Day 18
Tuesday, 24th June
Oh Zion. Oh Vegas.
The day started brilliantly, greeted by sunshine and a huge jack rabbit outside our cabin! But soon we were packed up ready to leave.
We were going to Vegas via Zion National Park - whoopee!! (That's not a whoop for Vegas!). Firstly, we drove through the stunning Red Rock Canyon, which is almost as beautiful as Bryce. There was an accident on highway 89, but I don't think anybody was badly hurt. And then we stopped at exactly the same rest area we'd stopped at in 2004; the one with the signs - probably because it was the only rest area in existence along that road!!
Then it was straight on to the Mt Carmel road into Zion National Park. That road is so amazingly stunning! Photos cannot really do it justice - you have to be there! Terry was honoured by being presented with the baton to hand over to the ranger on the other side of the big tunnel, so he now considers himself a junior ranger.
We had a look around the Visitor Center and bought things. And then we drove into sublime Springdale and bought things.
the deli where we bought sandwiches in 2004 (left)
Then it was onwards, on the interstate, to Vegas, back into Arizona and into Nevada.
joshua trees in AZ
We reached the outskirts of Vegas and I was bursting for the toilet - couldn't wait to get to our hotel. So we stopped at the NASCAR place and used theirs! In gratitude, I bought a little pink doll.
So, to Las Vegas: Concrete City.
We found the Palazzo without too much trouble, parked up in their garage and went to check in. It took a while. We asked for a smoking room, but they didn't have any. (We don't ever take smoking rooms as a rule, but this was an exception, what with the size of the hotels ...) The best she could give us was room 739, on the 38th floor - as far from the elevators as it's possible to be! We then traipsed back down to the garage and lumped most of our luggage back to our room (what a walk!) and also bought some sandwiches and fruit, which were both very good. Our room was also nice, with a good view out over the Wynn golf course and the Wynn swimming pools - and the beds were very comfortable! There was even a printer!
Then it was out onto the streets! To be honest, I would've preferred to have stayed in that nice, comfortable room - I so dislike Vegas! And, outside, it was BLAZING hot, with a hot wind whipping up the Strip, which made you feel as though you were being blown into hell!
of course, you had to walk through the casino to get anywhere!
I wanted to go to Caesars, so, to Caesars we walked - it was just about unbearable! The noise, the people, the heat! Finally, we got to Caesars and went into the Forum shops and up the curly escalators and looked at the moving statues (which didn't) and struggled through the crowds for (seemingly) miles - and everywhere there was noise, even the fountains practically deafened you. I wanted a white T-shirt and, at least on this, I was successful, as I found the perfect one (and a belt!) in GAP. But surely we would get to the end of this nightmare of noise and crowds soon? Seemed there was no way out! And when Paul and I saw a sign marked 'EXIT', we went through, shut the door behind us - discovered that the exit led nowhere and couldn't open the door again!! It's a good job that Terry knew where we'd gone, or we could've been stuck there for weeks!! I was, by now, in quite a panic and realised that we would have to walk all the way back again to get out! So I practically ran back!!
We bought some wine and then we went back to our room. I went into a strop and refused to go out again. I also refused to go downstairs for a smoke (such a long way!). I finally conceded and had a smoke in the corridor (tut!), one in the fire exit stairway (creepy) and one (late) down in the casino, where we gambled about 40c and got nothing back! Meantime, Paul had been out and about and came back with a bear with flashing lights! He likes Vegas. It's difficult to know whether the hub likes it at all, or not. Certainly he had a face like a fiddle, but whether that was because of Vegas or because of me, it's impossible to say!
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[ Introduction ]
[ Day 1 ]
[ Day 2 ]
[ Day 3 ]
[ Day 4 ]
[ Day 5 ]
[ Day 6 ]
[ Day 7 ]
[ Day 8 ]
[ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ]
[ Day 11 ]
[ Day 12 ]
[ Day 13 ]
[ Day 14 ]
[ Day 15 ]
[ Day 16 ]
[ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ]
[ Day 19 ]
[ Day 20 ]
[ Day 21 ]
[ Day 22 ]
[ Day 23 ]
[ Day 24 ]
[ Day 25 ]
[ Day 26 ]
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