Wonders of the American West

Day Nine – 6 June 2011

Grand Canyon-Las Vegas

Weather: 32, sunny

Again, the alarm clock didn’t wake me. I wanted to make a last minute stop at the gift shop so I went into breakfast for 7:15. Anson walked by our table and announced that he had locked himself out of his room and that we’d have to stay.

We cheered. LOL

We left at 8:30 and the trip to Las Vegas went quickly because the road was so much better (and double lane for a lot of it). En route, Gordon put on a DVD about riding the mules down into the gorge. It was excellent!!

My favorite line was from the head cowboy could only shake his head at some of the questions he would be asked. He said something to the effect that “some people really left half their brain home in their bureau. How they make it here, I don’t know.”

Then one man in his group put up his hand and said “we drove our car.”

They were probably the same ones that wondered where the dining car on the mule train was.

We stopped at a Walmart in St. George, Utah, where the time zone was an hour earlier, so Gordon told everyone that we were to return at the top of the hour…whether it was eleven on our watch or noon on the Walmart clock. He had to stop people from changing their watches as we would be back to Pacific time a few miles down the road.

The road to Las Vegas was familiar to me, especially as we entered the beautiful Virgin River Gorge.

I went up in the photo seat to take some pics, and just as I remembered, the gorge suddenly ended and opened out onto a vast desert plain. We were under two thousand feet just like that.

And my ears didn’t even pop.

The gorge was a fitting end to an amazing tour with scenery that was ever present and always changing.

Bring a lot of memory for your camera.

On this side of the gorge, we came across interesting looking cactus type plants and Gordon told us that they were Joshua Trees. Very cool. He said they are only in two locations – the Colorado and Mojave deserts.

We passed through the town of Mesquite, Nevada and Gordon noted that this was the closest casinos to Utah. It gets a lot of Mormon visitors.

As we crossed the desert to Las Vegas, Gordon had a contest to see if anyone could guess how many miles we had covered on the tour including side trips. I guessed 1820 miles.

We traveled 1834 miles.

Yeah. I won….nothing. LOL.

Damned good guess though. I knew the distances point to point, but had to make an educated guess on the side trips to the Grand Canyon and Canyonlands.

Before we knew it, Gordon announced that Las Vegas was on the horizon, and sure enough, you could see skyscrapers in the middle of the desert. He pointed out a speedway, air force bases and other spots as we entered the city from the north and started dropping off tourmates to different hotels. Most of us were going to Planet Hollywood and we arrived by two. Gordon escorted us into the front desk and made sure we were all taken care of before he left with the few who were going to the airport.

I can’t say enough good things about Gordon and Anson. They made a great pair and I’d take a US tour again in an instant if I could have the same pair.

I found my room on the nineteenth floor.

Wow.

What a difference from the basic hotels we’d had since Denver. Just having a safe was a little strange. Granted, I enjoyed the rustic-ness of the hotels.

Just don’t leave your passport in your pillow case.

(Yeah. One man did at Lake Powell once and Gordon said they were a hundred miles away when the man remembered that he had forgotten it. A bellman from the hotel hopped in his car and chased them down to return the passport…and I imagine a great tip awaited him. I certainly hope that was the case).

I went out on the strip with a tourmate and we walked as far as Treasure Island and back. There was a mall next to Treasure Island which had a decent food court. There was also a food court in the Miracle Mile Mall in Planet Hollywood.

We dropped by the Bellagio to see the conservatory and the fountain show that they put on every half hour. It lasted four minutes and was pretty good. Best part, I could see it from my window at Planet Hollywood.

We decided to turn in after almost four hours of walking the strip. I had a welcomed hot shower and spend the night organizing luggage and photos. Tomorrow was my day tour to the Hoover Dam.