California or Bust!

We left Great Falls about 12:30pm, Thursday. The drive through Montana
was very pretty. There was some beautiful scenery along the Missouri
River! The river looked high. I guess MT has had some significant
snow and rain fall this year. I've never seen MT look so green before!

Our first overnight stop was in Pocatello, ID. The campground wasn't
anything to write home about but they did have a couple of airplane
things on the playground. Blake loved those!

What little we saw of the city of Pocatello, I thought was very
pretty! I told Paul that if he ever gets relocated to Alaska that
we'll meet him part-way and live in Pocatello. He can commute from
there. I'm guessing that their winters are similar to Montana's and
I'm not sure I'd be up for that after having been away for 22 years.
Although, it would finally give me a chance to use my long coat and
fur hat that I got while in Kazakhstan!

Our second overnight stop was in Beaver, UT. Again, the campground
wasn't anything to write home about, but it did have a pool and that's
all that mattered to the kids! Oh, it also had some kind of airplane
teeter-totter thing that peeked Blake's interest. All the kids could
play on it at once! I think we should get one for home.

Saturday we made it to Las Vegas. Man, was it HOT there!!! 105 -
108! I dont think that its a coincidence that Sin City is hotter than
hell! That's certainly one place that I don't want to be anywhwere
remotely close to for the second coming of Jesus.

We stayed 2 nights at the Circus Circus KOA. It was just a big parking
lot with hook-ups, but Reed thought it was the best campground that
we've ever been to! That boy cracks me up. He liked that is was so
smooth for riding his bike.

First thing we did (after wal-mart of course) was go see the Gold &
Silver Pawn Shop that's in the TV show "Pawn Stars." The boys
couldn't wait to see it. None of the guys that are on TV were there
but they sure had a lot of other employees. The boys wanted to pawn/
sell their sister but we couldn't strike a deal. So, we got some
souveniers instead. The shop looks much bigger on TV than it does in
person. They say they get about 2000 customers a day!

Our next stop was at M&M's World. It was okay. Paul and the boys were
bummed that it was pretty much a 4 floor gift shop. Of course we
bought some M&M's and a dispenser. A slot machine one. Reed picked
it out. How did we get by all this time without that? My favorite
M&M dispenser is still the airplane one. They had tons of those! I
should have bought another one because I know it's just a matter of
time until Blake loves ours to pieces!

Driving down the strip was fun, but I wouldn't want to do it
everyday. We drove through Vegas on New Year's Eve, 1998. It has
chanced so much since then! It just keeps getting bigger, gaudier and
more crowded!

After experiencing the strip, we went downtown. We wanted the kids to
see the "Fremont Experience." It's a huge canopy over a few blocks,
covered with lights. Every hour they do a light show to music. The
night we were there they played some Queen music and showed some
pictures of them and other things. Blake did not like it! He was
pretty scared of it. The rest of us thought it was cool! Paul & I
have seen it before and I do have to say, as we age it gets harder to
keep looking up all that time!

We finally made our way to the Golden Gate casino. We'd been looking
forward to the .99 cent shrimp cocktail. Only now they are $1.99!
They serve small shrimp in cocktail sauce, in a sundae glass. The
kids didn't like it so that meant there was more for Paul & me:o)

The next day, Sunday, we hung out at Circus Circus all day. The kids
had a great time playing games! Chase and Reed won a few cheesy
stuffed animals that are guaranteed to lose tiny styrofoam beads
everywhere. If they last until we get them home the boys can use them
for target practice with their BB Gun.

Paul took Blake & Taylor back to the motorhome for a much needed nap
while I took Chase & Reed to ride some rides in the Adventure Dome at
Circus Circus. They enjoyed that except Reed was about 1/2 inch too
short to ride the "good" rides that Chase got to ride. He was kind of
bummed but he still had fun. When they rode a couple of small kiddie
rides I tried to get them to act like it was the best ride that
they've ever been on. They didn't want to appear to be that dorky!

After dinner Paul took Chase & Reed to see the Blue Man Group. They
really enjoyed it! Blake, Taylor and I hung out at the pool and then
watched Toy Story a couple (or 3) times while trying to stay cool.
The motorhome had a hard time trying to stay cool in the hot temps. It
was in the high 80's inside!

Monday morning we headed for Los Angeles. We were glad to be getting
away from the horrid heat!

Brandy