28 SEPTEMBER - 1 OCTOBER: LAS VEGAS

Days 12-14:

Wow, what a place!! We weren't sure how long to stay here as we weren't going to be gambling and didn't think the rest would take too long. BUT ...two and a half days was just right.

We stayed in Tuscany Suites and if you're thinking of coming, we'd recommend it. It's just a short walk to the Strip for the fit and able, like us!

Las Vegas was developed and grew in the early 1930s to provide entertainment (casinos and showgirls)  for the men who were building the Hoover Dam. When the dam was finished in 1935, and the men left, the new facilities were then used to attract tourists.
Freemont Street, now dilapidated, was at the centre of the original development  and was the first paved street in Vegas, and the first to have traffic lights.

THE STRIP:
Las Vegas Boulevard is 'The Strip' where the wackiest, and tackiest, casinos and hotels are. Even today, the Strip is not 'incorporated', i.e. the businesses there pay no tax.
 Walking the Strip takes longer than you think but is well worth the effort to get a real feel of the place.

Caesar's Palace:
Outside:

Inside:

We ate at the 'Trevi Fountain'.....................................

The Venetian:
 Believe it or not, all these pictures of the Venetian were taken indoors in what is a vast up-scale shopping mall inside the hotel/casino complex.

This is a 'canal' you're looking at.....

,,,,and this is a gondola on the canal!

Remember, this is all inside.

'St Mark's Square in Venice', with shops on the ground floor.

The Paris:

Treasure Island:

The Mirage:

We missed the eruption....

.....but not the botanical hot-house.

Stratosphere:

You can be dull and boring and just go to the top to eat OR you can opt to swing  from the top on a chain  on the outside of the building. We actually saw people dangling!

The Flamingo:

Trump Tower:

After building this, Donald Trump was refused a licence  to open a casino in it.

Fountain Blue:

This building has been unfinished for several years due to the recession. All is not well in Vegas as you can read on this link.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19652918

Friday Evening:
We went to see the Bellagio Fountains.

Saturday Morning:
Steve bravely agreed to head to north Vegas to Walmart. On the way, and in the shop, we saw a side of Vegas not apparent from merely staying in or near the Strip.


Fans of the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovitch will recognise this.

We were amazed by the number of pawn shops there are and the sizeof the queues we saw outside them.

Freemont St was obviously still touting for wedding business.

Saturday Evening:
We spent a lovely evening with Mary and John Harren., who also brought along their friend John who lives permanently in Vegas.
Mary is Sue's Uncle Tom's eldest daughter, and left Shrygarrow, Co. Longford for the US over 50 years ago. (Mary recalled meeting Sue as a child in Ireland).  John, her husband, is a New Yorker whose parents were Irish. They live in San Bernadino but have a duplex just outside Vegas, where they spend the winter, and they had made a special 4 hour drive to meet us in Vegas.
We met at McCormick's and Schmick's just opposite Tuscany Suites.

Although we had never met before as adults, we had loads to talk about and the time just flew. Hopefully we will see each other again later on our trip when we will be near San Bernadino.

Sunday Evening:
Everyone had told us we should try to catch a show while we were in Vegas, and as luck would have it Rod Stewart was on at the Colosseum in Caesar's Palace.

 He still has the voice, but he was showing signs of getting physically tired.....but then he is 67! No 'Sailing', which surprised us, but definitely lots of the expected hits like 'Maggie May', 'Do You Think I'm Sexy?' and 'You Wear It Well'. Plus, bizzarely, 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'! and plenty of references to Celtic F.C.
As we took our seats we'd been given dire warnings about no pictures or videos but we , like just about everyone else there, braved the officious attendants and snapped away. (After all, Rod had told us we'd paid so could do what we liked to enjoy ourselves...as long as we didn't strip.)

 At time of writing we haven't yet been able to upload the video Steve took BUT it will appear at a later date.


AND FINALLY......
How could anyone have thought it a good idea to name these shops?

Las Vegas has a weird approach to sex. Vans trawl the streets offering 'Girls Direct within 20 minutes' yet removing any clothes by the pool has to take it to the extreme and be closed off...at a price, of course.

Cheap....but look at the time.

What on earth is 'BEER PONG'?? Any suggestions? Please send them to us.

What the 'well-dressed Las Vegan  is wearing this season.

AND what can anyone say about this one???

THE END OF THE BUS TRIP: ITS BEEN GOOD!

Day 12:


THE LAST DAY
Early start today: bags at 7.30, bus leaves at 8.30a.m.
Nippy start too, 56 degrees F.

Monkey-Fling Mesa:
As we drove along Paul, our driver, drew our attention to a strange sight.
If you look very closely at the picture below you can just make out 2 white objects at the top.

Apparently they mark the spot where in the 1970s, prior to the Saturn Space Programme, NASA carried out experiments into the use of crash helmets and parachutes by astronauts returning to earth after a space mission. Monkeys were thrown off the top into the valley,and locals nick- named this place Monkey-Fling Mesa.

When we first heard this we thought 'How ridiculous', but then we remembered that, unlike Soviet cosmonauts at that time who soft-landed onto the Russian Steppes, American astronauts, after re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, ejected from their space capsule and parachuted into the sea from where they were picked up by search-and-rescue teams.


Mesquite;
Last rest room stop of the tour AND a hot one! By the time we were getting off the bus it was 96F, a whopping increase of 40 degrees in about an hour.
We liked the guide-book description of Mesquite: ' A small accomodation-packed town full of gambling seniors (i.e. pensioners)'

Las Vegas:
The last 30 minutes of the tour was a slow progress down the Las Vegas Strip as Becky whetted our appetite for what lay ahead for us that weekend.


SEEING IS BELIEVING: BUS TOUR:
Some of the images in the last week that made us laugh....or think.

The Ponderosa tree........

......sniff it and it smells of butterscotch.

How did these Amish get to Sedona?

Perhaps??

Crash helmets not compulsory in US.

Burgers as brain food?

In view of American portion sizes, 'limited' is relative.

How about these 2 on your Christmas tree?

'Ports of Entry': HGVs have to drive over a weighbridge as they cross state boundaries so they can't exploit varying fuel taxes in different states. 

And........definitely lost in translation:

'Soliciting' in English means the same as.....

......'Ho' in American.

Thank you and Goodbye!!
It's been one hell of a week! We've enjoyed every minute, and can't believe it's all over so quickly.
It's been a pleasure to be with such friendly people and to get to know some of them. Particular thanks and good wishes for the future go to:

• Billie and Debbie
• John and Claudia
• Kent and Kestina
• Ann and Barney
• Frank and Brenda.

AND of course.....
Paul, our driver.....

......and Becky, our tour guide.

We're in the US until the 28th October and the blog continues!