Sunday December 10th 2017

Today started cold. It was just above freezing this morning, but it still got up to the high 60s before dark. The mercury is diving again tonight.

A little after three this afternoon I drove up to the Las Vegas Strip. I had a ticket for the 7:30 Reba with Brooks and Dunn show at Caesars Palace. This was the last show of their December series as part of their residency at the Colosseum. I went in early to pick up my ticket at will call, see the new Christmas display at the Bellagio Conservatory and have dinner.

Colosseum theater a few minutes before the show was scheduled to start. Notice all of the guys with cowboy hats.

Reba McEntire with Brooks and Dunn during a slow number. The band was taking a break.

The show was about ten minutes late getting started. All of the cowboys in town for the National Finals Rodeo were slow getting to their seats. It really seemed like a third of the audience arrived at or after the 7:30 start time. Once it got started the show ran for two and half hours. They started as a team. Then Reba McEntire left the stage for Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn. After a few Brooks and Dunn hits, Reba came back for a few of hers. They continued to alternate and team up for the next two and a half hours straight. In addition to their hits they threw in a few Christmas songs. I really enjoyed the show, but not as much as some of the fanatics. The jumping up and down with hooting and hollering by some folks in the audience was extreme at times. A few people even gathered in the aisles near the stage until they were “asked” to return to their seats by the ushers.

Before the show I took a few pictures of the Christmas display at the Bellagio Conservatory. The theme this year was Polar Bears. It was very crowded so I didn’t get many good pictures, but here are some of the better ones.

Flower covered elfs working at the North Pole.

Flower covered polar bear.

Polar bear and Ice Princess.

Polar Bear cub getting in trouble.

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

Christmas tree with and Elf hanging more ornaments.

Overall, I find the Christmas Decorations at the center strip casino hotels disappointing. I’ve been to Las Vegas during the Christmas season many times over the last twenty years. While it has never been over the top, it is usually more striking than what I saw tonight. There didn’t seem to be anything outside, just small trees, wreaths or garland adorned some areas inside. Even the Bellagio didn’t have much other than in the conservatory.

Saturday December 9th 2017

It was a few degrees warmer today. The temperature peaked out at seventy degrees this afternoon. The daily high temperature doesn’t last long since it occurs shortly before the sun starts to set. The short amount of daylight is a real limiter to the warm weather.

I took a drive to the other side of the valley today. My destination was the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It is about thirty miles and several hundred feet of elevation away. Traffic wasn’t too bad most of the way, but as I got onto the single lane road approaching the heart of the Red Rock Canyon area the traffic got heavy. Almost all of the traffic was heading for the Red Rock Canyon Scenic Drive. I’ve been on the drive when it was a solid line of traffic around the whole loop and this looked even more congested. Serves me right to visit on a Saturday. I decided to put off the scenic loop drive until a week day.

Some of the rock that gives the canyon its name.

I stopped at the scenic viewing area along the main highway. It provides a good view of the whole canyon area from a distance. Sometimes you get lucky and see a wild burro or two from there. Today wasn’t a lucky day, but I got a few good pictures of the colorful rock formations. While I was there a Pink Jeep tour arrived to board their pink jeep. The tourists were brought from Las Vegas in a mini bus so they weren’t exposed to the elements in the open jeep until the last minute. It was kind of funny really.

‘

‘

‘

The traffic on the trip back across the valley was much heavier than the trip out. I got stuck in stop and go traffic on the highway in downtown Las Vegas. The intersection of Interstate 15, Intestate 515 and US95 has been under construction for a few years and will be for a few more. It is right in the middle of the downtown area making the task of getting through the area difficult.

Friday December 8th 2017

The weather was very much on my mind today. Here in Las Vegas it was a seasonal normal or slightly better than normal day. We had lots of sunshine with a high temperature in the low sixties and no wind.  Overnight it was in the low forties. It was the weather in other parts of the country that got my attention.

A reminder that this is not a cold weather area.

Before hurricane Harvey wrecked havoc on southeastern Texas, I was doing to spend my winter in San Antonio. That area got up to five inches of snow yesterday into last night. The temperatures weren’t much below freezing, but none the less it snowed. That same storm is moving east. It will impact the east coast tonight into the weekend. My friends and family in the east are going to get their first winter storm of the season. The folks in Florida are even gearing up for freezing temperatures. Right now this is the right place to be. All that could change at a moments notice. I’ve been in Las Vegas between Christmas and New Years when it snowed.

In this rig I can easily handle the conditions I’m likely to get in this area. If it gets into the fifties during the day and doesn’t get colder than the low 20s at night, very few special considerations are necessary. If it is going to be below freezing overnight I will turn off the outside water and drain the hose. My inside tanks get warmth from the RV furnace so they won’t freeze. If the outside temperature is forecast in the twenties, I’ll put a hundred watt light bulb in the outside wet compartment to help keep the water filter and lines from freezing. If it’s that cold, the furnace will run all night set somewhere in the fifties.

Generally the day time sun warms the inside of the RV to the high seventies or low eighties by mid afternoon. On a cloudy day I may need my electric fireplace running to keep the inside comfortable during the day. In the evening or early morning I have an electric space heater to keep the temperature in the comfortable range. I can also use the heat pump in my air conditioner to warm the inside, but its efficiency is hurt by cooler outside temperatures. I only turn the propane furnace on when it is absolutely necessary. It produces a lot of heat, but half of it goes out the vents to the outside.

People who live in RVs in the northern climates during the winter do all kinds of other things to insulate the RV. First, they skirt the outside to keep the wind and cold out from under the rig. The next step is to add electric heat tape to the water input hose and the tank drain lines. Extra insulation and condensation control inside comes next. Last but certainly not least is bulk propane to keep the furnace running. Just because I have an idea how to do it doesn’t mean I want to.

Thursday December 7th 2017

Today’s weather was a repeat of yesterday. The high temperature was a cool start to the day with the high in the mid sixties. I took advantage of the good weather to return to the Wetlands Park for more photography practice with my new camera.

The park is about three miles away from my RV park. It is a nice place to get away from the paved parking lots and back to nature. Today I explored some areas of the park I hadn’t visited before. There is still plenty of park I haven’t checked out yet. Every week the park takes on more of a winter configuration as the cold kills off some of the reeds and grasses around the ponds which exposes more open water. I’m enjoying exploring the park.

I continued to experiment with the long lens today. The primary lesson learned was when I need to take manual control of the focus. If there is anything nearer to me than the subject in the field of view the camera will not focus where I want it to focus. To overcome that I’ve got lots of choices from changing the method of auto focus to total manual control of the focus. So far I’ve just tried changing the aperture with mixed results. I took over 70 shots. Thank goodness for digital cameras. The film cost would be outrageous. Some of the better pictures are included in this blog entry.

Auto focus locked on the grass in front of the duck.

This duck swam up to about 6 feet away.

This turtle turned on the rock to face me.

I’m king of the rock!

.

There was something making noise in the reeds, but I couldn’t see anything.

;

Can you find the bunny rabbit?

Looking at the mountains to the southwest.

One of the tree lined paths at the Wetlands Park.

,

‘

Coming home from the park took an extraordinary long time. I had to go through two school zones with children being let out. The first was an interesting exercise in dodging the buses. The second was an elementary school that seemed to have more walking students than buses. The florescent yellow green vested crossing guards might protect the students, but they sure did a number on automobile traffic. They attempted to coordinate their activity with the traffic lights, but only proceeded to prevent all traffic turning right from ever getting through the intersection. Then again if they weren’t there the kids would never get home from school. I guess I’m surprised they don’t bus the kids for their safety. It reminds me of my era or earlier, not today’s safety and security conscious society.

Wednesday December 6th 2017

Today started out cooler than Tuesday but ended up a little warmer in the low sixties. The wind was much calmer too. I took advantage of the nice sunny afternoon to get some more experience with my new Sony Alpha 6000 camera.

I took the camera and the 55-210mm lens to the Wetlands Park for some practice with the longer lens. I took about 40 pictures of various things. The wildlife was a little less visible today than on past visits. I suspect the overall cooler temperatures are keeping the birds back in the reeds. I continue to appreciate the speed of this camera. The time to compose, auto focus and expose is much quicker than my point and shoot. I almost got a good stop action shot of a duck landing in the pond. The sun angle combined with my slow reaction time didn’t help the shot, but I wouldn’t have had a chance with my point and shoot. The following are some of the pictures I took.

The color on the turtle is much clearer than a similar shot I took last month with my point and shoot camera.

Mountain to the east of the Las Vegas valley.

The green color of the reeds really stands out behind this duck.

‘

This is my attempt to catch the ducks landing. I didn’t really get the camera aimed in time and the sun is in the wrong place for a good shot.

‘

‘

On the way back to the RV park I stopped at Sam’s Town Casino for the senior day gambling. On Wednesday’s people over fifty can earn more points, participate in a drawing for cash or free plan and get cheap to free buffet meals. I didn’t win anything but I did get a free dinner buffet out of the visit. The buffet was good, but I didn’t find any vegetables until I was ready for desert. My dinner was prime rib, a hamburger, a baked potato and some dressing. I’m pretty sure the carrots I saw on my way to the desert station weren’t available when I made my first pass. For desert I had chocolate cream pie not vegetables. Overall a very good dinner.

Tuesday December 5th 2017

The temperature got down into the high thirties last night. It will get even lower tonight since the insulating cloud cover disappeared during the day. Getting up this morning into a cold motorhome was a real challenge. I rolled over under the warm covers and went back to sleep a couple of times. When I finally got up it took some time to warm up the RV. It slowed down my morning even more. The outside temperature peaked in the mid fifties, but the north wind made it feel a few degrees cooler.

According to the TV weather people this is a little below normal for this time of year. It compares to a late October day in the Northeast. The average highs and lows won’t get much lower while I’m here. In the grand scheme of things this is great weather. It’s about what I expected when I decided to spend the time in Las Vegas. What is hard to get used to is the change from the mid 70s weather that was the norm until this week.

I pretty much stayed at home today. It was a household chore kind of day. I did a little clean up here and a little picking up there throughout the day. The dirty dishes in the kitchen sink got turned into clean dishes ready for the next meal and the trash got bundled up and walked down to the dumpster at the end of the road. On a good day all that would take an hour. Today I managed to get it done in six. I used most of the available daylight hours. As I mention earlier, it was a slow day.

Here are four more pictures from yesterday’s visit to the Ethel M Chocolate and Cactus Garden’s Christmas lights.

‘

‘

‘

‘

Monday December 4th 2017

The cool weather has arrived. It didn’t get out of the mid fifties today. The cloud cover and the wind made for a raw day. Inside the RV it was comfortably in the seventies with a little help from a space heater. I reserve the furnace for the real cold. That may come tomorrow morning. There is a freeze warning for much of the area.

The big event for the day was a visit to the Ethel M Chocolate and Cactus Garden Christmas display. After spending the afternoon doing some shopping in Henderson NV, I stopped at the cactus garden. It is a real gem hidden in an industrial area. For Christmas they cover all of the cactus with lights and add a few other Christmas scenes like wire frame reindeer and snowmen. It is a real dense burst of color in the middle of the chocolate factory buildings.  Walking along the paths of the garden you are surrounded by Christmas lights. I went crazy with my point and shoot camera and my cell phone. I’m going to include more than a few pictures here to try and convey the volume and depth of the lights. It really is beautiful.

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘

Sunday December 3rd 2017

The wind blew hard all day. It started the day out of the southwest bringing in warm temperatures. This evening it has switched into the north and is bringing in much cooler temperatures. It is forecast to only reach the mid to upper fifties tomorrow. That is about twenty degrees cooler than today.

The way my RV is parked it is somewhat protected from the southwest wind, but the north wind is another thing. The wind from the north catches the main slide out room awning just wrong. The wind causes it to flap loudly. When it really gets bad the tensioning springs can’t keep up. That’s about the time I decide to bring the slide in until the storm passes. It hasn’t gotten that bad yet this evening. I’ve just turned the volume up on the TV.

The atrium at Sam’s Town casino decorated for Christmas.

An Elf testing a toy

Elfs making toys

Elfs wrapping toys

Most of my day was spent in front of the TV watching the NFL football games. I didn’t watch as much football when I was living on the east coast. I usually got busy with something else before the games started. In this time zone the games have started and sucked me in by ten in the morning. I did manage to do a few things around the RV and get out for a walk around the park at halftime and in between games.

This evening I went over to Sam’s Town Casino to checkout the decorations and watch the holiday version of the fountain show in the atrium. It wasn’t the best choice of nights. There were many families with kids there to see the laser and fountain show. I couldn’t get close enough to take pictures or video of the show. I took a few pictures of the area after the show while many of the kids were lined up to see Santa Claus. The casino is hosting Santa weekend evenings from 4:30 to 8pm. Santa was dressed to correspond to the western theme of the casino. He wore a red velvet cowboy hat instead of the traditional tasseled knitted winter hat.

All the fake animals had Santa hats. This is Santa Bear.

Santa bear snarling.

Mountain Lion in the Christmas spirit.

Eagle Santa.

Little bird Santa.

Saturday December 2nd 2017

It was another warm day in the low seventies with a few clouds moving in near the end of the day. Tomorrow has a high wind warning so change is in the air.

The tree on my cluttered dashboard.

I got caught up in the college football conference final games on TV this morning. They continued all the way to eight thirty this evening. They provided a good excuse not to leave the park today. I took a couple of walks around the resort for exercise and did a little decorating for Christmas. I put a little two foot tree with white lights on the motorhome’s dashboard and added a couple of strings of battery operated color LED lights around the base of the windshield. It is ideally located for viewing from inside and out. I’ll add a few more ornaments to the little tree over the next few days. I need to dig them out form the underbed storage area.

Everyday this RV resort looks a little more like Christmas. Many people are putting up lights or adding a decorated tree outside their rigs. It isn’t as over the top as I’ve seen at other parks like Disney’s Fort Wilderness, but it is getting colorful. The inflated snowman that I saw a while ago on my neighbor’s box trailer didn’t make it through the last wind storm, so I think it’s a good idea to use decorations with a low wind profile. All of my decorations are inside near the front windshield.

Friday nights sunset wasn’t as pretty as some but it was a lot better than tonight’s fully cloud covered end of day. 

Friday December 1st 2017

It is hard to believe December is already here. I spent the day doing a few errands. The great weather is back with temperatures peaking in the low 70s. The real event of the day took place after dark. After being here for over a month, I went to my first show of this visit to Las Vegas. It just another indicator that I’m in living mode, not vacation mode.

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas show at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

I went to a performance of Mannheim Steamroller at the Orleans Arena. The show started at 7:30 and didn’t get out until almost ten. The orchestra performed two one hour sets separated by a twenty minute intermission. The music was great. There are six featured performers that play multiple instruments. The two percussion instrument players also played wood instruments that appeared to be rather primitive. The violin player also played the recorder, so I know the percussion guys weren’t playing something even that sophisticated. The sole women in the featured group played the synthesizer and electronic harpsichord. The featured set also included a guitarist and a piano player. Hidden behind the main bandstand was a two man horn section and a five person string section.

Orchestra on stage with lighting effects and video screen behind them.

The production wasn’t very elaborate. For the most part the featured players stood or sat at their spot the whole show. There was no dancing or flair to the performance. They used lights in place of motion. There were strobes and spots in every direction. The other “feature” was a huge video screen behind the orchestra. It showed stock footage of space and space flight from NASA and stock footage of dolphins swimming in the ocean as well as specifically created video clips for the show. The orchestra played in perfect sync with all of the videos, but often the video was the focus of my attention not the orchestra.

Video screen turned off but color lights still in use.

Overall I enjoyed the performance. I had a great seat in the third row on the side of the arena about half way back. In the concert configuration the arena holds around 9000 people. It was a little over half full for this performance. This touring company performs in Palm Desert California tomorrow night.

The pictures in this blog entry were taken with my cell phone.