The southeastern part of utah is a very ...
Trip Start
Nov 09, 1998
1
4
19
Trip End
Nov 24, 1998
Las Vegas,
Nevada,
United States
Thursday, November 12, 1998
After getting most of the way across Utah I got off the Interstate and headed south down Route 89 which follows the Virgin river through a mountain range. Soon you reach Zion Canyon National Park. I had really never heard of this park before but I figured I'd see what it was like. Wow! When arriving in the park from the east entrance you are at the top of the canyon by the time you leave at the west end you've dropped about half a mile in elevation and travelled through a 1 mile tunnel cut through a mesa. I went from a very cool winter morning to a warm autumn day in about an hour. There is some stunning scenery - especially of the checkerboard mesa. According to the residents of Las Vegas that I met later Zion Canyon is THE place to go for hiking and camping. I couldn't stay longer as the road beckoned.
I stopped for lunch in St.George, UT at North's Star Buffet. I figured I needed to train for the immense buffets in the casinos. The food was pretty good and it was cheap as my bill came to $5.98. The place was filled with senior citizens which baffles me as I doubt they were getting their money's worth. I tried country fried steak which I can be described as Steakenschnitzel. I also got a good laugh at some old lady who couldn't figure out how to turn the self-serve soft ice cream machine off. She just stood there helplessly as ice cream piled up around her ankles. After finishing my meal with a nice plate of bread pudding I was back out on the road. The drive through the desert of Arizona and Nevada is once again stunning. The Interstate dives into the Virgin river canyon where you are surrounded by 200 foot walls of red rock.
The one disappointing part about this part of the drive is that as soon as you enter Nevada you can't help but notice the large amount of garbage and broken glass at the side of the highway. Whoever is donating money to get their names on those "Highway Litter Pickup" signs is really getting ripped off. The drive from Zion Canyon to Vegas is only 130 miles so to anybody who might want to make a day trip out of Vegas while vacationing there, this is the place to go.
I pulled into Las Vegas at about 2:30pm local time and checked in to the "beautiful" Howard Johnson's Plaza Hotel. The place is a bit of a dump but since I wasn't paying for it I can't really complain. My window provided me an excellent view of the storage shed. The hotel was only about a 7 minute walk away from the Excalibur which is on The Strip and I immediately headed out for some hot gaming action. I made a beeline for Caesar's Palace which is one of the classier places on The Strip. While it does have some of the cheezy trappings of other casinos, like Nefertiti's Barge, most everything else is done quite modestly. It was here that realized my goal for the weekend - winning a new car! Caesar's has two banks of slot machines where the big payoff is a a loaded convertible Mustang GT. Caesar's had me suckered immediately. It didn't take me long to lose $25 but I enjoyed some complimentary rye & gingers while being suckered. I then wandered over to La Piazza for some dinner. La Piazza is a market style cafeteria inside Caesar's. I grabbed a huge slice of 'za which was quite tasty. I wandered through the Forum shops for a bit and then as my body was still on Eastern Standard time I decided that 9pm was a good time to grab some sleep.
Drive time stats...
Daily KM: 727 Hours: 9
Total KM: 3797 Total Hours: 46
