Saturday 28 September 2013

Las Vegas and Palm Springs

Well I have been home for 4 days and figured I better get me home on the Blog but as usual I have been go, go , go since I stepped foot back in Calgary and am struggling to keep up to date. After leaving Valley of Fire I headed in to Las Vegas and without a lot of difficulty ended up at my friends place by Nellis Air Force Base. The biggest problem was I thought I had the wrong address as I could not believe they lived in this beautiful home.
 
Bill designed it and had it built. Wow! I had my choice of 5 bedrooms each one with its own television and bathroom. There is even a theatre with 8 lovely leather lazy boy chairs. A vanishing edge swimming pool and the whole thing overlooks all of Las Vegas.
 
 
Soon Bill will have the garden trains set up in his yard . Lynn and I took a ride downtown just so I could say I had been in Vegas but I never stepped into a casino or did the usual Las Vegas stuff.
 
 
That night we went to a friends to an 80th birthday party for a friend of a friend and I met Teri and her friend Igor and Teri wrote a book about Igor and the roadrunner he befriended. Great story. The next day after hiking the mountain we drove out to Lake Mead. This is the first time I had ever seen it and it is lovely. They have a boat and often go there fishing.

We went to this lovely restaurant in Boulder City for lunch and then for ice cream afterward and out to the railroad display where Bill volunteers as engineer/brakeman/conductor.
 
 
This bench was outside an antique store in Boulder City.
The last day was very interesting for me We went to Pioneer days at Spring Mountain Ranch. Bill was playing with his fiddle group and I was sitting watching and received this wonderful glorious kiss from Penelope the cow. She thinks it is her duty to greet everyone who comes to the ranch. What a character. Here is a picture of Bill playing with his group.
Before they started I went for a hike. This area is known as Red Rock Canyon and I took these interesting pictures. 



There was a little lake back there known as Lake Harriet.


The occasion at the ranch was Pioneer Days and that is why the fiddlers were there and then there were representatives from Mountain Man Rendevous and Civil War Re-enactment and they had candle making and washing on a scrub board and ringer and flute and drum playing. A lot of families were there participating in these wonderful fun and historic events. Lynn took me over to the Ranch House and we did a tour. The ranch was originally started by the Paiyute Indians of the area. Then it was sold to a Mr George who rose chinchilla's He was the furrier to the stars. It was then sold to Vera Krupp who lived there. She was the daughter of a very rich German industrialist and she took acting in Germany and then came to America to become a Hollywood actress. She is famous for marrying Mr Krupp and he gave her the Krupp diamond which was Later stolen from her and found by her heirs and auctioned off to a man by the name of Richard Burton who gave it to his wife Elizabeth Taylor. Vera had a secret room added to the ranch house and the door to this room posed as a closet door. The ranch was then sold to Howard Hughes but there is no indication he ever went there and the ranch went into a caretaker state. Very interesting and fun story.

Penelope manning the greeting line 
Drumming and the gentleman in the corner is playing the flute 
Bet you cannot tell this is father and son. Wow I just had to get a picture. 
Some of the buildings of the original ranch.
We went from here to a potluck and jam session over at Blue Diamond Ranch not far away. That night we went back home and watched the Stampeders get beaten by the Blue Bombers. The next morning we went for breakfast at the Timbers a Packers Bar and then I headed for Palm Springs. I stuck to the Interstate as it was very windy and I was not comfortable with taking the back road through Amboy. I arrived at Ken and Karen's early and we got the bike parked and the next day just hung around the house and Tuesday I flew out of Palm Springs and landed here in Calgary at 5:30. I went to Beavers and the next night was group committee and then Thursday saw me at a Richard's Ride meeting and that evening Scout popcorn kickoff. Never a dull moment.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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