Mountain West adventures: Day 7
THE LONG ROAD BACK
LAS VEGAS -- Before the long haul back through the desert, we stopped across the street from our hotel at the BYU campus. We poked our noses into both the football stadium and the basketball arena (named for J.W. Marriott), and then headed down to the student center.
While Chad noticed the clearance sale on the plaza, I went on in to the bookstore to purchase a copy of The Book of Mormon. Thumbing through it, it didn't seem as funny as the musical, but maybe once I dig in I'll find the laughs.
After gassing up in the appropriately-named community of Fillmore, we stopped for lunch in St George, tucked in the southwestern corner of the state. Being in the desert, St George bakes in the summer. This was verified by the interstate-adjacent thermometer at Dixie State College, which read 104. ("Dixie"? Yeah. The Mormons grew cotton in the area.)
Our lunch at the Black Bear Diner was enjoyable, though we were grateful that we didn't order the ginormous taco salad that the woman at the next table received. The furniture synched up with the name, as the chairs and booths were made out of faux logs.
Once back in Vegas, we felt summer's full force. According to the Fox5 6:00 News, it was 110 -- though the day's record high of 113 had been tied. So instead of loading and reloading the wheelchair into the car, we walked across the hotel parking lot to the Hofbräuhaus. It resembled perfectly a German drinking hall, complete with a banner over the wall reading, "Durst ist schlimmer als Heimweh" ("Thirst is worse than homesickness"). Walking back to the hotel, I realized that a 110-degree breeze is literally not easy on the eyes.
That evening, Chad decided to hit a couple things he had missed earlier on the Strip (via the hotel's shuttle), so I elected to drop off our rental car early, topping off the tank along the way. I don't know what it is about my credit card, but this was the third of four fill-ups where the machine refused my credit card at the pump. The cashiers had no problem running it, though.
LAS VEGAS -- Before the long haul back through the desert, we stopped across the street from our hotel at the BYU campus. We poked our noses into both the football stadium and the basketball arena (named for J.W. Marriott), and then headed down to the student center.
While Chad noticed the clearance sale on the plaza, I went on in to the bookstore to purchase a copy of The Book of Mormon. Thumbing through it, it didn't seem as funny as the musical, but maybe once I dig in I'll find the laughs.
After gassing up in the appropriately-named community of Fillmore, we stopped for lunch in St George, tucked in the southwestern corner of the state. Being in the desert, St George bakes in the summer. This was verified by the interstate-adjacent thermometer at Dixie State College, which read 104. ("Dixie"? Yeah. The Mormons grew cotton in the area.)
Our lunch at the Black Bear Diner was enjoyable, though we were grateful that we didn't order the ginormous taco salad that the woman at the next table received. The furniture synched up with the name, as the chairs and booths were made out of faux logs.
Once back in Vegas, we felt summer's full force. According to the Fox5 6:00 News, it was 110 -- though the day's record high of 113 had been tied. So instead of loading and reloading the wheelchair into the car, we walked across the hotel parking lot to the Hofbräuhaus. It resembled perfectly a German drinking hall, complete with a banner over the wall reading, "Durst ist schlimmer als Heimweh" ("Thirst is worse than homesickness"). Walking back to the hotel, I realized that a 110-degree breeze is literally not easy on the eyes.
That evening, Chad decided to hit a couple things he had missed earlier on the Strip (via the hotel's shuttle), so I elected to drop off our rental car early, topping off the tank along the way. I don't know what it is about my credit card, but this was the third of four fill-ups where the machine refused my credit card at the pump. The cashiers had no problem running it, though.