Wednesday, July 6
After checking out of Wyndham at 10:00, we try to find a place for breakfast. From a Taco Bell parking lot close to Wyndham, we decide to find Marie Calendars. Wonderful breakfast (with choc chip pancakes) and too full to honestly be tempted by some of the best looking chocolate cream pie at the front!
As we head out of Vegas, we go the Pinball Hall of Fame on Tropicana. Phil is a HUGE pinball fan, so we wanted to check this place out and hopefully get a t-shirt. (From what I understand, all these machines are owned and managed by Tim Arnold and the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club as a non-profit entity. There are classic machines here carefully and lovingly maintained) This place charges between 25 and 75 cents to play a game of pinball (Whatever was the original cost to play each of the machines.) There are at least four aisles of maybe 20 machines to your right and left. The front inside wall has probably about 20 machines there also. So possibly at least 150 pinball machines ranging from 1939 (New York World’s Fair) to the more modern ones. I enjoyed this a lot. They even had a couple of the crane machines with stuffed animals in them….no success there.
We were here for about an hour and then head to our next stop…..Hoover Dam.
There is a Nevada welcome center close to Hoover Dam. Jackie helped us with tips on what to do at the Dam and then gave us a recommendation of a place to stop about an hour down the road towards Sedona. We had asked about places to eat between Boulder City and Kingman, which is about 75 miles, and she remembered the good burgers in the little town of Chloride, Arizona.
Hoover Dam is amazing. There is a new bridge since I was there last. You are able to walk across it, approximately 900 feet above the dam. Got some great pictures. Really enjoyed the wind here! Didn’t feel so hot with the beautiful breeze going.
We are looking for a town called Chloride (an old mining town) about 50 miles from the dam. Yesterdays Restaurant and Bar. This place is 4 miles off the interstate.
It was only us when we walked into the restaurant around 4:30. After a few minutes, a gentleman gets up and starts to sing…playing his (electric) guitar with a karaoke machine. Mostly country music that I’m not familiar with, but it was still kinda cool!
We chose this place because Jackie said they had the best burgers she ever had. (I was just a tad creeped out, but didn’t convey this to Kim. I obviously read too many Stephen King stories. “Hmmm–how do you get those burgers so juicy?” Bwa Ha Ha…) She didn’t mislead us at all! We talked with the owner about the artist from Chloride and the murals that are famous there. (Jackie had also mentioned that a hippy from the 60’s painted a huge mural on a nearby hillside and later became a famous Western artist. His friends had continued to maintain this mural. It was just the sort of offbeat thing that appeals to us). He told us where to drive and we headed out of the town to the murals. (He first asked me what kind of car I drove, since the road became dirt.)
Unfortunately, we gave up because every turn just seemed to lead us to MORE turns and the road was getting rockier and rougher. Tim saw a scorpion cross the path. (Wish I had jumped out and snapped a picture) I told him if we had a flat up here, he would be on his own changing it. Most of you know how much I love scorpions!! We head out of this area and make it back to the interstate. Let’s just say we were thankful we didn’t hear any banjo music.
We continue to see such beautiful scenery as we drive to Sedona. However, I am trying to refrain from taking excessive pictures!
I guess we hit Flagstaff about the time the sun went down. The road from Flagstaff to Sedona was so curvy and it was so dark…elevations from 3000-5000 feet according to the signs. We couldn’t see a thing other than the car in front of us.
FINALLY we come up on civilization! I can breathe normally again and my right foot finally is off the brake on the passenger side….and Tim wasn’t driving crazy or anything. That’s just how much I hated this road.
We are getting a glance at what the Sedona area looks like….in the dark…but finally some street lights. We find the Wyndham property and pull in. David gets us registered…very friendly for such a late night arrival to deal with. Then he sends us to the concierge desk. Oh my goodness. Robin has more energy than anyone should have at this time of night. We end up talking with her for probably 30 minutes and she is giving us so much information and brochures on the area! As we leave, she gives us both a big hug and introduces us to the security guy, Scott. Scott must’ve seen us trying to decide which way to go and comes in a golf cart and escorts us to our condo. Plus, he offers to help us get our stuff out of the car.
This is another nice condo and we stash our stuff and head to bed. It’s been a long, but very fun-filled day!