Poverty to Excess

From Arizona Reservation to Las Vegas Nevada

Our time in the National Parks is on a hiatus for a bit while we head toward the west coast and time with our kids and grandkids. Wow, do we live in a beautiful and geographically diverse country! It was such an easy decision to have Randy write about the parks…..you can tell how enthusiastic he is regarding his rocks and geological formations! He really knows his rocks. It’s amazing my head hasn’t exploded being filled with all those rock names and such! After day 2 – think Charlie Brown’s teacher….

Just kidding! There is no one I would rather trek through the dessert with…..although I should have been clued in. Our first formal date was a hike up Buck Mtn. – probably my first hike ever – where we forgot to bring any water – and he had me put rocks in my mouth to help with the thirst! Why warning lights didn’t go off in my head, I’ll never know! Thank goodness they didn’t!

A bit of a back story is required….my dad went through bootcamp with a Hopi Indian named Rex from Polacca, Arizona – the first mesa. Rex went off to the pacific, my dad to Europe. They remained friends throughout their adult lives. My parents went out to visit them at some point when I was an adult. They have a few Hopi baskets, some pottery and a cochina doll which have been used by numerous children in our family for school projects – which in retrospect is crazy considering the value of those items! LOL! At any rate, I really wanted to visit their reservation, see some of the artists, and just make that connection that I think our family has felt for a long time. Sadly, the visit was heartbreaking for me and difficult for Randy. It wasn’t at all as I had pictured. I was hoping for a happy, thriving mesa and instead, we witnessed life in extreme poverty. Extreme! The Hopi are known for being some of the best dry farmers in the world but farming in the dessert has proven to be even impossible for them. Last year, it was so dry that they didn’t have a harvest and this year looks even worse. Only one of the gallery’s (basically a room attached to the house)was open on the day we visited and we stopped and chatted with a lovely woman who was a basket weaver. She took the time to share her methods and we purchased a lovely sifting basket from her. I don’t know when, where, how and why life got this way, but it’s just wrong…….:(.

From there, we headed to Las Vegas. FYI, We paid $5.49 a gallon for regular gas just before the Nevada border! My dad suggested we sell our car and fly home because it will be cheaper! LOL! Oh my, we came across a gas station and restaurant in the middle of no where – The Thunderbird restaurant – Home of the HO-Made pies! Please read the photo about the woman who found this business…it’s a great story and we had a great lunch!

Welcome to Las Vegas! Home of Excess everything! We thought we would be the only non-gamblers to visit here, but we’ve actually met others as well. Not one cent was given to the casino for gambling…..but no fear, they get $50 for two cocktails! What is shocking is the number of families and the families with young children walking the strip. Scantily clad women with big feather fantails walk the strip suggesting family photos to be taken….for a price. One young dad started chuckling – family photos? I suggested it be their Christmas card photo! We all got a good laugh! I’m a bit like the Progressive advertisement where you just start talking to people!

You kind of see it all here and you hear it all too. I used to think NYC was the only city where you could hear any language as you walked down the street or eat any food you could imagine……well, Las Vegas is full of visitors from around the world but the food scene is a bit more like going to Epcot and thinking you’ve really visited France and Germany. We’ve had pseudo Japanese, Korean, Irish and tonight we go to a mobster type Italian! Tonights dinner was super fun. The piano player gave us a free CD of some of his original songs…..he was really good and played lots of the classics …..but I think he appreciated the fact that we clapped for him after each song.

I know it seems funny to choose to spend anytime at all in Las Vegas if you’re not gamblers, but we actually enjoyed ourselves with time at the pool, catching a Cirque du Soleil show, eating some good food, visiting the Bellagio and seeing their Easter decorations in their Conservatory, getting a massage to rest our muscles and walking a bunch! I thought the parks were a challenge….theres a million stairs and miles of sidewalk to cover on the main strip! We are well rested and ready to spend a busy week with our family in southern California! Next stop San Diego!

Fun Fact : 16 different beds/bathrooms to navigate…..not one wrong turn into a closet either! Not bad for a couple of retirees!