece by piece, and opened in October 1971.
Lee Canyon Ski Resort west of Las Vegas as we were headed south to Joshua National Park, CA
WW2 Train Depot along the route to Joshua Tree National Park
Visitor Center had an answer for our question...
Devil's Playground Joshua Tree National Park
More of Devil's Playground Joshua Tree National Park
Hall of Horrors in Joshua Tree National Park
Flowering Cactus in Joshua Tree National Park
Pretty flower in Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua trees can live to 150 years old
London Bridge in Lake Havasu AZ
On a couple of days during our week in Vegas, we had to drive downtown and on the strip. One of those days was Saturday 13 May, on our way to church! In 1988 Guardian Angel Cathedral received an Indult, a special permission from Rome for the 2:30pm on Saturday to be recognized as a vigil Mass. One of the parishioners told us that back in the 1950's Clerics of St. Viator began the celebration of a 4:30am Sunday Mass at various hotels on the Strip to accommodate casino and hotel workers and visitors. The hotels eventually "kicked them out", and the plans began for building a church on the Strip. Guardian Angel Cathedral dates back to 1958 and is the oldest standing structure along the Las Vegas Strip. At the time there were a few famous Catholics who were performing in Las Vegas, and some of them along with other wealthy families paid for the stained glass windows and other parts of the church. Danny Thomas was one of those stars who performed in Vegas and had a TV show. We were aware of his starting St. Jude's Children's Hospital, but didn't know he was Catholic. Below are pictures from our drives on the Strip and of the art over the altar in Guardian Angel Cathedral.
Strat Hotel Casino and Skypod
Sin City?
On the wall behind the altar in Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas (artist is Isabel Piczek)
Stained glass window in Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas
On Sunday we went to the Mob Museum. That was interesting and a little depressing. Anita was skeptical that the Mob still exists, and Steve's opinion is that it does. Well, it's been around for 100 years, beginning with immigrants coming to America during the Great Depression. Immigrants wanted to make money faster than a regular job would produce, so "creative and colorful" ways to make money have been around since the 1920's. Racketeering is the main way the Mob's money has been made. A “racket” is a fraudulent and often illegal activity that is often carried out by means of extortion or intimidation.
Anita was surprised about what the Mob used to smuggle drugs. As recently as 1984, tomato sauce and pizzerias were used to get heroin to the streets of Brooklyn and NYC.
Tomato Sauce from Sicily
Actual wall from 1929 in Chicago
The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago garage on the morning of February 14, 1929.
Mob Museum Las Vegas
While we were in Las Vegas, the Helldorado Parade was held on 13 May. The Las Vegas Helldorado event began in 1934, when Arizona carnival barker Clyde Zerby saw the opportunity to make a quick buck off workers at the Hoover Dam site and the thousands of visitors who flocked to see the immense construction project develop. The theme harkens back to the valley’s frontier roots and the Wild West. The first Helldorado was a rowdy affair, featuring a “hoochie coochie dance” show and other attractions that would let dam workers blow off steam. In 1935, because of construction on the dam and the legalization of gaming in Nevada, Las Vegas was a booming town, and Fremont Street was burgeoning with saloons, gambling halls, hotels, shops and restaurants.
Ironically, there was a picture of a Helldorado parade in the Mob Museum...hmmm...
Helldorado Days Parade 1933
The depressing part about the museum was seeing how the mobster lifestyle has been glamorized for the movies and TV series. We're guilty too of watching movies and series about the Mob. Also depressing, is how the Mob has evolved into cartels and other syndicates that run drugs and human trafficking. Our lives are "sheltered" compared to the horrors that many are subjected to.
We enjoyed our week in Vegas. In general, the feeling outside the security of the campground was one of "seediness". The evenings we got home close to or after dark, we were relieved to be home.
It's hard to put into words the uneasiness we felt. We did have Indian food one night and it was the best Anita's ever had! Temperatures reached the mid 90's every day and even 100 once or twice. It is a dry heat, but ragweed pollen counts were high while we were here and Anita felt that.
Tomorrow (17 May 2023) we're off to Bryce Canyon where we'll likely have no Internet and little to no cell phone service so this may be the last post for a few weeks.
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