Give
me a Saturday night my baby by my side, a little Hank Jr. and a six pack of
light. Old dirt road and I’ll be just fine. Give me a Sunday morning that’s
full of grace. A simple life and I'll be okay, here in small town USA.
- Justin Moore
Well, we survived Friday 13th
and woke to another beautiful day in the craziest city on earth. I woke to the
phone ringing, five minutes before my alarm was going to go off. It was room
service. They had come early with our breakfast, and when I offered to get out
of bed and come around to let them in, the server told me not to worry. He just
dropped the food on our dining room table and took off. Service is impeccable –
and I must say I’m getting some strange looks when I offer to hold the door
open for the servers when they take our trolleys out the door. Apparently that isn’t
what people normally do in the penthouse! I really can’t say enough about the
staff here. They’ve been awesome!
After breakfast, we drove out to Boulder
City, famous because it was the settlement where the construction workers who
built Hoover Dam stayed. It’s also apparently the only town in the entire state
of Nevada where gambling is illegal, and the only town in the state that takes
full advantage hydro-electricity from the Colorado River and Hoover Dam.
On the outskirts of town, not far from Lake
Mead, is the Hacienda Hotel & Casino. That’s the starting point for the
Black Canyon rafting trip down the Colorado River from Hoover Dam, which was
what we did today. We rode down in a bus through a few security gates – Hoover
is a terrorist target, according to the lists that are published – to the water
at the base of the dam and joined the motorised raft there.
There were only eight of us on-board, and
the other four were from Christchurch in New Zealand. Basically, this far away
from our homelands, we’re neighbours. It was a really fun trip down the now-calm
river, and our tour guide/pilot Brian was a very funny guy. We saw mountain
goats, a heap of birds and some stunning views of the surrounding canyon, which
looks otherworldly in some places, and spectacular all the way along. It was
cold in the shadows, but wonderfully warm in the sun. Cruising along there
after our picnic lunch on the beach, it was hard not to want to fall asleep.
Back in Las Vegas in the afternoon we rode
the three rides on top of the Stratosphere Tower, the tallest observation tower
anywhere in America – they don’t do anything by half in Las Vegas! – and ended
up running into the Kiwis again. Insanity, X-Scream and the Big Shot are pretty
awesome rides, because they’re up so high. You get the unrivalled view of The
Strip, downtown Las Vegas and the endless suburbs, all in the flat valley that’s
bordered by a chain of foreboding mountains. We watched the sunset from the
observation deck and headed back down to street level and right to the other
end of The Strip, where the New York-New York’s roller-coaster is located.
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| Insanity |
I have to say, this coast is probably the
roughest and most violent ride I’ve ever been on. I’d forgotten how bad it was
since the last time I rode it. Your head gets slammed against the sides, and it
feels like whiplash as you get tossed around like you’re in a washing machine.
About the best thing to be said is that the views are pretty good. I don’t think
I’ll need to get on it again anytime soon.
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| Excalibur Hotel & Casino |
Strangely, New York-New York doesn’t have a
buffet – it must be the only hotel on The Strip that doesn’t. So we went next door
to the Monte Carlo, where the food was good and prices reasonable. Buffets are
always dangerous. As per usual, I ate too much. We ended our last night in Vegas
up in the penthouse, drinking beer and…booking ballet tickets? More on that
later.
Off to the east coast tomorrow!
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