Las Vegas

Making our way west through the Arizona desert the heat began to increase and the cacti grew along the road sides.  Down went the windows so we could take it all in and we were blasted by the warm wind.  We stopped at Hoover Dam to marvel at this engineering feat constructed in the depression days of the early 1930’s and were greeted with a 40 degree Celsius afternoon…..it was HOT!  After walking over the top of the dam and switching between Arizona and Nevada and their different time zones, we had by then nearly melted so we headed back to the air con of the Landcruiser and carried on with the remaining half hour drive to Las Vegas Nevada.
The 12 lane freeway greeted us as we made our way to the New York New York hotel where we had scored a room with a view of the strip for 2 nights for $190.  The bright lights of the casino sparkled and we headed to the arcade level and the roller coaster on top of the building for an afternoon of fun.  As the sun began to set and the air became a more manageable 35 C we took an open top double decker bus tour of the city.  The dazzling lights on the Strip were fantastic, where else in the world can you see a Pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, an erupting volcano, the Statue of Liberty, dancing fountains, the Roman Coliseum and Elvis in the space of a few miles?  We travelled downtown and stopped at the Golden Nugget casino to view the world’s largest gold nugget and a Gold dispensing ATM machine.  In the Fremont St area we watched street artists, listened to Elvis and enjoyed a light show on the covered ceiling which had an amazing sound system.
The next morning we went on the Shelby American factory tour and saw where our Shelby was ‘Shelbyrized’ before making her way to NZ.  In the afternoon we headed to Harrah’s casino to Mac Kings Comedy & Magic Show.  He was one of the best entertainers we have seen, very funny (until I caught the magic rope he threw from the stage and then had to go up and help with the next trick…not so funny then!)  So after 10 minutes up there under the bright lights I ended up finding the card I had put my name on sealed inside a cereal packet.  He was very clever and we had a great time. 
Later we attempted to win some money from the casino and after inserting $10, and winning all the way to $180, I came away with 1cent!  I kept the voucher as it was a little embarrassing to take to the cashier.  Now we know why the USA still has pennies……so it can pay out the losers!  Craig doesn’t want to share his experience.......…he has renamed Las Vegas as Lost Wages.
It was a fun couple of days; we filled up at the buffets, loved the complimentary valet parking and enjoyed people watching.  Can’t wait to come back!