40th: Day Fourteen - Downtown Las Vegas

The Legends show last night reminded me of the cruise shows we saw last year. It was OK, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you get keen price.  The guitarist was particularly good (and cute) and the Aretha Franklin impersonator had a very powerful voice.

This morning we lazed by the pool for a while and I went to the gym for a short workout, but it was too warm for such things. So we sat and drank smoothies watching the extremely cute pool boys. We then made our way to Downtown Las Vegas - the old Vegas that we all know from films.


It's a couple of miles from the modern "strip" and in the daylight, it looks a little sad.  The main road is Fremont Street and is about 4 blocks long and features the Golden Nugget and other casinos that were the place to be in the 1950's and 1960's.  The hotels and casinos now look like they need a really good makeover.  However, to invigorate the area, they have covered the whole street with an LCD screen that can be used for amazing animations.

After a few $1 drinks (which is a fine way to sell beer and cocktails) we got a bus to the outlet mall.  A couple of hours later we returned to Fremont Street to see the regular light show.  It was truly fantastic to see and hear.  I would recommend that everyone who visits Las Vegas makes a special trip to Fremont Street in the evening.

40th: Day Thirteen - Las Vegas

It's been another oppressively hot day in Las Vegas.  We decided to explore the casinos and shopping centres today.  The strip is about 2 miles long and we went from hotel to hotel for hours and hours.  There is so much to see.

I was very impressed with both New York New York and the MGM Grand.  New York New York is a massive hotel built to look like the city skyline, complete with Empire State building and statue of liberty.  It also has a roller coaster going round the buildings.  MGM is just huge and has lions brought in each day from a ranch (lions on rotation that is).  Whereas some of the casinos look a little like English seaside amusement halls but on a much larger scale, these 2 look classy.

The pyramid at the Luxor is impressive, but not too practical I think.  We walked to the end of the strip but it was far too hot to go looking for the old "welcome to Las Vegas" sign.

Tonight we are seeing show - it's the "Legends" show featuring music by famous artists.  Looks fine to me, I will let you know what I think.  We had considered seeing the Beatles Love show, but it's not running for a few nights.  The shows are not cheap here, I assume that big profits are being made from the shows.

The desert still seems like a crazy place to build a resort. Tomorrow we intend going to old Las Vegas with the iconic images of the tall waving cowboy etc.  I am trying to talk Pete into getting a small tattoo, but he keeps pretending not to hear me.

40th: Day Twelve - The road to Las Vegas

We left early while it was cooler (80 degrees is cool these days) on the 220 mile trip from Williams to Las Vegas.  The road was pretty clear across the desert.  We had a good breakfast and made the Hoover Dam by about 1pm. 

Ever since I saw a docu-drama on the building of the Hoover dam, it has fascinated me.  So to see this huge structure in real life was a treat.  It wasn't exactly as I expected, sitting in a narrow valley with lots of electric pylons and supporting buildings and structures all around.  But it was still fantastic to see this damn fine dam.

The road across the dam will soon be supplemented by a new bridge, but at present is 15 mph one lane each way, so the traffic jams can be horrendous.  We walked across the dam some incredible heat and I am sure I have never felt me uncomfortable in my life due to the sun and the hot air I was breathing.  I know one of my brothers would have been crying as he suffers from a fear of heights.  It's a massive massive piece of concrete.

We then made it to the Trump International in Las Vegas.  This 64 story gold hotel is pure luxury at the end of the strip.  It lacks a casino and lots of bars and restaurants, so is not your typical Las Vegas hotel.  The room on the 58th floor is pretty huge and I particularly like the TV in the bathroom mirror, but we wont be renting a $400 cabana at the pool tomorrow.  We had a walk down the strip (as we had to drop off the Mustang) but the temperature was 117 degrees and it made moving around a sweaty ordeal.  The aircon in the casinos, shopping centres and hotels is welcome.

Pete won $60 for a $1 bet on a poker machine so is happy and this happiness was completed by finding a Cher shop in Caesars Palace.  Anyone who may have wondered if Pete was gay would have had it confirmed at this point.

I just took this night time shot from our bedroom window on the highest floor I have ever been on.

40th: Day Eleven - The Grand Canyon

Both Pete and I slept badly, so we decided to leave the hotel in Williams at 7am to get to the Grand Canyon national park.  We left the tree lines roads behind us quite quickly and the landscape became very flat just a few miles out of town.  However, the thick forests returned as we entered the national park around 8am.

There are buses available to take visitors along the south rim of the canyon but we decided to rent bikes as the hills were "gentle inclines".  We soon found that was a slight exaggeration in the literature.  In addition, the altitude of around 7000 feet and thin air made the hills very difficult and the growing heat (it reached around 95 today) didn't help.  As I type this, I was just listening to the weather forecast at 10.20pm and it's still 75 degrees here and 100 degrees somewhere else in the state!

However, it was worth all of the pain.  There are no words that can really describe seeing the Grand Canyon and saying that it's big doesn't come close to the awe of seeing it.  We spent a good few hours just looking and using such description sentences as "wow".  You can just about see the Colorado river a mile below and the rapids.  One strange thing we saw were the Rooks that were climbing high in the sky and then closing their wings and diving into the canyon.  Base jumping for birds!

Tonight we had a steak meal and I stroked a real wolf that is a pet of a guy who walks up and down Main Street in Williams.  We drove up the mountain for a few minutes to see the stars in all their glory without any light interruption where we saw a group of Elks and a Skunk.

Tomorrow we start the final driving leg of 220 miles to the Hoover Dam and then Las Vegas!

40th: Day Ten - Williams

The sunset over the Colorado river last night in Needles was impressive. Needles has very little see, but we did have a great meal at a local restaurant. I think that everything came with beans.

This morning, I began the day with a swim in the pool and then we started on the journey to Williams across the border in Arizona. The 179 mile journey continued across the desert and we went mile after mile without seeing a single building or sign of life (it was still very hot).  After about 50 miles for some reason, a few signs promoted land for sale. Now let me get this right, there is no water for plants or people, no power or telephone and it can reach 120 degrees in the summer - why would I want to buy a few acres?

On route we saw a couple of small tornadoes which were impressive. We passed one town called Kingman that was quite large with some factories and quarries, in the middle of the desert. A strange place to live I'm sure.

We stopped in a small town called Seligman and had lunch in the fantastically named Roadkill cafe.  I had no roadkill for my lunch, but did have the largest lemonade ever served.

Without quite realising, we had been driving up hill for dozens of miles and very slowly the terrain changed from burned desert to forest as we exceed 5000 feet.  We rode into Williams on Route 66 and reached a height of over 7000 feet just as we got here. Williams is a lovely little town with a touristy feel based around the old west. There are plenty of shops, bars and restaurants. There is a restored train line from Williams to Grand Canyon village, but the price was crazy, so tomorrow I will be driving the 70 miles to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

We drove up the mountain a little but couldn't get to the ski resort, but you can see forests for miles and the air is very clear, despite the temperature still exceeding 80 degrees.

This evening, we walked into the main town from the hotel (about 1.5 miles) and had a huge meal. The amount of food that is piled on plates is obscene. On the way back, we could see the stars so clearly. At home, the light pollution is so bad, you see a few stars, but here it's the full blanker, if not the duvet.

Five on the fifth #12

Welcome to 5 on the fifth, a monthly posting that benefits from audience participation. You take 5 photographs on the 5th of the month (or the days leading up to the 5th) - post a comment here with your name, location and link to the site containing your photos and I will update the blog entry with your information. Remember to mention my blog on your own blog, so that your visitors get to see the other contributions. You can take 5 random pictures or follow my suggested theme - this month it is: Looking Up.

You can join the 5 on the fifth Facebook page here.

My own pictures are below the links of those who kindly contributed:

Howard, USA
New Leaf, USA

Siddeshwar,India

Daniel, Sweden

Mrs Urs

Jason
Bryn, London
My Time, Dublin
Pete, In USA with me
Al, Philippines
Mark, USA
Torchy, UK
I am witness
Andrew, UK
James, UK

40th: Day Nine - The road to Needles

Started the journey of 280 miles around 9am but decided not to go up to Griffith Observatory due to the mist in Los Angeles. So we set out on our way and stopped after an hour at the Ontario Mills outlet centre as planned. This shopping centre is absolutely massive. we had intended spending an hour there and ended up staying 3 and a half hours!

Pete was looking for clothes and I was looking for a few bits too. We were only partially successful. It seems that the Abacrombie and Fitch clothes are designed for thin lanky teenagers, so we both struggled. Got a few things in Timberland (many bargains!), Hollister and Gap. It's strange, but the Banana Republic outlet clothes were awful and I think my Dad would have liked it.

The road to Needles turned to the mountainous Mojave desert quick quickly. It got hotter and hotter and temperature soon hit the late 90's. Despite that, we could still see snow on the mountains. After a refueling stop in Barstow, we set out across the desert and apart from a few houses at the start, we saw no human life for about 50 miles until we reached Ludlow. This used to be a tiny vibrant place serving Route 66 (see picture), but when the new highway was built alongside, the town was killed and only 23 people now live there. We had a drink and some cake at the diner (the other 2 businesses were a motel and gas station).

We arrived in Needles at 6.06pm and the temperature was 105 degrees which is 40.5 Celsius. Remember it's the 3rd of June, so this place must be frying in higher summer. As I type, I've just had the first swim of the holiday. When we booked in, the receptionist asked "two queens?". She meant the beds of course.

Will explore this run down town for a while tonight. The town grew up around the Colorado river, the only water for dozens of miles and the railroad of course.

40th: Day Eight - Los Angeles

It's been a long exhausting day (again), this time travelling around Los Angeles. We started the day with breakfast at the hotel next to a film unit right next to us. It looked like a comedy programme to me.

We took the metro to Downtown L.A. and had a look around the area that went from interesting to worrying. There were dozens of homeless people along Broadway and it didn't feel safe at all. To be honest, Downtown was a dump!

We got a bus to Santa Monica which took over an hour, despite clear roads. It shows how big the city is. By the way, we saw a massive advert for Dr Who along the road to Santa Monica. We walked from the pier along to Venice beach. It's been a really hot day and it was great to see Venice beach which is pretty cool. Saw another film crew, this time filming a dog barking - I have no idea why. Main Street in Santa Monica is worth a visit too.

Universal Studios had been busy overnight to advertise the King Kong ride that is due to open next month by putting huge footprints across the beach at Santa Monica!

After a spot of lunch and a beer, we got another bus to Beverley Hills and walked up Rodeo Drive. It's just a little exclusive - one shop even had "by appointment only" on the door.

Another bus ride and we got off for a beer in a gay bar on Santa Monica Boulevard. We don't even go to gay bars in London, so this was unusual, but lots of fun.

We ended the day with dinner on Sunset Boulevard.

A few closing comments... the "better" areas of the city are great, but I don't feel safe in general. There are so many people who obviously have mental problems and for the richest country in the world to have so many homeless people is worrying. I thought London was bad, but L.A. is far worse and the begging has been pretty aggressive at times. However, in general the people we've met have been really friendly and helpful, despite thinking we were from Australia!

40th: Day Seven - Universal and Sunset

Last night we had a quick Mexican meal and then went to a comedy night in the basement of the hotel. The evening was to feature some top professional comedians and they were very very funny in the main. The problem was that the bar had about 7 people in it! So Pete and I were "picked on" as the English guys throughout. A great evening.

Today we went to Universal Studios theme park and the rides are as good as we had expected, especially The Simpsons ride that was motion and animation in one - and made me feel a bit sick. The theme park is built on top of a hill and includes a tour of the actual functioning studios down at the bottom of the hill. Pete was very excited to see the set of Desperate Housewives. The park was great fun and we managed to go on every ride at least once and see a few shows. The view from the top across the valley made up for the rough location of the hotel. Perhaps this city is worth exploring yet.


This evening we got a bus to Sunset Boulevard and we saw the film premier of something probably awful starring Ashton Kucher. We only saw Tom Selleck and Macy Gray arrive.

We walked along Sunset for a while and had a beer in a cool bar before having some dinner. We were served by a cliche - an actress from Manchester, working as a waitress hoping to make it big in Hollywood.

It's really strange, but America seems to be full of people who look rough and walk along the streets talking to themselves and I am not talking about mobile phones. What's this mental problem all about?

40th: Day Six - The road to L.A.

We started the very hot day by driving across some stunningly beautiful valleys with hills and mountains surrounding us. We had a break in a small town called Los Olivos that had lots of winery offices and shops. It wasn't until we looked it up in the guidebook, that we realised that Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch was just outside of town.

We then went to a vineyard and Pete tasted 7 very expensive wines. On leaving to head cross country toward Santa Barbara, the car lost power up the steep hills and a warning light came on. The car had only 400 miles on the clock! So I nursed it to Santa Barbara airport where there was a Hertz office. The staff there were great and they asked few questions before offering me a Toyota. I really didn't want a Toyota and the assistant noticed that we should have a convertible and so he gave us the only one he had - a gold Mustang! OK, it has some bling, but it makes a fantastic throaty roar when you accelerate.

We eventually made it to the hotel in Los Angeles. Despite being tagged as close to Universal Studios and it being quite nice, it's actually in a really awful looking area. First views of this huge city were not great, but we all know from TV that the city has a lot to offer and not everywhere looks and feels rough.

We have made a quick trip to Hollywood Boulevard, which was not as interesting as I thought it would be. But tomorrow we have a day at the theme park!