I fit in a quick 30 minute detour to see at least a small glimpse of Zion's National Park.
It does flatten right out though leaving Utah.. and I felt like I was in the movie 'Swingers'
If you know the movie, you might enjoy these links:
Movie1
Movie2
I could only fit in one day in Vegas, but my flight was at 2am so I really did have a full 24 hours to work with.
I planned EVERYTHING that day, wow I was organised. I knew what attractions I wanted to see and to see it all required precise planning of everything including how long the transport takes to get from A to B and so on. It all paid off, I even ended up with a small amount of time spare. I think maybe I made some time up when I drove out to Hoover Dam, Maybe.. :)
The first night I was there I decided to have a taste of gambling. I sat at a $25 table with $75 (All the cash I had in my hand at the time). This isnt exactly enough to really get going at a blackjack table, only enough for three hands! Amazingly I ended up taking $700 out! I upped my bets when I got blackjacks or strong hands, I dropped them when I was getting garbage. I started to hover around $700 up, and could hear that song: "You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away and know when to run.." I decided it would be smart to stand up at this point, but boy was I happy with a return of 1000% !
Feeling content to have gotten any gambling out of the way, I did a bit of wandering around and taking in some of Vegas by night. Vegas is very tourist based, and you can tell that most people on the strip are there for a short stay and to have fun. One of the first things you notice wandering around Vegas is the dudes / dudettes who are trying to sell hookers.. They have these flyers they try to hand you, but they have a way about doing that that is hilarious.. In an attempt to either draw attention to themselves (and its hard to miss them walking down the footpath - they're everywhere) or perhaps a way to entertain themselves doing their mundane job, they smack one flyer down on the pile twice before extending it out to you.. This may not sound unbeleivably interesting but I guess, its one of those things "you had to be there". I'll definitely do my impersonation for you next time if you want.. or just ask Dan :)
First stop the next morning was the Star Trek Experience ride at the Vegas Hilton. I was told to do this and it definitely is something to see. The casino area is a great mimic of the set of Deep Space Nine or more accurately Quark's bar. There are two different rides (Kilngon & Borg) that are a mix of running through sets and sit in rides. The best bit was the 'transporter effect' at the start of the Kilngon ride. This ride started with us all forming into five rows of people, and luckily I was at the start of one of these rows. In front of me was a star trek style door and when the action began the lights went out and communications and alarms began to create the scene. My eyes were open when in an instant I felt a rush of air and I was in another place! This was very cool..
After having a look at some of the major casinos I headed back to my hotel to head out to Hoover Dam. This was a last minute addition to the plans, but worth the couple of hours it tooks to get out there have a look and come back. The drive was about 30-45 minutes, and you have to pass through a police checkpoint as cars can drive across the dam itself. It wasnt surprising to have to pass through a police checkpoint as this dam provides power for most of western USA! No doubt a good target for terrorism. The dam is very impressive.. just have a look at the photos :)
When I got back it was time for the Stratosphere tower. The tower has four thrill rides at the very top. I was really keen to get up there and see these! I ended up only going on three of them. The rollercoaster goes around the top of the tower, so there is no real looping or anything like that.. just a rollercoaster that makes you hope every last bolt was tightened properly !! Another ride is made of a car on a stationary rail that can pivot like a see-saw that is around 20 metres long, only it extends out over the edge of the tower. It angles downwards and you roll to the end of it a couple of times.. This was bloody terrifying especially as there didnt seem to be too much apart from the thin blade on the top of the rail to bring the car to a stop, obviously being gripped by pads contained on the car. Sitting at the front of this ride made it soo much scarier.. and there was hardly anything around me except the seat I was in and the floor of the car! Nuts!
By far the best ride though was the "Big Shot" which is at the very top of the tower. This ride is a square construction that has 4 seats a side, and shoots you straight upward causing you to undergo +4Gs on the way to the top and negative Gs on the way down. Being at this ride at 8pm at night gave a great view of Vegas at nighttime. I picked a seat which would overlook the strip :) The whole ride is outdoors on top of a small concrete platform, not much bigger than the ride itself. You barely have anything else in front of you when sitting in the ride other than the view of vegas. The feeling this view creates combined with the feeling of being shot up in the air is mind blowing, I cannot even describe it, suffice to say that everyone on the strip would have heard me yell: "Ohhh F************************************" It was so good, I went again.. and was even more pumped up beforehand because its so thrilling !!
The last thing I did with my day was see the stage show "Jubilee" which is one of the oldest running Vegas shows. It was pretty good, but not fantastic. It doesnt compare at all to the ones at Moulin Rouge.. but then, neither did the price tag!
As it came time to get the hell out of there, I realised I hadnt really thought about how long it would take to get to the airport. Lucky me though, Vegas happens to have an airport right next to the strip! This was awesome because I only left 2 hours to get to my flight, including driving to the airport, paying for the hire car, and checking in. It took about 2 seconds to get to the airport so that worked out really well.
Vegas summary:
Countries visited since leaving Australia: Still 2??
Days there: 1
Coolest Thing: Winning (Dans') money, the stratosphere tower rides, free beers when your gambling at a table, driving to Vegas
Worst thing: My hotel room.
Weirdest thing: Definitely the hooker dudes, and the paper flyers they have everywhere (even stuck in chicken wire fences all around the place.)
Best beer: Didnt drink much when I was here - but I put away a few Heiny's at the tables.
Next Destination: Lihue, Kauaii, Hawaii.
Most Eye-catching thing: A Walmart distirbution center on the side of the highway with 500 thousand semis in the carpark.
Sorry to everyone that think I am in Vegas, I am actually back in London now. My blog is still behind .. Ive got Hawaii, France, London Part 2, New York and Norway to go !!
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