Stratosphere-May 10, 2013

I have thought on several occasions that I could ride one of the rides at the top of the Stratosphere. A trip there convinced me I had a momentary lapse of sanity. There are several rides at the top of that thing. I thought I could do the swirling chair ride. I was wrong.

It was cloudy this morning when I took this from the third story of the

parking deck. On the left, two of the chair swings are visible. There are four swings on this ride. A huge arm swings out away from the base and then they go in circles. No one was riding.

 

Here all four seats are visible. They go inside to load and unload. So glad the sun came out this afternoon. I know it's small but there is an airplane to the left of the dome.

 

I never saw what this ride really was until this afternoon as we were leaving. That arm has roller coaster cars on it. They go rushing out to the end of the arm and abruptly stop. Then they slowly let the cars tip forward over the end of the arm for a short distance. Just watching this made me sick to my stomach. I'm not joking.

 

This is the end of the famous Sahara. See the little gold dome. That's about all there is left.

The SLS will replace it next year. The demolition of the Sahara started the day we arrived. It is almost completely gone. That's how long we have been here.

 

What a wonderful day we had. And it is the last nice one. 100° temps move in Sunday. Not our cup of tea. Time to move on. We are having the coach cleaned tomorrow. Baby needs a bath.