Vegas part 3

Day 3 Wednesday

We started out day three, bright and early. Got on a tour bus and went to the Hoover Dam. We took a 4 hour, round trip tour and got back at noon. It was very interesting and incredible really, to see. The new bridge they built recently, was almost as spectacular as Hoover Dam itself. It also gave us a chance to see more of Las Vegas, off the strip. Our tour guide gave us a pretty thorough history of Las Vegas and a timeline of when each Casino/Hotel opened. I guess I had assumed Vegas's strip was older than that, but most of the development happened during the 90's and even into the 2000's. The "old" Vegas located on Fremont Street is much older, of course.

When we got back from the tour, ole Jeddy's dogs were barking and he surrendered to the fact that he needed to get some tennis shoes if he was going to last another day. So we set out on a shopping mission to find Jed shoes. I got to see a fancy mall called, The Forum Shops, that I otherwise may not have got to step inside! Didn't find shoes there, but got to see it anyway. I think it must have been 3 miles long. It just kept going and going and going. It was located next door to Caesar's palace, and had ceilings that were painted to look like the sky.

Next we went on to the Fashion Show Mall, where we finally found shoes, suitable to Jed's standards. Actually, the phrase I used was, "You WILL get shoes here. If they have your size, you WILL get shoes here." So, he got shoes there. Funny thing.

We toured through Treasure Island Hotel, where Gilley's Saloon and Steakhouse is. Didn't get to go into The Bellagio, but did watch the water show in front of it. We peeked into the MGM Grand, The Hard Rock, and Planet Hollywood. Also the Luxor, and New York, New York. I think the New York hotel was probably the most impressive. We saw the Coyote Ugly Bar inside it and got a peek of the dancers, of course on the bar, dancing to none other than Charlie Daniels. They must get tired of those songs. We walked through there about 4 times, and each time we could hear the same 5 songs.

Wednesday night we went to the rodeo, which was the highlight of the trip for both of us. Very cool to see it firsthand and get the whole show. It was tough enough to wear pink night, again, very cool. My boyfriend, Stran didn't catch his calf, so I only got to see him for about 3 seconds. Dang. I'm sure I made him nervous.
We we plenty early, so while we were sitting in our seats, they announced that if you text a greeting to their # your greeting will be displayed on the center screen (score board). So I did, and a few minutes later, Jed said, "THERE IT IS!" "SOUTH DAKOTA IS IN THE HOUSE, Jed & Tally Seim," was displayed for about 5 seconds! We're nearly famous! Kind of cool, wish I would have had my camera ready to take a picture of it. Oh well!
After the rodeo when we went outside to catch our bus, Luke Branquinho and Bobby Mote were sitting under a tent signing autographs. Sitting right there, right it front of us. We were star struck. . . almost. Dang it, Stran, you should have won the round. All the round winners have to sit there and sign autographs.

Next, we went down to Fremont Street. I had heard it was pretty neat, so I thought we better cross it off our list. After an hour bus ride across the ghetto, it's definitely crossed off our list. I was not impressed, and slightly scared. The canopy light show was OK to see first hand, but nothing spectacular. I would not waste my time going back down there in any future trips. Nor would I recommend staying there. The strip is more my style I guess. Cleaner, newer, safer. Less KISS impersonators. Eww. That was a whole lot of spandex in all the wrong places.

With that, our Vegas trip came to an end. We went back to the hotel and called it a night. Thursday we left the hotel at 1pm, and got back to Rapid City at 8pm. Back to the real world.