NV (11-2001)

	Las Vegas! Our Flair at the Circusland RV park located behind the Circus Circus hotel/casino. "The Strip" is just a short shuttle bus ride away from here. For being located in the center of the action the park was pretty cheap. They charge $18 on weekends and $16 during the week.
	1/2 lb. hotdog at Slots A Fun casino. Always on the lookout for cheap things, we found these monsters for only 99 cents!
	3/4 lb. hotdog! The next day we came across the great mutant hotdogs of Las Vegas at the Westward Ho casino. Again, they were only 99 cents!
	The hotdogs aren't the only huge things in Vegas. Most casinos have these large slot machines. This one, at Slots A Fun is at the entrance along the sidewalk. Yes, we tried it. No, we didn't win.
	Fake manhole cover at New York New York. Several of them are located in the restaurant area which looks like a street from New York City. They even have fake steam coming out of them.
	We played some slots while in Vegas, mostly nickel and quarter machines. At New York New York (and probably all the other casinos too) they have an area with larger stakes machines. This one was a $100 one. Besides not being able to believe someone would put $100 into a slot machine we noticed that this one said that the number of "coins" played last time was 2. Someone played a $200 spin on this machine!
	This memorial has sprung up at New York New York. The notes were mostly written about people lost in the 9-11 attacks. A few were from people from other countries saying that they supported the US in what we are going through. It was quite moving.
	Bellagio. One of the newer mega-hotel/casinos.
	Part of the gardens at Bellagio.
	Paris hotel/casino. It's amazing just how many of these huge places there are. Besides the ones we've put up here there are: Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, MGM, Aladin, Bally's, Ceasar's Palace, Treasure Island, Mirage, Rio, etc... And then there are the downtown casinos like Golden Nugget, Binion's, etc...
	Hoover dam is about 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas. Like a lot of other places around the country the operations at the dam have been impacted by the 9-11 attacks. Security is pretty tight and you can no longer tour the inside of the dam. Also, only passenger cars are allowed to drive over the top of the dam on highway 93. Trucks and RV's must detour around through Laughlin.
	No matter how many pictures of the dam we took, none came even close to showing how big it is! This view is looking down from the top of the dam to the power plant at the bottom. Notice the trucks on the left side. It's a long way down there!
	Valley of Fire State Park is about an hour northeast of Las Vegas. One of it's most remarkable features are the red sandstone mountains. Part of the movie "Star Trek Generations" was filmed here.
	The sandstone is easily eroded by the wind creating many interesting shapes and holes like this. Depending on how the light hits the sandstone it appears different colors.
	Petrified log at the Valley of Fire State Park. The several that are here are fenced in to keep people from taking pieces. We learned that petrified wood can be found in all 50 states.