Thanksgiving 2019, Nevada, Califonia, Arizona and all that

I always look forward to Thanksgiving, not because I love turkey but because I enjoy the get- together with some of my in-laws at my grandson's aunt's home in Vegas.

I love Vegas for the bright lights and the shows but will admit that I am no gambler, betting only $5 last year and increasing my loss by 100% to $10 this year.

That probably makes me the last person casino owners in Vegas want to see in their establishments!

The cast of the excellent variety show we say this year

It was a small but pleasant gathering which included my grandson's mom, aunt, and his other grandma, who happens to be one of the greatest cooks of delicious Jamaican food that we can give thanks for.

Coincidentally, my daughter-in-law's birthday fell on Thanksgiving day this year too, so she got the opportunity to cut a cake with her son, who she does not see often enough, as he lives in Florida and she in New York.

My daughter-in-law shares my love of travel so every opportunity we get, we tour together.

One of the places I wanted to visit this year as we were only five hours away, was Los Angeles, a place I have not been to, for at least eighteen years.

I must admit that the week before we traveled to Vegas, we were both a bit concerned about the number of huge fires there, that were being widely reported in the media. In fact, if you followed the reports, you could easily get the impression that the entire place was burning down to the ground. 

This news easily confused people into forgetting that Los Angeles is not only a city but also a county of over four thousand square miles in which there are in excess of 85 cities with a population of over eleven million people.

In other words, Los Angles is gigantic so it is highly unlikely that we would have gone into the fire zones anyway!

However, the huge fires were under control before we arrived in Vegas so all cause for irrational nervousness had dissipated from before Thanksgiving, so off we went.

Sun glowing on a huge boulder atop a section of Red Rock

Hiking at Red Rock

The five-hour drive took us through the huge but sparsely populated Mohave desert which takes up most of the territory between Nevada and California. 

This is the driest desert in North America, and one of the sunniest places in the western hemisphere so I was not surprised to see two gigantic solar farms on the way.

 I must have driven through that same area some forty years ago while traveling the same route, but I remembered nothing.

On leaving Nevada, I recognized sections of Red Rock though, as it is a national park in Nevada where we hiked only last year.

This time, I was really fascinated by the large sizes and shapes of the numerous sand dunes which dominate the landscape, once we passed the town of Primm, which straddles the border of California and Nevada. 

Huge sand dunes in the desert

Once in L.A,  of course, the first place we headed for was Hollywood Blvd. This is where you find the Walk of Fame which has brass stars embedded into the sidewalk, honoring actors/actresses, directors, musicians and other persons involved in the entertainment industry.

A scenic section of the Mohave desert

I must admit I was not as impressed as I was when I first saw it some forty years ago. Then the awardees were few and far between but now it appears that everyone gets a star, for instead of the stares only being engraved in the previously designated area, now the so-called walk of fame has been extended into several other streets.

With so many persons getting "stars," in my estimation, it has now lost its meaningfulness!

As I normally do, when I arrive in a big city, I get on the Hop on Hop off bus which I find provides a world of information, so when I only have short touring time, I can easily figure out where I want to visit.

A "bride" scene being shot on Hollywood Blvd.

As we waited to board the bus, I saw something which is commonplace in Hollywood, filming being done. This was right on Hollywood Blvd where a man dressed in a dirty, tattered wedding dress was acting out a scene.

Once on the bus, I really did not see much in downtown L.A. that I wanted to inspect in greater detail apart from the world famous La Brae Tar Pits.

We got off there and it was really fascinating, a visit I would recommend to all who visit Los Angeles.

It is located in the middle of a highly populated area where natural asphalt continues to seep up from deep down in the ground to the surface, as it has done for thousands of years.

Replica of saber-toothed sloth in background

It has an excellent museum, so after we toured it, we took in the twenty-five-minute film which was really very educational.

This film graphically traces how many of the huge animals that roamed the earth during the Ice Age, (some 30,000 years ago,) were snared and died a terrible death, long before climate change brought the ice age to an end and totally eliminated them.

Apparently, many of these poor animals were fooled by the glare of the tar, into thinking the ponds had water, so they ventured in, only to be trapped for life.

Their bones are constantly being recovered, identified, scarped and put together, to display for the edification of modern man, which animals roamed that vicinity during that period.

A display of  different types of street lights is at the entrance of the Art Museum

Afterward, we made a quick visit to the  Los Angeles Art Museum but the place that remains on my bucket list for the next visit is the Petersen Automotive Museum.

The attractive automotive museum

This museum has some three hundreds vehicles on display, marking the history and development of the automotive industry. Among the automobiles there are; outstanding racing cars, classics as well as the loveable VW bug known as Herbie, which stole our hearts in the Disney movie with the same name.

Even if you don't like cars as much as I do, the striking architecture of the museum will really drag you inside!

Of course, you cannot visit this region of the United States without going to Grand Canyon in nearby Arizona. This is somewhere I had visited twice before but it will always be a drawing card for me as the scenery is so awesome.

Although I knew beforehand that it was a long five-hour drive from Vegas to the canyon, I did not anticipate that some of my passengers would have wanted to detour to the huge gravity-fed  Hoover Dam, the largest reservoir in the US, which is located at the border of Nevada and Arizona.

I, therefore, ended up driving for seven hours! It was, however, worth it.

Although the Hoover Dam project started in the '30s, in the early seventies when I was touring the region while driving from Toronto, Ontario to Panama, I did hear that this mammoth engineering project was still being expanded, so never visited it then.

A mammoth engineering feat

Two years ago, however, while being in Vegas for Thanksgiving, we took a tour-bus there but it was still worth another visit.

This dam is located in the shadow of the 75- mile long Black Mountain range and is fed by the Colorado River.

The lines were long getting there but we had no regrets about taking the detour even though it meant reaching Grand Canyon only shortly before sunset.

As we moved slowly in the line to enter this wonderful Grand Canyon National Park, my grandson spied a herd of Alpaca.

These are native to Peru and I was certainly surprised to see them roaming freely in Arizona and gravely disappointed that being in a long line across the road, was unable to get any photos of these gentle animals.

Because nightfall was rapidly approaching by the time we parked, we did not get to tour the canyon as much as I would have wished, but I certainly didn't mind too much as it was freezing!

Got enough beautiful photos to share with you though, so here they are below.