Hi everyone,

Have arrived in a very very hot Las Vegas, 107F.

We left Kingman yesterday and took route 66 west.  The guy at the info centre said the road is very twisty/quite high up and narrow in parts.  Heck we come from NZ, we are used to NZ roads, we can do this.    It was exactly as he said and I must admit I was a tad wary at times.  The landscape was very rugged, we even saw wild deer on the roadside.  I did also notice two different types of vegetation.  A palm type tree I’ve not seen before. Then there was this scrubby bush that looked like it had fuzzy green cotton wool on it.

We arrived at the town of Oatman just as the ‘cowboys’ were staging their shoot out and were waved through – we drove through surrounded by the wandering donkeys – so cute.  But when we parked and walked back to the ‘show’ cute turned to a tad stinky with donkey poo on the streets.  However we watched the shoot out, patted the donkeys and wandered around this small town – another which is trying to survive after being bypassed when the freeway went in.

Next town on the route was Bullhead right down by the Colorado river – this was a rather a nice town, but no specific centre,  instead it stretched out along the river and kind of joined up with Laughlin which has casinos on the other side of the river – the Nevada side.  One casino was built in the style of a paddle steamer – it was huge.  I liked both these towns. 

Instead of driving straight to Vegas we headed up through the Hoover Dam.  This was the third time I have been to the Dam.  When we were here four years ago the new bridge was not quite complete.  It is now.  It was very busy. You drive over the bridge and then park.  You can walk over the dam – the water was quite low – but again the engineering really is impressive.  There is also a museum (surprise!) and food/tourist shop (surprise!) built into the rock face. 

Then it was on to Vegas.

Oh boy is it hot…

We found parking in the self-parking and had to walk into the casino from the back – just about melted before we got inside.  Check in – well…unfortunately not impressed. We waited and waited... the queue very long and after we arrived it got worse – felt sorry for those behind us.  We were surprised at the inefficiency of this because for the most part we’ve found America to be very efficient.  Not all the desks were open, and then when one closed a desk, it stayed closed, we would have thought someone would have stepped into the wings and kept it open to keep processing the waiting guests.  Oh well.

Anyway, we’re in our room in the Luxor – the hotel like a pyramid. Unfortunately only a view of the building next door.  The lobby is huge – about 4 x football fields, and there are 4400 rooms in the hotel.  Huge huge huge.  Hard to find your way around when it’s that big

We waited until about 8 pm to go out and walk around –thought it would be cooler – not.  Apparently it doesn’t get cooler until about 2pm!  The streets (like last time we were here) were so busy – people walking everywhere.  One thing I noticed is that the pimps were here, but not as prolific as when we visited last time.  They still proffer there little postcards of women to rent –lovely!  Last time those cards littered the pavement.  Didn’t see that so much this time. 

Another thing I noticed was that Americans seem to bring their family to Vegas – I mean children.  While I get it for the spectacular of the buildings – it’s like some sort of fantasyland, I kind of wonder about having them around the sleaze and seeing the gambling up front and personal. 

Oh… another thing – we got ‘accosted’ a we entered – even before we had registered and we got 4 tickets for the Bee Gees show and a free breakfast – for $50.00.  I would in some ways beware of these hotel ‘offers’ .  They take you by surprise and it’s hard to get out of and you’ve just arrived and really don’t know what is a deal or not.

Anyway, we’re here, and my cousins are arriving from Sacramento today.

See you back here tomorrow.

Jane and Neil

  ps - more photos of vegas to come