Monday - January 19, 1998: Kingman, AZ to Las Vegas, NV
...On Route 66
Turns out there was more of Historic Route 66 to conquer out of Kingman, before it was to break up again and turn into the piece-meal highway that many folks still take from Chicago to Los Angeles each year. So we continued down the "Mother Road" or "Main Street, USA" or whatever you want to call it, through one of the most notoriously dangerous stretches over the Black Mountains (in 1953, Route 66 was re-routed around those mountains, but die-hards prefer the original stretch...and so do we).

Took us through winding old mountain roads, where one could still see the car corpses and memorial sites of those who apparently ended their trip abruptly on this road. And as we listened to Natalie Cole sing "Route 66" and Nelson Riddle's orchestra doing the less recognizable "Theme from Route 66" we descended into the ghosttown of Oatman, AZ! Where wild burros, descendants of those that had come here with prospectors almost a hundred years ago, still roamed the streets of this out of the way, and mostly intact old ghosttown/tourist attraction/freak show. We walked around for an hour or two, saw the "Honeymoon Suite" where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent theirs in the old haunted Oatman Hotel, witnessed a staged, and very funny, gunfight out on the street (proceeds go to Charity), saw a woman who was surely no longer alive playing rinky-tink piano at one of the old saloons, petted some burros and recklessly explored the front of an old abandoned mine shaft, before heading on out. It was fun.

The long, long, straight, straight road North then took us into Nevada and over to the Hoover Dam. As the sun was setting, we rolled in at 5:15pm and the last tour was at 4:15pm, so we were prepared to only look at the dam, and consider coming back for a tour another day, when the lady at the counter said we still had time to make the last tour?! Huh? Then we realized it, the Time Zone changes from Arizona to Nevada, and as the gods would have it, we were right on time for the final tour of the day!!!

A very interesting site, this, and we both remarked on how this place looked as if it was to open tomorrow instead of 60+ years ago! Is in absolutely impeccable condition, and built to last atleast 2000 years and it looks it! Though the tour was too short, we got still luckier again, as we left the tour and walked out onto the dam to have a look, when our excellent tour guide, Ken, knocking off for the day, decided to come over and chat with us. Wherein Brad & Desi got to ask all the questions we liked for the next hour as the sun descended on this very unworldly and powerful structure! Very lucky us!

You can tell it was a good day, and then it was time to head towards Vegas, Baby. Over the hill, and then there, glistening in the evening lights, an amazing site...Vegas appears in the valley. Hearts racing, and blood pulsing we descended towards the town that looked so familar from many Microsoft Flight Simulator '98 flights...but this time, there was even more lights, more colors, and it was real. A bonus.

More on Vegas tomorrow, but we're parked at the Circus, Circus as it's one of the cheapest in town. And has apparently loose enough slots that Desi was able to win 20 nickels on her very first slot, and Brad was able to bring in 1000 nickels shortly thereafter! Though by the time the evening was over, our winnnings including only $15, but we'll take it...A very nice day.