To Vegas!

With the lack of wi-fi in our Vegas hotel and no desire to eat at McDonalds for theirs, our Vegas blog posts are only going up now. Kathryn's done a great job keeping track of thing though and has written most of these posts.

We had planned for this to be a cruisy day where we could sleep in, catch up on our photos and drive to Las Vegas and check into our hotel and meet the Contiki group we would be with for New Year’s eve by 4:00pm that day.  The drive to Vegas usually takes about 4 – 4 ½ hours so after a quick breakfast at Ihop we checked out of Howard Johnson and were on the road north by 11:00am.  Rob enjoyed the 5 lane freeways and was switching lanes like a pro by the time we were out of the city.  However, as we got further from LA it became obvious how many people were also heading in that direction, and it was even more then we had expected.

Due to the huge number of vehicles traffic was slowed to a crawl for long periods of time and there was no obvious reason for it to do so.  This also wasn't helped by some technical difficulties in the process of filling up the car (Rob had to ask a couple of people for info on the process, which involves guessing an approximate dollar value inside first and then hoping it all worked out in the end).

Getting back on the freeway wasn't too easy either.  The big looping on-ramps and off-ramps have several exits so being in the right lane is very important.  Unfortunately this took a couple of goes! We managed to end up in a defunct outlet mall car park, trying to find an exit that would lead back to the freeway. 

At about 2pm Google was telling us we were still 3 hours from Vegas and traffic was still crawling along around us so we stopped tried to get hold of the Contiki tour guide and our accommodation, Harrah’s, to let them know.  No one seemed to know who our tour guide was or how to get hold of him so we had no choice but to just kept driving and figure it out when we got there.

Driving in to Vegas at night was overwhelming but amazing.  Like LA, Vegas spreads out for miles so there were rows and rows of ordinary street lights and other buildings, all cut by the freeway, before we got to the strip.  Everything is lit up and there are neon lights and spotlights coming from everywhere.  The hotels aren't just skyscrapers, there are pyramids, an Eiffel Tower, a castle, a Statue of Liberty and so many others.

We checked into Harrah’s and asked about the Contiki tours and they were able to help us to leave a message on the tour guide’s room phone.  The whole day had been exhausting and our 4 hour trip had turned into 6 and a half, so for our first night in Las Vegas we went to a buffet dinner at Harrah’s, called Flavors, and then went to bed early.

While the circumstances meant it wasn't the greatest introduction to Vegas, we were still amazed at the city itself and it worked out for the best, as we were one of the few who weren't hung over on New Year’s Eve! Read about that in the next post.