It's a gas baby: The Neon Boneyard of Las Vegas, Nevada

These photos have an annoying but necessary watermark on them because the Neon Museum only allows photos for personal use. They charge for commercial use so they can raise money to keep restoring the signs.

 This nice lady lead the tour we took back in 2008.

As fans of both roadside stuff and decay, the Las Vegas Neon Museum's Neon Boneyard is just about the coolest place we've ever seen, even when it's 100 degrees outside. As Vegas's casinos and businesses get torn down to build even bigger, more up to date places where you can lose your kids' college fund, the Neon Museum's earnest preservationists have arranged to have the classic old signs dragged to an area on the outskirts of town. And thank God, for these signs are history. The Boneyard spreads over two acres and contains over 150 donated and rescued signs dating from the 1930's up until today. It's a surreal experience to take the tour, a real bargain at $18, and led by local Vegas sign historians/volunteers. The Museum is lovingly restoring the signs and putting them up around Las Vegas as historical goodwill ambassadors reminding visitors of Sin City's glorious past. They look fantastic restored but I find them even more amazing in their Boneyard state of ruin. The irony is overwhelming. Something that was once so glittery, happy, huge and spectacular is now rusted, busted, and tapped out. A trip to Vegas is simply not complete without a trip to the Boneyard. The Neon Museum uses the tour fee to keep on restoring the signs so visit them, please. Here's their website: http://www.neonmuseum.org/tour-info

Doing Battle: Scenes from Battle Mountain, Nevada

Interstate 80 is a long, lonely stretch of road when traveling through the great state of Nevada. Many miles separate the small points on the route, with hours of pretty but desolate scenery in between. We had the pleasure of stopping in the gloriously melancholy little town of Battle Mountain, between Elko and Winnemucca, for a night's stay at the Super 8. There wasn't a heck of a lot going on, but there was one honey of a sky that day -- dark menacing-looking clouds with bright shards of sun illuminating the worn landscape. They have some terrific mid-century signs here, courtesy of the Owl Club casino and the Nevada Hotel, which boasts of both food and fun, and one of the nicest water towers I've ever seen next to the fireworks emporium. Their name is derived from a clash between the white settlers and the original Shoshone inhabitants, but it's a peaceful community now and provides a place to gas up, get some grub, a good night's rest, and a hand or two of Texas Holdem before hitting the open road in the morning. That's their Battle cry and they're sticking to it.

Cowboy up: West Wendover, Nevada's Wendover Will

This awesome photo of Will at night was shot by Dave Beedon.

This is Will in front of the Stateline casino, circa 1960. The photo comes from the great website Frank Busca's Route40.net .

Here's Will's brother, Vegas Vic.

In 1952, a Mr. William Smith opened a casino in the small northern Nevada-Utah border town of West Wendover called the Stateline. He had the good taste to commission a Mr. Pat Denner, the designer of Las Vegas' famous Vegas Vic neon cowboy, to adorn his gambling parlor with a similar cowpuncher to give everybody a friendly "Howdy, pardners!" as they drove by and nudge them in the direction of his wagering temple. And thus Wendover Will, named for both the town and Mr. Smith, was created, and Mr. Denner made him an even taller galoot (63 feet) than his older brother, earning him the distinction of the World's Largest Mechanical Cowboy from the Guinness Book. Both of Will's arms waved, his eye winked, his cigarette flicked, and his 1,184 feet of neon tubing flashed day in and day out until 2002, when the Stateline changed ownership and Will was kindly donated to the town, who made him their good-Will ambassador and moved him to an even better location and gave him a lavish restoration. His white hat, yellow bandanna, red shirt, Levis, cowboy boots, and six-gun gleamed in the hot midday Nevada sun when we passed through town last spring, but, alas, we weren't able to stick around and see him all lit up and in motion after dark. If anyone out there has a video of Will at night, we'd love to add it here.

It's encouraging when a treasure like Will is recognized for the neon-tastic icon he is and a town revels in his awesomeness. Kudos to West Wendover for appreciating where there's a Will, there's a he-went-that-a-way. Happy trails to you.

Blow out the candelabra and hang up the feathered cape: Las Vegas' Liberace Museum is closing this October

"I wish my brother George was here."

The strip mall owned by the Liberace Museum has fallen on some hard times.

I don't think Liberace ever sang "The Times They Are A-Changin" but that's the tune they're singing at the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, closing their doors on October 17. Open since 1979 in a retail location about 5 miles from the famous Las Vegas Strip, the museum has fallen on difficult financial times lately, with attendance dropping from a peak of 450,000 15 years ago to 50,000 today. The Museum, part of a strip mall owned by Liberace himself and left to maintain his legacy, had been using its rental income to fund the museum and other charitable projects, but like many other commercial locations, it now sits only partially occupied, hurting the bottom line of the memorial. Perhaps a bigger issue for the museum is the recognizability of Liberace as a showbiz icon to anyone under the age of 40. Unlike Elvis, who Liberace outlived by 10 years, Liberace's music and image are not constantly in the public eye and he represents a bygone era of Las Vegas entertainment. What a shame, too, because for sheer over the top glitz, kitsch and bling, he couldn't be beat. Perhaps interest will be renewed if some long-planned projects about him ever get off the ground. A biopic directed by Steven Soderberg has been mentioned since 2009 but it was to star the now-ill Michael Douglas as Liberace so its future seems uncertain.

I would suggest if you're in Vegas before the middle of October, check out the museum because it may be your last chance to see the possessions of a man who thought that too much was never enough.