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Published: June 26th 2017
Despite our body clock being out of sync due to the 8 hour time difference with the UK, we both managed to rest up until 7am. On opening the slats of the vertical blinds, the Venetian Campanile was peeking over the top of a row of trees. Talk about f**k with your mind!! It took a few moments to realise where I was. After only one evening, I understand that that is what Vegas is. One big illusion on the grandest scale. No wonder only 20% of all US citizens have a passport. They can experience Paris, Venice and Rome in the middle of the Nevada desert!!
This day was distinctly split in to two. For the first half we wandered from Casino to Casino admiring the unique characteristics of each enterprise and for the second half of the day, we were booked on the Vegas Trike experience. This, we were both looking forward to but with a little trepidation and one or two nerves as neither of us have ever ridden a motor bike, three wheels or otherwise so the fear of the unknown was leaving us nervous in an excited sort of way!
So on to the
hotels/casinos. Some of the most well-known names are within ½ mile of the Casino Royale, namely The Bellagio, the Paris, Bally's but our first stop was Caesar's Palace, complete with its Roman landmarks. And now something I've always wanted to say but never been able to shoehorn it in to one of my blogs. The time, finally, is appropriate: '
A funny thing happened to us on the way to the forum!' I popped in to a gift store to buy some trinkets and in order to get change I handed to assistant $100 bill. As I did so I said:
‘Sorry I haven't got anything smaller' The assistant, a young male in his 30s replied, ‘
…but have you got any larger?' That's a strange comeback I thought. But to play along I just said, ‘
huh, I wish!' The souvenirs totalled $19.36. The assistant gave me 64 cents change and said, ‘
Have a nice day, now' I looked at my change and replied, ‘
Not on 64 cents I won't. I gave you a $100 bill'
‘Oh, I'm terribly sorry', apologised the assistant. ‘
So you did. My apologies I put the bill with the twenties!' ‘That's OK' (I was in a forgiving mood!)
‘It's easily done when all your notes are practically the same size, shape and colour!! Leaving the gift shop we crossed the Strip at the nearest junction. Las Vegas Boulevard is an eight lane freeway that runs north to south through the heart of the city. On crossing over I spotted a van with the initials MGV emblazoned on the side. This stood for Machine Guns Vegas. Above this in smaller font were the words ‘
Shoot machine guns today'. Despite me quoting the American Constitution that ‘A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed' Roisin refused to let me invoke the second amendment.
Just wait until Donald Trump becomes president, I thought!!!
Caesar's Palace This has to be one of the most prestigious casino hotels in the world and one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks. Approaching from the north, we were greeted by a replica of the Trevi fountain and adjacent to this, a multi-story building with a façade unlike Rome's forum complete with two tiers of seven Gods
from Roman mythology in front of which are six trumpet wielding angels atop twenty foot columns. This was all very impressive so it was a shame the owners had to spoil the illusion by naming the restaurant ‘Joe's'!!
Despite each hotel being uniquely decorated to meet the requirements of the theme, they all seem to follow the same formula: Wave upon wave of slot machines, rows and rows of black jack tables, legions of roulette wheels, not forgetting scores of crap tables (although to me they look just as nice as the other tables!!!) The successful formula would not be complete without a shopping mall within the confines of the hotel. We are not just talking a few stores but literally a small town. Caesar's Palace was no exception. Avenues lined with high street shops converge on a centre piece plaza. In the case of Caesar's Palace, the ceiling took the guise of sky interspersed with fluffy clouds. To add a little reality, the light changed intermittently to give the effect of day turning to dusk. The ceiling of the central plaza was designed in the likeness to Rome's Parthenon complete with hole in the centre!!
A visit
to Las Vegas wouldn't be complete without a little flutter. We were fortunate to stumble across some ‘retro' traditional penny ‘one armed bandit' slots we decided to try our luck. 1 penny later, we agreed luck wasn't with us so called it a day!! Most of the slots seem to be a minimum of $1 per play and you require a degree in astro physics to understand the rules. Whereas when I was growing up, the ‘slot' referred to where you put your penny, the ‘slot' now refers to where you swipe your credit card!!!
The Bellagio
Is only the 13
th largest hotel in the world with a paltry 3,950 rooms (10 less than Caesar's Palace.)
The Bellagio, apart from having a water feature to end all water features contains a conservatory and botanical gardens. I was informed that the theme of the gardens change with the season. Its current display did not seem to fit in to any season but was a celebration of the oceans which is slightly ironic as the nearest ocean is about 300 miles away!!
The Paris The clue was in the name. Take away the massive Eiffel tower rising up and
a somewhat smaller Arc de Triomphe alongside as well as a large hot air balloon paying homage to the Montgolfier Brothers no doubt, and this could be any hotel resort!! The Eiffel Tower is a half scale replica of the original. Tickets to the observation deck at the top of the tower cost $14. A quick check on google revealed that the cost to the top of the real Eiffel Tower is only €17.
It was only 1pm. Since we started our mini tour of these casinos, there has been a steady flow of punters but still a lot of empty tables. The larger hotel/casinos have to turnover $2m PER DAY just to break even. Someone's doing something right for these hotels to be thriving.
The temperature was now touching 100F (37C) and we still had our main event of the day to come.
We were picked up outside the Treasure Island Hotel, only several minutes' walk from the Casino Royale. There were two other passengers already in the mini bus. This turned out to be the total of our party – 4 plus our guide. We were driven for about 15 minutes towards the Orleans hotel
in the south west of the city. The driver, our guide introduced himself as Buck and advised us to listen carefully to the tuition as this could save our life. He then handed around a waiver form relinquishing the company from any liability should such an unfortunate accident occur. Standard procedure, I tried to reassure myself!!
We were fitted with our helmets and introduced to the bike with a short tutorial.
‘Brakes…throttle…ignition. Don't do this…Remember to do that…' it was a lot to take in. ‘Don't indicate, don't use your mirrors just follow my lead.' We then had to choose our trike, lock the brake, release the brake then start the ignition (twice) after which we were instructed to ride around the (empty) concourse in a figure of eight, five times!! I was last up and chose the black ‘mustang'!!! Whilst I passed the brake/ignition test with flying colours I'm not very good at making figure of eights to a trike I'd only just been introduced to!! Mine were more figure tens; a straight line then sort of a circle. Once our guide was happy that we all felt comfortable, he then did something I was not expecting. He
climbed in to his air-conditioned cab of the mini bus and drove off. Whilst we were left sweltering in the 104F heat, one by one we released the brake and twisted the handlebar controlled throttle. Luckily, these trikes were automatic so no need to worry about a clutch and gear changes. We followed in single file with yours truly binging up the rear. Rather than drive the lead trike, Buck spent the next 4 hours in relative comfort, pulling his trike along on a trailer whilst we played followed my leader!! He advised us that he would take it easy for the first part until we gained in confidence.
Our first stop was the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. We had only driven for ten minutes yet the water provided by our host was most welcome. That ten minute drive was quite pleasant. We had avoided Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip) and the traffic we had encountered on the adjacent freeways had given us the respect and wide berth we had hoped for.
At one point I looked down at the speedometer and noticed I was reaching the dizzy heights of 22mph!! This didn't last though. As time
progressed, my speed rose to 36mph along some stretches of road. The guide was very careful not to take us along the strip throughout our 4hour trip. This would have meant negotiating traffic lights every ½ mile and not only having to be conscious of the heavy traffic that is constantly flowing in both directions but many pedestrians tend to ignore the traffic controls and walk across the road anyway!! I looked down at my speedometer again but my glance was diverted by a flashing coming from the fuel gauge. This was flashing red. That didn't seem right. Red is not normally a good sign!! Luckily I didn't grind to a standstill and at our next stop I told a nonchalant Buck who took the bike for a refuel whilst we pottered around!!
Two highlights of this tour were the Counts Kustoms workshop and museum. This is a show currently on the history channel called Counting Cars whereby the workshop takes classic cars that look fit for the scrap yard and convert them in to something that, at times can only be described as works of art.
Our guide told us that during our excursion we will have
driven about 60 miles!! Downtown Las Vegas, at the north end of the Strip was as far as we went before driving along Fremont Street for the ½ hour drive back to the depot. Our last stop was at the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop as seen on TV's Pawn Stars. Rick and the gang do show up from time to time and Rick is always serving behind his bar next door on weekends. Today was Wednesday!! Chumley, the shows likeable buffoon, was due to make an appearance tomorrow at noon but one of the staff warned us that it can get quite busy.
Despite being split up from the rest of the group due to stray vehicle pulling in between the rest of the group and myself, the longer I was in the saddle the more confidence I gained. I did have a few scaring moments when I took a right turn too quickly and forgot to ease off the gas. I jammed my brakes on and as the trike screeched to a halt, swerving to narrowly miss the rear end of Roisin's trike I almost ended up doing a ‘doughnut' to the disapproval to the guide although
I did see a few bikers loitering on a corner nodding their approval witnessing the whole thing as if to say ‘
Respect!!' This excursion has so far been the highlight of our trip. 5 hours ago both Roisin and I were wondering if we had done the right thing. The quad bikes of the Namib Desert still fresh in our mind. It was well worth the money. I'm glad I did this rather than shoot machine guns on some firing range!!
One thing I did lean from my ‘trike' experience: Don't pick your nose and try to flick it whilst driving at 36mph!!! Not my rule. It's a law of physics!!
We were dropped off at the Treasure Island at 7:50pm. We were originally picked up at 3.20pm. Where did the time go?
Treasure Island is next door to the Mirage and at 8pm, they have an erupting volcano. We made our way down and settled on a decent vantage point. Many people around already had their iPhone and tablets pointing in the direction of the, currently dormant volcano in fervent anticipation. Then it started. Jungle drums intersperse with dramatic music. A rumble then smoke started
from the crater. Suddenly a loud crash and a spurt of flame rose, then another. The music was, by now working up in to a frenzy when…whoosh! The Volcano spewed forth hot lava. (to you and me it was probably coloured water but, nevertheless, it had the desired effect!!) Then suddenly without warning the music along with the spewing and whooshing came to an abrupt halt. Highly entertaining but they must do something about the ending!!
So tomorrow, should be a relaxing day. That's easier said than done. From what I've heard a relaxing day is just a myth in these parts!!
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MrsT
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Live to ride, ride to live dudes! Those trikes sound fantastic! MrsT