21 June – Vegas

Into the strip and a looong walk to the Luxor to see “the Bodies” exhibit. 

Excalibur

It was really cool, but not for the squeamish. If you have seen Casino Royale you will remember James Bond chasing a bad guy through the Bodies exhibit in Miami then killing him and sitting him down as if he were part of the show. Real human bodies in various degrees of dissection to show bone structure, muscles, nerves, organs etc. They preserve the bodies with polymer, so they are hard, then pose them throwing a ball, sitting down, twisting and turning so you can see the muscles and nerves in motion. They also showed things like normal lungs and smokers lungs (with a bin next to them for people who decide to quit to bin the ciggies. Quite a few packs in there!) There was a very cool display of all the blood systems. They inject polymer into the arteries and veins, the polymer goes hard, then they use acid to dissolve all the surrounding tissue, so you are left with just the circulatory system floating in a big tank. Steve thought it would add something if they also included some Siamese fighting fish in the tank… The Luxor was amazing – it’s a huge pyramid and hollow on the inside, so when you are in the foyer you are looking up at the inside of the pyramid going up maybe 20 stories high. 

From there we went to the MGM for a quick bite and a taxi to Fantasy Car Hire to pick up a 2013 red Corvette convertible for tomorrow. We are driving to the Valley of Fires and fancied a spin in a convertible. Had to go for a drive through Vegas, then back to the RV for dinner. 

Another drive after dinner? Don’t mind if we do! Back from a quick drive out to Las Vegas Lake – where all the big houses are. We didn’t feel all conspicuous like we would have driving around gated communities in the RV. Love the Corvette. The hardest part will be giving it back tomorrow afternoon!.