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We stayed in a real American motel - got the room cheap as the receptionist could go home early after renting out this last one. One king size bed - three guys - shit. Enough male bonding for one lifetime has already happened on this slightly crazy road trip.
In the morning after an uneventful night, we made our way to the Hoover Dam - its big impressive etc etc.
Las Vegas is one of the most excessive places I have ever been, we parked the cruiser at Bellagios - the biggest, first, most expensive casino/hotel of them all. After walking around a while in the desert heat and checking out the Hotel prices for the 4th of July - $179 was the cheapest - we checked into another hostel.
After sorting out our new hostel - complete with cockroaches, we headed out for food. Las Vegas is famous for its "All You Can Eat Buffets" - so we had to take the tapeworm (Steve - eats like he has one) down to another example of American excess. Luckly we hadn't had any food the night before, or breakfast so we were ready to hit the food.
The Hoover Dam
Lots of water and concrete The Rio casino apparently has the best buffet in the whole of Las Vegas - so we had to go to it. $12 all you can eat and drink - non-alcoholic. Apart from the queue - which contained many people that looked as though they'd been to this buffet for every meal they ever had - the place was fantastic. Dishes from all over the world were available, I started with sushi, then had chinese, then bbq ribs, then fruit salad, then burgers and steak, then swordfish ... oh boy ... time for dessert - cherry pie and ice cream - all washed down with much American lemonade. Matt and Steve had comparable amounts of food - it's important to get your moneys worth.
We really felt quite ill.
Next a trip to the Gun Store - a shooting range to shoot some handguns. I'm personally opposed to the American laws on guns - but I also feel that in a controlled and very highly regulated environment people should be able to shoot guns. I've never shot anything bigger than an airifle before - time to rectify this. "Can we rent the Colt Magnum 44mm please?" - "Sure,
give us money and you can shoot anything you like." - said the store owner gesturing to the machine gun strapped to the wall. Well for a few moments I felt like dirty Harry - the gun had so much kick that it hurt, we also chose an easier gun to shoot - can't remember what it was but it held ten bullets and I manged to hit the main section of the target with this gun fairly easily. With the magnum I was lucky to remain standing let alone hit the chart - well I got the target a few times.
After chatting to the store operators I realised that they were totally and utterly obsessed by guns - unhealthly so ... people like that shouldn't be allowed guns. I guess that's where the problem lies.
Next onto the Casino's... they really were the dullest thing in Vegas. The minimum bet on the roulette or black jack tables was around $15... so we stuck to the slots. My first coin won 15 more quarters - so I was up - should have quit there but foolishly I lost all the change I had - a whole dollar
The Gun
Yes the people next to us were shooting at images of Osama bin Ladin. ... not so bad. Unfortunately we lost Matt and spent about an hour wandering around this vast flashing moronic hall, filled with mindless drones continuosly pumping quarters into machines. Eventually we found Matt - and called it a night.
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Savage
Mark Savage
Vegas Visitors
So, if anyone else decides to visit my adopted home town of Vegas, contact me so I can try to show you around a bit... so long as you're here on a weekend that is. It's a shame we hadn't caught up sooner Ali!!