Steve and Lorraine’s Wild West Road Trip
- kaveman2017
- Jul 25, 2024
- 25 min read
Updated: Jul 26, 2024
A look back at our dream road trip in 2022…here’s the full set of blogs that went out on 4 Facebook pages.
The video Vlog is available to view on Caveman’s Capers you tube channel
Here’s the link
Here’s the full blog….
Soooo excited!!😎😎
Let’s do this!
A year of planning….
20 days,
12 hotels,
8 US States,
3000 miles of driving
Starting at Denver and heading north through Fort Collins,Cheyenne,Custer and Deadwood to see how “ The West was won “ or lost( depending on your point of view).
Following in the footsteps of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane…
Across to Billings,Cody and through Yellowstone into Idaho to Twin Falls.
A night at West Wendover where The Enola Gay was housed before UFO spotting at Area 51 and onto the bright light city of Las Vegas in Nevada.
East to Lake Powell and Utahs’ scenic canyons,up to Monument Valley and Moab before returning back to the Mile High City via A small town called rifle and one last bit of casino action in Blackhawk 😎😎🤠🤠🇺🇸
Before returning to Denver for the final two nights.
“ Considering the airlines were recovering from Covid we found the whole BA check in experience at T5 to be totally stress free.
Covid tests sorted before we left home we drove to Heathrow and parked at the short stay ,the day before we flew.
A quick hassle free bag drop and over to the Hilton for a one night stay.
A 3:30 afternoon flight virtually on time and we were off!
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Road Trip tour …..Day 1
Awoke at 5:30am like a young kid on Christmas morning…..
A 105 mile drive to Cheyenne( the capital of Wyoming) for breakfast at the “ luxury diner” ,followed by a visit to the Central Union Pacific train station/depot and the iconic Capital building.
Cheyenne was the central hub for the Union Pacific railroad that linked East and West USA together.
Made famous in HBOs TV series “ Hell on Wheels” the Union Pacific laid track and sold land to immigrants as they came over for a new life in America.
Onto the Frontier Days stage coach museum(how did they all travel on those things?) and then another 120 miles north to Fort Laramie where the USA/ Indian treaty of 1868 was signed.( Little did the natives know but they would be stitched up in 1876 when Gold was discovered in the Black Hills.
Another 140 mile drive after that and we are in our 3rd State of the day at Custer in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Tomorrow should be a less strenuous driving day of local sightseeing 😎😎🤠🤠🍺🍺
300 miles plus covered today
2700 miles left on the tour
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …..Day 2
Well,after nearly killing us both last night by driving on the wrong side of the road for 500 yards before swerving across to the American “ wrong” side of the road (avoiding an on coming car) I can now blog todays events…😲🙈🙈…
Up at 7:30 and breakfast at The Bavarian Inns aptly named feel good cafe.
A really chilled out vibe in this place and set us up for the day.
One of the “ main events” for me was always going to be the Crazy Horse memorial and it didn’t disappoint!
Crazy Horse was a fearsome warrior who fought ( and won) against Custer at The Battle of The Bighorn and was one of the last natives to surrender to the USA.
A gigantic monument is underway to commemorate not only Crazy Horse but stands as testimony to the Native American way of life.
We watched a short 20 minute film of how sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski dedicated his life( along with his wife and later his 10 children) in dynamiting the Black Hills Rock face and building the whole Crazy Horse face in the cliffs and institute.
It was a truly inspirational and moving film that set the theme for the whole morning looking around the various museums and institution.😍😍…..
Another couple of books bought,another tee shirt bought and we even have a piece of rock to take home that was blown off the cliff as the monument was sculpted 😎😎
A quick drive up to Hill City and we managed to time our stop to perfection to see the 1880 steam train pull in and then depart to Keystone🤠
Next up was the 20 mile scenic drive called the needles highway and Sylvan Lake…
the pics will show the stunning journey better than any words.
Early afternoon and we found ourselves on the Wildlife loop road through Custer State Park…All I can say to that is….BUFFALO!!
Lots of “em😂😂🤩😎🤠.
A meal out in Custer tonight at the Mt Rushmore brewing company and if I can remember to drive on the correct side of the road and keep us alive🙈🤪🍺 it’ll be on to Deadwood tomorrow and a bit of Casino action along with our other “main event”
Following in the footsteps of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hicock🤠🤠🤠🤩😎😍
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …..Day 3
Off we go then to our next destination….Deadwood.
This is a major part of the trip for us as we both love the Deadwood TV series and are heading up to follow in the footsteps of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.
But first we had a road trip up through Custer State park along the scenic Iron Mountain Rd,with its cleverly built switch backs and 180 degree bends that sometimes looked like a mountain scalextric track🤠🚗🚙🚕
We were lucky enough to see some deer/elk with one right poser who just stood and waited by the side of the road until I got my camera settings right😎😂😂. A motorbike came thundering around the corner and Bambi was gone ,but we got a decent pic of him up close and personal 😎😎😍
Onto Mt Rushmore for a look at the cliff face National monument and then we still had a bit of time so nipped over to rapid City to do the President trail.
They have a downtown district with life size statues of every US president so we spent an hour finding as many as we could.
Onwards to Deadwood and straight up to the “ money shot” of the trip…Mt Moriah Cemetery and the final resting place of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok who was shot in the back by Jack McCall during a poker game whilst holding the cards “Aces and 8s”. The “ dead man’s hand” as it is known🤠.
We”ve checked into the gaming resort Cadillac Jacks( which has all the Vegas slots and tables) for the next two nights and it looks pretty cool. A decent room ( junior suite) and a bit of complimentary free play.
Free drinks while you gamble( or approx $20 a beer at the rate I was betting🤩🤩😂😂🤠😂)
It’s all about the gunslinging town of Deadwood tomorrow and apparently there is a shop where you can dress up as a cowboy and get your photo taken!( just like Mr Ben for the over 50s who remember him)😂😂
Well, it would be rude not to,so it’s going to be a busy day tomorrow!
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour…. Day 4….
Who remembers the childrens cartoon Mr Ben?
Imagine a shop in Deadwood where you can walk in like Mr Ben and dress up as a character from history!
Well… you can…and we did😲🤩🤠🙈🙈 cost a bit,but we enjoyed it!!
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …Day 4
Deadwood
Oh wow!! What a day!
Now fully on the right time zone and off into Deadwood Main St.
Breakfast in Mineral Palace hotel and a walk up the historic 1876 high st that has been rebuilt over the years to give a modern cowboy town feel after a mud slide and fire destroyed most of the original gold rush town in 1879.
We found a shop where you can go in and do a photo shoot in full Wild West costume.
Well,you only live once so we went in and spent $230.
Imagine a 3 storey fancy dress store with 8 different studio scenes all set up.
What a great laugh!!😎😎😂😂
Into Saloon No.10 for a “ high noon” beer or two( the car is off limits today) and then we watched the Re-enactment of the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok as he played poker with the “ dead man’s hand” of aces and eights.
A bit more casino action as it decided to chuck down with rain and then a look around The Days of 76 Museum🤠🤠🤠
I think we are all out with Deadwood now…it’s been amazing.
One last meal and then an early start for a “ close encounter” with a strange looking mountain tomorrow🤩🤩🤩😎😎🍺😍😍😍
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …Night 4/Day 5
So it’s goodbye to Deadwood after a crazy night in the Casino( video attached of Lorraine’s near miss😂🤩🙈).
Cadillac Jacks have table minimums of $5 which gave me a chance to play craps and Texas hold ‘em without losing my shirt( I actually came out $7 up after 2hrs)
And it was a great laugh at both tables with some fun people.The drinks ladies took a shine to their only two British guests( with the weird accents),looking after us for our last night and always popping up just as we needed a refill🤩🤩🤩🍺🍺🙈
We headed West over to Spearfish this morning to a little diner called Louie’s for breakfast.
A great start to the day and then it was off for a “ close encounter” with Devils Tower,made famous by Steven Spielbergs Sci-fi film.
It was an hours drive for some quick snaps of what looked just like a gigantic termite hill and then West again…300 miles West to be precise,to General Custers’ Last Stand at The Little Bighorn Memorial site.
You could really sense what had happened here in 1876……(146 years ago on June 25th). 🤠🤩 yep,I swotted up at the visitor centre!😂😂 although I had read a few books on it as well🤠
We got the “ money shot” photo by Custers grave and a few other pics before heading West yet again for another 70 miles to Billings for a “Stop and Flop!”
It never quite works out like that though and within an hour we were into the bar( good old Expedia(VIP) had upgraded us to a suite and given us $30 in spend vouchers along with a free breakfast each tomorrow in The Northern Hotels “ Bernie’s Diner”….🤩🤩🤠🍺
There’s a few micro brewery’s and tap houses in Billings ( in downtown and next to our hotel-it wasn’t by chance)and we had planned to do a few but settled for “The Montana Brewing Co”for a couple of craft beers and some food.( 500 yards from our hotel😎😎🍺).
Food was spot on,along with a couple of Amber Ales and then a quick stop back in the bar before crashing out at…….9pm!!!😂😂😂🙈🍺🍺.
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …Day 6
Every hotel so far has been spot on and The Northern hotel in Billings was no exception.
Breakfast at “ Bernie’s” diner which is part of the hotel complex was soooo good.
Anything on the menu was included in the price of our breakfast voucher.
Egg Benedict’s for me😎😎🤩
We took a quick walk around the block and found about 6 micro brewery’s ( obviously closed at 10am) but the downtown city definitely has a good selection of nightlife.🤠🍺
Next phase of the trip…
A 2hr drive to Cody and The Buffalo Bill Wild West Centre.
They have different themed areas and the best one for us was the animals of the Wild West.So realistic🤩🤩
They had a gun museum and I’ve got to admit apart from the old style western cowboy and Indian sections,I wasn’t to bothered. I still don’t get the fascination of some people with high powered hunter rifles ( I’m sure one guy was getting a bit to over excited describing the mechanics of one to his wife😲🤔🙈).
Here’s the history bit…
Buffalo Bill fought in the American civil war and was also a scout.
He was a frontier man, but also set up a massive touring show which travelled the East coast and then world wide in the late 1800s.
Chief Sitting Bull took part in the arena circus re-enactments along with Calamity Jane.
We’ve checked into the Holiday Inn (Cody) for one night, a couple of hours down time around a decent pool area and then onto a bar for a couple of beers pre show.
ITS RODEO NIGHT!!!!!🤠🤠🤠🤩
We’ve never been to a rodeo. It’s $23 a person so…
We are going…and Lorraine is booked onto one of the bulls,I’m booked in( predictably) as a clown🤡🤠
I’ll let you all know tomorrow how we got on🤠🤠😂😂😎😎🙈🙈🙈😍😍😍
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …
RODEO NIGHT!!
🤠🤡🤠🤡🤩🤩🍺🍺
Well here’s a couple of pics and vids from our first ever Rodeo
The Bull I’m sitting on is a real bull,just very old.
Lorraine decided not to get on it( I’ve got to admit,when they said you could ride a bull I was thinking more of a mechanical one)🤠😂😂😎
How the cowboys get on the real bulls is beyond me…
I’m sure there’s easier ways to make a living 😲🤩😍
The clowns are probably even more braver than the cowboys!!
The horseman ship by the ladies around the barrels was incredible 🤠
And no,I didn’t dress up as a clown…..it was a classic “ don’t try this at home,kids” moment😎😂😂😂😂😍
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …Day 7
It’s Friday…..for some…..for us it’s Yellowstone Day🤠🤠😎😎😎🤩🤩
After yesterdays hectic afternoon of beers and the Rodeo in the evening we thought we’d have a lie in…so set the Clock for 6:30am🤩🤩
Wasn’t sure what the breakfast would be like at The Cody Holiday Inn but it all turned out great with a “fill your boots” buffet😎
70 miles driving further West and we were into Yellowstone National park through the East Gate ( $35 for a 1 day to 7 day pass) on the look out for Mooses,Buffalo and Bears ( oh My!)
Well…… Yellowstone didn’t disappoint!!!!
We rounded a bend after 10 miles and there were a load of “Bear spotter” photographers set up on one side of the road😎
Apparently all the Grizzleys are tagged for welfare and monitoring purposes so for a subscription “ professionals” log into a website and know where certain bears will be.(It’s such a big place that it’s rare to see bears near the roads without hiking in for miles)
We just happened to luck in to a Bear called Raspberry and her cub called Jam who were slowly making their way down a hill.😎😎🤩
1/2 an hour of watching her through binoculars and pics via a 300mm zoom and we were off down the Yellowstone brick road for some more animal sightings! 1 Beaver,1 Moose,10 geese and about a 1000 Buffalo in various locations!
The scenery was absolutely stunning with snow still around on the hills and mountain tops.
Yellowstone Lake is gigantic!
Over to Old Faithful Geyser and bang on 2:15 she blew!
A great sight!😎😎😎
Another short drive from Old Faithful and we stopped at The Grand Prismatic Pool as well as The Turquoise pool. They have a board walk that you walk through the volcanic landscape as the pools are steaming hot and the ground each side is also fairly warm.
So that was that. The camera was put back in the bag and after already driving the best part of 200 miles we were set to head straight to the West Gate and down to Rexburg,Idaho for a one night stay.
But…. Yellowstone had one more scenic surprise for us….20 miles further and a stunning meadow landscape like a picture postcard with a winding river and about 500 Buffalo stretching out to the snow capped mountains of The Grand Tetons.🤩🤩🤩🤠🤠
Camera back out … loads more pics and then the final 120 mile drive!
A long 9 hr driving day with plenty of stops but totally worth it.
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …Day 8
Saturday…….
An early start today…. Up at 6am and out by 7am after a quick coffee and cinnamon bun
The long drive south to the city? of Twin Falls.
We followed the snake river for the best part of 200 miles( 2 hrs 45 mins) and eventually made it to Shoshone Falls.
Quite a sight at 10am in the morning with the temperature already at 78 degrees and the sun at the right angle to form a double rainbow in the water mist!🤠😎
Back into the car and another 70 miles (1 hr) south across the state line from Idaho into Nevada.
Just over the line is a resort called Cactus Pete’s and we had a late breakfast before hitting some machines in the Casino, which was a pretty decent size.🤩
I’ve got to admit, we did look at staying here and had we had an extra night on the trip it would’ve been a done deal😎🙈
2 hours later and $50 down after being $80 up we put the hammer down in the car and finished the days driving with another 2 & 1/2 hr road trip into West Wendover.
This town sits half in Utah and half in Nevada so that they can get around the casino laws.
There’s 5 casinos:
Montego Bay,
Golden Nugget,
Peppermill,
Rainbow
And
Red Garter.
But…..before we checked into our hotel we “ time travelled” back an hour over the state line into Utah ( different time zone) to visit the historic Air base where The Enola Gay was housed pre Hiroshima mission.
This was the B29 super fortress that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima at 8:15 in August 1945.
The crew were all trained here on dummy bomb drops and there is a museum that houses a full scale replica of “little boy” ,the name of the bomb.
So…. Wearing my OMD “Enola Gay” tee shirt I managed to sneak into the “Enola Gay “ hanger where some US airforce guys let me take a picture before heading over to the museum for a pic next to little boy ( the bomb) (anyone that knows me will know my obsession with both OMD and my favourite song “ Enola Gay” so this was a must do visit.🤩🤩🤩😎😍
Mission accomplished ,a bit more time travelling 1 hr forward across the state line again into Nevada and onto our hotel for a one night stay…
The Red Garter…. The smallest hotel out of the Wendover 5, but… it’s a great little casino
Lorraine is doing alright on the roulette😎
Tomorrow?
The black mail box and VEGAS!!!😍😍😍😍😍😍
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West tour …Day 9
Sunday
🙈🙈🙈
You would have thought with the longest drive of the trip at 450 miles an early night would have been in order😂😂🤩🤠… but no … a bit of gambling in the Red Garter hotel,followed by one of the best buffets I’ve ever had in the Rainbow Casino put paid to the early night!😂😂🙈🍺
A few “ angry orchard” comp ciders put me to sleep at 11 pm and after snatching 7 hrs sleep the alarm went off at 6am!!🤪
Off we go again!!…. South west bound towards the Route 6…..2 & 1/2 hours to a little town called Ely where we stopped off to see the most isolated railway in the USA…
Back in the car and it was pedal to the metal through a 110 degrees desert… left after 150 miles onto the Route 315 also known as “ the extraterrestrial highway” and a slog of a drive down to the little town of Rachel by Area 51.
The “ lil ale inn “ ( little alien) was the bar used in the film “ Paul” and we stopped here for some food and a break from driving.
19 miles down the road and we ticked off another bucket list item…The Black Mailbox 👽👽👽( I guess you have to know the history)🤠😎😍
Vegas now in touching distance we ploughed on for another 200 miles and arrived after 9 hours of travelling in the bright light city for our halfway point of the road trip…a 3 night stay at the amazing Tuscany Suites to catch our breath and chill🤩🤩🤔😍😍😍
A flight of beers in bar 365…
$200 dollars set fire to in the casino and it was time for bed.🤑🤑🤑🤡 😴
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Tour….Day 10
Vegas!!!!!!
OMG!!!🤠🤠🤩🤩😎
Apologies for the Day 10 blog coming out late but we were out and about until 2pm and just woke up at 7am with a hangover!!!
WHAT A NIGHT😎😎😎😍❤️
It all started with a lazy morning around Tuscany Suites pool at 7am.
A few hours rest after the long drive in.
Then a ping from a “Brit living in Vegas” ( Neil Wordsworth )via a Vegas Facebook group )came up on the phone and we had a little meet up in one of the cabanas that he was renting for the day.
Nice guy living in Vegas with his own business.
( We’ve arranged to meet him for a beer in Sept at Aliante Casino when we are back over)
Don’t you just love the Vegas FB groups😎😎🤩 for meeting people?
Into the Casino and black eight finally hits on roulette with a decent amount on it so I’m $300 up and it’s not even 11am😂😂🤠😍🤩😎
Breakfast was comped on our players cards and then it was time to hit the strip midday.
Starting at the Flamingo, through Cromwell into Paris and I’m now on a bit of a losing streak😂😂😎🤡
Lorraine is doing ok on the slots still….
Into The Beer Park at Paris hotel for the 2nd meet up of the day.
Scotty Mathews had put a post out on the Furmages Facebook group two weeks ago as he and Tracy were out in Vegas for two weeks, so we’d arranged to meet for a few beers.🍺🍺🍺🤩😎
This is where it all got a bit messy in true Vegas Monday night style!!😂😂🤠
For anyone that doesn’t know , The Beer Park is an open terrace that overlooks the Bellagio fountains.
It’s a top,stunning venue serving real ales, lagers,drinks and food.
A 3-4 hr session of beers and it’s time for some more casino action.
Scotty and Tracy are a great couple and so we all headed over to the Cosmo casino and then to Mandalay bay in search of the “elusive slot machine “
Scotty hits a $400 payout on a Buffalo machine on a $2 machine within seconds of putting $20 in.
I’m still losing money,Lorraine’s holding her own on electronic roulette and Tracy is doing ok on the slots as well.
😲I’m never lucky in the Cosmopolitan 😂🙈🙈 now $200 down
Luxor has always been my lucky casino so we head off down there.
We are doing a $50 each group pool, which allows us to play at $5 dollars a spin🤠
We see a big Buffalo machine across the Luxor casino floor and head for it.
“ how about this one” I say to Scotty
He says” let’s do the next one along as there’s a dirty ash tray on this one”
🙈🙈 so we load $200 into the machine….
10 spins each person.
NOW… the rule of a group pull is once you have all finished your spins you take the money out and divide it back up.
We are up to $435😎😎🍺❤️🤩
That’s doubled our money to $100 each.
Lorraine says “ might as well play the odd $35 dollars”.
4 spins in and ….Boom we hit a bonus…
What happens next???
🤩🤩🤩 The $1000 symbol drops in followed by a minor jackpot of $500
We still have $415 in the bank of the machine❤️😍🤩🤩😎🤩🤩
We all go mental!!! It’s a hand pay!!!
$500 each
We have to sort out an ITIN number to release the tax
Luxor sort this for us and it’s good night at 2pm when we finally get back to Tuscany Suites.
Me and Lorraine are $1000 to the good and now have two new Vegas friends
Great night Scotty and Tracy. Absolutely brilliant😎😎😎😎😎🤩🤩🤩🤩🍺❤️
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Tour….Day 11
Woke up this morning slightly the worse for wear after a crazy night in Vegas, but still managed to get around the Tuscany pool for
7:30am.
3 hours of sun and we were back into the casino for a small gamble before breakfast at Marilyn’s cafe.
We caught an Uber over to the amazing Red Rock Resort in Summerlin which is 10 miles West of the strip.
A bit of high card flush table action resulted in a $300 win,a Steve/ Lorraine “ group pull” on a “ Zeus slot machine netted $200 and then it was time for Red Rock Lanes Bowling.
The bowling alley has 64 lanes and is the best I’ve ever seen!🤩🤩😍
It’s one of the reasons that it makes this hotel our favourite ( although budgeting for this road trip meant we couldn’t stay here this time around).
From 4pm it was “ cosmic bowling” which can only be described as bowling in a disco 🤩😂😂😂😍🤠
$8 a game, so not to shabby and cheaper than being in the casino at times!!😎🤩😂
Into the fabulous Lucilles BBQ for our evening meal and then onto Bellagio🤩🤠😎
The Bellagio conservatory has just been re modelled into a jungle theme and is one of the best displays I can ever remember😎🤩
I wish I could say something positive about our Bellagio casino run… the gambling was so bad that the only positive was that we eventually left!!😂😂🤩
Back to Tuscany Suites for our last night in Vegas and then tomorrow we head East into the Canyon land section of the road trip😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Tour….Day 12
Well,Vegas number 21 has been a blast (although shorter than a normal visit)
New friends made, the elusive hand pay finally hit and Red Rock has redeemed itself after a slightly disappointing Christmas break that resulted in food poisoning!😕🤩
We’ve managed to hold our own in the casinos thanks to an amazing few bits of luck.
Up and down on the slots but that’s why it’s called “gambling”and not “winning”
Vegas is back from covid and is buzzing once more
Time to leave the bright light city! It’s always sad to leave,but we feel lucky to have managed to include it in this road trip as it wasn’t in our original plans.
See you later in the year Vegas😎😎🤠
The cowboys and Indian section is behind us,as is the casino section.
Onwards and into the stunning Canyon lands of Arizona and Utah
We are up to about 2000 miles of the 3000 mile road trip
We headed into Zion National park and the rock formations were stunning!😍
5 hrs of driving and we made it to Lake Powell resort
It’s a laid back low level hotel overlooking Lake Powell.The pool area has a fire pit and it’s about as far away from Vegas on a chilled out level as you can get.
The night sky is clear and dark,the stars are out and twinkling.
The Canon camera was out for a star/moon night shoot but the pics weren’t that great. Mainly because a small scorpion ran across the rock where I’d set the camera up on a tripod and I finished the shoot early and ran off!!😂😂😎🤩
Tomorrow is a trip out to Antelope Canyon and Horse shoe bend…. The pictures will be as stunning as anything so far😎😎😎😍
As a foot note to this day 12 blog…
News is breaking over here of the whole of Yellowstone National park being closed for a few days with the northern loop remaining closed for a few months,maybe the rest of the year,due to flash flooding 3 days after we left caused by the combination of heavy snow in May up in the mountains melting rapidly combined with a violent storm!!😲😕
Some roads have been completely washed away!
Let’s hope the wildlife and local people are all ok!!
Some of the news pictures look horrendous 😟
People were trapped by mudslides and falling trees and had to be evacuated from the campsites by helicopter!!
Billings( where we stayed for one night has also had some flash flooding on the outskirts)
We feel privileged on reflection to have got through the park when we did!🥺😲🤩😕😎🤠😍
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Tour….Day 13
First lie in of the whole trip after being on the go non-stop for 2 weeks!😎🙈
Well, when I say lie in… we got up at 8am.
We are staying at the Lake Powell Resort for 2 nights so this is our “ catch your breath stop”😍🤩
They do an $18 buffet breakfast in the Rainbow restaurant so we did this option for today.
A bit of pool time action for an hour chatting to a guy from Chicago( I don’t think he was with the Mafia😎) and then it was time for my booked tour.
Lorraine stayed at the pool chatting to a few Americans so I made my escape and drove the 15 minutes over to Page for the Antelope Canyon tour.
What a place!!
We were transported in a limo type bus over to the canyon and then led by our Navajo Indian guide through the Lower Canyon.
The guides know all the good spots to take a picture and it was another afternoon of stunning scenery.
At almost 100 degrees F it was nice to get into the shaded Canyon with its sand rock water eroded twists and turns( not for the feint hearted with its cat ladders and tight walking spots,but definitely worth it as the pics will show.😎😎🤩
The tour was about an hour and then we were limo’d over to Horse shoe point.🤠🤩
I thought we were just getting out and taking a few pics but was in for a bit of a shock🙈😲
A 1 mile walk down the man made trail in red hot heat and back again!!
I was the first one back into the limo by 20 minutes,absolutely melting😂😂😎🙈🤠
Late afternoon and it was time for the drive back to Lake Powell Resort.
A quick shower and back over to Page for some food and a cold beer in The Dam bar,a brew house type place.
Thought about a couple of amber beers back at our hotel but the day just caught up with us …..time for bed…💤😴💤😴💤❤️🤩🤠
Another early start looms…
Friday is Monument Valley Day ( another bucket list item to be ticked off)and another 5 hr drive to Moab,Utah.😎😎😎🤠🤠😍🍺🍺
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Tour….Day 14
We crossed the State line today in to Utah from Arizona for the 4th time of our trip…this time we will be in Utah for 1 night staying at Moab.
The previous night we set our I phones to Utah time ( forward 1 hr,not getting caught out again) from Arizona/ Nevada time, thereby setting off really early from Lake Powell and planned to have breakfast at Gouldings
Motel/Resort in Monument Valley. Somewhere along the way it didn’t quite work to plan as we missed the breakfast menu and settled on a brunch instead!
(These state line time zones are well confusing🤪)
For anyone who is thinking of doing a trip to monument valley Gouldings is approx 6 miles from the monument rocks whereas “ the Hotel at Monument Valley “( a lot more expensive for obvious reasons) is about 2 miles .
Both have good views.
Anyway…. A few pics later and we were off up the road to the “Forest Gump iconic spot”
This is the point in the film where he stops in the road behind Monument Valley and says “ I’m really tired,I think I’ll go home now”!
There were a few people doing this shot and one guy helped me out with a short video as Lorraine wasn’t prepared to risk her life and get run over.
(For most people reading this, you won’t know the story of our Darts team and “The Muppet Pea” but those in the know will😂😂)
We have also been photographing “The Pea along route in various iconic locations such as the Black Mail Box and Calamity Janes tombstone.
It’s a blog all on its own, a story of a pea slowly travelling the world ( don’t ask😂)and it’s currently in my possession and travelling with me on this trip. ( Maybe I”ll post “ The Pea” pics of the trip on the wrap up blog in 3 days 🙈🙈)
😍😍😍
Returning to THIS blog…
So ,we left Monument Valley and headed to Moab where we are staying for the night.
( We tried 3 months ago to get booked into Arches National park but it is fully booked so are just using Moab as a stop and flop with a few beers thrown in for good measure
😎🤩🍺🤠🍺🍺
It isn’t by chance that our hotel is right across the road from the Moab Brewing company.
Last leg of the trip is tomorrow.
Back to Denver Airport via The Ameristar casino in Blackhawk ( which we were going to stay at before we changed the whole trip around) to drop the car off and then a couple of days in Denver😎🤠 But that’s a blog for Tomorrow…..❤️😍🤠🤩🤩😎
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Tour….Day 15
Another early start🙈🤩
6.30am and we are up and out for todays long drive and the last leg of the journey.
(At this point,I’ve got to say that Moab left me totally underwhelmed!!
The prices for hotels in this area started at £160 per night rising to not amazing standard top end at £400 per night for not a lot going on in the town.
Apart from Arches National Park there didn’t seem to be much to offer)
Anyway…. Enough moaning😂😂🤩
We left Moab and headed North by 50 miles,hitting the Interstate 70 and going East. Through a city called Grand Junction and stopped some 250 miles into the route at a place called Rifle. This is a little gem of a town all quaint little buildings with a historic looking Wild West town high street.
We stopped for breakfast at “ Shooters Grill”
Highly recommend the skillets! The memorabilia on the walls included old Wild West pistols and muskets. Even the waitresses wore gun belts with guns( not sure if they were real,but we gave them a decent tip,just in case!😂😂🤠😍).
Onwards East by another 200 miles and we decided to take a detour up to Blackhawk,where we had previously planned to stay on an old road trip route that got changed 6 months ago.
Blackhawk has about 10 casinos ( all next to each other,so if you love Vegas this is really worth a look)
We only had time to go into The Ameristar and promptly lost $240 dollars in 45 minutes!!🙈🙈🤠
As we were walking out I spotted an old Fireball slot machine( used to love these,but Vegas seems to have phased them out) and I said to Lorraine “ I’m going to put one last $20 in it”🤠
You can bet either 40 cents,80 cents or $1.20,so I hit the $1.20 six times and the feature comes up!
JACKPOT!!!!🤠🤠🤠😎😎🤩🤩🤩
$548!!!!
Time to leave😂😍❤️🤩
Onwards to Denver airport and time to drop off our faithful white stallion back at AVIS rental stables.
It was quite sad watching him go as he had carried us 3000 miles on our round trip!🥲
Shuttle bus to the airport terminal and the light rail into Denver Union Station…
A confusing walk and shuttle bus 10 blocks to our hotel due to lack of taxis ( baseball was on and an ice hockey cup final) also lack of WiFi to call an Uber and at 6:30pm ( twelve hours after we left Moab) we got to our hotel.the Magnolia Marriott on 17th st.
One upgrade later to a suite( we just got lucky🤩) and a few beers in a local micro brewery and it was time for bed💤😴
Tomorrow we explore Denver Downtown…
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Tour….Day 16
OMG!!🤠. The tiredness is kicking in!🙈
It’s Day 16 but we have really been on the go 18 days with a travel day to Heathrow that seems a life time ago and a travel day of flying.
Just looked back at a few early pics of the trip and it looks like we have aged by a year!🙈😂😂😎🤠🍺
We had our first lie in of the trip this morning🤩
Didn’t get up and out until 9:30am! Normally we would be at least two hours into a drive by then🤪😲
But the car has gone😂😂
We took a stroll up 16th Street which is the central district of Downtown Denver.
Lorraine had a plan for shopping today in the 16th St Mall (I tagged along for bank security purposes with the credit card to keep an eye on spending)
😲😲😂😂😂🤪😍
It’s gonna cost me a fortune as it’s her birthday in a couple of weeks😂😂🙈
So,we walked up to the top of 16th St to what is probably the main hub of Downtown…..Union Station,which has an impressive lobby area( quite historic) and surrounded with coffee shops.
COFFEE!!! That’s what we need.( and an almond croissant 🤩) ❤️😍❤️.
Too early for a craft beer, it’s not Vegas after all🙈😂🍺
Around to the famous Coors Field Stadium and people were starting to turn up 3 hrs early for the baseball game today.
I would’ve gone but it’s not Lorraine’s thing so we carried on around back down 17th street,cutting back into 16th St Mall and into lower Downtown.
This has the shopping district for clothes ( I got away very lightly😂😂🙈)
Off to Yard house for a bit of brunch .
4 burger sliders and fries on a two way split and a flight of craft beers🤠
It’s all about the craft beers today😂😂🤩🤩😎🍺
Back to the hotel at 2pm for two hours R and R and we were back out to a bowling alley that we found.
Pretty decent price at $32 for an hour🤩🤩
6:30pm and the 16th Street district is packed with a really good street vibe… baseball has turned out and places are starting to get busy.
We opted to go back to Yard house as there seemed to be some staffing issues in the place that we originally intended to go.
A couple of our new favourite craft beers … Mango Road Cart and a Nashville chicken with fries that almost blew my head off 🗼😂😂😍🍺🤠
Back to the hotel by 8:30pm….
I think we are just about done!
Late BA flight tomorrow,so half a day shopping! Again!🤔😖
Steve and Lorraine’s Wild,Wild West Tour….Day 17
( Time to go home)
Well,that’s the end of the Wild,Wild West tour.
We fly back from Denver at 8:40pm tonight and should land at London Heathrow around 11am.🤩🤩🤩🤩
It’s been an amazing trip and we met so many people along the way at just about every stop😍😍🤠
I hope you all enjoyed “ the windows “ into our trip.
We’ve loved it!!!❤️😍❤️
Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and interact on the blogs.
The blogging went out on 4 different Facebook pages ( including my own feed) so a quick shout out and thanks is in order to the following:
Las Vegas Fans U.K.
for allowing us to post the Vegas section of this blog.
🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Scott Pratt for his encouragement back in April/May (to post and blog) on Road Trips USA and for letting me post our daily blogs.
🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠
Nicky and Claire Furmage of “Las Vegas and More “ for letting me blog on their page (and almost take it over for the best part of 3 weeks!!😂😂😂
😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
Scotty and Tracey Mathews, for the meet up in Vegas,What a crazy night that was with the beers and hand pay!!!!!
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
Also thanks to Victoria Fielden for putting me on to Antelope Canyon via her own superb blog in May!
😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
3000 miles….. 20 days……12 hotels……8 States-Colorado-Wyoming- South Dakota-Montana-Idaho-Nevada-Utah-Arizona.
🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Denver-Cheyenne-Fort Laramie- Custer-Black Hills-Mt Roosevelt- Hill City-Keystone-Rapid City-Deadwood-Devils Tower-The Bighorn-Billings-Cody-Yellowstone- Rexburg-Shoshone Falls- Wendover-Ely-Rachel-Las Vegas-Zion State Park-Lake Powell-Page-Monument Valley-Moab-Rifle-Blackhawk-Denver.
Animals spotted:
2 Grizzly Bears,
1 Moose,
2 Beavers,
1 wolf,
1 scorpion,
Loads of longhorn sheep,
5 deer,
20 geese,
Loads of cows,
Loads of longhorn cattle,
A few bulls,
1000 plus Buffalo/Bison
🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠
🤩🤠🤩🤠🤩🤠🤩🤠🤩🤠
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
Hopefully our flight won’t be delayed!!!
Steve and Lorraine 🤠😍🤩
Comments