Viva Las Vegas

Eventually we left Zion Canyon, after having a lunch under the trees, and it was a direct run down to Las Vegas.  The drive was awful as we soon joined the interstate, and were driving south west directly into a north east headwind - this desert wind was hot, dry and blowing back at us at a speed high enough to fly flags straight out like a patriotic portrait.  Unfortunately heading straight into it meant that the engine was screaming, the air conditioner could barely keep up and the sun was burning through the window.  Not only that but as the road changed direction I was getting blown all over the road, and I had to work the steering wheel like some sort of bad pantomine actor driving a pretend bus.  But there was nothing pretend about it - I jut had to grit my teeth and get to vegas.

When we got there it was about 1,000 degrees.  We decided to go for a drive up and down the strip - an idea so unique it had also been decided by about every other tourist in Las Vegas.  So we spent about 20 minutes for the 2 or 3 miles that made up the strip.  All with the relentless sun beating down - and during all of this 'ol Shep started to overheat - of all the strenous mountain passes, endless miles of interstate and other challenges - it looked as though idling the way up the strip was going to be the achilles heel.  Luckily the traffic broke a bit and I managed to get to our campground before anything major happened.

The self styled capital of kitsch

The campground was the RV park attached to the circus circus casino.  The Circus Circus is definitely getting a bit old and down the food chain in the Casino wars, but it is the only one with an attached RV park.  I elected that we would stump up the extra cash for a 'super site' which gave enough room to park two RV's (should you actually have two) and also an outdoor setting.  Which was good as we don't have any outdoor chairs with us.  It required quite a few cold beers to deal with the temperature-  a problem not fully resolved until I went for a swim in the campground pool.

After all that it was time for dinner - and dinner in Las Vegas means all-you-can-eat buffet - that glorious food celebration of overconsumption.  Did I eat? Did I?  I stuffed as much in as I could - determined that I would be a loss-making customer for them.  I tried all the dishes, sampled the deserts - tried about 5 of the different drinks available.  In the end I felt like lying around and moaning, but at least I think I felt the smug satisfaction of having taken the Casino on and won.  But there was more.  We saw a revolving Mustang - the type advertised as being able to win on the poker machines.  Not being an expert I stuck some money into what looked like a slot, only to later realise that you had to either feed in notes or get a special voucher.  So there is a poker machine in Circus Circus with pennies, nickels and dimes stuck into just about every orifice that bears a passing resemblance to a coin slot.  Oh well.  Eventually I coughed up and stuck a whole dollar note into it, then pressed random buttons until it beeped at me.  As predicted, I started losing money at a steady rate until it blinked and beeped and carreid on and announced that I had one some amount.  On inspecction I now had $2.30 credit - a 230% return in my book.  That was enough for me so I cashed out and took my loot.   Dad had a go and took them down for $4 and I think Mum got some cash as well.  Now super smug about taking the Casino down we called it a night and retired from gambling.  Remember kids - gambling doesn't pay.

That was pretty much it for Las Vegas - definitely not a big night by any stretch - but I've seen it before and I'm not really even in like with the city.  It's just too - well, I just don't like it that much.  It's fun enough but a short dose will keep me in credit for hopefully at least another decade or so.