Day 3 of the Griswald's Vacation

This Photo is taken just north of Phoenix


Dad got checked out of the hospital around 9:15 yesterday morning and was anxious to hit the road. We headed north out of Kingman to Hoover Dam. (The photos from there are in the other camera in the car and I'll post them later). We took a nice tour of the place and then headed to Las Vegas.
Dad didn't get much sleep while in the hospital, so after we checked into the Golden Nugget downtown, they took a nap and I figured out the plan for the evening.
At 5pm, we headed out and caught a cab to the strip.
First we toured the Venetian hotel's lobby and canal shops. If you've never seen it, it's very well done and can make you feel (if you let it) that you're outside because of the way the ceiling is painted and lit.
Afterward, we went through Caesar's Palace and then had some dinner at Margaritaville.
After dinner we went to the Bellagio so that Mom and Dad could see the fountain show out front. It was great.

We caught a cab back downtown and then experienced the "Freemont Experiece" with it's 12,000,000 LED lights in the ceiling - making it the biggest jumbotron in the world. At this point it was after 10pm, so we retired for the evening and now we're up early and heading out across Death Valley to Lone Pine CA.

St. Marks Square in the Venetian Hotel

Mom wanted to try slots while here. Her first try netted her a 25% gain!

This is the Grand Canyon Hotel-where we spent the first night. (I'm using 2 cameras on this trip, so I download the photos out of order sometimes).

The Freemont Street Experience.

Mom and Dad in Paris :)

Day 2 - A detour in the plan

We got up this morning and had coffee in the lobby of the Hotel, then loaded up the car and had some breakfast. By 8am, we were on the road toward Hoover Dam.

At Kingman, Arizona, we stopped to get some coffee for mom at McDonalds and when we went inside, Dad got dizzy when he sat down. After a half an hour, he wasn't getting any better and since we were about to head across an hour of deserted highway, we decided to take him by the hospital and have him checked out.

Long story short - he's spending the night in the Kingman Hospital because they wanted to run a test that takes 16 hours. They're pretty sure his problem was a combination of dehydration and his blood pressure medicine combining to lower his heart rate enough to not get enough blood to his head. After they put a liter of saline solution into his veins, he was feeling pretty normal.

Mom is spending the night with him in the hospital (it's their 56th anniversary today) and Jan and I got a room in a hotel less than a block away. All of us are convinced that we'll be back on the road before noon tomorrow, but since dad did have a heart episode 4 years ago, it's certainly worth a day's delay to make sure there's not a deeper problem than is thought.

Expect the next blog post to have picture of us at Hoover Dam.

Day 1 of Family Vacation

Jan and I left home at 4:45 am to make our 6 am flight out of Daytona. Mom and Dad's flight left Charlotte at 7:30 am. We met up in Phoenix and after I got the car - we headed north to Sedona. A beautiful 'artisan' style town, it reminds me a lot of Sante Fe. We did some exploring on the back roads until it was time to head north toward the Grand Canyon.

Nothing can prepare anyone for the first time they see the Grand Canyon and both mom and dad were very excited they saw it. We then headed to the town of Williams Arizona and stayed in the oldest hotel in Arizona - the Grand Canyon Hotel. Pretty cool place. We watched a 'street show' of 4 cowboys shooting it out in town then had dinner and went to be somewhere around 8:30 pacific time. It was a very long day.

Sedona Photos:






Grand Canyon Photos:

More from the "Land Of No".

NO, originally uploaded by gwmeadows.

Readers of my blog may remember my post (Here
) about a year and a half ago about the U.S. being the 'land of no".
While working the race this week in Daytona, I spied a sign just waiting for it's deployment in the regulatory world. On standby for quick action.