Vegas Baby, Vegas

In Arizona that night we had horrible luck finding a place to sleep. We had 2 waysides that were marked on our Atlas and a rest area just outside of Flagstaff if all else failed. The waysides vary from state to state which makes them very unreliable when entering a new state for the first time. Sometimes they are quite large and just as big as any normal rest stop, other times they are gravel pullouts with pit toilets reminiscent of BC and the Yukon, or in Arizona's case, non-existent. We drove past the 2 supposed waysides on our map and found absolutely nothing, not even a sign for either of them. We continued on into the early morning to our rest area back on the main highway only to find it closed for construction, thoroughly exhausting our entire stock of potential places to sleep near the Grand Canyon. Luckily, Katie spotted a Walmart in Flagstaff so after a short turn around, we were able to get our sleep that night. We had to travel a bit farther than originally planned because the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was closed for the winter, forcing us to take the

long way around the canyon to the south rim. In the morning we woke up before our alarm in the bitter cold and headed for Grand Canyon National Park getting a nice and early start on the day. Both of our hiking shoes were still sopping wet from yesterdays hike in the Narrows so we really didn't even consider doing a hike at this National Park. Also, if you are not willing to hike to the bottom of the canyon, and we were not, the only other hike in the

park is the rim trail which seemed a waste of time to us since you can drive to all the good lookouts anyway. So we stuck to the car for the day and after doing a little shopping at the visitor center, headed to a few viewpoints to look around. The Grand Canyon is always an amazing sight, no matter how many times you have been there before. Its amazing to see how much the park changes from your memories while the actual canyon seems to be cemented in time. We didn't spend much time here because of the freezing cold wind coming off the canyon and because of our lack of proper hiking shoes to do a hike, so we left the Grand Canyon about noon and headed into town for lunch. At the

gift shop in the Grand Canyon, we stumbled across a display from the Grand Canyon Brewing Company. We looked at the labels and discovered that it was located in Williams, a town near the highway, which was on our way out. After driving through this small town a short while, we spotted the brewery a block away from main street. We pulled up next to the building to find a sign

stating that they were closed. We never figured out if it was a seasonal thing or if they just had weekend hours or something like that, but the sign also told us that we could get all of their beers in the diner next door. This place was called Cruiser's Route 66 Cafe and it was amazing. Decked out completely as a 50's retro diner it felt like they should be serving milkshakes as opposed to beer. We ate a great lunch and we both got really anxious and excited to be back on Rt. 66 and get immersed in all the hokey stuff again. Next we began our long drive toward Las Vegas. We had figured that by us leaving in the early afternoon from the Grand Canyon area we

would pull into Vegas right as the sun was setting and the Strip was lighting up. Along the way we made a stop at the Hoover Dam and got to cross over the recently opened Hoover Dam Bypass. As you drive over the Bypass you can't see the Hoover Dam at all because of the angle but you can park nearby and walk out onto the bridge which we did offering a spectacular view of the Dam. We reached the Hoover Dam right as the sun was setting which also meant that the Dam was closing. We proceeded down to the visitor center and ended up driving across the actual Dam, determined not to pay $7 to park, then walked back across it only to find the visitor center closed, though the gift shop remained open. We browsed around for a short while but quickly decided it was time to get to Vegas. We rolled into the Strip at just about 6 p.m. and parked for free at an unassuming casino across from Caesar's Palace called Bill's Gamblin Hall & Saloon then proceeded to spend the night walking up and down the strip.

We didn't do any gambling in Vegas considering that neither Katie nor I care much about gambling and we really can't afford to throw hundreds of dollars away on a chance anyway. Nonetheless we had a lot of fun in Vegas. We got to watch the Bellagio water show twice while walking the strip, rode the roller coaster at New York, New York, and saw the volcano explode at the Mirage. We walked down to Excalibur and relived moments of my Mom's and Russ' wedding then strolled over to Luxor and compared the Egyptian motif to our memories of the actual place. Of course, as

we walked the strip we took advantage of being able to drink in public which also conveniently occupied our hands so that we couldn't take the lude material being offered to us by people at every corner. Lastly we stopped at Caesar's Palace, walked the Forum Shops and stopped in to see the tigers at the Mirage but unfortunately they had already went to bed that night. All this took us about 5 hours to do and it was midnight before we hopped in our car to leave the strip. As we got in the car I had a desire to search out the "old strip." I had never been there before and I was interested in seeing if we could find it. We rolled lazily down the street past the Riviera and Circus Circus, again recounting my former visits to the city with Katie when we stumbled upon the old strip, now known as the Fremont Experience. Again we found free parking here and to

our surprise, a brewery. This place was named the Main Street Brewery just like the one in Cortez, and we stopped in for a couple beers before we walked over to Fremont Street and soaked up the whole experience. The coolest part about the

brewery was the bathroom. The urinals were fixed to a 20 ft. section of the Berlin Wall. Now if anyone every happens to ask, I can happily say that I have pissed on the Berlin Wall :) Down Fremont St. we found the giant cowboy and cowgirl that I remember my cousin Lauren asking about during my first

trip to Vegas and the giant roof above filled with lights that, had you stared at it long enough, would have given anyone a seizure.

We walked up and down the strip going into random casino's and shops spending about 2 hours in this part of Vegas. One of the highlights was walking into Binion's Horseshoe Casino, home of the World Series of Poker. Had we been there a few hours earlier we could have had our picture taken with a million dollars, but by the time we rolled in it was already locked up for the night. We went into the many, now empty rooms, full of poker tables and imagined them all being filled as the tournament was taking place. Finally satisfied that we had seen enough of Vegas, we grabbed some coffee for the drive and left stopping just inside the California border where we knew that the rest stops were reliable. And no, Katie and I did not elope in Vegas :)