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Published: November 27th 2012
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Vegas
Ben trying his luck with $5...that's all he was allowed. Well, where to start!!!!! Again, we've left it nearly two weeks since the last blog so it's down to me to jog memory, Shelly is sat downloading pictures.
I won't add much to the slating of Vegas Shelly gave in our last blog apart from saying it is probably because of the magnificence of Canada and the West coast that spoilt us and left us ill prepared for the brash, bright in-your-face Vegas but it was an experience and the scale and grandeur of the hotels was amazing!
We left Vegas on Thursday 15th November slightly overwhelmed and deffinately ready to hit the road, almost immediately we got a glimpse of Lake Mead which was quite strange, a huge lake in the middle of the desert but very pretty. We drove over the Hoover Dam which we couldn't see much of as the crash barriers where six feet high. I wish we'd have stopped for a look but i suppose we were still high-tailing it outta Vegas and wanted to get driving. We wound our way through the Black mountains and southeast on the Interstate 40(the new Route 66) heading for Flagstaff and a date with the Grand Canyon.
Vegas
Bright lights! We came off the I40 a couple of times to see the old 'Historic Route 66' one of these being to drive through William where we stopped and had a walk up the high street. It was quite a nice little town which had a Frontier Town feel but we couldn't help feeling it was just clinging on for dear life to the Route 66 thing as every other shop was a memorabilia shop selling everthing from Route 66 ashtrays to cowboy boots. We stopped at a little Mexican cafe and asked for some Chilli and rice but ended up with some decidedly chewy pork in a hot green chilli sauce, Shelly wasn't too impressed, i ate all of mine....oink.
We got to Flagstaff just after dark and found and found a little roadside motel, cheap and cheerful. We booked a hilicopter flight for the Canyon had an early night. We were up and away at 8 to Tusayan, a small village on the edge of the canyon where the airport was and by 10.15 we were briefed and sat in the chopper ready to go. We flew low over the biggest Ponda Rosa Pine Forrest in the world
Vegas
The fountain at the Bellagio. It 'danced' to 'This Kiss'! at 1.5 million acres for about 5 minutes then BOOM we where a mile high over the Grand Canyon!!!!! wow....it was incredible. The colours and sheer size was mindblowing. We flew down into the Canyon and right around the South Rim and through the Dragon's Corridor for half and hour before heading back to the airport, what an experience! We left the airport and headed into the Grand Canyon National Park ($25) and explored the 30 or so miles of roads and viewpoints along the south rim before heading away back to the I40 and further east.
We travelled on through Arizona and into New Mexico where the barron desert landscape was endless. Apart from the odd Eagle soaring high on a thermal there wasn't much to see. We drove on into Navajo country/reserve where there were alot of roadside stalls selling Native Indian handicrafts, rugs, carvings etc and decided to stop in a place called Gallup. It was getting dark and we chose a motel across from an old 1930's hotel where we were going to eat. Its safe to say it was the roughest motel we've stayed in so far, dirty and smelly, but with plenty of
Vegas
Ballagio fountains hot water, and at $30 was bearable. There was a very edgy feel to the place with alot of Native people hanging about drinking but we had no problems and had a nice meal in the apparently world Famous El Rancho hotel visited at some point by all the old Hollywood stars passing through.
Again we hit the road early and back onto I40 and heading for Oklahoma, the terrain was becoming evermore and arrid and there was even a few tumbleweeds, i almost cracked a few lame jokes to justify the tumbleweed. We drove straight through Albuquerque and over the Texas border to Amarillo, Shelly showed me the way on our map!! Shelly got us a great deal in a travelodge and we headed straight out and across the road to a bar for a well earned beer which turned into 7 or 8, i don't really remember! We got up late the next day, missing breakfast and decided to hit the road as there wasn't much to see, i don't know what Tony Christie was so excited about, Marie must've been special! Texas is as i thought, huge flat prairies and the bigest herds of cattle i've
Vegas
Bellagio fountains...again! It was very impressive! ever seen, that and miles of cotton fields! we had almost got to the Oklahoma border when we got a bit of drama! A cop car travelling the other way, lights and sirens blazing cut straight across the 40-50 foot grass central reservation and back on our side behind us, just like the cop chase programmes i've watched. Expecting to see him scream past us in hot persuit of a bandit i pulled into the inside lane and got the shock of my life when he pulled in behind me!!!! 82mph in a 75!!!!! I got a warning and a bit of telling me i was a Violator in Texas but luckily no ticket!!! YEEEHA.....We heaved a sigh of relief and carried on through Texas into Oklahoma.....at 75 mph. We arrived in Oklahoma city which was a sprawling but not to highrise a city and headed downtown. We stopped at the silght of the 1995 bombing in which 168 people died after some nut decided to blow up a federal building. Some walls of the ruin still stands with a huge marble water feature covering the floor space and 168 brass chairs with candles under each one to remember the
Vegas
Venetian Hotel indoor canal with gondolas! victims. It was quite eerie and touching!!!!!.............part 2 to follow..........
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