17 April – Lake Mead – Williams

We got up early-ish for a workout, then packed up and hit the road on Route 66 through Arizona. 

Over the Hoover Dam bridge and into the desert. Very odd to see golf courses all bright green in the middle of such a parched landscape. 

We stopped at a lookout over the Colorado River for some photos and a leg stretch.

We followed Route 66 to the Grand Canyon Caverns. On arrival we met Wayne the cowboy who told us some tall tales, then cantered off wobbling around…him, not the horse. We suspected he had more than soft drink in his can.

The landscape is flat so you take a lift 122 feet down to the caves. They are really interesting. Only 6% humidity, so there is nothing living down there. The caves were created when the area was under the sea, so very different cave formations to a wet limestone cave. 

In one of the caverns there is “one of the 10 most different hotel rooms in the world”, we saw a Billy Connolly show where he stayed there. Cool, but $800per night. 

The caves also contain supplies for 2000 people to stay 2 weeks underground, it was a nuclear shelter during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 60’s. The current owners keep the supplies refreshed “just in case”. Funnily though, in 1961 when they stocked the caves, they forgot to include light sources. No candles, torches or even matches!

We continued along Routes 66. It was quite sad to see how run down the towns are now that the I40 has bypassed them and Route 66 has been decommissioned. 

Finished up for the night at a great little place called Williams. It has withstood the decommissioning of 66 because it is the turnoff to the Grand Canyon South Rim. We are having tea, then a walk into town to look around. 

16 April – Vegas – Lake Mead

Up early to find that a bang and sirens that we heard last night turned out to be an RV burning out nearby. Poor people, they were not hurt, but looked like their gas cylinder may have exploded. Not much left of the RV…

We were getting ready to head off to the Hoover Dam, but when we went to bring the slide out in, it wasn’t working. We managed to override the motor and push it in manually, but it wouldn’t lock in place. Down the road was an RV repair place, and we took it there and luckily they were able to take a look. A couple of hours to kill, so we looked at new RV’s. Wow! There are certainly some “home away from homes” that are nicer than most houses.  We considered upgrading (for a mere outlay of about $50,000, for a nice second hand 40’ A Class)

On the road finally and to Boulder to the Hoover Dam Museum. Very interesting artefacts and stories about the building of the dam. A quick fuel up and we drove to the dam. We had to go through a security check to go onto the dam that included a guard checking all the storage on the RV. Finally through and we travelled over the dam, parked up and walked back. It’s a pretty amazing feat of engineering.

We spent quite a while at the dam, so headed to nearby Lake Mead RV for the night. The lake is very pretty, blue water and stark coloured cliffs and mountains behind. 

15 April – Vegas

We started the day early with a monorail trip up to the Stratosphere (far northern end of the strip.) 

The Stratosphere has a 1000 foot tower and at the top there are rides – the Insanity, hangs you over the edge then spins. The X Scream, shoots you over the edge in a car then drops a few times. The Big Shot, shoots you straight up in the air to the top of the tower. Steve and Ed went on the XScream, then Ed was on his own for the rest.

Absolutely stunning views of Vegas from the tower, so we stayed a while.  We had lunch at Roxy’s diner – huge servings and waitresses who sang 50’s hits.

Leaving the Stratosphere, we headed back on the monorail. We hopped off midway and Ed and Fee continued to the MGM Grand. We caught up with them after they had done the Luxor, Excalibur and New York New York and we watched the Bellagio Fountains and the Mirage Volcano.

We had a bite at the Mirage buffet then on to Cirque de Soliel. Wow – what an absolutely amazing show! It was just incredible – acrobatics, trapeze, music, comedy, lights and dancing. We got seats near the front so great views. We were blown away by the whole spectacle. 

Another late night..

14 April – Vegas

Eddie and Fee headed off to the Grand Canyon and we got some housework and unpacking done. We went to Walmart to buy a C clamp to hold the props for the RV slide out. They were $2.00, but were in a locked cabinet and we had to find an attendant to unlock and she then had to escort us to the checkout so we didn’t steal the clamp. But you can buy guns…LOL.

We went to the Strip later in the day and to pick up tickets to Cirque de Soleil Mystere show at Treasure Island. In the foyer of TI was an intricately carved mammoth tusk. The carvings apparently took many generations to do, and depict a Chinese army.

We then sat outside the Venetian hotel and watched the world go by until Eddie and Fee arrived and we went to dinner – Sushi – Yum! 

We caught a taxi to the old Vegas strip, the Fremont street experience. The street is covered over and the cover is a giant TV screen. Every hour there is a light and sound show on the screen. Pretty amazing. Steve and Eddie had pics taken with show girls.

As the hour got later, the showgirls got more exposed. Just G strings and little pasties over their nipples. Some of them looked about 15 which was a bit sad. The beggars came out too, each with a sign telling their hard luck story.

13 April – Vegas

We woke at 10am and after a late brunch we headed into the strip. We spent the afternoon walking around – The Venetian and Ceaser’s Palace mainly. We hit up the Forum Shops and cafes and Eddie and Fee booked a Grand Canyon Trip. Ros blew her entire shopping budget in the Rolex shop.

Still a bit jet lagged, we headed back to Sam’s Town for a buffet dinner and stuffed ourselves silly.  Back to the RV to sort out internet (now on) and recharge cameras etc.

12 April Hobart – Vegas

Up at 4am to get ready to go to the airport. At 4.30 we got a text from Qantas asking us to call them – turned out our Hobart/Melbourne flight had been delayed 1.5 hours, which meant we would miss the overseas connection at Melbourne. Luckily they were able to rebook us from Hobart to Sydney and then to LA, and meant that we didn’t leave Hobart til 9.15.

After a fairly uneventful flight we arrived in LA at about 9.30am (still on Saturday), got a shuttle bus to pick up our friends Eddie and Fiona and on to the RV in Santa Clarita.

The dear ole RV had lost its cover in high winds, and a window had been left open so everything was coated in dust. Although it was lunchtime at this point, we decided to make the run through to Vegas and hit the highway.  We stopped off in Santa Clarita to do our grocery shop.

A quick stop at Peggy Sues Diner at the half way point for a milkshake and a slice of cherry pie, then Eddie took over driving for his first crack at driving on the wrong side of the road. He did well!

We got into Vegas after 10pm and after dinner and unpacking we all hit the sack at around midnight.

Ros & Steve's Awesome American Adventure 2014!

Hi Everyone!

This time next week we will be waking up in Vegas! Watch this space and follow us on our new American Adventure!
Steve & Ros