还是计划不周，一直在谈论大峡谷边上新建的玻璃观览厅 (the Glass Skywalk) 却没有花时间查询一下具体位置。算了，大家都说大峡谷南沿的风景最佳。
随身所带的地图是美国汽车协会 (AAA) 十多年前印制的，有些陈旧过时，一时不知道如何走上215号高速公路，奇妙的是顺着大体方向走，竟然顺利上路。过了一个山口连接93号高速公路，这条路原来是要从胡佛大坝上经过。新修的高架桥（O'Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge）已经通车，双线行车，大大节省了行车时间。到了大坝附近，还是禁不住想去看看，到了跟前又离开了，觉得回程再来瞻仰不迟。
Spring Break came again. This year's plan was to pick our son from his college in Southern California, visit Las Vegas then the Grand Canyon and come home at the end.
The original plan to spend a night near his campus was quickly dismissed. Hotel rooms were scarce and unreasonably expensive. So, Friday we got up early and left home shortly after 6. The morning traffic was really friendly so we met the young man around 11:15. That part of the trip was marvelous, taking only 5 hours. Good times ended abruptly as the traffic in and around Los Angeles was just horrible. After waiting out a couple of crashes along Interstate 15, we didn't get to our hotel until after 6:30 in the evening. The roughly same distance took five hours in the morning but more than 7 hours later in the day. Thank goodness to Daytime Saving Time, there was still natural light to find our way in a new city. Las Vegas had turned its neon lights early for all fun seekers already.
We booked into Stratosphere Tower Hotel and Casino. In Las Vegas, every hotel has its casino. For us as hotel guests, we wanted that unlimited access to the tower. The camera would like that. Still, it was dreadful to drag our luggage through the casino hall. I never liked any casino or gambling scene. The artificial colors hurt my eyes, with too many flashy lights and stuffy air. Personally I detested gamblers eyes, so full of desire and yet so empty. You knew you came to the wrong city when service people expected rude behavior from guests. Polite folks were treated losers or beggars. One must act like a jerk, pretending with a huge wad of cash in your pocket, in order to get respect in this town. It was said casinos served cheap buffet food but not during our stay.
The hotel's weekend rates were twice or even three times more than week days. The hotel room was fairly sizable and beds were large but there was nothing, no microwave oven, no coffee machine. The breakfast wasn't included. The swimming pool was closed down at 6 pm. In this day of age, the hotel charged daily fees for Internet connection. They treat customers like farmers milking their cows. Obviously, they wanted folks to spend most of their time gambling. None of us had any interest in gambling. We were very tired so we all went to bed right after dinner. That was before 10 pm.
2.
The next day we got up around 6:15 am and headed out of town before 7 o'clock. We had planned a day trip to the Grand Canyon's South Rim. The night lights were still on when we left the hotel. We needed some gasoline as gas price in Nevada was at least 50 cents less than California per gallon. As the pump hummed, I looked up and saw a glorious desert morning glow.
Our plan had holes as we talked about the newly built glassy Skywalk but never bothered to find out the exact location. Oh, well, at least everyone said that the South Rim had the best view of the Canyon.
Our map was at least 10 years printed by the American Automobile Association, information was hopelessly outdated. We didn't really know where to get onto Highway 215 and yet we found it just by driving to the approximate direction. Past a mountain range, we were on Route 93 that used to go over the Hoover Dam. But now the brand new O'Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge was completed with two lane traffic each way, saving motorists a great deal of travel time. As we took a brief detour towards the dam, we quickly decided to come back for a good look at the dam later in the day.
The desert was barren and plants were scarce, the brown and scorched color of the earth and rocks dominated everything. Only the highways were lined with some flamboyant wild flowers. It was a long drive, about 95 miles before Kingman, Arizona, where we had breakfast at Country Pride around 9 am. Away from all the casinos and gambling, the price was reasonable, service human, food delicious.
At Kingman, we switched to Highway 40 where the speed limit was raised to 75 miles per hour. That meant one could go over 80 miles per hour without getting a speeding ticket. The 110 miles from Kingman to Junction 64 seemed shorter than the previous 95 miles. Suddenly there were trees, mountains to interrupt the monotonous desert scene. Some mountains even had snow on top. Some snow piles came all the way to side of the highway. Even the seemingly much smaller highway 64 allowed 65 miles per hour speed. Without stop we arrived at the parking lot of the Grand Canyon Village around 11:15.
The parking lot was huge and yet most of the spaces were taken. Yet, it wasn't crowded because the Canyon was mammoth. It was overwhelming. One must be there to experience it. People were happy, awe-struck, mesmerized, elated, tears and laughs in congestion. Huge portion of the land, its earth, rocks, and all, were torn apart by the mighty Colorado River through ions. The epic flood and constant carving left a valley that would take a person half day to reach the bottom. The only alternative transportation available were mules. That was not modern comfort. What is truly amazing is the rich display of colors of the open earth and rocks, dark red, crimson, flaming red, purple, yellowish, beige, tan, sandy. They all change their hues and complexions all day long and on daily basis, depending on the strength and the angle of the sunlight. The shapes of the rocks and canyon walls were art pieces, provoking alarm, danger, awe and other feelings from human heart. There was a river in the color of emerald green at the bottom of this enormity of a canyon. So many wanted to go there and have a look and yet so few had kept the promise.
The Grand Canyon was real but it felt like a dream. Many miles later, when one looked back, there was nothing there. A fantastic mountain range was upside down, penetrating the surface of the earth.
3.
We spent about two hours at the Grand Canyon; the midday light wasn't ideal for a good picture of this natural wonder; we must head back to Hoover Dam. The road traveled for the second time didn't seem long. Still it was boring and tiring as we planned no stop in the middle. We were back at Hoover Dam at 5 o'clock.
The afternoon was much cloudier around the Dam than the morning. There were many visitors, climbing up the steps and through a tunnel to find the pedestrian pass of the O'Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge. The bridge was high over a deep river gorge thus facing a wind tunnel. The wind was howling and people had to steady themselves in order to proceed. There it was, the gargantuan dam was actually way below the bridge. The vista point had a great angle but the cars seemed to become toys traveling on the dam. Still, the cloud made it hard to take good pictures.
The visit took about half an hour, reminding me of the Chinese saying, viewing flowers on a horse back. In 25 minutes, we were back in Vegas, just in time for dinner. After dinner, I went up the tower and took a good look of the Sin City with flashing neon lights. The view wasn't bad, except I didn't bring the tripod up with me. Pictures taken were of low quality.
4.
The third day was to mill around town. After breakfast, we visited the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop. The young man had watched too many hours of this joint on the TV and wanted to take a good look. This place had made a name for itself through television programs. We actually brought a few items for them to take a look. Those items got us into the door immediately as there were many people who had to wait for their turns to go in empty-handed just to browse. They weren't interested in what we brought and referred us next door. The pawn shop next door was full of useless stuff and had no knowledge of our items.
The pawn shop was at the extreme north end of the Las Vegas Boulevard, best known as the Strip. We drove down to the South End of the Strip and parked in one of the casino parking lots. In Las Vegas, casino parking is always free, for they assume everyone is a gambler. Gamblers are welcome.
If one comes to Las Vegas to enjoy all the glittering architectures and Las Vegas won't disappoint. The cloudy morning gave way to blue skies and fluffy white clouds by the time we came out of the parking lot. The temperature was about 80 degrees, people dressed in shorts and skirts, lots of skin was exposed.
The sidewalks were crowded as all the familiar names lined up along the way, Cesar's Palace, the Venetian, the Bellagio, the Flamingo's, New York New York, MGM Grand, just to name a few.
Oh, yes, the Mirage. The whole experience was like a mirage. There used to be nothing but the desert, here, quite open and empty. Then a bunch of adventurers and gamblers came and a mirage appeared in the middle of desert. It's wondrous that this mirage lasts, withstanding the wash of time, thanks to the huge dam and the flood of human curiosity.
They had overpasses for pedestrians to go across the Strip. Those were great places to take pictures of tall buildings and huge number of tourists. We walked about two hours and a half, to burn off the rich buffet food in the tummy. Back in the hotel, I went up to the tower again to take some day time pictures of the Sin City in bird's eye view. The wind swept up some good visibility. In the evening, we went to dinner with a friend's family. They moved here about eight years ago. The baby we remembered had already become a good violin player.
5.
After taking a day of break from driving, we started driving home on the forth day. The Monday traffic out of Las Vegas was non-existence. It was only 7 in the morning, the desert in morning light was quite beautiful, with magic cloud formation, expansive view, and little hills here and there. Suddenly there would be a huge mountain with menacing dark clouds hanging over the mountain tops. A little while later, the sun came out, revealing thousands of acres of desert dotted with huge Joshua trees. Others went to sleep in the car, I didn't want to stop the car along the highway just to take pictures.
We didn't have breakfast in Las Vegas, for nobody felt hungry. I spotted this huge advertisement for Peggy Sue's Diner, 50s style. Huge billboards started the advertisement almost 60 miles ahead, with a number of them telling how many miles to go. It was in Yermo, California and easy to find. They served home style American food and the service was friendly. Outside, there was a military base with many tanks. That was kind of unexpected.
After Barstow, we switched to Highway 58 towards Bakersfield where we saw flower fields a couple of spring breaks ago. But this year there was still snow on mountain tops and the ground was barely green. Guess every year is different.
The last portion of a long drive is always hard. So, we tried find rest areas and vistas to break the boredom and fatigue. There had been a dry season. Given the recent rain, maybe the hills would wake up and become green in a couple of weeks. It was about time.
We got home before 4:30 in the afternoon. That was not bad.
哈哈哈哈 O(∩_∩)O哈哈~ 好久不来了，不小心看了一眼自己主页，发现自动关联了自己以往发过的帖，点进这个看了一眼，笑个半死。。。敢情我当初还发过这么搞笑的东西啊，我自己完全不记得了 
雷达卡
发表于 2012-4-2 05:21:16
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千斤顶
发表于 2012-4-10 10:36:31
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写给自己的未来，走不动了时看看 
80度，短打扮，不错
