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Published: April 14th 2014
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Vegas Baby! - brought to you by Steph
Today was a horrendously early start. We wanted to see the sunrise over the Grand Canyon which after a little research we realised would be at 0558hrs. This meant us all setting alarms for 0430hrs in order to be out of the room by 0510hrs to check out and drive the short distance through the park to the spot we decided would be best to see it from. The temperatures drop significantly overnight so when we left the room it was -1c, boots and winter coats required. We arrived at Yavapai Lodge lookout at 0530hrs and it was just starting to get light. The lookout had benches for people to sit and watch the sunrise (Katie took up residence here and did not move until we left as she did not want to get any closer). We were the first to arrive followed shortly by an American couple who appeared to be professional photographers with a couple of tripods set up and a couple more handheld cameras. We went to the west rim of the canyon a couple of years ago and that was amazing but the views from the south rim
are something else. It's so vast and so much of it to see. If you ever plan to see the Grand Canyon I would definitely recommend the south rim. It was great to see the changing colours in the Canyon as the sun came up, however it was a little misty so some of the photos aren't that great. Such a great experience to take away from the trip.
We headed back to the car, ready for our long drive to Las Vegas. We are taking a longer route than suggested as we want to see a place called Oatman. This was almost like a ghost town until recently and has donkeys etc roaming the streets (as seen on google maps). I think a little nap in the back of the car might be needed as we won't be there for a few hours and got little sleep last night (it's the bonus of having a day off from driving or navigating).
Fully awake now after stopping at Denny's for breakfast. Katie and I couldn't decide what to order as the menu was so large for breakfast but ended up with a pancake meal each and then splitting
some French toast. Not forgetting the unlimited coffee (the most important part of any breakfast). Kerry decided on a McDonald's instead so headed across the road.
We made it to Oatman. Very strange walking into it, it's like a small Western town with donkeys (burros) roaming the streets. All the shops are wooden etc selling mostly tourist items. As we walking through an announcement was made over a loud speaker that the "shoot out" was about to start. As we got closer a burro was walking through it all and proceeded to urinate on a woman's shoes (hilarious) but the best bit was when a very American woman next to me started shouting at the woman "you need to move, it's gonna sh*t in your bag!" Whilst nudging me to look at the poor woman. The shoot out was a bit of a let down, quite cheesy but the initial bang of the gun did make you jump and was slightly amusing to watch.
The road out of Oatman is a steep windy cliff road with no edge. I think at this point Katie is quite glad she is no longer driving. Some lovely views though. Getting to
the end of this road signifies the end of our trip on Route 66. We have already been to Los Angeles so we now deviate from the route and travel to Las Vegas, Lone Pine, Lake Tahoe and San Francisco. The times on these roads has been amazing and a great experience, but this is not the end of the holiday, there are still some great times ahead.
We are less than an hour from Las Vegas now and have stopped off to see Hoover Dam. Had to go through an inspection point where they asked us a load of questions about our trip before being allowed through. We parked up and then had to trek up a hill to walk across a bridge which runs parallel to Hoover Dam. This is quite high up so Katie didn't make it across, but has seen it from the side and looked at the pictures we took.
Well we finally arrived in Vegas!! We all wanted to go to the outlet mall so we decided to go before we checked into the hotel so that we could have a rest day tomorrow, not requiring any transport. I for one definitely
spent too much, but I did restrain myself from some purchases (helped by the fact the other two were dragging me out).
Arriving at the Bellagio we had valet parking so we could pull up right outside the front of the hotel, perfect with all our cases. The $20 in the passport trick worked and we go upgraded to a fountain view room! So now we can see all the fountain shows from our room, one was on as soon as we walked into the room! Time for a few minutes to chill before heading out on the strip after a busy
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