As Seen on TV Day in Vegas

Late getting to this today. Our plans have changed…Instead of leaving tomorrow like we originally planned we will be leaving next Wednesday instead. We had to wait for some mail from home and didn’t think it would get here quite so fast. So we extended our time in the park at least until Friday (tomorrow) And we sure can’t leave on Friday or Saturday or Sunday because I want to watch the races. Then we made an appointment to get the Alfa washed – he couldn’t do it until Tuesday – so…

I was wandering around my blog’s dashboard yesterday and discovered that Blogger’s spam control has caught and stopped 4500 post from some weirdo. Amazing.

So what are we going to do with our extra time here? Today we did an “As seen on TV” tour. It didn’t turn out quite as I expected but was interesting none the less.

On the way to breakfast we passed this place – The Pinball Hall of Fame – another oddball place to visit in Vegas. No we haven't gone in.

And this Wedding Chapel on Vegas Blvd – Elvis any one? How could any one not like this town?

Where were we headed to when we saw this stuff? Well here – the pawn shop in Pawn Stars.

Very plain front at 713 Las Vegas Blvd. At least there was no line waiting to get in. Later on when we passed it again there were about 30 people standing in line waiting to get in.

Lots of people inside though. Don’t remember seeing the “gift shop” on the TV show. $25.00 t-shirts.

Standing in the back looking through the crowd towards the front.

None of the TV personalities were there – just lots of people like us. They must clear it out to film. Looked a lot smaller than it does on TV.

Then we headed to another TV show setting - American Restorations. We parked in the lot next door at Artistic Iron – this actually was the most interesting part of the day. Sculpture outside in the parking lot. Well worth the trip. On Charleston and Main St.

To park in this lot and visit next door we had to go inside to get a permit for the car. I am so glad we went inside. Just inside the door. So many neat things in here.

While we were standing around looking at the amazing work we were invited to go into the back shop to see a half scale train that is being built for a client.

We stopped to watch some of the workers in the making things.

Back into the showroom. Great entry door, bench and gates. Note the black cat. He was wondering all over the place and very friendly.

This guy was upstairs. We could put him in our computer room and he could look over the rail down into the living room. 

Another couple of sculptures

Bill was looking at the banister in the background. Very very nice and pretty much low maintenance plants. 

So we left Artistic Iron and walked next door and down the long driveway to the American Restorations (Rick’s Restorations) buildings.

The exterior of the old building has been remodeled to resemble an old town.

A few old cars were sitting out front.

Also for those of you who watch this program and Pawn Stars you might recognize “The Old Man’s” golf cart. It belonged to the owner of the pawn shop and was restored by Rick.

The entrance to Rick’s

The disappointing thing about this visit was – these are the only photos I could take. Just items in the “for sale” area. You can buy this pump as is or have it restored.

One that has been restored.

Just some more stuff in the showroom. Good ole Manny, Moe and Jack.

We got to take a tour of the shop part where all the restoration takes place but cameras weren’t allowed. And all the sections of the shop were behind separate rooms and we could just look in windows at what was going on. Did see in the shops behind the windows – cowboy, Rick, his wife and Brettly just walking around. Interesting, but I’m glad it was free. But then I haven’t seen the show very many times.

From there we drove downtown to Fremont Street to check out a new outside mall the Container Park. The old El Cortez Hotel and the red slipper. But this is for the next blog.