Las Vegas, NV

Pahrump was a good and bad stop on the way to Las Vegas (more on the bad later).  We stayed at the Golden Nugget in the center of town.  One of Pahrump's claims to fame is that they are one of the gateways to Death Valley, so you can imagine the scenery is of desert and mountains.  On Thursday we played golf at Lakeview which is an executive golf course (only par 3's and 4's), so our score looked pretty good.  Course was in winter shape with some temporary greens and, because of the rain, was a little muddy.  You can see Mt Charleston in the background

The "bad" part of our trip was caused by an unexpected trip to the Desert View Hospital emergency room.  I had been experiencing a sharp pain in my groin area and we decided it was better to get it checked out before it got worse.  So we cut our golf game short (after nine holes) and went to DVH.  Nice little hospital in Pahrump and we were in an out in about an hour.  Dr. Heller diagnosis was an inguinal hernia which wasn't bad enough for an operation, but needed something for pain management and some restrictions on what I could and couldn't do.  So Vi gets to lift the suitcases in and out of the car :-).  He said riding in the car wouldn't be a problem, so we're continuing on with our trip.  So yesterday I was at the hospital in sympathy with Danny (wisdom teeth removal) and JT (pins in his broken leg). 

Our drive into Las Vegas was without incident and we arrived, with our normal good timing, right at rush hour!  I think it took as long to get from where we entered LV as it did for the trip from Pahrump to LV.  We're here with 300,000 of our closest friends to ring in the new year.  Great room at Ballys with a view of the High Roller.

 

We'll explore Las Vegas today and then may just keep the Red Baron parked.