Tag: Costco

Posted in: Exploring Nevada, Food, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

High Roller Wheel, LINQ, Las Vegas

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on High Roller Wheel, LINQ, Las Vegas

We wanted to take a ride in the High Roller (a huge ferris wheel at the LINQ casino/hotel in Las Vegas). You can buy your tickets online to save some money (I think it was about half the cost when we did it this way). Thanks Nancy for the encouragement!

When I called to get details I was told that for social distancing purposes, right now they are only letting 10 people on per car, instead of the 30 people each pod normally holds. We lucked out and only had 7 people in our car. It is hard to imagine 30 people fitting in there. They were not doing the souvenir photographs when we were there.

Normally there is a bar service, but it is closed due to COVID. You can, however, now bring on your own drinks and snacks. We took advantage of this and went a little early to grab some snacks from the LINQ Promenade. Ben found a donut shop (Sweet Sin) while I grabbed a shake and a sundae from Ghirardelli. This was a great treat/breakfast.

The ride itself flew by. Officially, it lasted 30 minutes. It brought us 550 feet in the air at its highest point. It was constantly moving (albeit slowly), so you stepped on and off while it was in motion. There was air conditioning, music, and informational narration throughout the ride. The ride was super smooth and had great views. We had really great timing on our pod and got to see the Bellagio fountains go off. (I made a condensed video of our ride: Riding in the LINQ High Roller wheel video.)

Like any ride, you exited down a ramp that lead to a gift shop. After we left the building, we walked down the LINQ Promenade and down to the Bellagio to see the fountain show again. (Walking the LINQ Promenade video) There were only a few people out, even for a Sunday afternoon.

The High Roller was a wonderful way to see the city! I highly recommend taking the time and spending the money for this experience.

Posted in: Costco, Exploring Nevada, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

Moving Day: Viva Las Vegas

Written by tepetravels

It was time to leave Utah and move on to Nevada. Our next stop was Las Vegas. Ben and I have both been here before, but it’s been about 14 years for me.

We got checked into our campground and set up. So far, this is not my favorite campground, but I will get more into that when we do our review.

After getting set up, we drove to Costco. (Are you noticing a theme yet? 😉 ) This Costco sold propane per gallon from a large tank and had a large wine and liquor selection. Ben bought me a wine advent calendar! The food court was similar to others we have seen (mostly pizza, hot dogs, ice cream), but it had a window where you could watch them make the pizza. They had a cool machine that puts on the sauce, which was fun to watch.

After putting the groceries away, we headed down to Las Vegas. Our first stop was the Fremont Street Experience. Masks are required in Nevada and it wasn’t anywhere near as crowded as I remember it being. There were several street performers/buskers, some of which were not wearing a ton of clothing. The ceiling still changes and is very bright. It was fun, but seemed to be half ads instead of the crazy light show I remember it being. It was still the first time the boys had seen it, so they thought it was neat. They had a Covid safety message that would routinely show as well. (YouTube link here.)

We then drove down the Strip. It was starting to really light up at this point, which is always amazing to see. Ben managed to have perfect timing in the traffic and we were stopped at a red light right in front of the Bellagio when the fountain show went off! It was spectacular as always. Driving past New York New York, the Statue of Liberty was dressed in a Raiders jersey and a mask.

Getting back on the highway to drive home, we saw a glitter covered minivan. The back said “life without sparkles…is not life at all”.

Posted in: Costco, Food, Injuries

We Needed Some Down Time

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on We Needed Some Down Time

We are not as young as we once were. We were both stiff and sore this morning after the hike yesterday. (Really, it was just Ben and I. The boys were ready to go again.) We kept it pretty simple today to allow our muscles to recover.

We went out to breakfast at Hash House A Go Go in St. George. The chicken and waffles and the bacon mac & cheese were the best of our dishes we tried. Our other dishes were the roasted chicken hash and biscuits and gravy. I got a crazy (and good) caramel mocha coffee.

After breakfast we did some grocery shopping at Target and Costco. Will was also looking to trade in a book at a Little Library. Hurricane, where the campground is, didn’t have any registered on the website. We found two in St. George and decided to check them out as well. The boys didn’t have much luck at those two, but we found another one while driving around. Will did find a book at that one, so he was happy.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing laundry, and the boys got to play pool for a little bit in the campground clubhouse.

Posted in: Broken/Damanged Things, Costco, Newbie Mistakes

Moving Day: Goodbye Moab!

Written by tepetravels

It’s moving day!

We had a good start, finished packing up inside and worked on the outside. I went to line up the truck and bumped the hitch into the trailer. It wasn’t raised up with the jack yet. I obviously needed coffee and to not rush. Luckily nothing happened, but not a great start to my morning.

The drive was uneventful (thank goodness) to our next campground in Hurricane, Utah. We checked in and they led us to our campsite. It was a back-in and they helped direct us in. We set up the RV. It was pretty hot out (104 degrees F), but at least the site had some shade! I am so glad we had a 50 amp site and could run both A/C’s.

The town was bigger than I thought it would be. There were several restaurants and grocery places close by. The one grocery store was within walking distance!

We ran into St. George (about 10-15 minutes away) to go to Costco. This Costco was not very different from others we have seen, although they did sell ice and had diesel at the fuel station. It was very crowded. It was the least amount we had ever spent: $34, including a pizza!

Yes, I do get a picture of Will at every Costco 😉

We unpacked the groceries and Ben took the boys into town to try to find a replacement cup and forks. I got to read for an hour by myself! It was so relaxing. The boys came back, but didn’t have much luck at the nearby store. We called it a night and settled in.

Posted in: Costco, YouTube Video Link

Costco, Rain & Hail

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on Costco, Rain & Hail

We drove to a different Costco (they’re like Pokemon, gotta try them all!) This one had a liquor store in a separate room in the front of the store. Other than that, most of the stuff was pretty similar to what we have at home. I have found a raspberry pastry/danish in Montana and Colorado that I am becoming addicted to. It is so good! I didn’t see it back home, but maybe it’s there now. (It’s with the cookies!)

First time I’ve seen dividers at the sinks

We grabbed a pizza for dinner (I love the self service order stations they have out here.) on our way out and packed up the truck. A thunderstorm rolled in, so we thought we would wait it out. It was about a 30 minute drive back to the campground, so we sat and ate the pizza while watching the rain.

This is where it started to get a little dicey. (And unfortunately I did not have the dash cam running.) The wind picked up and a severe thunderstorm warning went out. We started getting hail. The truck was pretty exposed in the parking lot. The one thing we do know about Colorado is that they must get a lot of hail damage from storms, because there are signs and shops everywhere to repair hail damage. We noticed all the trucks hightailing it out of the parking lot to find shelter, so we followed suit. The wipers were on high and we could still barely see out the windshield. Our fellow trucks had stopped at the nearby strip mall and jumped the curb to wait under some trees. We joined in the crowd. The truck was mostly covered.

Once the hail stopped, it was still raining pretty hard, but our phones were still going off with weather alerts. We decided to head back to the RV. The roads were insane. Flash Flood Warnings and Emergency Alerts were going off almost constantly. Storm drains couldn’t keep up with the deluge of water and roads were covered in gushing water. The normally dry culverts were rushing like rapids. I am so glad we were in the truck and sat higher up. If we were in a car I would have been terrified.

We made it back to the RV safely and we luckily didn’t any damage to the truck or RV.

I do have a video of the rain and hail we got on the cell phone with a few still photos.

Posted in: Bike Rack, Costco

Bikes and A Rack

Written by tepetravels

We didn’t really have a plan where to store the bikes when we bought them. The back bumper of the RV can only support 150 pounds. I was worried about being too close in weight with the combined weight of the bikes and a rack. We also did not have a rack attachment for the front of the truck.

Back bumper is welded on, so can only hold 150 lbs.

So far, Nick’s had been laying down in their room. Eventually we tried hooks to hang it off their bunks. That way did work, although we kept hitting our heads on the hooks when we went to get anything from the under bunk areas.

Will’s was wrapped in the outdoor rug and placed on the dinette once it was folded down for travel. (Which of course meant that everything was covered in a layer of dust/dirt when we unpacked again. Not a huge deal, but a little annoying.)

Once we got to a campground, we could chain them up outside, so it was a lot easier.

Ben saw a bike rack he thought would work while he was walking around the campground. It attached on the front of the RV, over the jack. After looking online, we found it at Camping World: the Jack-It Double Bike Rack. I checked online and it showed they had some in stock, so we headed over. Nope, they didn’t have any! The guy at the parts department told me to never trust the website, as it doesn’t update stock often. I called another Camping World to make sure they had it in stock and asked them to hold it for me (it was another 40 minute drive). They did hold it for me, and we also found a collapsible dish drying rack.

On our way back home, we stopped at Costco for some groceries and a pizza. Ben surprised me and bought me an electric bike for an early birthday present so I could ride with the boys, even if my ankle or knee are bothering me. The boys were very excited that I could ride bikes with them. Ben even took a ride on it.

Once home, we unpacked groceries and started to work on installing the bike rack. It took a little finagling to get it into place. To install it, we had to remove our electric jack. We then had to angle the Jack-It just the right way so we could slide the electric RV jack through the opening in the middle and not squish the jack’s electric cord.

We got it attached and arranged the bikes on it. We may have to play around with it a little more to get the bikes situated just right.

Posted in: Animal Sightings, Campground Review, Costco, Exploring Colorado, Hiking, YouTube Video Link

Cherry Creek State Park Campground: Campground Review

Written by tepetravels

For our stay in Denver, we stayed at Cherry Creek State Park. It was actually in Aurora, Colorado, but it wasn’t a long drive to get into downtown Denver. The nice thing about the park is that you seem tucked away from everyone, but stores are 10 minutes or less away. There were several Costco’s, Targets, and Kings Soopers (Kroger’s for those from back home) within 20 minutes or less. There was also a Camping World and Cabela’s within 40 minutes or so.

To camp in Cherry Creek State Park, you need a state park pass: $80/annual or $4/day. We ended up getting an annual pass because we weren’t sure how many state parks we would be visiting during our stay in Colorado. You can buy online and print out a temporary number. A physical pass will also mailed to you.

There is a welcome office with small shop (postcards, firewood-although there was a wood fire ban in effect when we were there, ice cream bars, etc). When we were there, the office closed at 4:00pm.

The campground is pretty spread out, with a mix of tent and RV sites. RV sites areas are a mix of back-in and pull through. Some sites have shade and others were in full sun.

Setting up after getting backed in

It looked like all the RV spots had a concrete pad, a fire pit/grill and a picnic table. I was really happy with the layout of our site. It felt roomy. We could even put up Ben’s pop-op gazebo/clam shell shelter, for an outdoor space. The hook ups were on the opposite side of the picnic table (at least for our spot) and on the same side as the RV hookup connectors. It made for an easy set up.

The main shower house had bathrooms, showers (paid), food vending machines, and laundry. The laundry was $1.50/load on both the washers and dryers. There were 4 of each machine. There was also a vending machine with single load detergent and fabric softener. It looked like they were $1 each. Showers were $0.50/3minutes. There was a change machine located outside the laundry room to provide quarters for everything in the bath house. The food vending machines sometimes gave change back in $1 coins!

Although you can see the road in the distance depending where you are in the campground, you don’t get a lot of road noise during the week but some on the weekends. However, you will get airplane noise as it seems to be in the flight path of Denver airport.

There are several hiking trails in the park. Cherry Creek also has a dog park area, a lake (boat rentals available), and a horse rental area. There are a lot of bikers in the park (the bicycle kind) as well. We did not get to swim in the lake, although there is a beach area. There were signs warning of blue-green algae, so we stayed out of the water.

The boys have made another campground walk-through video. Although it was really hot that day, so they stayed on just our section of the campground.

If we were in the Denver area, I would stay here again.

SUMMARY OF CAMPGROUND:

Our Rating: 4 out of 5 hitches

Cell Phone Reception: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile

WiFi: Yes

Laundry: Yes

Bathrooms/Showers: Yes, paid showers

RV Sites: Pull Through, Back-in

Pop Up Tents/Gazebos/Outdoor Rugs On-Site: Yes

Amenities: Picnic table, fire pit/grill

Cabins: No

Tent camping: Yes

Full Hook-ups: Yes. 20/30/50 amp sites available.

Pool: No

Food On-Site: No

Camp Store: Yes, very limited

Fishing: Yes, need license

 

Posted in: Costco, Exploring Colorado, Sightseeing

Exploring Downtown Denver

Written by tepetravels

Yesterday we arrived at our new campground and got set up. We ran into town and stopped at Ben’s favorite store (Costco) for some groceries. We also stopped at Kings Soopers for the rest of our groceries. Nick had been wanting to see the new Scooby Doo movie, so we rented it from Redbox at the store. We all really enjoyed the movie and it was nice to have a relaxing evening. I’ve loved Scooby for years (and years…let’s not count the number of years) and now the boys do too.

Ben took the day off of work so he could explore Denver with us. Our first venture out (besides grocery stores) was to downtown Denver. We decided to walk the 16th Street Mall. It is a street that has a lot of shops and food options. We browsed, window shopped, saw Union Station, and picked up some postcards.

There were a lot of food options on this street. We ended up trying a few different items. We tried a new flavor of cupcake (Raspberry Almond Poppy Seed), a spicy breakfast burrito, and Will tried a Korean BBQ cup.

All in all, it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Posted in: Costco, Exploring Montana

July 24: Shopping and Chilling

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on July 24: Shopping and Chilling

Today we went into Bozeman, Montana. It was a shopping day!

We stopped at Costco so Ben could get his Costco fix on. It was a decent sized Costco and wandered around. We love finding what each Costco carries. Each state seems to carry different things: New Orleans had liquor and Ben found his favorite souvenir (a collapsible cooler box). Montana had a large wine selection and carried cider as well.

We drove around and stopped at Home Depot for a few supplies we had been needing. Ben found a new Montana whiskey, and it came with a free hand sanitizer! Winner! We also then Target so I could wander around and get my Target fix in. It was a very large Target! It also had a Starbucks, which I hadn’t had in a long time, so that was a nice treat.

We finished shopping at Walmart. We finished grocery shopping and headed on back to the campground. It was a pretty uneventful, but fun shopping, kind of day. We ended the day with doing the daily journals outside at the picnic table watching the river.

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