\n\tPosted: <\/span>Sunday evening 11\/17\/19\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe are at the Bally’s in Las Vegas <\/span>(link to Google Map)<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n\t{google_map}36.114284, -115.169567{\/google_map}\n<\/p>\n \n\tBally’s is headquarters for Pat’s Stampin’ Up! event. <\/span>Obviously this is the “justification” for the trip. <\/span>We have a great room and the facility is very nice even though it is a fairly old facility. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tIt used to be that Las Vegas was a fairly economical place to visit (a LONG time ago). <\/span>Now, it is quite expensive. <\/span>The rooms rates are well over $150 on the weekends, the parking costs $15 per day and there is no provision for morning coffee except at restaurants and coffee shops ($8 this morning). <\/span>There is a food court here where things like hamburgers are available – but at inflated prices. <\/span>Most of the restaurants are very expensive.\n<\/p>\n \n\tOur stay in Pahrump brought back lots of memories. <\/span>On Monday we toured Shoshone (does not take long {grin}). <\/span>It has not changed much since our last visit. <\/span>The campground is still there and still a bit primitive, but appears to be well kept. <\/span>Still no cell phone signal anywhere in the area.\n<\/p>\n \n\t Shoshone Campground<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe then drove to China Ranch. <\/span>This “ranch” is right in the middle of a Mojave Desert <\/span>and yet it is an amazing oasis (link to website)<\/a>. <\/span>At one time it was a ranch with chickens (and one source said a few pigs and cows) that supplied the Borax miners in the Death Valley area. <\/span>Since 1920 it has been a date farm with perhaps 100 date palms of many different varieties. <\/span>Indeed, they sell palms for landscaping to contractors. <\/span>Of course we had to have the traditional date shakes.\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t <\/p>\n \n\tArial View of China Ranch<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n \n\t Date Delivery Truck<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\tThe weather continues to be fantastic. <\/span>Some days we could see and smell the smoke from the California fires. <\/span>Here in Las Vegas it is clear and low 80s during the day. <\/span>I took a quick peak at the weather for our trip home and it looks like we could see a little bit of snow.\n<\/p>\n \n\tFor this trip we rented a Mazda CX5 AWD car. <\/span>It has been fun to drive and gets good mileage (around 30 MPG). <\/span>It has a little four cylinder engine, but the turbo makes it perform very well.\n<\/p>\n \n\tTuesday we spent touring Death Valley. <\/span>That will be the subject of the next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello from Las Vegas, NV Drafted: Saturday afternoon – November 16, 2019 (Third post of this travelogue) Posted: Sunday evening 11\/17\/19 We are at the Bally’s in Las Vegas (link to Google Map) {google_map}36.114284, -115.169567{\/google_map} Bally’s is headquarters for Pat’s … Continue reading ![\"Shoshone](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Shoshone-Camp-Ground-Medium-300x225.jpg\")
![\"Arial](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/China-Ranch-arial-view-300x169.jpg\")
![\"Date](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/China-Ranch-Deliver-Truck-Medium-300x225.jpg\")