Our Las Vegas trip proved to be quite the adventure.

We left our little town after Andy got off work on Saturday afternoon.

Our first stop: the gas station. Filling up the tank was pretty painful after months of not needing gas in the RV.

After week took that bullet, we drove into a large parking lot in town to hook up the Jeep.

Then we were ready to hit the road! Spirits were high and we were very excited to be traveling RV-style again.

The motorhome made the trek nicely, even up all those hills where we passed car after car that had overheated. We watched the sun set over the mountains and felt lucky to be traveling again.

We stopped in a small town called Baker, where we had been advised by a guy from Andy’s work to let our engine cool down. We took his recommendation and stopped to eat at a cute little Greek restaurant right off the highway.  Just as he said, it was delicious.

Even though it was dark, the temp outside was still crazy hot! Way hotter than Ramona is at night.

After our dinner, we made the long climb up hill. Eventually, we saw the bright lights of Las Vegas in the distance.

We easily found our RV park, checked in at 1am, and set up camp.

 

We stayed at the Oasis RV Resort because it had the best reviews online. Even though it was a 15 minute drive to the Strip, I am happy we stayed here. It was very secure, with a guard and centurion at the front gate. Plus, they had dog play areas for the dogs and we had full hookups. They also gave us their “neighbor” discount because we were coming from California. It was better than the Good Sam discount! **Good Sam is an RV club. I know we paid a bit more for this security and luxury but it was worth it.

I was exhausted by the time we got set up so instead of going out to the Strip, I got in my pjs and went right to bed; it was way past my bedtime by this time!

The next morning, our friends got into town. We anxiously waited for them to meet us at our RV park so we could start our adventure together. We had tried to sleep in as late as possible, but, like Christmas morning, were too excited to see them.

It was heating up outside quickly, hitting 111° by the time we left our RV. We had been rotating the use of our A/C units all morning so that they wouldn’t overheat, but I was still worried. We left fans blowing on the dogs to help keep them cool.

We ventured onto the Strip and saw just how flashy it truly was — and this was in the daytime!

After exploring for a bit, Andy and I decided to head back to our motorhome to check on the heat situation and the pets. I am glad we did because it was warm in there! We decided to hang out past the hottest part of the day so that if anything went wrong, we would be there. The animals were not too happy about the heat (and neither were we).

We decided we had to change something so we created a sheet barrier, sort of like what we had done in cold weather. We also used pillow cases to cover the top vents and create a little more insulation.

After a quick nap, we set the dogs up in their kennels in our bedroom (the coolest place in the RV) and headed back to the Strip and our friends.

We went up to their hotel room where we watched the volcano show at the Mirage across the street. We had a pretty cool view from up there.

After a yummy dinner, walked around for a while, bought tickets to a show for the next evening, and watched the water performance at the Bellagio.

Then we decided to head over to Fremont Street (the original strip).

It was interesting to see the street performers, light show, and all the action of Fremont. By this time, everyone was getting a little tired. We decided to head back to the hotel so that our friends could get some rest after their long day of traveling.

Andy and I headed down to the casino where we spectacularly lost at blackjack. Once we’d hit our limit for losing, we headed back to the RV park and fell asleep. We had decided that the best thing we could do for the pets was to switch our sleep schedules so that we would be home in the hottest part of the day in case they needed something.

We slept for a few hours and then got up to take Anita out for a birthday breakfast. Once breakfast was over, we headed back to the RV to sleep again.

That night, we ate dinner at Guy Fieri’s restaurant.

We watched the volcano show at the Mirage from the street.

And then we headed out to our show: The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil.

It was AMAZING! We had balcony seats for about $70 per ticket (the cheapest we could find for not horrible seats) and we were incredibly happy with our seating choice. I had a blast and wished my mom and dad were there to watch the show too.

We did a lot of walking and exploring around different casinos and hotels in Vegas. It was great to see our friends again, even for just a short trip.

We really enjoyed seeing the amount of money and effort that was put in to make these hotels look and feel amazing. Andy and I did a little more gambling on the second night, and this time I won playing blackjack (not a lot, but I did win some of our money back).

I was pleasantly surprised by how clean things were in Vegas. I expected it to be very dirty but it wasn’t bad at all.

On our last night with them, after the show, we ended up separating. Ali, Andy, and I went exploring while Anita and her brother headed back to the hotel.

We ventured into the Bellagio where we found the greatest surprise.

A giant fish tank tunnel! And an underwater-themed room!

This instantly became my favorite hotel.

We stayed up all night on our last night there and saw the sun rise the next morning.

We had an amazing time and are so happy that we were able to see our friends. I miss having them nearby so much that it hurts. Adventures like this one are amazing! We slept for a couple of hours and packed up the RV. Anita, Ali, and Robbie met us at our RV to say goodbye before we took off on the road. Little did we know, this wasn’t the end of our adventure!

To be continued…