Day Five Reality Show Roundup

So on Tuesday we first had to go to an owner’s update on our timeshare. They had a workshop that helped me learn about our waiting list and how to book into places that look impossible to get into like Hawaii. I also learned how to book through RCI, which is a partner of our timeshare and sometimes they are difficult to get into. So even though they tried to sell us more shares, which we didn’t want it was helpful for future bookings.

So after we finished we decided to go and check out all the reality show places that we watch on the History Channel.

The first place we visited was Rick Restoration. This place is where American Restoration takes place. The outside looks just like it does on TV. They were filming back in the bone yard. We had found out from the Fellow it the Ely museum that they would be filming something from the museum. We didn’t see him but did see the camera guys doing close up of what looked like a cash register.

They have set the shop up with a big display room in the center and they hey have windows into each area of the shop. We saw Kyle and Cowboy breaking down something, Tyler was welding an item, and there was also a sandblasting area and a couple more work areas. You are not allowed to take pictures in this area because they are working on items or there are completed items in the display area that are going to be on upcoming episodes. 


On the outside you can see Rick’s truck, the golf cart that they did for the Old Man on Pawn stars.

We also saw the bone yard and Heineka the horse from the old shop. We also saw some of the items that they have restored from the show that were for sale, prices were very high. The woman doing the tour said that they don’t just go out and pick items to restore and sell; they wait until they have a customer with an item, it is paid for and then they restore it. So I am not sure about the parts of the store where Ron goes out and picks things that they bring back to restore.

The next stop was the Pawn Shop. There was a line up outside because they can only let so many people into the shop at one time. It really isn’t that big, but they do have stuff to pawn, lots of coins, jewelry, watches and some art. The Jimi Hendrix posters that they bought on an episode were there. Nobody from the show was there; supposedly Rick was in the back because his car was in the parking lot. Looks like they do more business from t-shirts and stuff than actually pawning, but that is reality of television stardom. The mural below was on the outside of the building in the back alley.

  

 A takeoff on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. 

After the pawn shop we found Kounts Kustoms, it is in this out of the way area in the commercial district. You can go into the showroom and see a collection of cars, helmets and motorbikes, but all the work areas are off limits. It is quite unassuming as you can see from the front of the building. It does seem to take up four separate buildings. 

These are helmets that Horny has created, with his own signature

Day 4 Hoover Dam and Bridge

So we were up bright and early to 70 degree sunshine. Len had to dig through the back to find his shorts; it was too warm to wear blue jeans. We decided that because we couldn't check into the Condo until 4 pm we would head out to the Hoover Dam and check out the new bridge. 

This is the bridge that they build over top of the dam to alleviate the traffic jams that used to occur going over the dam.  Every since 9/11 they have set up a check point so everyone that drove across the dam had to be checked out. The first time we came to the dam the line of cars heading to Arizona was backed up at least 4 miles back to Boulder City.

So the first stop on the dam tour is the new bridge, they have a walk way up to the side of the bridge, then you can walk all the way across, as you can see from the pictures you get a really neat perspective of the dam and Lake Mead from the top.

After walking all the way across we headed down to the dam itself, we decided not to take a tour this time because we had been before as well, with it being Presidents day the tours were pretty much booked up. So we parked up above the dam in Arizona and just walked around the area. 

It is neat that the dam is equally divided between Nevada and Arizona.  So in the middle not only can you stand in two states at the same time, you can be in two different times at once.   It is interesting to note that Arizona is like Creston and does not observe daylight savings time either.  So half the year they are on Mountain time and the other half on Pacific just like us.

After touring the dam we went and got some groceries and were able to check into our condo. Len cooked a great steak for dinner, we had a hot tub and they early to bed.

 This is looking from the Arizona side, the two towers on each line is where the water come into the dam from Lake Mead and then is put through the turbines inside the dam to create power. The white marks on the rock are where the high water marks are. As you can see the water line should be up near the top of the towers. The Dam is equally divided on both sides between Nevada and Arizona. On the lake Mead side as well as on the bridge side. 

This is a picture of the Marina on Lake Mead by Boulder City. The high water park is supposed to be way up past the left. 

Day Three Vegas Vacation Northern Nevada Railway Museum, Ely NV

Well today we spent the morning at the Northern Nevada Railway Museum.  It wasn't actually open because they were having a photo session. Every year people from all over the world come to Ely to shoot photos of the steam engines.  

They stage the trains so amateurs and professional photographers can take pictures.  We got to tag along while they were at the station, after about an hour and a half they headed up the track to the hills, to take pictures amongst the scenery and mountains.

We did get to meet Mark Bassett the executive director of the museum, I recognized him from his many appearances on American Restoration. 

This is a show on the history channel that is based at Rick Dales Restoration Shop in Vegas. We also saw the speeder, Wig Wag, strong box and cement guns that had been restored on the show.

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Just outside of Ely were these beehive charcoal ovens.  Each over holds 36 cords of wood which were burned inside the over over 10 days to make charcoal which was used to smelt the copper from the local mine.

After Ely we headed down another long and boring highway at high speeds and we got into Vegas a day early. It was Presidents day weekend so believe it or not hotel rooms were a bit hard to find.  We tried a couple of the less popular casinos but it was still going to be over $150 for one night, so I discovered a new app for Wyndham Rewards and found a Howards Johnsons that was reasonable. It was located just North of the Stratosphere. Not the best area of town, in fact when we went for a walk for dinner we saw old police tape out in front of the hotel. Not sure when it was from but the rooms were clean and it was pretty much full, so we didn’t worry too much about it. 

Vegas Trip Day 2

Well the morning started off great with a hot breakfast at the hotel and then we decided to try and find the Idaho Falls in town but the entire river was frozen over and there didn't seem to any Falls to be found.










We did find a geocache dedicated to the author Wilson Rawls who wrote the book  “Where the Red Fern Grows” , if you have never read it or seen the movie I highly recommend them, just make sure that you have a box of Kleenex handy, huge tear jerker.  

After that we headed down to Twin Falls, Now we did manage to find two different sets of falls here. The first was Shoshone Falls, sometimes called the "Niagara of the West," It is 212 feet (65 m) high—45 feet (14 m) higher than Niagara Falls. This time of year there wasn't much water, in the spring the water goes all the way across the entire face of the rocks.

The next stop was twin falls which doesn't quite live up to its name anymore, after they put in the new power plant there is only one falls now. It did however have more water coming over it than the Shoshone Falls.

Next stop was the Perrine Bridge. It is approximately 1,500 feet (457 m) long and 486 feet (148 m) above the Snake River.

They do base jumping and bungee jumping off this bridge into the canyon below, there wasn't enough time to do any ourselves however to the east, along the south rim of the canyon, is the dirt ramp used by Evel Knievel when he unsuccessfully attempted to jump the canyon on his steam-powered "skycycle" in 1974. Knievel crashed on the jump because of a parachute malfunction; it opened right after his take off. He survived the crash with only a broken nose. The ramp where he made the leap sits on private property so this picture is about as close as you can get to it. The ramp is that brown slanted thing on the far side of the picture.

After Twin Falls, I took over the driving to head on down to Ely. We hit the border of Idaho and Nevada and made a quick stop in Jackpot to have lunch.  Went to Cactus Pete’s signed up for their rewards card, each got $15 dollars of bonus play, hit the slots and managed to leave with $28 in our pockets, without spending any of our own money. It was too early for dinner and a little too late for lunch so we decided to take our money and run and spend our winnings on dinner in Ely. We hit the road again and I must say this had to be the longest, most boring highway, the only good thing was that the speed limit was 70 miles an hour so it went by pretty fast. We found a Ramada in Ely where we spent the night.

Day One of Vegas Vacation

Well we hit the border at 8 am this morning and made our way South.  We hit light snow in Sandpoint and it turned to rain until Coeur de lane.  We had a lot of snow through Fourth of July pass and even more up Look Out Pass into Montana. There was at least 6 inches of snow at the rest area in Montana.  We kept going though and as we were pulling into Missoula it finally warmed up and we got rain. We had a late lunch at Five Guys, good burgers and fries and then kept heading East. It continued to be a mixed bag of weather. Len did a great job of driving, while I managed to knit four dishcloths. We arrived at Idaho Falls where we are currently tucked in at the Fairfield Inn. They had a Valentine's special, we got sparkling cider, chocolate and a rose. Hoping to check out the area tomorrow morning after breakfast and then off to Twin Falls, Jackpot and eventually Ely.

Week Two Firearms Training

Well so much for posting daily. We have been finishing between 1:30 and 2 am every night and then all I want to do it go to bed. It has been good training but very tiring.  The shoot has actually been a lot of fun. I am doing okay with the aim shooting, I am on the paper each time, I just have to continue to work on slowing down my trigger pulls. I am actually doing really well with the instinctive shooting, this is done really close and a little quicker. If you are within 5 m of me you would be pretty much toast.  The combination of standing for 4 hours on the cement and then going into the gym for 4 hours is putting a little stress on my knees. They have been very sore, the nightly baths and deep heating rub are helping, I will have to see how it goes over the next two weeks.

The food here has been okay. We go for breakfast around noon and then we have to wait until 8 pm to do for lunch. The cafeteria is staying open until 2am so we go for dinner then but neither Alice nor I want to eat that late at night so we are basically eating twice a day. Alice gets some cereal to eat in her room and I have been snacking on apples and peanut butter in the mornings.

We have been trying to go for walks in the morning. We went to a place called  Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes which is shrine for the Virgin Mary. People come from all over the world each year to honor her. There are these huge rocks at the entrance to the area which are a natural rock garden that is supposed to be a potato farmer who with his potatoes was turned to stone for working on a Sunday. I am not sure if the rocks were found the way they are shown or someone did the design but they do look cool.

After our walks we go to eat and go back to our rooms to practice and Alice watches the Young and the Restless. I have been having trouble getting the gun out of the holster but I think I finally have it.  We also have to practice loading the magazines into the gun and making sure we know how to clear a stoppage. This is when the ammunition jams in the gun or fixing other problems.  There is a lot to remember but our line officer says that we are improving and it will all come together.

Friday night we finished before 1am so we all went to the lounge after class and blew off some steam, we finally dragged ourselves back to the rooms around 3:30. The only problem with having dark rum and coke is that coke has caffeine it in and I couldn’t get to sleep until around 5am. We did sleep in on Saturday morning until 11:30, then went to lunch and then headed into Montreal with our girl form our class and Jimmy dropped us off at Alice’s cousin Ryan’s place.  I met him wife Anita, her mom Regina and his little boy Trevor who is 4 years old now. He is a very cute little guy. After hanging out with the family a bit, Ryan took us on a tour of downtown Montreal. We explored old Montreal, saw the Customs House, the narrow streets, old buildings, the water front, clock tower, and a beach.

The cobblestone streets are a little hard to walk on.

This is a small beach by a marina on the St. Lawrence River

We then headed to St Catherine’s street for dinner and to do a little clubbing.  We went to the famous Dunn’s for a Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich, it was delicious and you can see from the picture. Once you picked it up, you couldn’t put it down because it would fall apart on you. We then walked up and down St Catherine’s listening to the street performers and checking out the clubs.

This is half of a small sandwich with double fried fries, vinegar coleslaw and a pickle

This is one of the clubs that we went to. LOL

On Sunday we got up fairly early and Anita cooked us pancakes with real maple syrup. Then Ryan took us to Ottawa. We took a quick driving tour around the downtown area, through Hull, over the bridge and back to a parking spot by the Byward Market. We walked up past the US embassy which is the biggest embassy in Ottawa but it is probably the ugliest, it looks like a large concrete block.

From there we walked through Major’s park where they hold numerous festivals and concerts. Then we walked towards the Chateau Laurier, by the Rideau canal locks and up to Parliament Hill.

We walked around the grounds looking at all the statues and over to Hull Quebec. We saw the Ottawa River and rapids, the library behind the Parliament buildings, the National Art Gallery and the East and West Blocks. We went to find the Cat hill where they used to have all these stray cats that people looked after but found that it was no longer there, all the cats had been adopted by volunteers.

Hull Quebec

National Art Gallery

Museum of Civilization

The Library

We then went to see if we could get tickets to do the Parliament tour but unfortunately because it was a long weekend and the tulip festival they didn’t have any tour spots left, so we decided to go and explore the Byward market.

The National War Memorial

The Chateau Laurier

Alice and I went to reserve a room for next weekend and when they heard what a trying time we were having with our course they gave us the presidential suite for free.

This is one of the biggest all year round markets in Canada. Of course we had to try a Beaver Tail, if Obama stopped it they must be pretty good. Ryan had one with Apples, mine was brown sugar and fresh lemon and Alice had the maple butter with chocolate.

It started to rain on us so we decided to check out the Notre Dame Church and the mint. Both Alice and I lit a candle, to see if it will help us get through our arming. Hopefully it works. 

After that we tried to get a tour as all at the mint but this one as well was all gone. Not the best weekend to make an impromptu trip to Ottawa without planning ahead. It was starting to get late so we decide to go back to the car. We drove by the new military museum which is about 4 times as big as the old one and then we decided to do a quick drive by 24 Sussex drive to see if Stephen was home and accepting visitors, unfortunately he wasn’t available for tea, something about a staff member quitting, so we toured the parkway saw some of the horses from the musical ride and then headed back to Riguad.

Military Museum

Peace Keeper Memorial

We got back into time to do some trigger pulls, magazine manipulations and supper. Time to get another good sleep and it is back to the grind tomorrow.

CDT Training in Vancouver & Trip to Quebec

Well Alice and I started our adventure on Sunday by flying to Vancouver and then spending two hours driving out to the cow poop smelling community of Chilliawack. We checked into our rooms and were delighted to find bath tubs in both but unfortunately we were at the top of stairs. Do you know how hard it is to pack two very large heavy suitcases up numerous flights of stairs? We deserved the bathtub after that.


Our first day was good, we had Rene and Catherine who were excellent instructors, very encouraging, helpful and informative. They each gave us great tips for arming that should help us get through the next stage.

Overall the week went well, we worked hard, we fell hard, pulled and found muscles we didn’t know we had. We were also lucky we weren’t at home because of all the bruises we got Len and Marty might have gotten in trouble.

So by Thursday Alice and I had passed our learning demos and we only had to complete the Subject Movement Course on Friday. This turned out to be a very good course, it turns out that we probably won’t escort people very often but we did here some great stories from a couple of inland officers who have escorted people back home all over the world.

So we got out early on Friday and it was back into Vancouver to return the rental car and get to the hotel room. We stayed at the Sheraton by the airport and I must say that the beds here are the most comfortable beds I have every slept in. It was like sinking into a really big feather pillow and it kind of just enveloped you. The pillows and the bedding were also incredibly soft and crisp. I spent half the night trying to figure out how to get the mattress in my suitcase so that I could take it to Quebec with me. Alice and went to a great little Asian restaurant just a block from the restaurant. Len always says that you should try little out of the way places and this was it.

On Saturday morning we were on the road by 8am and off to the airport and on the plane to Montreal. We managed to watch two comedies, one about baseball with Amy Adams and Clint Eastwood and the Guilt Trip with Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogan, both were quite funny. It was neat, the plane and a screen in front of each seat and you could pick which movies or TV shows you wanted to watch. Hopefully it is a similar system on the way home because I already picked out what I wanted to watch next

We landed in Montreal, got our bags and then got a cab out to Rigaud. We had to get a van so that we could fit all our bags in. We of course did not have the exact address for the college but the driver just put Riguad into the GPS and I told him that once we got there that I would be able to find it. He was a little crazy with his driving, not quite sure how fast he was going but both Alice and I were a little concerned but he got us there in one piece. As soon as you turn off the freeway to Riguad you can see the college up on the hill.

So we got there, got our bags and then checked in. It is a little different that the last time I was here, the staircase in the main entrance way is gone and has been replaced with sliding doors that we have to scan in and out with, high-tech security. Alice and I got our rooms and it worked out that they put all the afternoon class on the 6th and 7th floors. I think that I am in the same room that I was in when I first came to Riguad. It is either this room or the one next door. We were too late for dinner so we ate down at the Subway at the bottom of the hill. We then got unpacked and tried to make our rooms comfortable. Alice has never been to Rigaud before and she complained that I never told her that the rooms were so depressing, she said that these rooms make a college dorm room look five star. The beds on the upper floors are a ¾ bed and quite hard, someone told me to put my extra blanket on the bottom of my bed and that would make it more comfortable so that is what I did and when I got back in my room today, the maid had nicely given me a twin foamy under my mattress pad so now I am really comfortable.    

      So we tried to stay up late so that we could get on this time zone, we also tried to sleep in. We both got up a little later and then went for our first breakfast, which was okay. We then walked down to the Metro and the dollar store to pickup a few suppleies, came back, did some laundry and then I went for a massage. Alice’s cousin Ryan who works here at Riguad and who I used to work at Kingsgate with arranged for me to get a massage here at the college because the CDT training gave me a Charlie horse in my butt and a sore shoulder. I must say it was great and that I will probably use her again. The afternoon weather was a little blustery and rainy so we stayed in, watched a little TV and just gabbed.  This is the view of the new firearms centre from my room.    

  Supper was good, had ginger beef stir fry and salad. We decided to go for a walk downtown but it started to rain just as we started so we decided to explore the campus. We found that they had changed the library into the CDT gym, nice to workout with stained glass window in the background. Came back to our rooms, phoned my Mom to wish her a Happy Mother’s day and my Dad a Happy Birthday, talked to my hubby and puppy and then started working on the blog, posted it and then went back for a bath. I try and stay awake again, since I am going to be staying up past midnight for the next three weeks, I have to start sometime. Hopefully I will have internet access in my room by Tuesday so I can try and post nightly.