|
| |
Las Vegas - Part 4
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Adventure Photo Tours, Gold Mine Tour, MGM Las Vegas, Showgirls of Magic and Tournament of Kings
Day 4
We woke up early. We are probably the only fools in the world to wake up early in Vegas. I think the newspapers reported the next morning that somebody woke up in Las Vegas at the crack of dawn. We woke up in this case to be out at 8:00 am for Adventure Photo Tours’ gold mine tour. Adventure Photo prides itself on showing you the best places to take photos. They have these rather large, brand new Ford Expeditions, which allows you to go right into the heart of the action.
First, we drove straight out of Vegas to embark on our journey. The ride out is a long and desolate one with mountains as far out on the horizon as you can see. In fact, you will find yourself riding for an hour or so just to get to a point on that distant horizon. This is where we first saw the desert.
The desert is not what you’d initially think of, but is actually filled with shrubs and small plant life all over. It’s not a dead country, but has life that simply adapted to the roughest environment that you can find.
Our first stop was the town of Nelson, about an hour out from Vegas. The population is countable on one hand, and its biggest tourist attraction is the fact that it’s not a tourist attraction. You enter the town and realize that it’s simply a mix of trailer homes, small ranches, lots of fences, and strange objects on their lawns. This is the west and the style of the west: unique to the area and worth seeing for just such a thing.
| | |
El Dorado Canyon, complete with bullet holes in the sign | |
From Nelson, we headed straight to El Dorado Canyon to see the old gold mine. The gold mine was in operation in the late 1800s and had quite a colored history. Murders, deaths, war...everything occurred here. When one owner claim-jumped the other owner, he simply sent in some men to kill all of the supervisors there. There is even a newspaper clipping that tells how the local law enforcement wouldn’t even travel to the town for simply a murder, as the multi-day journey wasn’t worth it.
The gold mine itself isn’t littered with gold as one’s fairy tale imagination might expect, but has small strands of gold. Believe me, we looked, but couldn’t find any blocks of gold. Now they use chemical means to sort through the rubble to get microscopic traces of gold. It’s not worth it at current gold levels, but once gold starts to break $400 an ounce, all of these mines will consider reopening up again.
After visiting the mine, we hit the back roads of the area to see the plant life and rolling hills. This area music be seen to be believed. You feel as if you’re in an alien world with absolutely no human life as far as the eye can see. You can drive for hours and still not see another person around.
| | |
Exploring El Dorado Canyon | |
It was at this time Margherita said, "Why does he keep telling me where to take photos? I’ve been doing photography for years."
"It’s a photography tour where they show you where to get the best shots."
"Oh, I thought it was a regular tour, and he was just bossing me around."
"No, Dearest."
After an hour of driving back in the Ford Expedition, we stopped back in the middle of the strip to grab lunch and continue our day.
I’m not sure why, but I agreed to go shopping in the mall attached to the Aladdin Hotel. Margherita found herself stuck in a store called, "Sur La Table," which means "Spend lots of money on kitchen gadgets," and I waited impatiently outside. Out of boredom, I went in and played with their graters and made quite a good pyramid of grated nutmeg and chocolate. I figured, while she was looking for something, I should spend my time productively.
After about three days of shopping, Margherita found two items she liked—but of course, the pot was too heavy to carry home. "But wait!" she screamed, "there is free shipping for any order over $100."
"Margherita, my love, my sweetness...You only have $15 worth of items."
"Well, then to save us money, I’ll find $85 more of what I need."
My wife just loves to save us money. If they told her we’d save 10% by spending over $200, she would have quickly ‘saved’ us that 10%.
While she was saving us money, I decided what’s good for the goose is also good for the Dominick and went across the hall to the Discovery Store. They had a hovercraft. Now this was useful. If you don’t know what a hovercraft means, don’t worry—but realize this remote-controlled car is simply much more useful than an 18" pan. Yes, Margherita, even a cast iron pan. It floats on a bed of air and goes over land AND sea. I mean, sure you can cook with a pan, but can you chase squirrels as I can now do with my hovercraft?
We "saved" ourselves tons of money, and by the time we realized it, it was time to run over to our next show.
Again, we ran to the Excalibur to see Tournament of Kings. This was a pronounced change from the "Thunder from Down Under" and also didn’t challenge my sexuality as gravely. It did, however, challenge my eating habits, since while you watch the show, you have to eat with your hands.
This is not a first date place—unless your date is an "eater"—but it’s a place to take the kids. If you have your kids in Vegas, then you’ll be quite happy here. The knights come out, you cheer for your section, and then they beat the crap out of each other. An evil knight comes out, he breathes fire, which the other knights don’t seem to be too happy with, there’s an even bigger battle, everyone screams, and the kids then tell you this was the best show in the world. It’s a win/win situation.
For us, this just brought up the standard, "When do you want to have kids?" conversation, so it wasn’t a complete win/win, but it was still good just the same.
From the King Arthur’s Court, we went across the street to see "Showgirls of Magic." This is a show right along the same lines as "Crazy Girls." The plot is pretty straightforward. There are girls, who are rather attractive and scantily dressed, and they do magic. You can’t please a man with a magic show much more than that. I warn you though, after Lance Burton, this is a show that leans more towards the "Showgirls" portion than the Magic. We could hear the trapdoor slam after one trick, which kind of gave things away. However, while Margherita had the mental capacity to analyze such tricks, I was pretty distracted by the "Showgirls" portion of the show.
After the show, it was back in the taxi.
"So, where are you kids going?"
"Viva Las Vegas..."
"Oh, you’re getting married?" he interrupted. I told you every taxi driver knew the place.
Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 3 | Read Part 4 | Read Part 5 | Read Part 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
