UPDATED - new video at the bottom of this post
WARNING: Loooooong post ahead! (Oh, and if you haven't read Part One, go there first please).
On Tuesday morning, @TwiredJen dropped me at Avis for my biggest challenge yet - DRIVING. In America. On the other side of the road. On the other side of the car. I'm not going to dwell on this except to say it was fucking scary as hell and I am UBER proud of myself for driving from San Diego to Las Vegas and back without killing myself. Or anyone else.
The first point I need to make is that it is FUCKING HOT in the desert. Seriously. 106 degrees? Firstly I had to remind myself that we're talking Farenheit here and that, although it felt like it, it wasn't actually six degrees above boiling point. For those playing at home, 106oF equals 41oC. I know, right? MELTING. Right. I've got that out of my system now...
So this post is a mish-mash of two days that were JAM PACKED with touristing. I'm basically just gonna post a whole bunch of pics and try and give you a run down... try to stay awake.
The Las Vegas sign is nowhere near as large as it looks in the movies. Camera trickery has clearly been used many, many times because that bad boy is comparitively tiny! The first thing I did in Vegas was go and see Mystere by Cirque du Soliel at Treasure Island. What a great show! Highly recommend.
As for Vegas itself - one word sums it up. INSANE. Seriously. No wonder people stay inside, it's so hot, but also, what a fascinating place to just sit back and absorb. I love to watch people and the crazy shit they do, and Vegas is just the place for some prime people-watching. Brides and grooms walking around, drunkeness on a massive scale, and people just glued to slot machines, at all hours. I walked through the MGM Grand gaming floor at 7.00am and could not believe the number of people there.
I don't know how to describe how I felt in Vegas. Maybe it was because gambling and partying weren't on the agenda for me, or because I was travelling alone, but I just felt... overwhelmed. And a little sad. I can't really explain it apart from to say that I'm glad I went there, so I know what people are talking about, and what the place feels like, but I will not be sad if I never go back there again. Unless of course it is to see the fabulous @Rikki_DD again, but more on that later. It's not a coincidence that I don't have a billion photos of the strip - I really didn't spend much time there.
So anyway, onto one of the single greatest things I have ever done in my entire life: visiting the Grand Canyon. There's a reason this is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, people. If it's even remotely possible for you, sometime in your life, GO THERE! Here are some pics of my adventure.
I was picked up at 7.30 in the morning (hence my wandering through the casino) outside the MGM Grand. I was on a small tour, only ten people and a guide, Randy. Once I got over the fact that he was called Randy *giggles* I found out he was an awesome guy, a musician who does tours on the side. So there's me, Randy, a single, somewhat repulsive dude from New York state named David, and a family of eight from New Jersey. All I can say is that if I ever meet @SnarkierThanYou and @JennyJerkface, I shall love them before I judge them by their accents. Cos ten hours with this family of eight was.... trying.
First stop was the Hoover Dam, on the Nevada/Arizona border. That big ol' line you can see above the water level is where the water used to be. Apparently there's a danger it'll be dry altogether in another 20-30 years. This is not good. But it is pretty.
Those pillars on the left are in Arizona. The ones on the right are in Nevada. In the background you can see the new freeway bridge that just opened to divert traffic from crossing the damn.
About an hour later, we pulled into Bumfuck Nowhere, Arizona. They had a gas station with air conditioning and cold water, and that was about it. Oh, and Charlie was there. Apparently he fixed up Bella's truck and gave it a new paintjob.
Gorgeous scenery, huh? These are Joshua trees. Who knew they were a real tree? Thanks, Bono. Get this. They grow 1/4 inch every year. That's real slowly. And there's your useless trivia fact #1 for this post.
@NixHaw - this shot reminds me of the mountains in the north of South Africa, I can't remember what they're called, but I thought of you.
So to the canyon itself. Wow. Just wow. I went on the Skywalk, that big platform you can see sticking out. It is made of strengthened glass. Now, I don't know if it's because I've done loads of 'adventurous' things before in my life, or if I'm just not easily pleased, but I didn't find this to be anything special. I found that standing on the edge of the canyon (where I took this photo from) much scarier, especially since there's no barrier rail. My advice to you is not to bother spending the extra $$ to go on this 'adventure'. Besides, you can't take your camera up there.
Eagle Point, Grand Canyon West. A. Maze. Balls. (can you see the eagle?)
Sadly, we lost Randy.
Kidding! There was a ledge famed for fake 'oh no!' photos. Here's Randy taking a pic of David. I was NOT going down there myself.
Kiwi Ed, on the other hand, is a daredevil. He is very lucky to still be with us.
He was muttering something about Spidermonkeys when I took this shot. No idea....
This is a stuffed mountain lion, mounted in the lodge where we had lunch. Annnd it all comes back to Twilight. I had to keep Kiwi Ed restrained at this point.
By this stage I was absolutely exhausted and slept most of the 2.5 hour drive back to Vegas.
After a quick freshen up, it was time to meet @Rikki_DD! Rikki is the coolest chick! She is a Vegas local and picked me up in her Cullen Car - tinted windows, Carlisle style. Soooo cool:
After squeeing and hugging, we were off to Madame Tussauds wax museum. Our goal? Find Rob and molest him. Sadly, he wasn't there. We were not happy. Instead we (and Kiwi Ed) took to leaning on, groping, and generally invading the personal spaces of as many celebrity waxworks as we could.
Weirdly, blogger is being an a-hole today and won't let me upload pics from Madame Tussauds, mostly because they're all portrait rather than landscape. So, I'll leave you with this pic of me and Rikki, and one day when I am back home I'll sort out the other pics and do a post then. I can't be bothered right now, and here in the San Diego sunshine I'd rather be outside than fiddling with my computer!
UPDATE: I finally managed to upload my Grand Canyon video to YouTube:
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