22nd April: Las Vegas to Los Angeles

From Wd

Jinny's Blog

The next morning I said my goodbyes to the group since they were going on ahead to LA and I was flying out of Las Vegas that evening. Didn’t see Dan and Bev at all. (I don’t think anybody did after the previous evening. They were flying to Mexico from Las Vegas). Gavin had collected everyone’s email address and promised to write. After I returned to my room, I felt something like group withdrawal syndrome, I suddenly realized that I wasn’t going to be seeing them anymore. No more dinners or cleaning duty. No making plans about every single day together. No discussing how the day went and “what did you do today”? Gosh, how easy it is to become co dependent in a group. I think that’s why they say, when in trouble on hiking trips, never separate. You draw strength from each other.

I then went back to the strip. Lovely lovely day. Sunny, lower 70s maybe and very breezy. Went to see the white tiger at Mirage, as you can see it’s brown. Walked through Forum shops (with the fake blue sky) which is part of Caesar’s Palace, loved the Atlantis show so much (they have statues that talk and make fire and water; No, they don’t pee), I saw it twice and recorded it on video in bits. The music is great and loud. When I came out of Forum, I asked a guard where I could find pastries. I was craving some. The guy said if there’s any pastry shop on the strip, it’s in the Paris casino. Off I went to Paree. The Strip was amazingly busy. Paris is like … well Paris. Fake blue sky again. Fake streets. Occasional fake cobblestoned path. A leg or two of the tower inside. A portion of Arc de Triomphe outside. Found a pastry shop (but of course), bought a couple to go.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to Las Vegas, I enjoyed my second day of the strip much more than the first. In the shuttle the driver and another guy who works in the casinos were talking about the fact that a casino girl in Palms makes $41 an hour. The driver thought it must be the playboy section. The guy said he’d be happy to put a tail on him for that kind of money!

Gavin's diary—12.45pm Sunday 22nd April 2007, on the road from LV to LA

It's been an anti-climactic day because Dan, Bev and Jinny have all left the trek and stayed on in Las Vegas. The remaining 10 of us have a little more spaice in the minibus and have done some 'outlet shopping' in that arcade we stopped at on the outward journey. Most of us just want to get home now.

Yesterday in Las Vegas went better than I had anticipated, although I still regard Nevada as a decadent state because of the gambling ethos of Las Vegas and because marketing has made that ethos acceptable to Americans and many people around the world. (Mind you, is there any difference between that and Skegness or Brighton Pier?)

It was great to have a bath at the hotel (La Quinta), although the skin on several of my finger pads has cracked, making even writing painful.

Ron gave us a reprise of his LV tour and pitch, this time on the Sunset Strip itself. We'd assume that we would have time to visit most of the hotels he pointed out, but we didn't, due to the excessive distances and our hopes of seeing the free Pirates and Sirens show at the Treasure Island hotel.

We had a great $25-for-all-you-can-eat buffet at the Rio hotel, where I had four small main courses (including a teriyaki cooked before me by an oriental-looking chef) and two desserts. Later I bought two souvenir used dice from the hotel, and James bought a similarly used pack of cards.

My memories of Las Vegas:

• The Treasure Island show being wimpishly cancelled twice due to undetectable 'high winds'
• Losing James and Natalie as we became separated at that point. Jinny generously helped me to try to relocate them at the Treasure Island and the Venetian, but we were unsuccessful. James and Natalie eventually turned up at Harrah's for the shuttle back to our hotel at around 12.15am, having spent the whole intervening time drinking at yet another bar within the Treasure Island.
• The competing, juggling barmen at the Kahunaville bar in Treasure Island. The bar is a square in the centre of the room, and on each side is a barman. Ours had seemed so demure and servile when making cocktaims for us ($11 for two Cosmopolitans containing cranberry juice). But suddenly each of the four barmen was introduced to us on the many giant plasma screens dotted around the bar, as if they were a character in a videogame. Then suddenly they were off, juggling against each other with bottles and mixers etc. Our barmen transformed in an instant into an aggressive extravert, making obscene gestures yet still getting nearly all the drink into the glasses.