Lost in Las Vegas

VEGAS arrivals lounge at airport
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Lost in Las Vegas:

Gobsmacked in Grand Canyon:

Lost in Las Vegas

I have to link the two headings because our Grand Canyon time of 2 days was in the middle of our 4 day time in this part of the world.

Golden Nugget room 427 - eat your heart out
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Now to get rid of the first misunderstanding on the heading.

I did not lose money gambling in Las Vegas on our first day. At the time of writing this we are concentrating on diaries and I have not had a second go at the tables yet.

The term “lost” refers to our walking around the strip looking for the free shows. But again I get ahead of myself.

I did a very naughty thing yesterday. Without telling Margaret I went for a plane ride without medication. I convinced myself it would be alright and that the flight would be smoother than the Inland Passage ferries. It was. I will not be so brave on my way from San Francisco to Hawaii and then to NZ. I am silly but not stoopid.

Yes! Eat you heart out - room 427
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Having had a wonderful trip out of the fog, in clear skies over the desert we landed at a very busy airport. We had 3 planes landing behind us one came in with us on a parallel strip and there were 5 waiting to take off.

Las Vegas is not a small town. 4 million people now with 4000 a day in and out. There are 3 shifts of workers in many businesses that never close so that has built-in infrastructure and human resource issues.

We had to take a train to the building that houses the rent-a-cars. They are very well organised and the girl at Alamo was very efficient. But the car we had paid for was painfully inadequate for what we needed. This time I could not talk my way into an upgrade. I had to pay for it. But I ended up with a fire engine red Pontiac automatic. This is DEFINITELY a car I could keep. It is simply a wonderful car to drive, smooth, quiet, electric controls for most things but not ostentatiously so.

Hoover Dam - en route to Grand Canyon - note new road development on left
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Enough Donald! You can’t have one!

Well we took it for a spin and soon found ourselves in the middle of the Strip. It is as gaudy and flamboyant as the brochures indicated. It is as noisy and as busy as the TV shows depict. There are people on the street (men and women) offering the phone numbers of “escort agencies” and there are trailers being towed around the street that have pictures of girls in nighties and large phone numbers. There are monstrous TV screens everywhere day and night. There are stars in shows at casinos everywhere. There are restaurants, taxis, casinos, shops and people wall to wall. New buildings are going up as fast as they can. The growth is exponential and there is no shortage of money. I did not see beggars, homeless or dirty people anywhere and we packed in a very busy day of moving around in our afternoon and night.

Grand Canyon view 1
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We finally found the Golden Nugget and the parking station across the road. (Free to guests and gamblers, $2 per hour to others)

Our place was in the older part of Vegas and getting to the strip was an issue. $20 for a taxi and the people at our end tried to show us that they had different but adequate everything to keep us (and our money) at their end of town. However we wanted it all. We found a small bus company that offered a slower, more interesting route for $2.50 each. That took our attention.

Grand Canyon view 2 of thousands - how many do you want to see
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Walking out of our hotel put us in a mall with a curved roof about 20m high over a 200m section of casinos, bright lights and glitter (not Garry).

Down one end was a bit of a noise. The World Firefighters Fitness Challenge was on that night. Men and women from around the world came to compete in a series of obstacle races. While we watched a section it went like this: 2 teams of 3 raced against each other. Member 1 ran 25m and up a staircase that was 3 stories high (all this in full fire gear and carrying air), at the top they pulled up a very heavy weight on a rope, ran down the stairs, tagged member 2 who ran zig zag 25m to bring back a fire hose and turn it on to hit a target, they tagged no 3 who picked up a full weight adult “dead” person dummy and dragged them 25 m back to the start line. It was very exciting.

I watched this raven for a while and thought I'll get him when he takes off.
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As is any world championship. It is, after all the best from all over who can make it. I’m not sure if any OZ teams ever go or if it is World Championship as it is in baseball.

We caught our bus eventually and arrived in the Strip in time to make our way to the Mirage for Cirque de Soleil “Love” a tribute to the Beatles. I cannot begin to describe the technical wizardry, the lighting, the complex choreography, the set changes and the plot in a theatre in the round seating about 1000 people. It was absolutely worth every cent we paid. There were about 50 in the cast, I don’t know how many backstage but I reckon at least that or more. People in the roof, under the stage, on stage. Music flat out. The sheer exuberance of the cast which included 4 young boys was exhausting. Their strength, agility and flexibility as circus type performers were outstanding. The standout for me was a performance by 4 girls on slack ropes high above the stage where they hung vertically without safety nets and only had the rope twisted around their bodies as they flipped, twisted, “danced” and only had the rope between their toes and around their bodies. I was in sweat watching them but in absolute awe of their ability.

I watched this and thought lascivious thoughts of envy etc
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Lizzi has said we should go and see “O” (another Cirque performance) on Sunday when we return. Who knows?

When we got back we had to write, to eat and drink (we are often too busy during the day to manage more than 2 meals). I had to get some money from an ATM as we had run out. I was headed back to our room when I was accosted by a Blackjack table. I left with $4 more than I started so I had cheap fun for 1/2hr.

Grand Canyon next.

Someone told us it was 300km and that should take us about 3 hours with a stop at Hoover Dam.

Not a bad sunset
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Wrong!!! It is over 300 miles. (X8/5=km) We didn’t realise until we’d been travelling over the desert in a straight line for an hour and hadn’t got anywhere. Then it his us that it was a day’s drive. We hadn’t left in time. There really was no suggestion that we’d stop overnight and go on the next day. Well actually there was. But I ignored it. About 100iles from our pre-paid accommodation at the Canyon rim we stopped and I had a kip for 20min. Thus refreshed we pressed on. The Pontiac was great. We arrived at about 9pm and crashed (into bed).

A better sunset
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Up bright and early? Catch the sunrise over the rim? Not us! Slept in, leisurely breakfast, check out the directions, realise we have little petrol and may get stuck here, go for a drive and stop off at all viewing platforms but one. We are saving that for an early morning view as we leave on the 11^th.

What can I tell you about the Grand Canyon? I can say that the camera did not capture the depth of the colours. It is the one feature of this that has disappointed me. It “washes” out the colours. But it surprises me as well. In a carpark by one of the platforms, a Hummer pulled in. Yes a real Hummer. Gold it was. Yes! Gold. Toorak Taxi number 2. The other one was in San Francisco but it was only green. This was gold. That photo looks good and the colours are great. I just don’t know what to do with the settings on the camera to make landscapes better. If I find out just after I get home I’ll be mad. I hope it takes a while so I have some distance between this trip and better photos.

The canyon is everything that visitors say it is. We were so surprised at how BIG it is. The video I took makes the colours look better. How can that be? It is the same camera?

Anyway we finished our time with a full tank of petrol as we found an automatic filling station (no human involved) – put in your credit card – take out petrol.

Our last thing was the sunset at the rim. Very speccy. I took a photo of the best looking thing there.

Tomorrow we head back to Vegas for 1 more night. It is Veteran’s Day tomorrow and there will be parades and stuff. It is a very important day on the calendar. It must be for shops to have Veteran’s Day sales. It is their Anzac Day. It’s a long weekend and lots of people have come here for a few days. The numbers have doubled here since we arrived.

It will be an early start for us and I’ll post this when I get back to the hotel in Vegas. Then its off to Hawaii for a few days. Maybe I’ll do another blog. Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll be too lazy. Maybe the Pinas Coladas will be irresistible. Maybe I’ll be too exhausted after surfing down those big waves. Maybe I’ll be …………..

It is Veteran’s Day and