LVMS and Nellis AFB

We arrived at Las Vegas Motor Speedway shortly after noon on Monday following a short drive from Henderson Nevada.

Here is a picture of our rig in the parking lot at the Railway Pass "Casino" and Hotel  before we left Henderson, Nevada.

  Finding our parking spot was easy since there were only about 20 campers in the parking lot that holds about 1500.

We set up quickly and settled in for a week of dry camping.  Then the jets from nearby(across the road) Nellis Air force Base started taking off.  There must have been at least a dozen of them at first followed by another half a dozen or more.  Pretty cool except for the noise.  Come to find out in addition to there regular schedule of flights this week there are pilots and aircraft form other countries are here for some war games.

So far we have seen F-16s, F-18s, A-6s, A-10s, B1-bs, a KC-135, and today the Thunderbirds were out practicing there routines.  It is nice to get three or four good air shows a day for free! 

I have taken tons of pictures of the various aircraft we have seen, but the best ones are on my Meade binocular camera, in the on board memory, and I forgot to bring the cord to plug into the computer to download them, so unless I can find a compatible cord, I will have to wait till we get home to download them.

The days here have gone by fast.  We really didnt do much on Monday or Tuesday as Ann was busy with work, and by the time she finished her work day, and we had some dinner it was close to dark, and there wasnt really much going on here, so the evenings were spent relaxing and keeping up with things on the internets.  Fortunately the the war games ended about 10:30PM each evening, so getting a good nights sleep wasnt a problem.

Here is what the parking lot looks like from the roof of our motorhome today.

On Wednesday after Ann finished work we decided to go into Vegas to see the sights and try our luck in a few of the gambling establishments.  Our first stop was the Stratosphere where we parked the car.

 

Then it was off to the Sahara to get on the monorail to take us too Ballys.  We wanted to check the place out again as that is where we got married in December of 2001.

 

After donating a few dollars to Bally's we went to Caesers Palace to make a donation as well. It is an awesome place to see, but the slots are as tight as I have seen except at the Railway Pass Hotel and Casino, which didnt even have a machine to cash in your tickets.

 Our next stop was Bills which is close by Bally's.  We wandered around a bit until we saw the sports betting area, and thought that it might be interesting.  We noticed on the big board that they were taking bets on the NASCAR races this weekend.  After visiting with a young man who worked there, we decided to place some bets.  Ann wouldnt tell me who she bet on, but I put some money down on some longshots.  The odds for the better drivers were so close that in order to win much you would have to bet a ton of money.  The drivers I bet on had odds of at least 30-1.   By the way I see the odds of Danica Patrick winning the Sam's Town 300 on Saturday are 75-1.  These are some generous odds makers.

Then it was back on the monorail to return to the Stratosphere.  Ann took this picture of me waiting for the train.

We bought tickets to go to the top of the Stratosphere.  I got a senior discount.  The first one ever, I believe.  We had to go through security before riding the elevator to the top.  It was almost like getting on an airplane with the metal detector and all.  The views from the top are incredible, however, I was not steady enough with our camera of full zoom to get many good pictures, but I did get a good picture of Ann standing by this ride called "Insanity", which is a well deserved name, as it goes out behond the railing and the riders are suspened in mid-air, and here are some pics of it, if you dont believe me.

After riding the elevator back down, we thought a little more gambling may be in order, and this time I found a machine that actually worked!  Worked meaning one that paid off occasionally.  I recouped some of the evenings losses and then  it was time to head back home.  A great evening all things considered.

Thursday morning started with a knock on our door by the guy who is parked behind us complaining that our generator exhaust was causing his carbon monoxide detector to off.  I know it is good camp ground etiquette to see to it that your generator exhaust doesnt affect anyone else, but this guy would probably not have a problem had he not opted to park is camper perpendicular to ours, instead of backing it in his camping spot.  So being the good neighbor, I shut off the generator, went to a local auto parts store and bought a piece of flex tubing to put over the generator exhaust that would direct the fumes away from his poorly parked camper.With that problem solved it was mostly another quiet day with Ann working diligently, and me mostly relaxing and visiting with neighbors.

Thursday evening we thought it might be fun to go to the nearby dirt track to watch the USAC midgets and sprint cars. We have seen these cars before and they put on some of the best racing there is on the planet.  We went over to the track about 4:00PM to watch qualifying which lasted about an hour.  Since the heat races and feature races were not going to start till 7:00PM, we returned to the motorhome, grilled some brats and fried some potatoes for a nice dinner.  Then it was back to the track.  As it was pretty cool and windy at the track Ann chose to add a couple layers of clothes and get out her arctic parka so she would be sure and stay warm at the races.

The racing was awesome except for a horrible accident in one of the midget heat races when one of the cars hooked a tire used to mark the edge of the track in turn four and took a violent series of flips, with the car coming to rest of its side.  The safety crew to a long time to get him out of the car.  The only report we got from the track announcer was the driver was going to be transported to the infield care center at the big track which is a fully equipped emergency room, for further observation.  The rest of the evening was great with caution flags flying with less than five laps left in each of the features, which lead to passes on the previous leader to the delight of the crowd.

To show you how small the world is, one of the track announcers is from Iowa, and announced at the small track in Stuart Iowa the times we have been there.

By time the races were over, it was 10:30PM and time to end another great day on the road.

Friday the real festivities begin with NASCAR practice and or qualifying most of the day starting at 11:00AM, and running till about 6:00PM.

I will reprort on that later.

Paul