My Favorite Places, Part #4{Vegas and others}

Showers were around the area most of yesterday, and we got a few drops, but nothing serious that would rain our games out...Sam got his in up at Antwerp, however, when Pops Grey and I arrived at the Parkway Diamonds...nobody was there.  Seems the schedule got screwed up, and there were no games, no scheduled double header, not even a single game.  So that was a waste of my time....but only a 10 or 12 mile drive for me...unfortunalty for "Pops"...he drove 40 miles each way from near Fort Wayne...and with gas at $3.70 a gallon, it was a lost day and lost money for him...things happen, but in this case, it should not have.  Tonight, hopefully, I'm at Convoy....for a single game, before taking the weekend off to head for the Dayton area tomorrow, and the Reds game, with Patricia, Hal, and Lisa, tomorrow night.  Today's weather looks more summer like, with some humidity back in the area forecast, and then rain moving in for tonight and some over the Father's Day weekend.

More Favorite Places part #4


In my Air Force years, from 1968-72, then again after retiring from the Van Wert County Health Department, in 2002, when I drove RVs around the country and Canada for five years...I got the chance to see and visit many places...some, if only for a short while, others, for extended stays.  And in my full time radio career, which lasted from 1978 through the summer of 1983, I called a few places home.  So, I've been around, small towns, middle sized towns, and passed through the large cities of the country...although not in this lifetime would I ever want to live in one of those.  You see, that kind of diversity isn't my thing...Hell, living in Celina is challenge enough.

(1)  Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the 5 1/2 years of driving and delivering RVs for Hoosier Transit, out of Nappanee, Indiana, my favorite stop, or place to deliver, was without a doubt, Las Vegas.  More times than not, I would arrive, park the RV in the parking lot of the Gold Coast Casino, off the strip, and stay a day or two before I dropped off the vehicle.  Sometimes I would drop it off, and with reduced rate coupon in hand, I would just stay at the GC for a night or two.  Now I'm not a big gambler, but I would play the 3 deck Black Jack tables, drink their reduced or free drinks, and win a few buck on most occasions, lose a few on others.   As I said, I'm not a big gambler.  The most I ever won was about $900 on my first stay at the Gold Coast...the most I ever dropped was about $200.  After a night of drinking and playing cards, I would usually spend the next morning at the downstairs bars, reading the sports bet books, and playing video KENO....my second favorite game.  I probably visited Vegas 10 times in those 5+ years of driving...never had a bad time.  Although I never got into that "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" BS...and I sure the heck wouldn't want to live there...but it was a relaxing time and the flights out were always cheap.

(2) The Rockies

The trips through the mountains always provided an opportunity for some great scenery, and usually some challenges...weather it be driving in the snow, or trying to get a stubborn RV up a mountain pass on I-70 or I-80....I usually varied the trips, depending on location of drop off, and weather forecasts....sometimes I would elect to take the southern route, even 100 miles out of the way, by going down I-40 through Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle...then passing across New Mexico and through Arizona.  Some of my favorite stopping off points were the Route 66 Casino outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, and into the southern Rockies of Arizona, with stops like Show Low, Arizona, and others...I even stopped on the corner of Route 66 in Winslow, Arizona, famous for the Eagles song "Take it Easy" and took a photo of myself standing there....it's is hidden somewhere on one of the floppy disks from my old Sony Digital.  I was actually driving the Jeep back from Vegas on one of the rare occasions that I towed the Jeep Wrangler, when I stopped there.  I never remember a boring trip through the Rockies, whether it be the southern or northern route.

One night back in 2003...with the wind howling on a October evening, I decided to drive into Portland, Oregon, along the Columbia River, and the River Gorge....the trick was, I had never been to this area, or on I-84 along the river, and accompanying mountains.  And I decided to try this at night...wind, rain, and blind driving through this area, was not recommended...but I drove it anyway.  Call me crazy, and the guys at the RV dealership near Eugene, where I dropped off the next morning told me I was.  The next, and only other time, I drove this route, I took it in the daylight hours...taking in the full beauty of that area.

More later>>>>
 
That does it for the week...I'll dust some more off the memory banks, and come up with some other locations out of the past....enjoy the weekend, I plan on it.  Photos on that and more, come Monday.

back later>>>>

  Me in the Route 66 Casino in 2005 on the way to Califorina. and the Columbia River in Oregon, and "The Corner" in Winslow, Arizona....I've got some photos from my personal trips to go with these locations..."Somewhere"  ?