Big Fun for Sean

Sean with an automatic weapon.  Can any good come of this?

Guns and Gold in Vegas

There were two things on the top of the list of things to do in Vegas for this trip – a visit to the Gold and Silver Pawn shop, as seen on one of David’s favourite shows, Pawn Stars; and shooting guns.  The line-up at the Pawn Shop both times we went by was huge, and since we didn’t feeling like standing in the blazing sun, we decided to pass this one by.  The gun part worked out a bit better! The first time we went to the Gun Store, there was a four hour wait, so again, decided not to stay.  Since we had to stay an extra day to get the tires done, we went back earlier in the morning.  Rianna got to shoot a Glock, just like the police use at home. She did quite well, and has one shot dead centre on her target.  David shot a 45 caliber 1911 - huge sound reverberating through the indoor range!  Sean had the big man experience with a Sig pistol and a MP5 sub-machine gun.  (He was just a little excited!) He did great as well, but we were all amazed at how quickly the bullets get used with an automatic gun.  You hold your finger down for two seconds, and there goes 10 rounds. I decided to save my money for alternate activities (yes, my favourite Brighton store is found here in Las Vegas).

Tire Trouble on the Way to Las Vegas

The highway between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas is not that exciting.  This is an area of high mountain desert, scrub brush, cactus, rolling hills, and mountains.  Temperatures can get very high; we have seen 42 degrees on our truck’s temperature gauge.  This makes for very hot road surfaces, lots of flat tires, and debris on the road.  Whether from the heat, debris, or just fate, we blew a tire on the trailer about 50 km north of Vegas.  After our previous tire blow out experiences, David was prepared for this!!  When we blew our first tire in Virginia, we called CAA to help us out.  Now we rolled into action as a team!!

 Luckily, we were very close to a highway exit so we were a little safer than the side of the Interstate.  Unluckily, we were dealing with 41 degree heat in the desert at the side of a road.  We raised the trailer up using the same blocks we use for levelling in campgrounds, mind you, I’ve never had to raise it up quite so high!  Sean provided the muscle to get the lug nuts off while David got the spare.  Rianna was the official videographer and water supplier.  We were only working for about half an hour, but I must admit that by the time I was done my part I was feeling light headed and nauseous.  The state trooper came by, just to make sure we were ok, so that was reassuring.

We were all very hot by the time we were done, and a little nervous for the rest of the drive into Vegas.  The tire had shredded quite badly, so we were a little worried about damage to the other tires or the undercarriage on the trailer. We managed to get into town, with no further problems, but it was a big relief to unhitch and walk into the hotel!!  We were VERY glad that we had decided to stay in the hotel part of Circus Circus, and not the campground!!  It also happened to be 5 minutes away from the tire dealership where we had to take it to get a brand new set of 5 tires!!

Salt Lake City

This year we had a much more enjoyable stopover in Salt Lake City since we didn’t spend hours in the hospital getting someone stiches! (That would be after my idiotic incident with a spring loaded knife for those of you who don’t remember!)  The kids were excited about dinner at the Red Iguana again.  (The fact that we are now accumulating favourite food places in different cities across America means that maybe we are travelling too much!)  Dinner of course was great, and we had left overs to heat up for lunch the next day.

We have passed by the Great Salt Lake many times, and so we decided that we needed to see if the stories were true about the ability to float in the water.  We drove out to the marina (which was closed by this time) and had to walk a fair distance to get to the water.  The lake is very shallow for a long ways and absolutely full of little shrimp!  The kids went out deep enough to float and said that it was a really cool feeling – very boyant.

A Gastronomical Experience

We have stayed in the Butte KOA a number of times.  They have a great little kitchen at the office where you can buy awesome chicken, jo jos, and beans.  This time, however, we tried something new.  Sean and David had seen a pizza place called Trimbos on the show Man vs Food.  And so, of course, we had to give it a try.  The pizza was excellent and the Stromboli was huge.  In our travels, we have often arrived at a destination, only to find some major event going on that fills up the campground.  In this particular instance it was Evel Knieval days!  We had a little trouble finding the restaurant because many of the roads were closed to set up booths and spectacular events like the cannon that shoots the lady into the air, and the show and shine  This looks like a fun festival, complete with a Smash Up Derby like we watched in Colorado last year.  Seems like a lot of bikers come here on the way to Sturgis. (These are mostly the recreational bikers that carry their bikes in the utility trailer behind their $100,000 motor coach, not the real bikers with tattoos and skin like leather.

The MacGregor Family is off on another adventure.

The MacGregor family is off on another adventure!

We have spent a few leisurely days at the MacGregor Family cabin with the rest of the clan, swimming fishing, golfing and just being lazy!  My first, best purchase of the summer is a new pair of golf shoes! I bought a pair of Dawg golf shoes when we were golfing at Bootleg Gap, and they are awesome.  I lasted 18 holes without playing in my bare feet (which is what I usually do!)

Laura and the boys are going to look after the dogs for this trip.  They are practicing for when they get their own dog!!  It will make life easier for us when we travel, but I sure am going to miss them.  They will get lots of extra love and attention (and treats) while we are gone.