Downtown Container Park Las Vegas

Our last adventure yesterday, Thursday, was a visit to a new outdoor mall. The Downtown Container Park. It is right on Fremont at the east end. The entire mall, about ½ block big is made of cargo containers stacked vertical and horizontally one on the other. Interesting.  We parked on the street where our first challenge was figuring out how to pay the meter. There is one meter for several spaces. $1 per hour. Actually it isn’t hard to figure out but when we were there the sun was shining right on the screen with the directions. Took a while to get the right amount of shadow on it to be able to read it.

Then we walked around to the front. The first thing I saw was the heart shaped sculpture. 

On closer inspection it saw it was made of many, many small metal heart padlocked to the mesh of the large heart. Most of the small hearts had messages inked on them.

Then in front of the entrance is a BIG praying mantis. 

Unfortunately the sun was in the wrong place to get a really good picture. Some information about the bug.  Was surprised to find out it was drivable.

One of the containers. Most were occupied by small businesses. Shops, restaurants, etc. Shade was provided by canvas sails overhead.

Another container on end.

Stacked three high.

In the center area was a playground with a great tree house and this big slide.

We didn’t eat but the BBQ smelled delicious. Lots of tables and chairs sitting around the place.

A small bar - love the sign. “Every loaf of bread is a tragic story of grains that could’ve become whiskey. But didn’t.”

Another picture of some of the shops. 

A pretty interesting place but we were there early in the day so it was pretty quiet and some of the shops weren’t open.  Again very loud music was being piped into the area. Sorry but for these old fogies – after a couple of minutes it stops being music and becomes annoying noise.  Worth a visit if you’re near downtown.

From there we went to see our son and pick up our mail. A picture of father and son. 

Different kind of house hunting

Had another interesting day here in Vegas. Yesterday our son mentioned to us that a friend of his just moved into a mobile home park here in Vegas. Hummmm... a mobile home park? So guess what we did today. After breakfast we went to a 55+ mobile home park in Henderson. Very enlightening. Might be something we’d be interested in. Saw a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with 2-car garage. Completely repainted with all new appliances. RV storage on site for $20 a month. Quiet, nicely landscaped with lots of amenities. Water and sewer included in lot rent. No property taxes. Might do a little more looking. But of course, we have to get rid of the house in Indiana. Time will tell.

And so far Bill’s allergies are not bothering him. So maybe we could live here. But then we’d have to travel in the summer instead of the winter.

Boy we were just sitting here watching the weather channel and the tornadoes in the Midwest. Glad we aren’t on the road. Suddenly the TV said BEEP – and a tornado watch for our hometown was posted. Sure hope it stays a watch and doesn’t turn into a warning. Also found out today that our across the street and down the hill neighbor’s workshop was flooded from all the rain our home area has had. Glad we aren’t there.

Had a minor repair on the RV done today. The hose to the ice maker was leaking and it was where Bill couldn’t get to it. Taken care of. Nice to have mobile repair services.

Also stopped at a CVS and bought a metal guard for Bill’s finger. Every time he bumped it it started to bleed again. Now he just has to be careful he doesn’t poke his eye out or anything with the guard.

This afternoon we went to the Blueberry Hill for dinner. They have a good deal for seniors at dinner. For about $10 each we get: beverage, soup or salad, entrée with bread roll and desert. Can’t beat that. I especially like the desert part. Today we got one piece of apple pie and one piece of carrot cake – to go. If you’ve been reading this blog you know that a couple of year’s ago we ate at the same place and took our deserts home. I put both of them in the refrigerator. Later that night I ate one of them. Had to look in both containers to see which one I wanted to eat. The next day when I went to eat the other one IT WAS GONE. Container and all. Never found it.

We told the waitress about it and had a good laugh. So this is the way she gave us our deserts today. Said if one disappears they both disappear.

 Going to have some carrot cake - oh yah!

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. 

Shopping in Guaymas

It seems like RV travel to Mexico is even less this year than last. This RV park used to be almost completely full – 140 some spaces. There are probably less than 30 coaches in it now and most of them are from Canada. Don’t know if it is because of the media or the fact that prices here have gone up in the past few years. Gasoline here is more expensive than in the states and diesel is almost the same. Prices of spaces in the RV parks have gone up too. Though this one is reasonable at US$23 a night with WiFi, cable TV and right across the street from the beach.

Yesterday we went into Guaymas to go to a yardage store and the Central Market. Our first challenge was finding someplace to park. AND making sure we were going the right way on the one way streets. The first small estacionamiento [parking lot] we found was full. There was one narrow space between a car and an SUV but the attendant said No it was too small to fit in. Bill tried to convince him it was big enough but couldn’t change his mind. A  block and a half further we found another lot with only two other cars in it. So we parked there. [When we were headed home I noticed a real big parking lot right on the main street! – We’ll use that one next time.] This building was across from the parking lot. How many different colors it had been painted through the years. Notice the right hand side is a “Love Boutique” store.

Walking down towards the main shopping area I found the sidewalks interesting. This one is all tile.

A few feet further on it is very uneven rough cement. You really have to pay attention to where you are stepping when you’re walking.

Passed a shop selling outfits for Baptism and Communion. So pretty. I'm so busy looking in shops Bill had to drag me by the shirt to keep me up with him. 

As we reached the main street we found Churros – actually smelled them before seeing them. Didn’t buy any though as they were really greasy. Bill was tempted…..

We went into the Parisina – yardage store – they have so much neat stuff. Our friend was looking for oilcloth for her table. Large selection. From 16.99Pesos a meter to 59.99P a meter about US$1.20 to US$4.50. She bought some of the sunflower one.

I was looking at the wide variety of Christmas material. Reduced to less than a US dollar yard.  All kinds – even some made especially for curtains with the rod pocket and ruffled bottom.

From there we headed to the Central Market. Always interesting places to visit and shop in. This street in front of the market is only for walking.

The first area we went into was---the meat market. A long narrow section of white tiles and counters.

And lots of meat. The butchers were laughing at me taking this picture. Probably thinking Those Gringos take pictures of everything. 

And every Central Market has it food court. Must be good there were a lot of people eating at the little restaurants.

Thought this was convenient – a place to wash up in amongst the vendors.

Most of the vendors inside the building were selling clothes – other than the meat market we didn’t see many groceries for sale. Very different from other markets we’ve been into.

Walking around the other side of the market back out on the street we saw lots of peanut vendors.

Continued walking back around the front of the market and we found some produce – only two or three vendors set up on tables.

The bags on the front left hand corner have squash blossoms in them.

Zucchini, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, some corn, beans, onions, peppers and watermelon available. And a couple of things I’m not sure what they were. Everything looked very good and fresh.

Down a little ways and there was fresh fish for sale. I think he was still wiggling.

Beautiful flowers. By bunches or in arrangements.

And back on the main street – candies.

We’ve passed a lot of Woolworths here in Mexico but never gone in one. Finally did. More like a Target than what I remember a Woolworths being. Mainly clothes, toys and personal hygiene items. And a few TV’s  -  no soda fountain though. Really liked this sweater dress – if I were 50 pounds lighter. And a couple of inches taller. Oh well we can’t all be perfect.

Lots of vendors on the sidewalks selling all kinds of stuff for Christmas.

This is kind of a typical view of one of the side streets. There is a little restaurant in the front of a home. Some of the buildings are newly painted and occupied some are in various states of disrepair. The yellow building at the end is a very modern store.

There are a lot of Chinese restaurants in Mexico. More than in the states it seems. And this one has Sushi too.

And this is a delivery boy. They use the motor scooters with hot and/or cold boxes on them. Seems like a better idea than having to drive a car through this traffic.

Stopped at WalMart on our way home and I got some ice cream – this year the container is smaller [just like at home] and the price is bigger. Almost US$7 for a one pint container of Häagen Dazs Dulce de Leche. I AM going to enjoy every single spoonful of it. AND lick the carton. 

Stayed in for dinner last night – had gnocchi and meat balls with Bill’s special homemade spaghetti sauce from home. 
No plans for today but I did get some spectacular pictures of the sunrise and birds this morning.