Las Vegas

Wednesday morning was my time to change hotels, the ruck sack was packed and left in the room. I made time to walk a couple of blocks off the strip to go and take a look at the Las Vegas Hilton. The hotel stood in as the Whyte House in the Bond film "Diamonds are Forever", it was also where Elvis played his concerts when he was in Vegas. Wonder if he got the Willard Whyte penthouse at the top of the hotel. The hotel still looks good, but with all the new hotels further up the Strip it seems as it is being left behind. You have to wonder how long it will be before it is demolished to make way for another huge mega resort. That would be a shame as it has some interesting history, but since when was that as important as the bottom line.
I went back to my hotel and picked up my bag, stuffed myself onto the bus and went to the Venetian. I didn't mean to check in, but just leave my bag there as it was only 11am. Luckily for me there was a room ready and available and off I went. To say that I almost had an orgasm when I entered the room is no exaggeration. The room was beautiful, the bathroom was huge and all three rooms had flat screen t.v.'s. I was in heaven. I think I like nice hotels so much because I view them as havens from the outside world. You receive generally good service and this serves to protect you from the rough and tumble that goes on outside, you feel less battered. I had been feeling battered in Vegas, I had really wanted to see it but obviously hadn't realised that it shouldn't be done alone. Company is most definitely required.
After taking the required room photos I managed to drag myself out of the room and catch the bus up to the Luxor hotel at the top of the Strip. I wandered around the hotel and then changed my voucher for a ticket to the Titanic exhibition. The exhibition was put together with great imagination and they made a lot of the few exhibits they had. First there was a background to the building of the ship, some of the plans and information about the shipping company. Then they had a recreation of a third class corridor and some rooms. Apparently all of the different classes of accommodation on the ship were better than any previous ship. In third class people slept on real mattresses and not just straw on top of wood. There was also a recreation of a first class room with some artifacts that had been recovered from the shipwreck. All along the walls were photos of some of the passengers and information about them. A lot of the personal effects were accompanied by the owners personal information. Very cool and made the exhibit more real somehow.
When the exhibition reached the point of the sinking they had what looked like a huge rounded block of ice. You could touch this and this gave you an idea of the temperatures people had to deal with when they entered the water. There was also a model of the front part of the ship as it was found on the sea bottom. The star of the exhibition was a 35 ton piece from the side of the ship, brought to the surface in 2002. Heaven knows how they got it to Vegas, but they did. Finally at the end there was a wall with a list of all the passengers and staff on the Titanic and details on if they survived or not. When you entered the exhibition everyone is given a boarding card with a passengers name on it. So I was interested to see if I had "survived" or not. The card said that I was a female third class passenger, I figured that I hadn't survived so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had. That made me smile.
I ended my last night in Vegas in my lovely room, having a bath while watching television and being able to use a telephone while sat on the toilet. It's the little things in life that make it worthwhile.
I had a relaxing 1st morning, packed up my stuff and caught the bus to the rental car centre out by the airport. As per usual it cost more than I was expecting and that put me in a bad mood. On the good side I was getting out of Vegas and my night at the Venetian had lifted my spirits. I drove out of the city and headed to the Hoover dam. It was interstate all the way and when I don't have to turn driving here is no problem. When I have to make a left hand turn I still have to really concentrate to make sure that I don't pull in the left hand lane and end up driving into oncoming traffic.
I stopped to take a look at the dam, tried to pull into the official parking area and swiftly left again. There was a $7 charge to park, I drove over the dam and parked up the hill and walked back. I then tried to go into the visitor centre but there was a $8 charge for that. I contented myself with taking a few photos, scaring myself by looking over the dam and congratulating myself on saving $15. After the expense of the Venetian hotel and the car rental I needed to save some money. I was in danger of blowing my monthly budget.
I left the dam behind and drove onto my goal for the day, the Grand Canyon. I stopped in Williams for dinner and then headed into Tusayan,a small town just outside the park and parked up for the night. I found a dark corner of a parking lot and prepared to get myself comfortable for the night. It was not a good night, I was cold and I kept having to go to the bathroom. I hoped that wasn't a sign of things to come.