Our Adventure That Just Kept On Going . . .

It all started with a quick click on the internet.

Roger and I travel about once a month to Las Vegas for 

Mac lessons, car repair and highly desired (by us) 
groceries from Trader Joe's.

We have found our favorite places to eat, and we return home with contented, full tummies 
from these day trips.

But I, always the bargain hunter and thrill-seeker in food adventures, regularly scan Vegas bargain websites.

Wow! What's this?

"Hot Feel" - Serving fresh seafood - 

crab, lobster, mussels, clams, calamari -  

all my favorite things!

Check!

51% off - a $50 value for two for less than $25.

Check!

It is conveniently located on Spring Mountain Road,

which I knew to be our exit road for Las Vegas Blvd.

Check!

It had a generous window before the expiration date.

Check!

On closer examination, after i clicked to buy, I saw that it is on West Spring Mountain Road, 

which, I found out, is in China Town.

O-kaaay, well, it will be an adventure!

Everyone who knows me knows that I love to try new foods -
new textures, new flavor combinations and and new ethnic tastes. And I love Chinese food!
But I have to say, I do know that it is more American Chinese than authentic Chinese that I love.
When we traveled to interior China a few years ago, we were served many authentic Chinese foods and neither one of us developed a taste for the hot, unfamiliar spices and the rustically-prepared foods.  At all!  That being said, we were game to try it again - Las Vegas style!

So the summer zoomed by, and we hadn't used our Groupon.

Checking our calendar, we determined that we could slip in a quick day trip on Monday, September 8, 

to shop for some needed items and have this seafood dinner before it expires.

As we pull up to the restaurant, located next to a gigantic massage parlor, we think, well, it doesn't look too bad . . .

We arrive at 5 PM, 6 PM body time, and not a soul is in the restaurant but a small, young Chinese girl, 
who is cleaning the tables - that's a hopeful sign (the cleaning part, I mean), right?
After trying to figure out the menu, noting that the only explanation next to the itemized listing of various seafood and meat, is the cost per pound of each, we ask her questions - 
how is the seafood prepared, do you have any veggies, etc.
After her answers in her broken English, all that we understand is that we can get veggies in a hot pot and we need to choose whether we want mild, medium, hot or super hot.
We choose mild, I go to choose the veggies, some familiar, but mostly not, then she brings the hot pot.
Saying the first slurp blew the roof off our heads is stating it mildly!  Then the crab legs came  - cooked in a really horrible-tasting sauce (we both agreed!) and Roger and I (mostly, my wonderful, good sport husband, Roger) grabbed ahold of a gooey crab leg in its shell and started cracking.  
The only tasty part was where the sauce hadn't penetrated into the crab.
As Roger was cracking away, he said we would probably 
head to In 'n Out Burger on the way home!

And I have to add that it looks way better than it tasted.

You be the judge.

About mid-way through our dining experience, we start laughing and say, well, we'll have a story to tell and 

we are having an adventure.

Oh, my, little did we know the meaning of that word!

We do stop to get a vanilla shake at In 'N Out to tame the fire in our tummies, then get on I-15 

to head north to St. George.

About 25 minutes out of Vegas, we come to a dead stop on the freeway.

A big rain storm had been in Vegas all day, putting down lots of water, and tapered off about when we arrived and it was heading north, but we have certainly seen those before.

We think maybe there has been an accident ahead.

After inching forward, one car at a time, for about 40 minutes, we  see a trooper talking to each car, one at a time, explaining that a bridge has washed out on the freeway ahead, an alternate side road is also washed out, and our options are to A. - turn back to and stay in Las Vegas overnight, B.- go back south and get off the next exit, which leads to Hwy. 93, which winds through the mountains to Caliente, hooks up with another road through Panaka, to Beryl Juntion, Enterprise then down to St. George -- normally about a 3 1/2 hour drive (from where we are stopped on the freeway, it normally takes about an hour and 20 minutes to get to St. George), or C. - Pull over, off the exit, and sleep in your car.  

We choose B.

We turn and get on I-15 South, get off the next exit, then see that traffic is backed up, with a giant pearl chain of red tail lights as far as you can see, at a dead stop.  Ryan calls and we have a nice little chat with him. Roger hops out of the car, I get in the driver's seat and wait for the pearl chain to start up, and he talks to stranded drivers, including a truck driver who hears on his CB that the bridge won't be fixed for at least three days.  So we sit and sit, waiting for the traffic that had been going south on I-15 and was diverted to 93, to have their turn on the two lane road (one lane is washed out)- then we hear that that route further up north was also washed out!

Very, very long story short - we drove, many times, stop and go, through blinding rain, zig-zagged on two lane roads, desperately sought potty stops along the way and we finally pulled into our drive-way at 2:50 AM, 

SO grateful to be safely home.

At this writing two days later, the freeway, major artery through Utah and points south, is not open.

Now that was an adventure!