Thursday afternoon we headed down to Las Vegas Boulevard to see the NASCAR haulers. We ended up at Treasure Island and The Venetian. Crazy big hotels. Treasure Island has two, pretty much life sized, pirate ships in water located at the entrance to the casino. It is also the home of Gilley's Bar.
The Venetian is truly spectacular! We got lost! Seriously. We had no idea which way was out. The bottom floor is the casino and restaurants. The second floor looks like Venice with little shops, restaurants and a REAL canal with gondolas.
Madame Tussauds Las Vegas, wax museum, is located at the Venetian. We were a couple of days early for the Miley unveiling. But 'Justin' was hanging out at the entrance to the Grand Canal Shoppes.
Chinese New Year display.
Marble floor.
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| For my quilter friends. |
A few images from outside the Venetian:
We grabbed a spot on the Strip and chatted with some race fans while we waited for the NASCAR haulers. Most fans were from out of town. The couple from Green Bay was certainly enjoying the 60 degree weather.
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| Had to chuckle watching these folks cross the street. |
Finally the haulers arrived.
They were moving pretty quickly so here are a couple of short videos.
Saturday evening was Championship Bull Riding down at South Point Arena. The Tuff Hedeman Vegas Shootout featured 27 young bull riders from all over the country. It was so much fun to watch. Boy those cowboys are tough! The show opened with introductions and fireworks (in the arena!).
Then the real action began!
A couple of videos show how hard it is to stay on these bulls! The dismount is always abrupt!
This young man, rookie Brennon Eldred, won the event. His pay was $17,000. Not bad for riding 3 bulls for a total of 24 seconds.
And we just happened to be sitting behind a group of young fans from Idaho. They were doing quite a bit of drinking and in their exuberance attracted the attention of the rodeo clown who showed up in our section during intermission.
This young man earned some gift certificates for doing some dancing.
His friends were pretty pumped. It was so funny.
After a really short night (spring forward) we got up early and headed to the track. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is just 25 miles away. We were at the track in 30 minutes. (It took us and hour and forty five minutes to get home after the race!) a band was playing when we arrived. They were very good. We looked around at the various haulers and bought a new set of noise cancelling headphones for Nan to wear during the race.
Habitat for Humanity was building a home for a Henderson family sponsored by Lowes.
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| Duck Dynasty was represented with their own hauler! |
We had pretty good seats, just before the entrance to pit road. It was very hot and the only shade was under the grand stand. Long sleeves, a hat and plenty of sunscreen and water got Nan through the day.
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| More Haulers |
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| Pit Road |
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| Pretty good view of the big screen. |
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| Camera man. |
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| Thunderbirds! |
After the opening hoopla ... "Drivers - start - your - engines!"
Just a little taste of the sights and sounds of a NASCAR race.
What a great weekend we had. The next two races are just 3.5 hours (Fontana near LA) or 4.5 hours (Phoenix) away. Humm. Maybe next year!
Surprisingly most of the crowd (at all of the venues this weekend) didn't really appear to be rednecks ... just fans from all over. The news yesterday morning said Las Vegas was the big winner pulling in 165 million dollars in racing revenue! Let's go racin' boys!
Not sure what's on the agenda for this week but we'll be sure to let you know what's been happening!
It's all bout the journey!
Nancy and Dan
Looks like you had a great week.
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