Day 15: This is Really a Place for Moms & Dads

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We’re heading to Vegas Baby!  But first, we had that long drive through the desert ahead of us.  Not to worry, this time, I was prepared:

I tried my best to get to Nevada before I had to get gas, but with a drive up to the bottom edge of Death Valley, that wasn’t happening.  We headed into Baker, CA, looking for the giant thermometer that I remembered from my childhood (it, as well as the Big Boy restaurant we always stopped at, was closed down).   I was shocked to see gas was this high:

Needless to say, I only put in 5 gallons.

As we drove towards Death Valley, the temperatures got cooler and a rain storm moved in – would never have thought it would be in the 70s in July so close to Death Valley, but it was!!

It was a long way to drive up to the Visitor’s Center of Death Valley, and we wanted to get to Las Vegas, so we opted to take this picture at Shoshone, CA instead.  BTW, gas was even MORE here - $5.04 a gallon.

I planned to drive to Las Vegas via Pahrump for a very special reason.  21 years ago, I graduated from this high school!

It was a walk down memory lane, as I took the kids to the house we lived in (they were not impressed), the fountain we used to soap (still not impressed) and even the pump house of the pool I was a lifeguard at for 3 summers.  They were definitely not impressed with the fact that my signature was painted over in the pump house!!

Pahrump had changed and grown so much, I hardly recognized it.  But I did take the time to look up a few friends while I was there.

We drove into Vegas just in time to get our picture with this local icon, and head to our pyramid for the night.  But not before we saw Elvis driving a Cadillac down the Strip and 2 showgirls.  Seriously, we were not even there 20 minutes!

I took the kids for a quick drive down the strip once it got dark, then quickly tucked them into their beds at the Luxor.  As they were shocked to be walking through a casino and saw many scantily-clad women, they both agreed this was a “place for moms & dads, not kids.”  Ha!  They will want to come back someday, but not anytime soon!