Saturday May 21st

After a quality (read sarcasm) night’s sleep in the van, we were awake less than six hours later. Everyone straggled out of bed looking like zombies, making their way to the bathrooms. Fortunately, these showers were quality – good pressure and hot water – so we revelled in the luxury!
Breakfast was next, but no one was in a hurry to pack-up. For starters, we didn’t have a plan for the day. Our itinerary had been thrown into disarray after our sudden stop, and Cassie had to work out with the office where our next stop would be, taking into consideration things like how many hours she was legally allowed to drive. As such, everyone hung around the camp, doing their laundry, writing in their diaries, or enjoying the sun. After learning that Lucy also loved High School Musical, we started doing karaoke and acting out the scenes from the movies. This lead to a little girl, who lived in a RV nearby, coming over to me. “I heard you singing”, she said. “I love High School Musical too!” Lucy, the little girl and I all had a sing along, of which I think there is photographic and possibly video evidence – at least we entertained the residents!


At 11am we were back in van #2, which we were christening ‘Officer Petty’, who had now taken on legend status within the group. Our first stop was to pick-up a new windscreen wiper blade, but as we started on the road, the van wouldn’t go more than 20mph. Cassie told us how the van hadn’t start last night when she was at the Ford dealership. Uh oh ….


We made lunch in the Denny’s carpark (yes, the same Denny’s as the night before), whilst Cassie made a few more phone calls to get us a new van. It was then that she revealed this was actually her first tour as a leader … and what a great one it was! (We all tried to tell her it wasn’t her fault, and these mishaps were actually adding to the experience!) Looking at another long wait, she managed to get us into the pool at the nearby America’s Best Value Inn, keeping us cool and out of the soaring heat.

At 4pm, the new van (#3!) had arrived, so we attempted to leave Bakersfield again. Now our plans to visit Cathedral Gorge had been completely wiped, the new plan was to get to Las Vegas about 400km away, where we were being treated to motel rooms!


After a few hours in the van, we stopped off at a random park to have dinner, and then a second pit-stop for gas and snacks at the world’s largest thermometer. We were now officially in Nevada, and the change was dramatic. There were casinos everywhere, with bright lights and themed hotels, and we weren’t even in Las Vegas yet! Lucy had purchased some fun stickers to decorate the van with -> including stickers with phrase like, “Hello, I’m Easy” and “Hello, I’m Desperate” (that was mine!)

It was close on 10pmm when we finally rolled into Las Vegas, and what a spectacular to behold! ‘The Strip’ is amazing, and a lot wider than I expected. We were all so excited as we passed each of the famous hotels – Luxor with its pyramids; the MGM Grand; the Stratosphere etc. The billboards had us just as excited as well - $28.95 for accommodation and buffet? The Blue Man Show, Human Nature, Cirque de Soleil?

We were staying in a cheap hotel (the Best Western) off the strip. None of us were keen to go out, given our lack of sleep and long days – plus we’d be back in a week! (If we had of arrived earlier, Glee’s debut concert of their summer tour had kicked off that night, whilst tomorrow night was the Billboard Music Awards!

We were each handed our hotel keys – I was rooming with Sharon – and headed to the rooms. The rooms were soooo huge – we actually had our own room with a double bed each. I was so exhausted though – after ringing to get the internet code (to watch the Crows match), I took out my contacts for the first time on this trip and fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow!