American Adventure 5 - The Great Plains..........They're Great!

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Day 12

We make an early start on the first real day of our long-distance road trip. Speaking to most Americans who are interested in our journey, they stare at us in disbelief at the distances we are willing to drive, & the 4-hour journeys we refer to as a ‘short jaunt’. However, at the moment we are taking Google Maps as our bible, & they’re telling us we have a bloody long way to go. At least we manage to make it out of Davenport easily - there is just nothing but corn, grain silos & red barns for miles, & miles, & miles……..does the corn ever end? Some might say no. We, on the other hand, know differently. The bright green, lush corn seems to be in such good health - it’s easy to see that the Iowa environment suits them perfectly. We head past Iowa City & Sioux City, turning off at Sioux Falls towards a landscape that is slowing becoming even flatter, if that’s at all possible. With this (slight) change of terrain, the very west of Iowa gives way to more obvious Great Plains. The corn has finally disappeared & we do our best to look for something, (anything at all) on these plains, but only spot a small herd of cows every half an hour or so. It’s a mystery we don’t have time to explore further - we had hoped to perhaps see buffalo or bison out here (perhaps our ignorance is showing), but the sheer scale of the United States soon becomes apparent. The Plains yawn on all afternoon, yet somehow I’m not bored yet - the great outdoors, the wide open space - I’m suddenly reminded how far we are from London right this very moment & it couldn’t be more different. Ahhhh……road trips, how I love them! And as the sun stretches towards the horizon, we finally make our way past an Indian Reservation & the Badlands National Park - things get a little more hilly & rocky, & there are loads of dark, ominous trees. Soon enough (although we can see it from several miles off) there is a town, a city - it’s Rapid City. We’ve made it - 12 hours, through most of Iowa & South Dakota, near the Wyoming state line. Our hotel upgrades our room for free to the Home Office Suite. I’m too busy doing the washing & Vaughan is too busy sleeping to notice how luxurious the room is. Knowing we have to do it all again tomorrow is a kind of secret torture I am looking forward to. I’m not so sure about Vaughan…….

Day 13

Bright & early we jump up, to venture out of our way for a couple of hours to see Mount Rushmore, the mountain with four of the greatest American Presidents engraved into it (I’m guessing we won’t be seeing George Bush Jr up there anytime soon!). The road up into the hills (Black Hills National Forest) is pretty, green & tree-lined, but the road is fairly small & winding, & it takes us a lot longer than we anticipate. Finally we make it there, only to see that parking is US$8 - $8?! So we turn around, stop on the side of the road & take photos for free - much better! We head straight down the hill, back towards Rapid City, very low in gas but doing just fine, thank you very much. Topping up in Rapid City & heading off west again, it’s time to hit Wyoming. Stopping for a while in Buffalo (mainly due to a McDonalds coffee that somehow takes 15 minutes to make) we were soon on our way again, as the Rocky Mountains come into view slowly before us. Stretching around 3 states wide & 4 states long, these mountains never really have a ‘peak’ as we know it, but extend their range for thousands of kilometers - towns up in the Rockies can be at incredibly high altitudes, but it is often barren & dry. We turn near the base of the Rockies & follow them south for some time, the land rising ever so slowly, & becoming more rocky & inconsistent as time goes by. We make it through Casper to the turn off at Cheyenne, heading west again towards Utah. Along the way the skies begin to darken until we are driving in a full-on lightning storm. It’s certainly very impressive to see a desert storm, but driving becomes very difficult for the (strangely brief) 5 minutes that it is actually raining, with golf ball-sized drops hitting the windshield. It is still easy to see where we are going (its not like the torrential rain we are used to), but the force of these giant drops make me wonder if the windshield might shatter at any moment. It only ttakes one drop to cover the glass from top to bottom - very bizarre! Soon enough the dark skies remain impressive, but the rain is gone, & the sun looks magnificent streaming through the gaps onto the grasslands, which were giving way to rocky hills more & more as time went by. It’s still another 5-hour drive from here until we make it to Salt Lake City but eventually the drive into the basin is amazing - surrounded by mountains you can see the Great Salt Lake, shimmering white with heat in the distance. Salt Lake City is quite a lot larger than anticipated & we get a bit lost on the way to the hotel, but not to worry - it all works out eventually & we arrive in time for the most beautiful sunset.

Day 14

Salt Lake City is HOT - although it seems like a very pretty place (desert, mountains, salt lake, real lake, etc), we can’t wait to get on the road. This is the day we will make it to……Las Vegas! Heading back out the way we had arrived the night before, we were eagerly anticipating a day of shorter travel, finally. However, of course we decide that dropping in at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon might be a fabulous idea, which means a detour of another 4 hours or so. What the heck - we’ve come this far - why not!? While I have been there before, I have only been to the South Rim, so this would be a new experience for me as well. Knowing it was well worth the while, I tried to keep Vaughan’s spirits up, which were starting to flag - it turns out he doesn’t like road trips as much as he thought, while I am enjoying myself just as much as when I first got in the car. No worries - it will all be worth it. And it was!

As the land stretched out before us, slowly becoming more desert-like by the minute as we head through Cedar City, we turn off into the Kaibab National Forest, where we gradually climb larger & larger hills, glide down serene valleys in between, & enter the Grand Canyon National Park. I had tried to get us accommodation here so that we wouldn’t have to drive so far out of our way, but alas, it was all booked out even months in advance. The North Rim is much more isolated & quiet, so there is very little accommodation to choose from. There weren’t too many people around (the car park was full & the place was busy, but it was still fairly sedate) so we get out of the car for a look, wandering down a small path which takes us on a 10 minute walk to Bright Angel Point - suddenly it’s vertigo city! Vaughan is clutching the handrail while smiling stiffly & nodding about how beautiful it is. I’m afraid of heights as it is, so I manage to busy myself with the camera to distract myself from the fact that I'm so close to the edge. Why did I come on this silly walk? Madness! Once Vaughan settles himself he can do nothing but admire the magnificent view. We spend some time looking around before heading back to the cafe there & getting some more cold drinks & something to eat. Although it’s so beautiful, we are still somewhat anxious to be on our way. It seems such a shame that we weren’t able to stay & enjoy the environment a lot more. Now for the long drag back, exactly the way we had come, to the main road heading south west. It’s just as pretty as the first time around, and now that we are only about an hour or two away from our destination, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal to travel all that way for the canyons.

Back on the interstate we head on the home stretch for Las Vegas as the sun goes down over the desert. It’s certainly like nothing else I’ve seen & we eagerly anticipate our arrival. We have travelled about 3000km in 3 days - easier said than done, but we are still in good shape as we come out of the mountains & down onto the desert floor that we have been able to see in the distance for sometime. Las Vegas & all it’s lights look so bright & pretty before us, in the middle of a big dustbowl of nothing. Driving in the city is strange after our last few days of country travel, & I feel a big dazzled by all the lights & lanes of traffic for the first time on our trip. Vaughan does a good job of navigating & we make it safely to our hotel, Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon (yes, I'm serious). Perfect - lets see what they have to offer. You want to upgrade our room to a suite for free? Sure, why not!? We cackle loudly as we open the door on a massive living room & bar area, quickly investigating the bedrooms & bathrooms (yes, more than one). It’s like an apartment. And we are here for a couple of nights - I’ve got no complaints. Las Vegas, bring it on……

Knowing that Vegas is 24-hour town, we immediately head out to see the sights. We are staying on the Strip, pretty much in the middle of it all. We walk out to see the Bellagio opposite just in time to see the water display go off to music - very nice. The Eiffel Tower is next to us as we wander down the strip, passing many tourist stores & fast food joints, as well as New York New York casino (complete with rooftop roller-coaster!) & MGM, on our way to see the Luxor (hotel shaped like a pyramid) & into Excalibur, a giant hotel & casino built like a castle. We get some free drinks there with the vouchers we have already managed to score, & then head off to MGM. I can tell Vaughan wants to play the table games, but the minimum to too high & he isn’t confident yet. But that will change, as he spends time watching the protocol of other peoples games. I find a slot machine to play on & Vaughan ends up on the one next to me after a while. My machine crashes on a big win & we wait half an hour for someone to work it out, but when the machine finishes totalling up, I have made enough money back to cover all I had spent for the night & then a little more - very nice. We head back to the hotel at 2am. Some people will be in that place (& all the others) all night. Some people will lose more than they have. It’s sad, but it’s easy to be thrilled by all the bright lights & carnival atmosphere. We are both already eagerly anticipating tomorrow……

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