Our first few days in Vegas were pretty low key.  It’s hard not to spend lots of money here, so we mainly spent our time taking care of some housekeeping items and just relaxing a bit.  We did make a trip off the strip to the Chinatown section of Vegas to the wonderful Asian market and one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants.  We also stopped at an RV dealership to get a couple of new window cranks (two of ours were stripped) and while we were there walked inside the new Open Range 3X.   Gotta say I was pretty impressed.  I loved the large kitchen in the back and the living room space and they have added tons of storage.  If we had the funds I might be tempted to upgrade, which is saying something because in four years I haven’t seen an RV that I was even tempted by.

 

On Wednesday we did decide to treat ourselves to a night on the town and decided we wanted to see Piff the Magic Dragon.  He was on America’s Got Talent a couple of seasons ago, and wow is this guy funny.  Part magician, part comedian, he has just the right level of irreverence, and added bonus the show was in a really small venue so we were up close and personal.  Despite the general seating we lucked out and had front row seats, and I haven’t seen Lee laugh that hard in ages.  Plus it was reasonably priced at only $50 a ticket and since I won $18 paying penny slots in the casino it felt like less than that.

 

 

The only downside was we decided to drive, and in retrospect that wasn’t such a great idea.  The parking garage had a clearance of 6′ 6″ so we barely fit, and with the dually it was tough to find a spot.  On top of that they charged us $12 for parking and all in all it really was a hassle.

Afterwards we walked over to the Bellagio and watched the fountains and then had to walk back to the garage to get the truck.  Lee couldn’t drink because he was driving and really the entire experience made us decided to go ahead and try the car service Lyft. The cool thing about Lyft in Vegas is you can get picked up or dropped off at any casino entrance.  So you can walk, see some things, and then when you get tired use a very simple app on your phone to call a car.  I really liked the app because the credit card information isn’t given directly to the driver, they had a cool graphic that shows exactly where your pickup car is, and it’s super self-explanatory.  Seriously this is one of the best apps I have used in a long time because it tells you exactly what to do.  But I’ll tell you more about using it later.

The next day I was supposed to spend some time with my Mom, but she picked up a bug somewhere and wasn’t feeling well, so we had another free day.  The campground at Circus Circus completely filled up and we watched as some beautiful Prevosts pulled in.  Again, a low key night with me making spaghetti dinner, although I did walk over to the casino and play penny slots for an hour.  I set a budget of $10 a day on gambling and can usually make that last over an hour.  I get a free beer when I gamble (I tip a dollar) so basically for $11 I am entertained and get a drink so even if I don’t win any money it’s a pretty cheap leisure activity.  Mom was feeling better on Friday, so Lee drove me down to the Polo Towers where she has a timeshare and we hung out for a while.  She was getting hungry so we walked down to Paris and had lunch, and then walked the Miracle Mile mall on the way back, stopping at Lush to get some of my face cream.  Vegas has darn near every store there is, so I always take advantage of being here to get products that are pricey on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

We timed it perfectly because we weren’t back at her room long before my sister got in.  Wendy has only been to Vegas a couple of times and we weren’t really sure what she would want to do, but when I mentioned there was a huge two story Ross right down the street her eyes lit up.  She turned me on to Ross Dress for Less a few years ago, and since she was looking for a dress for an upcoming cruise, off we went.  Mom hung back and rested and we spent a couple of hours trying on tons of clothes.  Fancy dress shopping is fun and even I tried a couple on although I have absolutely no where to wear something like that.

 

 

Afterwards she was starving and really wanted to try In and Out burger, which she had heard of but never been to since she lives on the east coast.  So off we went walking a couple of miles down to the new street section by the Linq, and she got to do some serious people watching since it was Friday night.

 

 

 

While we were there Lee texted and asked what we were doing and not 15 minutes later he walked in the door.  He took a Lyft to Mirage and then was walking to Bally’s and decided to stop by.  Since Wendy had never played a slot machine in her life, we decided to see if she liked it and walked over to Lync and sat her down at a slot machine.  She was not a fan, and didn’t really get the appeal, so her and Lee wandered off to Bellagio to watch the fountains and I headed down the strip towards Circus Circus.  I walked for a little while and got lucky and saw the Volcano go off at the Mirage (they have added a ton more fire here) and then finally decided to use my Lyft and opened the app.  A ride was available in less than three minutes, and the only problem I had was not looking at the signs and going to the right place.  The app told me the cost up front, described the car, and the driver was very nice.  It cost $7.38 (I tipped an addition $2 using the app) and was completely painless. And the cool thing was I got to stop walking when I wanted to.

Next up my brother will be coming in later tonight and the three of us will be together as adults for the first time in a long time.  Excited about getting some pictures and hanging out together!

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Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.