After an amazing day in Utah, we made a brief dip through Arizona before officially entering Nevada. We were somehow shocked to discover that we went back another hour into Pacific time, so the day was getting longer! The beautiful views continued into the state, but we also saw some unusual man-made views. We passed a field with hundreds of silver metal triangles packed side by side. I tried to do some quick internet research, but that just plopped me into a wild rabbithole of alien conspiracy triangle lore. Sometimes things should just stay a mystery! As we rolled into Vegas, we saw the new Hard Rock Hotel under construction; looks like it will be super cool once complete. Driving onto the strip and finding the right entrance was quite challenging.
We finally found our way to the Venetian property and dealt with the typical valet and bell hop. We had additional check-in adventure with security though. The property sent me information noting that no weapons are allowed on property (including in your car). In being prepared for getting stuck in the wilderness (or in any other bad situation), we had a gun with us. So we had the long walk with security to go check Thom’s gun into the Venetian armory. We sort of got a behind-the-scenes tour, lol. Back up in the hotel, we couldn’t help but be in awe of how exquisite this place was. Funny enough, this stay wasn’t any more expensive than any of our other stays along the trip. It did, however, have the longest walk to the room. After checking in, we walked to the hotel tower elevators, but had to travel a winding path around the casino, stores, and restaurants. Once up and off the elevator, we laughed at the fact that there was a big bench in the hallway…as if you needed a break between the elevator and your room. But then we proceeded to walk a hallway that seemed like a quarter mile long. (We ended up in the 40th room of the left…there were SO many rooms here!) Our room was comically big, and I enjoyed marveling at the luxury. I must also admit that it’s pretty delightful to walk into a room where the screen welcomes you by name. I guess I just love the little details. While we both could’ve easily crashed for the night, I’m pretty sure it’s against the law to go to bed early in this town. So we unpacked, showered, downed some 5 Hour Energy, and headed out to explore.
Dinner was at the top of our to-do list, but we had to traverse the casino maze to get anywhere. Our internet research had pointed us to Noodle Asia, and it was, in fact, quite excellent. I had thought we might do some sort of gambling in the casino, but it turned out that both of us absolutely hated the casino area. It was chaotic, loud, and smoky. Neither of us make enough money to be wasting it, nor do we know much about any of the games…so we figured that whole place was a fool’s bet for us. We found our way out and went to see a bit of the strip. Alternating between strolling and sitting, we just savored the view and the conversation.
We also had plans for the night to meet up with our friend, Michael, who’d moved to Vegas this past year. He didn’t even get off work until after 10; he (and his friend, Joel) picked us up around 11, and we went for a cruise along the strip followed by drinks at a local bar. By the time we made it back to our room, we’d been up pretty dang close to 24 hours. I felt like I had lived two days within one–getting up for sunrise in the desert, traversing scenic roads and three national parks, and then a night in Vegas.
Needless to say, we didn’t wake up until afternoon the next day. Since we didn’t waste money at the casino, we wasted it on room service breakfast in the middle of the day. I had some writing to do as well as some work that couldn’t wait for my return. (Yeah, I know, I’m on vacation…but some of my duties are time sensitive. Other than a few emails and texts, I didn’t work much outside of these few hours in Vegas.) Thom enjoyed stretching out and decompressing a little from the intense driving we’d been doing. To do a trip as crazy as this one, it’s pretty essential to build in at least a half-day of recovery.
As evening approached, we got ready for the highlight of the whole trip–the Phish concert. We had a delectable dinner before the show at SushiSamba (a fusion of Japanese, Brazilian, and Peruvian cuisine). The atmosphere was super cool, the drinks were delightful, and the dinner was delicious. I got the chef’s choice vegan sushi assortment. All of the rolls were great, but the highlight roll was downright spectacular: it had portobello mushroom, takuwan, cucumber, avocado, and a wasabi onion all wrapped in rice and a collard green wrapper.
Then, finally, the piece-de-resistance…we made it to the Sphere. Tonight instead of giant mountains, we had a giant venue. This place features a 160,000 square foot display that wraps over and around you. We chose seats up high so we take it all in. It also touts immersive sound with 167,000 programmable speakers. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s also a 4D experience with infrasound haptic seats. I have to say, I didn’t make use of the 4D sensation as I didn’t sit down except during the intermission. However, Thom said it was fantastic to feel the music in the seats.
I hadn’t been reading the reviews of this show, as I didn’t want any spoilers. Plus, they were doing three weeks of three night sets, so there was no telling which sets we would get on a given night. (Oh how I wish we could’ve stayed for all three nights!) We got two great sets plus an awesome encore. I loved that some of the visuals included desert formations and starry nights, it tied in so perfectly with our trip. Here’s the set list for those who love Phish:
Set 1: The Wedge, Nicu, Halfway to the Moon, Leaves, 555, Dirt, Punch you in the Eye, Golgi
Set 2: I Heard the Ocean Sing, Wave of Hope, Prince Caspian, Lonely Trip, Runaway Jim, Sneaking Sally, Drift While Sleeping
Encore: The Sloth, Squirming Coil
They utilized every possible visual and sound effect throughout the emtirety of the show. Photos don’t really show the visual effects well, as every scene moved and flowed with the music. One of the audio effect highlights was Wave of Hope. The music traveled around the stadium, much like “the wave” would physically travel around a stadium. I don’t understand the music science here (like how they kept the sound so clean in such a large place, with no echo and the ability to have this kind of specific-location sound). All the visual effects were cool, but my favorites were the sky lanterns and an Escher-like maze of rooms, doors, and staircases. While I love Phish music from all eras, I was delightfully surprised to find that the majority was from my favorite era…the early jam songs plus the some soaring melodic tunes from the Rift/Billy Breathes era. They still sound amazing live despite touring for four decades. So glad we got to see them again.
It felt like I had just put my head on the pillow when the alarm went off, but it was time to hit the road again. Lines were long at all the fast breakfast places, so we decided to get breakfast on the road. After navigating security, baggage, and valet, we headed out of town and stopped at In & Out for breakfast. Or so we thought. At 10:30, they were open and busy, so we just assumed there would be breakfast. Turns out they serve burgers around the clock. So, a hamburger for breakfast; this definitely wasn’t helping my ever-sliding grasp of what time it was. I was doing so good with the time changes until Vegas; then we went into Pacific time, stayed up all night one night, slept part of the next day, and stayed up late again. So burgers for breakfast kinda broke my mind.
After food, we zoomed off towards the desert to the Valley of Fire State Park. We took all three scenic roads through the area: The Valley of Fire Highway, White Domes Road, and the Northshore Road. The roads in, through, and out were all filled with red sandstone and limestone formations.
Turns out, most of the trails were closed from May to September because of the heat…and here we arrived on May 1st. We spent the earlier part of our trip dealing with areas closed from September to May because of snow/ice, so this heat-based closure was quite ironic. The heat is so problematic that they have covered parking for all vehicles. We did stop at one of the trails that was open (the Fire Waves trail), so I could take a short walk. The warning signs everywhere were a little daunting (“Heat Warming. You Might Die.”). Temps were only in the low 90s, so I wasn’t too concerned. Soon, even on my short walk, I understood the warning a little more. The sun was brutal and oppressive. And the heat not only came from overhead, but was also emanating up from the hot sand. There was a little breeze, but it felt like when you open the over door…dry and hot. I got to see some cool arches, a few lizards darting from shrub-to-shrub, and one of the beehive formations.
Feeling like I’d gotten a taste of the desert trail, I turned back to continue our scenic route through the park. Fun fact: Star Trek Generations was partly filmed here. As we rounded one corner, I saw in the far distance a herd of Big Horn Sheep up on a rock in the shade. Finally! We’d seen signs for Big Horn Sheep ever since South Dakota, but I had given up on seeing one at this point.
The route out of the park was still scenic, with some great winding roads. We weren’t tired of the ever-changing scenery, and Thom wasn’t tired of driving…so it was a delightful drive. While it was no match to Scenic Byway 12 in Utah, this is still a great driving road if you’re ever in this part of Nevada.
Our next stop was Lake Mead. The route gradually approached the lake, allowing us several spectacular views along the way. Honestly, the driving views were better than the view from the Visitor Center. We enjoyed all the exhibits, movie, and shopping before heading off again. We were originally going to picnic there, but it was oppressively hot outside.
Next stop, Hoover Dam. Somehow, we got turned around leaving Lake Mead and headed west instead of east for a minute. We ended up with a brief driving tour of Boulder City NV before correcting course. (Honestly, we’ve done pretty good to not get lost before this point in the trip!) We got onto the access road that would take us to see Hoover Dam. We weren’t on the road long before we caught up to other cars and then signs for the security area we would have to pass through. It referenced car searches and K9 dog searches. We didn’t want to sit in traffic or deal with a search of our very full/tightly packed car…plus I really didn’t want to deal with dogs. So, we abandoned our plan and figured we’d see it from afar, while passing by it or from a lookout point on the other side of the road. Turned out, there are big walls on the road going by (so you can’t see anything while passing). We crossed the dam area and tried to get to the viewpoint marked on the map, but that little road was closed. During this pointless journey in our last moments of Nevada, we did see some wild donkeys, so maybe that’s cooler than a dam.
Standing Strength 