Tag Archives: Pawn Stars

Just Another Day in Vegas! (Main Street Station RV Park – Las Vegas, NV)

We had another busy, busy, day running around checking out the sites here in Las Vegas with our son William and his girlfriend Jasmin.  Later on we met up with our daughter Joleen and her boyfriend Dylan, among others 🙂  Follow along…

After Stilla made omelettes in the Coach for us, we plugged Rick’s Restorations (←link here) into the iPhone to get directions and drove William’s rental car to their new location.  Yup, that’s right – Rick’s Restorations recently (6-wks ago) moved to a new location.  It’s a good thing I used the iPhone and didn’t try to navigate there from memory 😐  Check out my blog post from our visit last year, (HERE).

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Rick’s Restorations (new location in LV)
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Rick’s Restorations (new location in LV)
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Rick’s Restorations (new location in LV)

We took the $5 tour and got to see Rick himself running around the shop several times.  I like this TV series/reality show – one of my favorites.  This new location is certainly larger than the old one, but the tour seemed shorter for some reason.  Still cool to see tho 🙂

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Old vehicles at Rick’s Restorations in LV awaiting possible possible resurrection.
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William showed Jasmin this 1960 Cadillac… he used to have a ’62 for a short while when he still lived with us in Colorado Springs.

After our tour of Rick’s Restorations – we drove down Las Vegas Ave in North LV to the site of the Pawn Stars (←link here) TV show.  I also wrote about our visit to this place last year (HERE).

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We took the free tour which really just consists of a quick walk through the Pawn Shop, elbow-to-elbow with all the other tourists.  I personally don’t watch this TV series/reality show very often – if at all.  But it was fun to see.

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Will & Jasmin posed with a cutout of Rick at the back of the store.

And then we drove over to Count’s Kustoms –  the site of the TV series/reality show ‘Counting Cars.  We also visited this place last year, click (HERE) to see that posting.

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Will & Jasmin in front of Count’s Kustoms; site of the TV show Counting Cars.

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This tour was also free, but we didn’t get to see any of the TV personalities or the shop itself, -just the cars on display along with the gift shop.  I got the T-shirt last year.  I also like this show and will watch it and/or record it when it’s on.

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William & Jasmin at Count’s Kustoms in LV.

Here are some of the cars that you might remember from the TV series if you’re familiar with it…

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After our tour of Count’s Kustoms, we met up with our daughter Joleen and her boyfriend Dylan at the Luxor Hotel Casino.  Joleen & Dylan flew in from Colorado Springs on the 22nd and are staying at the New York-New York Hotel Casino next door.

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Stilla, Dylan, and Joleen.

We bought tickets for a couple of the exhibits on site at the Luxor.  Click HERE to learn more about Bodies and the Titanic exhibit.

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We couldn’t take any pictures inside either of these exhibits.  They ask everyone to turn their cell phones off at the entrance.  I’m guessing they don’t want people posting pics and videos to youTube, otherwise no one would pay for the tours.  Both were pretty cool exhibits… I’d recommend them.  The prices were a little steep tho 🙁

We went back to the Coach in North LV to get refreshed and check on little dog ‘Coach’ who was enjoying some alone-time in the air-conditioning.  Then later on, we drove back down the strip (whew-what a long drive) to New York-New York and valet parked the car.  Here we met up again with Joleen & Dylan.  Their friend, Dalton also joined us… he drove straight through from Colorado Springs the day before.

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(L to R) Dalton, Jasmin, Joleen, Dylan, Stilla, and William inside New York-New York Hotel Casino in LV.

We spent the evening together casino-hopping and walking (way-to-much) from casino to casino.

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(L to R) Dylan, Joleen, William, Jasmin, Stilla, and self on the LV strip.

We caught the water show in front of the Bellagio.

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Stilla, Jasmin, and William at the Bellagio water show in LV.

We had a chance encounter with Dylan’s parents (and their friends) while walking down the strip.  They flew in on a different flight than Dylan & Joleen and are here to catch some shows, etc.,  Dylan’s grandparents also live in LV, we might get a chance to visit with them later.

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Dylan’s parents: Jeff on the right, and Kelley in the center.

After a few more casino stops, one tram ride, and much walking… we ended up at the Linq Hotel & Casino.

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(L to R) Stilla, Dylan, Joleen, Jasmin.
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(L to R) Stilla, self, Joleen, and Jasmin.

A fun day… albeit a long one 🙂  After we recover from all the walking, we might go check out Hoover Dam today (Saturday).  Check back for a full update 🙂

Ma Time (Las Vegas, NV)

It’s been a busy few days since my last post.  I’ll try to get caught up here.

We found a (somewhat) quiet corner of the truck stop in Barstow for Thursday evening as I mentioned in my last blog post.  Here’s a picture I took Friday morning before we headed on up I-15 to Las Vegas.

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About 150 miles later we passed the Welcome to Nevada sign:

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We found a RV park by using the “Points of Interest” option on the Rand McNally GPS.  Of course, I researched it quickly on the internet to validate it’s authenticity.  It was a very reasonable $20 per night.

We ended up at the Main Street Station Casino, Brewery, Hotel & RV Park near the famous (or infamous) Fremont Street.  That’s on the North side of Las Vegas.  I called ahead to confirm a spot and they assigned me to site 200… and what are the odds – we were parked right next to another Alpine Coach!  With only ~1,400 Coaches ever built between the years 1999 and 2009, that’s a somewhat rare occurrence.  Unfortunately, we never got to meet the owners in the two days we were there.  They were always seemed to be out and about at the times we were in the park.

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It wasn’t long after we arrived that we were met by my brother Steve, his long-time girlfriend Cheryl along with my Mom and Stepdad in their chauffeured Escalade.  They have a time-share of sorts with Wyndham Resorts which is where they were staying.  The limousine service is courtesy of the resort.

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They took us to Caesars Palace to enjoy the Bacchanal Buffet.

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The food was excellent albeit rather expensive.  All the dishes are prepared by Chef’s.  Here’s a link to learn more if interested: http://www.caesarspalace.com/restaurants/bacchanal-buffet.html#.VCorPUtGGQc

 And then we  supported the local economy by playing the slots.

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Here’s an indication of how our evening went… notice that the “7’s” aren’t on the payline 🙁

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Here’s my beautiful Ma and wonderful stepdad!  Love ya mom & Jimmy.

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Obligatory picture of one of the Las Vegas signs.

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We spent the rest of the evening touring the Fremont Street Experience.  For those of you that have never been, here’s a link: http://vegasexperience.com

The light show is pretty cool.

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And there were lots of characters walking the street… many of whom I couldn’t post to this blog in order to maintain something less than an “R” rating.

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This is the zip-line that runs above the street.  You can see some people getting ready to go in the second picture below.

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These folks got stuck and had to be rescued.

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We ended up at the Heart Attack Grillhttp://www.heartattackgrill.com for a late night “light” snack 🙂

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On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to my Mom, Stepdad, Steve & Cheryl after a hearty breakfast at the Plaza Hotel’s Hash-a-go-go http://www.plazahotelcasino.com/dining/hash_house_a_go_go  They have to get back home to Las Cruces to go on diets 🙂

After breakfast and goodbye hugs… Stilla and I then spent the rest of our Saturday checking out a few local tourist attractions… the first was one of my favorite’s, the site of American Restoration.

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The free guided tour through the shop was really neat, but they don’t allow photos inside because customers haven’t seen their finished restoration projects yet.

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I pulled the truck up front for a photo-op.  Rick didn’t come out to offer to restore the Harley for me 🙁

I did get the T-Shirt at the gift shop though.

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Next, we went by the site of Pawn Stars.  I honestly have only seen a few episodes… not one of my favorites, but it was cool to see.

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This Elvis painting was for sale at some outrageous price.

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We must have arrived at just the right time… there was quite a long line forming as we exited.  Must be a popular site, or a tour bus might have shown up.

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Then I tracked down where Counting Cars is filmed at Counts Kustoms http://www.countskustoms.com was located and we headed over there.  I bought the T-Shirt.

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Stilla and I visited Fremont Street again to close out the evening and took in some of the street band music that plays in a few different spots along the covered street.

On Sunday, we hit the road again for Saint George Utah.

We continued on I-15 and went through the corner of Arizona after leaving Nevada.

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It had clearly rained the day prior as evidenced by the very soggy desert.

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Interstate 15 passes through a pretty cool canyon at one point.

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And here’s the Saint George, UT Elk’s Lodge 1473.  Now this has to be the most scenic Lodge we’ve stayed at to date.  Travel distance for the day was around 120 miles.

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We pretty much had the RV Park portion of the parking lot to ourselves.  Only two or three other rigs there.  We heard that we just missed a busy weekend, the lot was full this morning.

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Here’s a couple pics of the lodge.

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The view from their deck.

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And this was our spot below the cliffs.  It’s only $15.  Electric hook-up only.  Wish we could stay here longer, but son William is due in from Germany on the 5th of October, so we have to be back in Colorado Springs.  Also, we have a small problem with the rent – we haven’t gotten any for the last month or so…

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Til next time… stay tuned.