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Published: March 28th 2015
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Left Yosemite at 5AM in the snow and rain. I was sorry the park was a wash because I was really looking forward to it. The drive down was both challenging and dangerous in the dark. If you want an extreme drive go down from Yosemite in the dark during winter. It would be an 8.5 hour drive to Las Vegas. It is not exactly my favourite city but I figure it is a place you should visit at least once. The drive through Northern California and Nevada is good and the Mojave desert is desolate place. Case in point when my GPS showed I was crossing the Mojave river I saw just an empty dusty riverbed.
I got my first view of the Las Vegas Strip once I hit the city. It is a dizzying array of lights that can overwhelm the senses. I was staying at Hostel Cat in Vegas. It is located on the north side of the strip and about 15 minutes away from the first Casino on the strip, Stratosphere Casino. After checking in at the hostel I decided to explore the strip. I took my car and parked at Stratosphere and started walking down
the strip. It started to rain so I ducked into a souvenir shop and bought some items and an umbrella. So protected against the rain I continue my trek down the Strip. Wind was blowing hard at this point and my umbrella promptly fell apart. It was still raining but I resolved to keep going.
Once you hit the main block of casinos everything is fairly close together so you can duck into casinos while it rains. Besides the main casinos there are a number of smaller casinos in what looked like old office buildings. I went back and forth into various casinos and gambled here and there. I didn't lose a great deal of money and I didn't really enjoy gambling. The casinos themselves are enormous and can be very confusing. At one point I went into Harrad's for some food but when I came outside I noticed I was standing outside Flamenco. I am still not sure how that happened. It was getting dark at this point and the strip was getting crowded with people despite the rain. I had an interested conversation with one drunk individual about karma and the wiseness of Asians 😊.
I
went to the Bellagio next and waited for the water show. To the song of God Bless the USA the show started. It is an impressive array of water fountains. This show occurs every 15 minutes or so and lasts about 4 - 5 minutes. So you never have to wait too long for a show to start. Once I got my video of the show I decided I had enough and started walking back to the hostel. It started to rain very hard and I decided I couldn't keep going in the rain. I jumped on the deuce bus which does a complete loop of the strip. I got off at the Stratosphere stop and got my car. I drove back to the hostel and since it was getting late I opted to call it a night. Tomorrow would be one of the keys of my trip. THE GRAND CANYON.
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