7/7 - back to Las Vegas

We had plans to continue visiting canyons, ending with a long visit to Yellowstone. But the RV is acting strangely - tires won't hold air, turbo gauge is not working - so we decided that we will appreciate the wonderful trip we have had so far, and get back to our home base for awhile.

So this morning Randy put some are in the back tire, then drove to the front of the RV park to top it off with more air. Next we went to the truck/RV station across from Ruby's Inn to check the tire before taking off. 

We took highway 12 west. It took us through Red Canyon, which lived up to the name. We didn't get off the road to go hiking, but even so, it was very pretty.

My GPS and Good Sam's Trip Planner didn't show any tunnels; I guess these weren't long enough to qualify as tunnels. 

Highway 12 led to highway 89, then to highway 20. After awhile Shorty got bored, while poor Missy huddled down and fought against car sickness. She lost. . .  again.

About halfway through highway 20 the road got really twisty. There were high-wind warnings (which were true) and lots of road construction. The road grade was steep going up, then just as steep going down. I call this "adventure driving" and it's not a lot of fun in a big RV.

We left Utah, crossed the corner of Arizona, and headed into Nevada. We parked in Las Vegas, where it is almost 100 degrees. Randy went to Imperial Spa again, while I stayed home and caught up on some Pintrest. Then we had pizza for dinner before driving downtown to the Palazzo, looking for Thomas Keller's pastry shop. We found it, but it had closed about 5 minutes before. Dang it. OK, next we looked for Carlos' Bakery, aka Cake Boss, hoping to get a cannoli. Found it, but there was a long line outside. In April of 2014 we visited the original Carlos' Bake Shop in Hoboken, and the line there was so long we didn't even try to get in. We felt the same way about this shop. Then Randy had an idea - right across from the Bake Shop is Buddy's Restaurant. Maybe they have cannolis? As a matter of fact, they do, and even better, theirs are made fresh, not frozen and shipped in like the Bake Shop. So we got a couple to go - they were quite good!

We looked through some of the "Grand Canal Shoppes", but I enjoyed the pretty ceilings as much as anything else.

It was dark by the time we went outside - that's the best way to see Las Vegas. 

Across the street the Mirage's volcano was going off. This has been an attraction as long as I can remember, but recently it has been renovated a bit. It's bigger and louder, and instead of the waterfall catching fire (which I liked), there are rows of smaller eruptions that occur to music. Still worth watching!