Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Woke up this morning, ate breakfast, and then hit the road, with the goal being Las Vegas, Nevada, and I figure I’ll make stops in Fort Cole, St. George, Utah and at Hoover Dam.
Civilization petered out pretty quickly after Provo, but southern Utah still doesn’t seem nears as empty as Montana. The traffic never really disappeared, which makes me wonder where they all could be going. My first stop was Old Fort Cole, located just off the junction of I-15 and I-70. President Hickley’s grandfather built it at the request of Brigham Young, and it served as a way-point for both travellers (who would be 30 miles on a good day, in contrast with my 700…) and the telegraph. It had been recommended to stop into Zion National Park a couple of times, but it’s about an hour off the road, so I decided to pass, and I’ll have to do that another day. I stopped in St. George for several hours. I was trying to find a car remote for my iPod, and I found something at the local Best Buy that would have probably worked well, but I couldn’t get it to turn on, and ended up returning it, and so I lost about an hour there. I also stopped in at the St. George Temple vistor’s center. The Temple, at 175 feet tall, is a massive structure in a town of this size! I stopped in Mesquite for supper at the Virgin River Casino (I’d been seeing their billboards all day driving out of Utah) — the price ($5) was right but the food was nothing to brag about, so next time I’ll go somewhere else! Soon after leaving Mesquite, my low fuel light came on. The next two exits looked pretty empty, and so I didn’t pull off until I got to North Las Vegas, with my fuel gauge just above the fumes line (add a little adventure to the night, right? :-) ). The thing that amazed me about Vegas is how big the city is. You come over a hill as you come in from the north, and all of a sudden the city is spread beneath you and the lights seems to cover the whole panorama. The hotels on the Strip are enormous — they all seem to be skyscrapers! You begin to wonder which has more high-rises — all of Edmonton or the Las Vegas Strip… I got a room on the Strip at the Tropicana, and felt too tired to go out and do much. I guess I’ll know for next time — if I really want to see Vegas, I need more than one night; the first will get eaten up in just getting settled in.
Historic Old Fort Cole, located at near the junction of I-15 and I-70.
The telegraph room at Old Fort Cole.
The St. George Temple.
This is (one tower of) the hotel I stayed at in Vegas — the Tropicana.
Leave Provo UT — 9:31am — 221,060km
Scipio UT (gas $30.62, Skittles $2.98) — arrive 10:35am, leave 11:08am
—- 221,189km
Old Fort Cole — arrive 11:52am, leave ~1:10pm — 221,280km
Beaver UT (lunch $11.00) — arrive 1:30pm, leave 2:25pm — 221,322km
Arrive St George UT — 3:45pm — 221,485km
Leave St George (2x dress shirts $36.75) — 7:30pm — 221,507km
Mesquite NV (supper $5.90) — arrive 8:05pm, leave 8:56pm — 221,574km
North Las Vegas (gas $35.00) — 10:15pm — 221,696km
Las Vegas (hotel room $65.95)
Today — US$188.20 — 4:30 hours — 485km
Total — CAD$473.15 — 21:10 hours — 2197km
Comments
PS. A lot of that traffic that you’re wondering about is all headed to and from California. I think you’d be amazed at how much of the population of California travels up North to Utah (but then again a lot of it stops in Nevada), but there’s constant traffic. Look at the plates…lots are Cali plates I bet.