Vegas, Baby!

We were only in Vegas for one night. We washed off the Zion dust, prettied ourselves up as much as possible and went down to the casino. There, we took it all in. (Mostly, we just took in second-hand smoke, but hey.) We lost a few quarters in the slots, had a couple of pina coladas, and then hit the wall, exhausted from the heat and the drive.

The next morning, we got directions to an IHOP in the Golden Palm casino. If you've never heard of the Golden Palm, there's a reason. It's the diciest casino EVAR. There used to be an IHOP there, but now it's the GP Cafe. We surmise that an IHOP rep stopped there once and was so horrified that they lost their franchise.

The plan for the day was to head North from Vegas and cut through Death Valley into California. We got as far as Beatty, NV.


On Furball's suggestion, we stopped at the Death Valley Information Center. The woman working there had excellent information for us: avoid Death Valley. Apparantly, it was 124 degrees in the desert that day. In retrospect, it's obvious that driving through the hottest part of the country, in the hottest part of the year, during the hottest part of the day, and in a heat wave, is a bad idea. Many thanks to the nice park lady who brought us to our senses. We decided to drive around.

Before leaving Beatty, we consoled ourselves by stopping at the Death Valley Nut & Candy Company, which is the largest candy shop on the West Coast. Mmm ... refined sugar.


On the way out of town, we saw a wild desert cow. These exotic beasts roam the high mountain deserts devouring everything in their path, leaving a trail of destruction. We were lucky to escape with our lives. Moo.


We drove to Lee Vining, California, the gateway to Yosemite National Park. Every hotel, motel and cardboard box there was taken, so we had to stay at June Lake. There we found Tiger Cafe, the local watering hole: highly recommended.