Understand, while this is a geocaching story, this was also a trip to Las Vegas. Hence, you can safely assume that the multiple time gaps in the accounting below were productively, and in some cases, profitably, filled with gambling and eating, visits to old friends, and when we found time for it, sleeping. The Meg and the geodad favored the slots. The Brother and I went for the poker and blackjack tables, and some slots as well. In terms of food – the Mesquite restaurant was already mentioned. El Pollo Loco. All you can eat breakfast buffet at Sams Town Casino. In-N-Out Burger. Dinner with old friends. Menny menny other tasty places.

 Proof that we gambled. Kinda. You'll just have to take it on faith that we ate.

 Sam's Town Casino                                                                   Fremont Street

(this was Meg's and my favorite & off-Strip casino)                          (the old Strip)

  

 That being said, and pictured, let's jump into the non-eating, non-gambling portions of the trip!

 

“It's chocolate.”

“That's chocolate?”

“That's chocolate!”

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

We arrived and checked into the motel. The Meg went off to see some old friends she had there, the Brother took off for the tables, and the geodad and I, left to our own devices, ventured onto the Strip and were lured into the M&M Museum by the smell of chocolate. MMMM! They had every color of M&M imaginable, plus every kind of tchotke you could even remotely imagine. And some … interesting... movie posters:

 

Dad made a new friend.                                           And I couldn't resist, had to buy the Meg this shirt:

  

 We eventually managed to tear ourselves away without buying too much, but brought the sibs back with us the next night. More merchandise bought, more pictures taken, but I'll spare you that.

"They all went down to Hoover DAM!”

“They all went down to Hoover DAM!”

 The days seem to blur together, looking back now – some days stick out more than others, in terms of what we did – some things, I can't remember when we did them. Like the visit to the Hoover Dam. We were smart enough to leave early, whichever day it was; on the way back, we saw all the traffic and got to congratulate ourselves for missing it. No, we didn't actually driveOVER the dam. Nor did we take the expensive guided tour. But we did get a lot of“ nice shots, admired the view, and enjoyed ourselves. I looked everywhere for Jimmy Olsen, but I only found a not-so-strangely-posing person.

  

No caches though – while there was a hot springs earthcache nearby, I lacked a boat. Just couldn't fit it in the hondacar.

 “I'm not. I was just caching in the canyon.”

“I thought you were driving.”

“Right, I was driving... to the canyon... where I'm gonna cache.”

Iron Man

 Roughly 20-25 miles out of Las Vegas, to the west, lies Red Rock Canyon. This is my favorite place for hiking and rock climbing around Vegas. The seasonal waterfalls had long since dried up of course, but the area is still chockful of lovely views, and great free-hand climbing; I'm not advanced enough to try ropes. We – the Brother, the Meg, and I – made it out there mid-week (the geodad opted to stay behind, pleading advanced age or something like that.)

 It was everything I remembered. Plus a bit more. The geology alone is incredible – all sorts of different rock formations and colors. Not just red. Tan, white, dark, swirled, looking like ice cream cones, etc. And of course, no lack of caches, earth and otherwise, to satisfy the most picky cacher. I was kind, and let the sibs use the GPS. Of course, we kept getting distracted by what lay beyond the next rock, or “can we get up there”, or “I wonder where these footprints go”. So we only nabbed about 5 caches, but it's a huge area – 13 mile scenic drive, with multiple stopping points. We left near sunset – reluctantly.

 HE had fun. (Growing out of the rock again??)                                    So did SHE.

  

Vegas Valley floor, near sunset:

   “Cache-A-Roni, the California Treat!

Ding, Ding!”

 Comes Friday, the day before most of us were supposed to leave, and sadly, we had to drop Meg off at the airport for her flight back to MD. I just realized that I don't have a cool caching name for her. I'll have to think of one. No, that wasn't what caused the sadness. Once we saw her off, though, we turned them horsies southwest and headed for... California! The cache-rush was on!

 Now, I don't like avocados at all. Icky green things. But we had to find a cache between the “Avacados at Yates Oasis”, and so I steeled myself... Fortunately, they were smart enough to hide from me, and any unpleasant encounters were avoided! Score new state #3 for the Sioneva crew! Plus, I dropped off a CA-bound TB, so I did my good deed of the day. It felt very good to be caching out in the desert again. It felt familiar. I'd missed it. Dusty trails, cacti, wide-open expenses, rock-hidden caches, like this one: (and you wonder WHY I hide rock caches?)

 

But I digress. After we found that one cache, we headed back toward Nevada, to be all Primm and proper. A lot of the caches out in that general area are along ATV trails or roads that require 4WD, which obviously the little hondacar doesn't have. I didn't want to tempt fate twice. *insert flashback sequence of hondacar on ATV trail, 5 years ago* So, that sort of limited our options, but there were still plenty to pick from.

 One that particularly stands out was Just Over the Fence! While technically in California, the cache could be reached from either state... and oh, the pathos. The Brother and I were separated by the fence! Here, a fine example of cross-border outreach. Also, a very rare shot of the Brother signing a logbook...

                             

 After getting a handful of caches around Primm, NV, we moved on to get a handful around Jean, NV, and also Sloan, NV. The tiny, WAY out of the way town of Jean was a real treat – it was swarming with out of state, or in one case, out of COUNTRY, cachers that day! At one cache (on an ore cart, of all things), we ran into a pair of British cachers, and had a good time talking with them and comparing notes before heading our separate ways. I love British accents. So cool. :)

 And unknown to me, my evil archnemesis from Maryland, the infamous Vinny of Vinny and Sue Team, was occupying the Jean hotel/casino overlooking that very same ore cart! When I saw his log in the logbook, I was shocked! But we did not meet in person, so the world was not annihilated. I can only imagine why he was out there...

 I was shaken, and the blackjack tables were summoning the Brother again. We moved on to Sloan, found another handful of caches, then headed on back toward Vegas. We just had one more stop to make. And this should come as no surprise... that's right, we were officially welcomed to Vegas the day before we left! All four of us! At least it was Fabulous. 

  

 You don't REALLY think that the Sioncat would ever forgive us if we didn't bring her along? And the geodad has learned the proper way of holding her, so no incidents this time. There is a virtual at this location, of course, though I didn't have it loaded in, so I took pictures of every sign and marked nearby, just in case I needed that info.

 After this, we headed back to the motel room briefly. Then the Brother and I were off to my friends to load up a load of boxes and misc stuff, to drop off at a nearby Goodwill. Then back again, for the stuff I was taking with me. That took a couple hours – North Las Vegas is not exactly close to the Strip. There's a lot of valley to spread out in! By that time, we were all pretty beat, and Tom's plane left really early the next morning, so we turned in earlyish.

 Getting up at 4 AM to drop Tom off at the airport was no picnic. I was driving. (Oops, I missed the exit.) (Oops, I'm lost. Claire, you are NO help.) (Oops, gas light is on.) The geodad got to sleep in, the big lump. Crawled back into bed, and opted for a later start than we planned that morning...

 … and that's where the next Chronicle will pick up!

By Sioneva

 

 

 

 A strangelet is a hypothetical object consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks. An equivalent description is that a strangelet is a small fragment of strange matter. The term "strangelet" originates with E. Farhi and R. Jaffe. Strangelets have been suggested as a dark matter candidate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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