Las Vegas
2257hrs
We came here this morning in a minivan borrowed for the occasion. Everyone kept saying how little there is to see en route, the scenery being mostly desert. But to me it was gorgeous, I could have watched the barren plains roll by for hours. Which I did, in fact. At one time we saw Death Valley on the left, the hottest place on earth, which I would have liked to have visited had we had more time. Meanwhile a strong contender to its title went by on the other side, as we passed a car up in flames. It was being towed (or had been until it caught fire), so presumably no one was inside. You could feel the heat as we drove past, it was very intense.
Even though it was only a three-hour drive, we stopped halfway for lunch. 'We' is my cousin Lee and his wife Shari (pronounced Sheri), who are going to a wedding, their baby son Tanner, who they could hardly leave behind, Ron and Pauline, who will be baby-sitting Tanner when Lee and Shari are at the wedding, and me and Colin, who just came along for the ride.
When we arrived in Las Vegas, we came up to our two adjoining rooms on the top floor of the hotel, floor 22, except it's really the 21st floor because there's no floor 13, and went out for a look around. Las Vegas is right in the middle of the desert, with nothing else in sight. There's just one long road going all the way through, with casinos on either side, and the rest of the place just seems to have grown out of that. You never see adverts or bill posters here for anything not in Las Vegas, or not to do with gambling - the town is completely self-absorbed. In fact you don't see bill posters at all - any advertising is done in flashing lights. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see Times Square in New York, but by night Las Vegas is like one giant Times Square.
We went out tonight to another hotel, called Treasure Island. All of the hotels have casinos built into them, so if you've only come here to gamble, as most people have, you never need to leave the building. We had some tea at this place, where for a set price you get all you can eat. I stacked my plate full, and struggled to finish it, but you have to get your money's worth.
After that we watched a show outside the hotel. It was pretty impressive; they have two big ships, one a pirate ship, one not, which fire cannon balls at each other. There are loads of fireworks and explosions (piratechnics), and it ends with one of them sinking. But we'd been told the ending beforehand, and expected it to go all the way under, and it didn't, so that was a bit of a letdown really. It was still good though.
Pauline's spent most of the day gambling, and is actually in the black. She started with $20, and is now up to about $250, but she's down there again now so I expect she'll have lost it all shortly.
This hotel even has its own TV channel, which is insane. It's just promotional stuff, of course.
