DAY 15 - 16/10/2017

October 16th 30°

Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon

On the way out of Las Vegas we visited "Counts Kustoms" we arrived there at 09:30 and had a look around the show room at the cars on show - they were great to see and the paint work on some of the cars was out of this world, some of the cars had been on the Discovery Channel show.

They of course had a shop in the show room and I had to buy a few things... A zippo lighter and also a black zip up top.

Then we drove to the Hoover Dam

I was not expecting much from this stop but it is one of the places that you have to see as you drive past so we pulled off the highway and took a little detoured to stop and see how it was... we parked up but we only stayed about 30 minutes - it was okay to see but nothing special.

To be honest it was smaller than what I thought it would be - of course it is big and when you look down is a long way down but I was expecting more...

From the Hoover Dam it was a straight drive to the Grand Canyon where we arrived just after Sunset so we dropped our bags and went to get some food.

The drive was without any problems and again the scenery was beautiful, it is lovely to drive in this part of the world.

On the way into the Grand Canyon we did hit part of Route 66, it was the small town of Williams - this is due south of where we were staying at the Grand Canyon Village.

Williams was a beautiful little town very unique, if you think of Route 66 and the shops and the bars that should be there - this is the place.

Driving from Williams to the Grand Canyon was straight road north - on the way you do not get to see or have any hint that you are getting close to the canyon, the landscape was quite flat and also with forests - you don’t get to see any of the canyon even when you pull into the canyon village.

DAY 14 - 15/10/2017

October 15th 31°

A long day on the strip... it was planned that we would spend just a few hours in the morning at the strip and then move on but it just took so long... we were there from 10:00 untill 16:30

We started south at the Las Vegas sign and found that there was a lot of tributes to the fallen in the shooting that took place on the 01/10 -  it was very sobering and we did not expect it.

Each person had their own cross with their photo. There were many flowers and tributes all the way down the line but even with all these tributes and people still coming to lay flowers and show their grief  other people were still taking photos of themselves with the sign... laughing, smiling and having fun... it just did not feel right...

All through Vegas on the hotels, on billboards, in shops and on T-shirts it was showing #VegasStrong

From here we went up the strip to where we finished yesterday.

The Mandalay Bay hotel was the first hotel after the sign and it still had the windows boarded up and over looking the Route 91 harvest country music festival - you could not help but think what had happened and everything was still as it was on the day...  Police were still at the scene.

We walked for miles and visited the M&M world shop and also a few of the hotels. We were also very lucky to see the water Fountain show at the Bellagio Hotel.

Once we finished and back at the hotel the kids jumped in the pool for an hour and then we stayed at the hotel to eat.

In the evening on the TV we could see that there was a march through the Las Vegas strip for the fallen – it started very close to our hotel I went all the way down to the Las Vegas sign.

We are now ready to drive out tomorrow to the Grand Canyon - Maybe in the morning on our way out we could try to see the pawnshop from the TV that we saw on the way in to Las Vegas or counting cars garage from the TV

Vegas is a place that you have to see...
The place itself is over the top and crazy as it should be.
The buildings and casinos are wonderful to see and experience.
It is also possible to find driving the strip - motorbike gangs pulling wheelies down most of the strip to very special cars you only see once-in-a-lifetime.

It was nice to visit Las Vegas but it’s a place that I would not think to come again... there are many other places that I have seen already on this trip that I would like to re-visit but Vegas is not one of them…

DAY 13 - 14/10/2017

October 14

Up and out early because Maj-Britt did not want to spend any more time in the house. we were out and on the road at 08:30

On our plan through Death Valley we only had "Bad Water" listed to look at but after looking at a map on the way I could see that there were a few more things that we could fit into the route...

Artists Drive

Artists palette

Old Harmony works

Zabriskie point

Today was a great drive and there were so many things to see both when driving and also stopping.
The route was amazing and not what I thought it would be - I was thinking flat and sandy but it was very rocky and mountainous with great colours and rock formations / shapes all the time...

When we started to drive from Paramint Springs I stopped to take a photo and I jumped out of the car and I came face-to-face with a wild dog… at first I didn’t know what to do and I froze then I jumped back into the car to take a photo and within a few minutes there were two of them stood looking at our car

We guessed they were waiting for food as it was close to the restaurant and the apartments so they must be local also at night we could hear scratching outside which I also think must be these wild dogs

In the valley the temperature was at 88°F which is 31°C

Was also found some sand dunes:

Bad water :

When we got out of the valley the drive became more of the same but still mountings on both sides as a backdrop..

We crossed the state line into Nevada and then soon we were in Vegas

In Nevada we passed the Air Force Base in Coldcreek on the other side there was a prison with signs on the road saying it was not allowed to pick up hitchhikers

We arrived at the hotel around about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and the kids were really happy to see a swimming pool and within minutes they were dressed ready for the pool and we took a quick dip and the kids loved it

We were out at 5 o’clock for a walk down to the top of the strip and to find some food. we stopped to get pizza and Chinese it was a nice walk lots of people and groups of guys and girls
when we finished our food it was dark and the strip started to light up
It was nice in a crazy way

Tomorrow we hope to get to see the lower part of the strip that we have not seen
we also want to shop a little and maybe if we have time I would like to see the pawnshop from the TV or counting cars garage also from the TV

The kids just want to jump into the pool all day…