Death Valley, Vegas and Sailing

Mountains of contrasting sand (Death Valley USA 6 June 07)
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Continuing south we stayed at the town of Fresno (I think it's famous for something?!) and then turned left....and towards the desert. We arrived in the arid zone via the enormous Techapi wind farm, to Mojave, where a number of planes take their first test flights (and indeed spaceship1). Our first night in the Mojave was an interesting experience, with gale force winds rocking the motel 6 and making the train whistles sound very eerie.

The winds continued the next day, and as we headed towards Death Valley these turned to sandstorms with dust clouds more than 2 miles long. In the rare moments when the winds abated we encountered hauntingly beautiful views of Death Valley, but most of the time the car got some good exfoliating as the sands thundered past us. We stopped for lunch in 46 degrees celsius so were glad of the fridge in the car to keep the water cool! We tried to drive down the south of the Valley to see the devil's golf course but were thwarted by the sandstorms - instead we had to content ourselves with Artist's Drive, which being slightly higher did offer some stunning views of the desert mountains.

V&R on Artist's Drive (Death Valley USA 6 June 07)
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I have to say I was quite glad when we headed out of the valley and the sandstorms, and onto the high Nevada Plateau towards Las Vegas. The first sight of this city, which appeared out of nowhere in the desert. Its orange lights glowed from a distance and as we got closer, more and more and more neon showed up. And the neon continued until we were driving down the main strip we were literally assaulted by every coloured light from every angle - a major contract to the darkness and emptiness of the desert!

Edge of the Sandstorm - this was when we could see! (Death Valley USA 6 June 07)
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We stayed in Vegas for 3 days (in the Luxor pyramid- surreal!), exploring the enormous casinos on the strip and also the older more low key places downtown on Fremont St. Having been taught poker in Fernie, we decided to enter a tournament in Fitz's, where for 30 dollars you got 1500 chips and could stay in till you lost them all. Liking this cap on our meagre budget, we both entered with gusto, but I have to say sitting down at the table was absolutely terrifying! Fitz's is a really local hangout, and on our table were some card dealers from other casinos and we were the only non Vegas residents. Rob was also opposite V which made for some interesting poker faces - especially at one point where we ended up playing "head's up" directly against each other. Rob lasted till round 4, and V (through luck rather than  any particular skill) got through to round 7 of 10 playoffs - and was the last girl left!

Ernie and Rob are glad to reach the edge of Death Valley and enjoy the view (Death Valley USA 6 June 07)
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The neon lights got a bit much after a few nights so we headed back into the desert for a spot of sailing. Yep, you have read that right, on a dried up lake in the desert a company has some 3 wheeled gocarts with massive windsurfing sails attached. Unfortunately there wasn't much wind, but on the few occasions it did blow up a bit these things took off at speeds of around 45mph - exhilarating but a little terrifying! We rounded off a good day by taking in the excellent buffet at Wynn Casino, watching the Mirage Volcano erupt, and watching the Monty Python show "Spamalot". As the only Brits in our row in the theatre we were leading the singing at the end...it was nice to find a touch of England.

Glad to reach the edge of Death Valley (Death Valley USA 6 June 07)
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Having exhausted our Vegas budget (and then some!) we headed on eastwards past lake mead and over the Hoover Dam. We stopped for a tour of the inside generators and workings of the place which was really interesting.  Now it's onwards towards Arizona...

R&V