Since you read my last column, Diane and I have done a bit more traveling.

We went took the RV out to Canyon Lake in the RV for a couple of days. They have done some improvements including adding more picnic tables and a general cleanup of the entire campgrounds.

They have power and water to the RV sites and to a limited number of tent sites. All they need is a dumping station and it would be the perfect camping site.

The campgrounds are an hour and 10 minutes from our house in Fountain Hills. We stayed Wednesday and Thursday nights, April 26 and 27. Our RV was rocking back and forth in the windy conditions both days. I spent about two hours each day casting out my line with my new rod and reel, given to me by my son, Brent.

I call it casting rather than fishing because in all the times we have camped there, I’ve never caught a fish. Oh, the fish are in there. I just can’t seem to catch any. On Thursday evening, I watched in disbelief as a man three campsites down from us threw in his line and it wasn’t five minutes later he reeled in a huge bass.

There were only three other vehicles at the campground both nights, but there were more checking in on Friday morning as we were leaving.

On Saturday morning it was back on the road again as we drove to Las Vegas to see our grandson, Camden, and the Billy Joel concert.

Billy Joel has always been a favorite of mine, especially since daughter Holly finished her stage career as the female lead in Joel’s’ Broadway show, “Movin’ Out.”

His April 30th Vegas concert was in the new T-Mobile Arena.

The new sports and entertainment venue is located just west of the Las Vegas Strip, between the New York-New York and Monte Carlo hotels.

It opened on April 6 and the Billy Joel concert was one of the opening month’s events. It is a 20,000-seat facility. The venue could also become the home arena for a NHL hockey franchise.

Outside the arena is the Toshiba Plaza, an adjacent two-acre entertainment space which features a performance stage, a variety of video screens and other inter-active content and display areas.

Diane’s ex-husband, Tom, got the tickets for us and daughter Toni. Our seats were on the floor in Row R. I sat on the aisle, which gave me a direct view of Joel even when the huge crowd was on its feet.

Before the show started,

Tom introduced us to a guy named Barry Ruggles. He knew Holly since he was the musical director for “Movin’ Out,” both on Broadway and on the international tour of the show. He is now the staging manager for the current show.

He said his job couldn’t be handled by just anyone. He sits in the center of the Arena floor and operates a big control panel. All of the lighting and special effects are controlled from his finger tips.

And you never know which song is next. Ruggles said. “It usually begins with a certain note that I recognize and start the sequence. I’ve been with Billy for 40 years. That experience allows me to do what I do.”

He has spent most of his career living out of a suitcase. In fact, he was to be in Seattle the next night and Portland the night after that.

Billy Joel was in rare form for the Vegas concert. He sang for more than two hours without a break, singing his hit songs from “Piano Man” to “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” a quick procession of names and images that affected the lives of those of us who grew up and lived in the 20th Century.

On Sunday, May 1, to Tuesday, May 3, we spent the biggest part of our time with grandson Camden.

He is the one who was born with the heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot and underwent open heart surgery to reconfigure his heart at four months old.

Other than two scars on his chest, you’d never guess he had the defect. He’s now 2-1/2, talking and runs everywhere he goes.

It was a good four days in Las Vegas.