From the Rockies we went West, into America’s great deserts. Through sand and into canyons we went. Visibility was often well over ten miles, so clear and still was the air and so flat was much of the land.
But we should we spend our time on looking at desert plant life piecemeal, when we can look at it all in garden form? Right before pulling out of Utah and penetrating Arizona, we took a stop at Red Hills Desert Garden, a pleasant and free break from the winding road.
There sits the garden. 
Agave patch. 
Rock gnomes. 
The tree is the leaf! 
Dinosaur something. 
A plant. 
I guess people release goldfish into desert oases, and they turn into sandworms. 
An evolved goldfish. 
Original settlers had no other bed. 
The West is full of red rocks. 
Bifurcation. 
The park has canyons you can walk in. 
All that’s left of the fish exhibit after the goldfish have had their way.
We spent one night in Vegas on our way to LA. Was that enough time to experience all that this town had to offer? Yes it was. (In COVID times, at least.)
We arrived at our AirBnB and were greeted by a Chinese man who did not speak English. We managed to communicate that we had reserved a room there and he tried to say “no” and shut the door on us.
Then he spent about a half hour calling people and talking in Chinese. Eventually he put us on the phone with a lady who could communicate in English. She said, “The owner does not want you to stay.” After about 20 minutes of arguing with people over the injustice of this, the old man who had greeted us gave us $38 in cash – the cost of our AirBnB – and sent us on our way. We had little choice but to get a hotel room.
We ended up staying Excalibur, the cheapest option. It was fine. The WiFi didn’t work and it wasn’t possible to get anyone to fix it. And people (employees of the resort) kept trying to pull us over to sell us something.
One cool thing – we went to Vegas Chinatown and had some authentic (I think) Chinese food – foreshadowing what would be regular occurrence in the City of Angels.
It was a tiring and quick Vegas visit and I did not put my best effort into photo taking. Here’s what we got:
Our resort. 
Gaming room floor. This day was a blur. 
Green building outside. 
Another hotel that was founded by the ancient Egyptians. 
Note the contrast of the obelisk from the future and the road motel carpeting. Carpets are gross. 
This place had good burgers and a fun name. They give you a free jelly sweet if you tip. 
Said burgers. 
Where we eat some of that sweet Asian cookin’. 
Pork intestine, chicken and potato cooked in an earthen pot and served in a plastic bowl. 
Beef stew in numbing sauce.