Well, here we are in lovely Las Vegas! Driving here from Albuquerque, we had to pass the Hoover Dam area. OMG, are they ever doing a contruction project with the freeway system around the dam! It won't be done until December 2010. Because the the possibility of terrorism with the dam, all vehicles have to go through a security check before proceeding around the area. It wasn't anything like the security checks we've been through going into and out of Canada. Instead, there were three security officers. One came into the RV and check the cabinets and two went with Jerry to look into the storage areas below the RV. When we asked what they were looking for, they said "explosives." When you think about it, if terrorist blew up the Hoover Dam, it would cut off power to one-third of the USA. A very scary scenario! As a result, they are building this hugh 4-lane highway and bridge that by-passes the current road that goes over the dam to divert traffic from the area. See pictures of construction project that we took as we drove by the area. The new bridge will be soooooo high up, though it is hard to tell by the picture below!

In Las Vegas, we are staying at our usual favorite place -- Sam's Town RV Park, right next to the Sam's Town Casino. (Sean, you remember this place?) It used to be way out of town. But now the town has caught up with it.

Yesterday we attended an exciting XanGo regional seminar during the day. For those of you who don't know what XanGo is all about, you can check it out on our XanGo website: http://www.mymangosteen.com/cambria.

Then, last night we attended the Barry Manilow concert at the Hilton. We bought the "cheap" seats three rows from the back at $110 a seat. But right before the show started, they moved all of us up into the middle section to fill in a few empty seats that were there.

Barry Manilow put on a great show. It was a high energy stage production with vintage footage from when he first started out in the '70s. He sang all of his hits.

We will leave Las Vegas on Tuesday for Bryce Canyon, still slowly continuing our journey north to Alaska.

Until next time, enjoy your week and your life!

Jerry and Mary

Balloon Glow

The Rally at Albuquerque, New Mexico

We left Cambria, CA on April 7th, but regard our Alaskan trip as actually starting at The Rally in Albuquerque, NM, where we are right now. For those who don't know, The Rally is a once-a-year RVers get-together. There are over 3,000 RV coaches here, approximately 6,000 people, hundreds of vendors, numerous classes and seminars on all the various aspects of RVing, and lots of new RVs to go through. There was/is also entertainment -- Neil Sedaka, Rita Coolidge, the Osmonds, and Papa Duo Run Run.

The weather did not cooperate with the Event on the first day -- high winds, rain and snow (temperatures in the 30s). But, each day thereafter just kept getting better. We are at the place where the annual balloon festival is held. The picture of the parking lot is just one of many parking lots for the attendees.

Last night, the folks from the Albuquerque Balloon Festival put on a "balloon glow" display of five multi-colored balloons. See video.

We leave on Tuesday, heading to a XanGo Regional in Las Vegas. Will update this blog next week.