Day 294: Grand Canyon – Las Vegas
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Sunday May 29th
We woke up with heavy hearts today, as it was the last day of our Trek America trip. It was also going to be the longest, and we had arranged to be on the road at 7:30am to ensure we made all our planned stops. It was roughly a 5 hour drive to Las Vegas, where we had lunch booked at the Luxor, and along the way we were stopping in at a town along Route 66.
After the van was packed one last time, we were locked and loaded and on our way out of the Grand Canyon. We all exchanged photos in the car and played a hysterical game. We all had to write down a phrase (i.e., ‘A face only a mother could love’), and then pass it to the person beside us, who would have to draw it. They then passed it to the next person, who had to guess the phrase based on the drawing … and so on, until everyone in the car had had a go at each set of cards. This lead to some extremely funny drawings and guesses which deviated wildly from the original phrase (and was especially funny when there were devious Aussies in the car who wrote phrases like ‘Dryer than a nun’s nasty’, which then had to be drawn by a non-Aussie!) We also continued our licence plate game, trying to find licence plates from each state of the USA (we ended up being 7 short).
Several hours into the drive we arrived at our Route 66 stop. The town was a throwback to the 50s, full of kitsch souvenir shops and Route 66 displays. I loved it!! I scored a number of souvenirs and snapped a heap of photos, even snapping one with the King himself, Elvis.
Just before we entered Las Vegas, we drove ‘near’ the Hoover Dam. I say ‘near’ because commercial vehicles aren’t allowed to cross the bridge over the Dam, so we had to go on a nearby road. None of us were too fussed about not seeing it though, because we had finally made it to ‘Viva Las Vegas!’
Thanks to some leftover money in our food kitty, we were lunching at the Luxor buffet. Everyone was starving as it was 3pm, but surprisingly we didn’t end up eating much (the vegetarian options were particularly poor). As we ate, we all wrote farewell messages on plaques that Cassie had put together with our group photos, and Lucy and Tamsyn started getting upset at the thought of saying good-bye. We still had our party bus that evening though, and first we had to drop everyone off at their hotel.
I was staying at Alexis Park for the first night, as were Lucy, Tamsyn, Sharyn and Cassie, and due to the madness of Las Vegas traffic on the Strip it took us 2 hours before we arrived. Of course, my room was literally the furthest away from the lobby. I stole a bellman’s trolley to take all my crap up to my room (and when I say all my crap, I mean it – I had so many assorted piles of random things to sort through it was ridiculous!)
First order of call in the room was to call Mark and say good-bye, as he was heading to Afghanistan the next day. The internet connection was terrible at first, but it finally fixed up so I could have a proper conversation with him. I then jumped in the shower and started beautifying myself, intermittently checking Perez Hilton to catch up on all the gossip I’d missed whilst I’d been out bush.
At 8pm, I walked over to Tamsyn and Lucy’s room to collect them, and we then walked to the bar to meet Sharyn. As it was BYO alcohol on the party bus, I asked the bartender if he had any bottles I could take with me on the road (i.e. Cruisers, Breezers). He said he didn`t have anything like that, but he could mix-up anything I wanted to take with me. `I`m going out in public with them though – across the road and onto a bus` I said. `No problems! This is Las Vegas!` So out of the hotel and onto the public street I walked holding two plastic cups of vodka and coke. I kept thinking I was going to get pulled over by the police for drinking in public, but it really is legal here!
The group met at 8:30pm in front of the Hard Rock Hotel, which was adjacent to our hotel, and when we`d all assembled Cassie called for our party bus. When it pulled up, we were all dismayed – it looked like one of the local buses for the disabled. But once we walked inside – hello Playboy Mansion! It was blinged out like a limo, and even had ice bars for our drinks and poles for pole dancing! (I might have told the others that I was a bit keen on pole dancing …. )
For the next hour and a half, as the latest hits blasted through the stereo system and we drank, laughed, and danced, our party bus took us around the sights of Las Vegas. We had a couple of stops along the way – the first, at the `Welcome to Las Vegas` sign, and the second at the Fremont Experience downtown to watch the light show. Whilst downtown, Sharyn and I bought ourselves a drink each. For $12, it came in one of those massive flute like cups that you see college students drinking beer out of – we really fit in here with those! Paula and David emerged out of a casino with necklaces; whilst Lucy queued for food, coming out with deep fried oreos! (I tried one – they were delicious!)
Sadly at 10:30 our time on the bus came to an end, as did our time with Cassie. A group of us were still keen to continue though, and so we entered the Bellagio for some gambling and drinking (not Lucy and Tamsyn though – as they were only 18, they could only watch us!). Drinks are free in Las Vegas whilst gambling – you just need to tip the waitress. We must have been tipping badly as she didn`t want a bar of us (probably something to do with the fact that we were on 1c machines and barely gambling!)
We walked outside to see the magical performance by the Bellagio fountains, as seen in Oceans` Eleven, illuminated by the neon lights of the Strip. Lucy and Tamsyn headed back to the hotel whilst Sharyn and I got some food to line our stomachs – we hadn`t eaten since the brunch at the Luxor – although I`m not sure the mess we got really counted as food.
As the time ticked on to 1am (which isn`t late in Vegas, I know!), we decided to head back to our hotels, making sad good-byes to one another. I would be seeing Sharyn, Lucy and Tamsyn tomorrow though, and we had an early-ish start to make the most of our time tomorrow. I fell into my bed, in the first hotel room I`ve had by myself in 7 months, and was instantly asleep …. Bliss!
We woke up with heavy hearts today, as it was the last day of our Trek America trip. It was also going to be the longest, and we had arranged to be on the road at 7:30am to ensure we made all our planned stops. It was roughly a 5 hour drive to Las Vegas, where we had lunch booked at the Luxor, and along the way we were stopping in at a town along Route 66.
After the van was packed one last time, we were locked and loaded and on our way out of the Grand Canyon. We all exchanged photos in the car and played a hysterical game. We all had to write down a phrase (i.e., ‘A face only a mother could love’), and then pass it to the person beside us, who would have to draw it. They then passed it to the next person, who had to guess the phrase based on the drawing … and so on, until everyone in the car had had a go at each set of cards. This lead to some extremely funny drawings and guesses which deviated wildly from the original phrase (and was especially funny when there were devious Aussies in the car who wrote phrases like ‘Dryer than a nun’s nasty’, which then had to be drawn by a non-Aussie!) We also continued our licence plate game, trying to find licence plates from each state of the USA (we ended up being 7 short).
Several hours into the drive we arrived at our Route 66 stop. The town was a throwback to the 50s, full of kitsch souvenir shops and Route 66 displays. I loved it!! I scored a number of souvenirs and snapped a heap of photos, even snapping one with the King himself, Elvis.
Just before we entered Las Vegas, we drove ‘near’ the Hoover Dam. I say ‘near’ because commercial vehicles aren’t allowed to cross the bridge over the Dam, so we had to go on a nearby road. None of us were too fussed about not seeing it though, because we had finally made it to ‘Viva Las Vegas!’
Thanks to some leftover money in our food kitty, we were lunching at the Luxor buffet. Everyone was starving as it was 3pm, but surprisingly we didn’t end up eating much (the vegetarian options were particularly poor). As we ate, we all wrote farewell messages on plaques that Cassie had put together with our group photos, and Lucy and Tamsyn started getting upset at the thought of saying good-bye. We still had our party bus that evening though, and first we had to drop everyone off at their hotel.
I was staying at Alexis Park for the first night, as were Lucy, Tamsyn, Sharyn and Cassie, and due to the madness of Las Vegas traffic on the Strip it took us 2 hours before we arrived. Of course, my room was literally the furthest away from the lobby. I stole a bellman’s trolley to take all my crap up to my room (and when I say all my crap, I mean it – I had so many assorted piles of random things to sort through it was ridiculous!)
First order of call in the room was to call Mark and say good-bye, as he was heading to Afghanistan the next day. The internet connection was terrible at first, but it finally fixed up so I could have a proper conversation with him. I then jumped in the shower and started beautifying myself, intermittently checking Perez Hilton to catch up on all the gossip I’d missed whilst I’d been out bush.
At 8pm, I walked over to Tamsyn and Lucy’s room to collect them, and we then walked to the bar to meet Sharyn. As it was BYO alcohol on the party bus, I asked the bartender if he had any bottles I could take with me on the road (i.e. Cruisers, Breezers). He said he didn`t have anything like that, but he could mix-up anything I wanted to take with me. `I`m going out in public with them though – across the road and onto a bus` I said. `No problems! This is Las Vegas!` So out of the hotel and onto the public street I walked holding two plastic cups of vodka and coke. I kept thinking I was going to get pulled over by the police for drinking in public, but it really is legal here!
The group met at 8:30pm in front of the Hard Rock Hotel, which was adjacent to our hotel, and when we`d all assembled Cassie called for our party bus. When it pulled up, we were all dismayed – it looked like one of the local buses for the disabled. But once we walked inside – hello Playboy Mansion! It was blinged out like a limo, and even had ice bars for our drinks and poles for pole dancing! (I might have told the others that I was a bit keen on pole dancing …. )
For the next hour and a half, as the latest hits blasted through the stereo system and we drank, laughed, and danced, our party bus took us around the sights of Las Vegas. We had a couple of stops along the way – the first, at the `Welcome to Las Vegas` sign, and the second at the Fremont Experience downtown to watch the light show. Whilst downtown, Sharyn and I bought ourselves a drink each. For $12, it came in one of those massive flute like cups that you see college students drinking beer out of – we really fit in here with those! Paula and David emerged out of a casino with necklaces; whilst Lucy queued for food, coming out with deep fried oreos! (I tried one – they were delicious!)
Sadly at 10:30 our time on the bus came to an end, as did our time with Cassie. A group of us were still keen to continue though, and so we entered the Bellagio for some gambling and drinking (not Lucy and Tamsyn though – as they were only 18, they could only watch us!). Drinks are free in Las Vegas whilst gambling – you just need to tip the waitress. We must have been tipping badly as she didn`t want a bar of us (probably something to do with the fact that we were on 1c machines and barely gambling!)
We walked outside to see the magical performance by the Bellagio fountains, as seen in Oceans` Eleven, illuminated by the neon lights of the Strip. Lucy and Tamsyn headed back to the hotel whilst Sharyn and I got some food to line our stomachs – we hadn`t eaten since the brunch at the Luxor – although I`m not sure the mess we got really counted as food.
As the time ticked on to 1am (which isn`t late in Vegas, I know!), we decided to head back to our hotels, making sad good-byes to one another. I would be seeing Sharyn, Lucy and Tamsyn tomorrow though, and we had an early-ish start to make the most of our time tomorrow. I fell into my bed, in the first hotel room I`ve had by myself in 7 months, and was instantly asleep …. Bliss!
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