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Published: October 19th 2008
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California road trip part 2
We left the campsite at Sunset Crater and headed off on the long drive through Arizona to Nevada. By mid afternoon, we reached the famous Hoover Dam which holds back the Colorado river and provides energy and water for most of Southern Nevada as well as creating a huge lake for fishing and boating. We crossed the dam and parked on the Arizona side. We walked along the top of the dam and admired the views over both sides as well as the new bridge that is under construction to divert the traffic away from the dam. We left the dam and headed to one of the campsites on the shore of Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the dam. The campsite was busy with weekend revellers from Las Vegas which is where we were headed next.
The drive from the camp wasn't long and we were soon driving up the strip with all it's famous hotels. We had booked to stay at Circus Circus for three nights which was costing us less than some of the hostels we had been in. We checked in at the huge reception and headed off to our twin
bed en suite room, a real luxury after our week of camping. We went for a look around the hotel which had it's own indoor theme park as well as live circus acts in the big top above the main casino floor. We tried our luck on the slot machines but weren't too worried about losing as we had been given some free credit as part of our hotel package. Another perk was a two for one buffet voucher which we made the most of and had to go for a lie down after filling up on the huge variety of food that was on offer. Later on we walked down the strip to see the hotels at night time with all the neon lights ablaze. We watched an outdoor pirate show at Treasure Island and went inside to see the Grand Canal in the Ventian hotel. Although it was 10:30 in the evening, it looked and felt like the middle of the day as we watched the gondeliers pushing their boats along the fake canal which is actually on the second floor.
The next morning we took advantage of the free lessons on how to play Blackjack, Roulette and
Craps which were given by the hotel. The guy giving the lessons was funny and explained everything well but we still have no idea how craps works except that you can lose a lot of money very easily. In the afternoon we went to see more of the famous hotels including New York New York, and Paris with their scale models of the cities' landmarks as well as the huge rooms full of slot machines and gaming tables. At The Flamingo we saw an Indian Elvis singing "Viva Las Vegas." It really is a crazy town. Our last day in Vegas was much the same as the others except at night we headed to the Stratosphere hotel which has a huge tower looking over the city and at the top there are three thrill rides which provide amazing views of the illuminated city as they spin you round, dangle you over the edge and rocket you skywards. Richard was stupid enough to go on them but Steph sensibly prefered to stay on the viewing platform and take pictures.
We left the craziness of Vegas behind and headed over the hills and down into Death Valley which boasts the hottest recorded
temperature on earth. When we arrived at the visitor centre which is actually below sea level, it was a scorching 110 degrees Fahrenheit or 43 C. At the campsite we made sure we pitched the tent in some of the small amount of available shade. At night it was still really warm and millions of stars shone in the clear sky. There were no showers at the site due to the lack of water but we were able to make our own by cutting holes in the lid of a gallon bottle of water which we left out in the sun for a little while to warm up. We spent the morning driving through the valley stopping at some of the curious attractions such as artists pallate where mineral deposits created a multicoloured effect on the hillside. It was good to head out of the valley over the hills where it finally started to cool down a little. At that point, we were unaware just how much cooler it was going to get....
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Robin
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Trunk Alert!
The Sahara Foyer looks spookily like the Garrison now it's all been done up!!......Unc