Viva Las Vegas?

Staying in Flagstaff was quite nice, sure it was only one night but we got to play some pool and some fussball in the hotel after our drive back from the Grand Canyon and had another good nights sleep after a hard days drive.

Leaving at a respectable hour, just after 10:00. We got back on the road and headed for the legendary Las Vegas. On the way we noticed that Uncle Sam had thrown up another hindrance to our progress, the Grand Canyon caverns.

We took the tour, saw under the earth but even after our dissapointment at the Meremac caverns paled after the brief 'walk around some caves' which weren't even near the Grand Canyon. They only got the name through an affiliation with an air delivery service associated with previous owners. Again we felt gyped and dissapointed, but it was a welcome distraction from the incresing monotony of desert driving.
Who would have thought the landscape would be so barren?

Across the Mojave desert we drove and admired the heat haze as we gazed into it's glassy sky-like reflections in the hope of soda machine, some gasoline and a snack to keep us going for the 6 hour drive. As the road dipped and rose again we kept wondering what would be over the next peak in the two lane highway. It came as no surprise as it was again, just another 20 or so miles of straight road. After a calming drive through the Joshua Trees we started to rise up through the steep mountains. Ahead of us was a police checkpoint which proved no problem as we drove on through towards the Hoover Dam.

Since this was our first time out of the car for a while the heat of the desert hit us, much in the same way a sweaty tennis sock would offend you somewhat, the sheer heat was almost unbearable. A quick souvenir and photo session was all we could handle before it was back into the air conditioned glee of the car.

As we drove back down the winding roads we saw the Vegas Stratosphere and the strip skyline through the haze and went 'top-down' on the Mustang to cruise 'The Strip' because... Well, it would be rude not to. We found and checked into 'Bill's Gambling Hall and Saloon'. Our reasons for staying here were three-fold;

1) It was pretty reasonable room rates
2) It was right in the middle of the Strip
3) It had the most amusing name.

As I parked up Joel jumped out to check everything was OK with the booking and came back with a look on his face somewhere in between confusion, amusement and that face you pull when you smell something bad. To say the least upon parking the car and stepping out of the elevator with Joel it was clear this was one of the maddest places on Earth.

After a quick check in it was time to check out Las Vegas boulevard. More popularly known as 'The Strip'. From The Flamingo to the MGM Grand on one side across to Excaliber, Luxor and New York New York all the way past the Bellagio and up to Caesar's Palace and the Mirage.

We were absolutely taken aback by the scale of the place with its thousands upon thousands of slot machines, blackjack tables, Poker dens, Craps pits all linked together by a network of cleverly designed sidewalks, escalators, moving walkways and mexican immigrants giving out call-girl cards everywhere you looked.

That first night was the best we tried to take it all in and found our quiet village life ways unable to comprehend the maelstrom of sensory information being hurled at us. I seem to remember we found a few cheap drinks liberally scattered throughout the various casinos we visited, but after our little 'incident' in St Louis with the $1 Coronas we though we would take it a bit easy.

A nice meal was had in the Rainforest Cafe in the MGM Grand, if Joel looks preterbed it's because there was a peel of thunder and flashes of lightning as if a tropical storm was about to hit... inside the restaurant.

A few drinks and a long wander around was all we could handle the first day, after a few goes on video poker and slots we headed back to our chosen hotel.

After five or six days on the road it was nice to have a bit of a lie-in and we arose slack jawed and fuzzy teethed at about 11:00. We cursed our sorry margherita drinking behinds as we had missed the Craps instruction course at 10:30 that morning in the lobby of our hotel. That game shall forever remain a mystery to us.

Deciding we had better do something constructive with our day we ventured forth once more down The Strip and had a leisurely walk around Miracle Mile shopping mall. Not that we bought anything but it was welcome respite from the unforgiving desert heat. From there we found a kind of Sega World and were over the moon to find a Daytona racing game, Star Wars Pod Racer and our own personal old time favourite, Police Trainer. Afterwards it was clear the heat wasn't taking a holiday, even if we were and decided to avoid the midday madness by finding ourselves a nice cool cinema, or movie theatre if you like. So we caught Hellboy 2, grabbed a snack and
headed off for some more sight-seeing.

Spending remarkably little money it was not entirely clear to us what exactly we were doing here. Not being gamblers or particularly big drinkers (it is a driving holiday after all) it was becoming more evident that vegas offered very little in the way of entertainment outside the realm of thowing your money in chance's direction and seeing what cards fate dealt you. (Insert your own anology here). Oh, sure there was plenty of places to drink but we really did just want to unwind and have a quiet chat. It may sound unusual that in the most entertaining town on Earth there really wasn't a great deal of places to 'get away from it all'. I'm sure some swanky pants hotel further away had a health spa and a quiet roof dwelling poolside bar. To be honest i think we both just wanted to sit in a quiet pub somewhere green where it isn't too dang hot and there is a chance of getting a decent pint of ale, none of that lager pap. The Stand Up in Lindfield springs to mind.

Later that evening, when it was a bit cooler we headed up on Las Vegas' automated monorail to the far north of the strip and took a taxi to 'Old Las Vegas' and Fremont street, where Vegas all began. Under the giant covered way were the popular symbols of yesteryear, such as that giant cowboy character and the lady provocatively moving her leg up and down. The 'covered way' actually turned out to be the biggest video wall in the world... ever. It treated us to a free 7 minute show of fancy imagery and really shows what you can do with film crew, Adobe after effects and an unlimited budget. Did i mention the big-ass TV that you play it on, i did, ok.

Some quick munchies and Joel was a bit sleepy so he headed back for some well needed kip while I braved the heights of the Las Vegas Stratosphere, as you do. I was unsure I wanted to be thrown up and down on the Big Shot or go on Extreme (which drops you over the edge). So I opted for a go on Insanity, it seemed like the sensible choice. That merely hangs you over the edge in a tiny chair dangling from an over-sized claw and spins you round at 3G's.

The views were spectacular from the Stratosphere at night and Vegas really did 'light up like fairyland' as my mad northern Mother would say and it was quite a sight, but it was getting quite late so i headed back to the hotel after a few stops for photos en-route and was in bed and asleep lickity-split.


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