Day 5 & 6: Vegas, Baby! Vegas!!!

Day 5 & 6 – On The Road to Vegas

Odometer reading - 2438 (Grand Canyon National Park)
Final reading of the day – 2703 (Las Vegas)

The day started a little early for us. Emily had to get ready for school and Susan was kind enough to make breakfast. Days Inn has nothing on Susan when it comes to Scrambled Eggs & Ham. We gave our good-bye hugs and farewell sayings and headed west on I-40. As the video will show, nothing but desert to keep us company. I don’t know how Da MF Man would have made this trip solo as he originally planned. I can see him barreling down the highway, a cigarette in his hand, crushed cans of Jolt cola littering the floor. Something straight out of a scene from “The Road Warrior.”



We made it to Arizona in record time…and yes…more desert!

We did make a detour once we passed Flagstaff. Since we were so close, we decided to go the Grand Canyon National Park. The Grand Canyon has been on my list of “Things to Do Before I Die…” since 1990. That movie with Kevin Kline and Danny Glover inspired me. So after paying the entrance fee ($25.00 – It does cost a little scratch to see the largest hole in the ground), finding a place to park, and hiking 4/10 of a mile, I was able to see one of the most awesome sights to behold. Check the video:



That’s another thing this trip is all about. Being semi-spontaneous!!! Being able to just get up and go across the country, rolling with whatever comes our way, a person can truly feel free.

After the boredom that the desert offered, we reached the Hoover Dam. I don’t believe that I’m a typical tourist. I don’t take a lot of pictures while I’m on vacation. I don’t race to historical landmarks nor do I like to stand in line to visit celebrity homes. I was content to just drive right through Hoover Dam but Da MF Man had a different idea in mind:



Finally…we made it to Vegas. We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel at the south end of the strip and what they say is true: Vegas never sleeps and neither will you if you go all out. Now…I can’t tell you everything that happened to us down there. You know the saying: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!” I will say this though…In the first five minutes of our arrival, we were invited to the Excalibur VIP Services room for an upgrade to our room; The Strip is hella long if you are fool enough to walk one end to the other (Yes…we did); The happy people in the Vegas commercials are not the ones gambling their rent checks at the slot machines; The monorail is the best invention Vegas has to offer (There was no way we were going to walk back to the Excalibur); Louie Anderson is really that big; and the kicker – if you do not intend to gamble when you are in Vegas, What the hell are you there for?!?

I was going to provide a video montage of our adventure in Vegas but I think this one sums it up:



Elvis is in the building!!!