Day 69 : September 3 LAS VEGAS (RVs)
Once again the day is hot, but not quite as fierce as the previous days. The tractor people were busy preparing to leave early in the morning, but the RV drivers decided to spend an extra day at the Circus Circus RV Park to allow time for limited sight-seeing. Advice is that accommodation is extremely tight in California over the Labor Day Long Weekend which is another incentive to ‘stay put’. Tickets were booked for the evening’s session of The Lion King for Allan and Carolyn and Ron and Kerry, so the day is kept pretty low key.
At 6.30pm the tractors lined up in front of the Circus Circus Hotel/Casino for a photo opportunity. This had to be kept very short as tractors are not really meant to park there! Once this was achieved, the RV people headed up town to the Mandalay Bay Resort for dinner and the show. This presentation of The Lion King was absolutely fantastic – the costumes and staging could not be faulted and the music had a real African beat, with percussionists placed strategically on either side of the theatre.
Las Vegas has a bus service which runs up and down Las Vegas Boulevard and a 24 hour ticket can be purchased for as many uses as one requires. Our group took advantage of this service for the return from the theatre and had front row seats on the upper deck of the double-decker bus. For each stop there was a commentary on which Hotels and Casinos could be accessed and the passing parade of people and lights was amazing – the only problem was that no-one was going anywhere fast – the 5 mile trip took around one and a half hours which made the night rather a late one. Lucky we were not the ones heading off at 5.30am in the morning.
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| Neville set up at Las Vegas RV Park |
George & Anne's spot |
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| Cumber checks out gear |
Five tractors at Circus Circus |
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| Allan & Carolyn at The Lion King |
Fairyland on Las Vegas Boulevard |
Day 70 : September 4th LAS VEGAS (RVs)
An early email from our friend from Kanab, Dean Dysart, really caused our group to think how very lucky we have been. As part of our shuttle bus tour of Zion Canyon on Wednesday morning, we visited Weeping Rock and were so impressed that photos were posted on the webpage. We now find that less than an hour after we walked the trail up to the rock, there was quite a severe rock fall and the trail was closed. Fortunately there were no injuries, and we are thankful that we did not finish up under some of those boulders. This is a very special place, and it is unfortunate that it cannot be re-opened until after the Labor Day weekend.
Having decided to stay one extra day in Las Vegas after the departure of the tractors, our little group really had to give the sight-seeing our best shot. The idea in this city seems to be to sleep during the day and party at night – not quite our usual custom. Allan and Carolyn had spent an evening seeing some of the sights on Thursday and Allan was keen to show us those he thought we would most enjoy.
First on the agenda was the Stratosphere Tower, where the lift takes visitors to the 866 feet level. We were amazed to find the vision free of the smoke which has been shrouding most areas for the past days and from the indoor observation deck we could clearly see all of the city and out to the mountains in the distance. This was quite an experience.
Next was dinner in one of the many restaurants in the Circus Circus’ huge hotel/casino complex. Then a bus ride was appropriate to take us to the Bellagio to watch the water fountains which are just brilliant and to see their wonderful floral displays. A quick look was all we had time for at the French Casino, complete with half scale Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triumph and interesting reproductions of various buildings around the inside of the Casino. Then it was time to join the throngs of people on the streets and head to The Venetian. The canals are so well reproduced that it was hard to believe we were not back in Venice again.
The attractions go on and on but the feet say enough is enough and we were glad to head back to the RV Park after a very interesting and enjoyable look at just a small cross section. Carolyn referred to Las Vegas as an ‘adult Disneyland’ which pretty well sums it up – the city is just so different to any other we have seen in this country.
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| The Stratosphere Tower |
Los Vegas Boulevarde from the Tower |
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| Circus Circus complex & RV Park from the Tower |
Suburbs and mountains from the Tower |
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| Circus Circus Sign |
The half scale Eiffel Tower |
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| Another colourful sign. |
The gondoleirs at The Venetian |
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