| 40 bloody hours on a bus - 40 hours on a smelly Greyhound bus and then the bastard caught fire a hour outside Las Vegas! We left JB and Danna's after having a wonderful week with them armed with a bag of goodies and twleve bottles of water ready for our trek across America on a Greyhound. The route we were taking took us through the centre of America along route 40 which includes parts of the old route 66. We travelled through 5 or 6 states and saw some amazing scenery along the way. Travelling on a bus is certainly one way of getting to see a hell of a lot of the countryside. Every state was different, the towns, the roads, the people. And by God were there some different characters on that bus. One big black women was sitting on front or us with her daughter in front of her. Every time anyone went to sit next to her she screamed at them to "F**k off and leave her alone." Her poor daughter ended up with most of them next to her. I could have quite happily shot her every time we got off the bus. One of the best bits of the trip was the trains. I was absolutely amazed by the length of them. We stopped at one MacDonald's on Route 66 for a break and it took 12 minutes for the train to rumble past us whilst we comsumed the crap they call a cheese burger. I was gobsmacked, it just kept coming and coming and it was all for Tropicana Orange juice so somewhere in America they are drinling a lot of the stuff. As our second night on the bus started we came down the side of a mountain and seemed to go on to the side of the road for a while. Within a few minutes we had pulled into a gas station in a place called Bullhead City and smoke filled the back of the bus. Amid a semi panic we all go off and were greeted by flames coming from underneath the bus. My immediate thoughts were "Bloody typical, I'll have a fag" so lit up in the middle of the gas station with a burning bus next to me. Luckily brain got into gear and I moved out of the way feeling like an idiot. It was all quite exciting really. When I asked the driver what was going to happen he announced that, "It's not my problem" Oh to be a Greyhound bus driver! We hung around for a hour sitting on upside down grates. You have to remember that we were in the middle of the desert at 10pm and it was still in the late 30's heat wise, you can imagine how comfortable we were! A fellow passenger had previously worked for Greyhound in Vegas and helped the driver inspect the vehicle before taking it out for a test drive with him. When he came back someone asked him where they had gone he announced round the block past the casino's and via a candy store to get some marshmallows in case there was another fire. That sort of broke the tension a bit. Needless to say when it came to getting back on the bus we wre all a little dubious especially when Mr "I took a customer care course" bus driver carried on at the same speed he had been travelling at before the fire (fatser than I thought legal) and kept driving onto the side of the road. When we got to Las Vegas I thanked him upstairs and made a promise to myself NEVER go on a greyhound bus again for longer than 12 hours! |
| Las Vegas to me was like a massive theme park in the middle of the desert. It is completely out of this world. The heat the lights the dust the colour the themes the rush etc etc. It is FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC. After the excitment of the bus trip, we got to the hostel (www.usahostels.com)and were greated with a couple of beers which was very much needed.The hostel was very cool. It had a swimming pool and juckuzi and was pretty bloody trendy really. The on;y main problem being that it was in the roughest part of Vegas adn our closest neighbours were the friendly drug dealers and some crackheads. As you can imagine I didn't want to venture out on my own. But they seemed to stay away from the hostel which was a blessed relief. The first day was lazy. We stayed by the pool and met some fellow inmates all of who really nice. A mad Australian called Esther and some UK girlies invited us to go the strip with them that evening. So we donned cothes and caught a bus up to the centre of the gambling world. Vegas surrounded by mountains and it gives you the impression of being in a theme park. Everything is massive. The hotels and Casino's are extravagent and wonderful and with the help of our "What's free in Vegas" guide from the hostel the six of us went to show after show and wandered aimlessly in and out of the casino's. Each Casino is themed and the brain power behind them is genius. My favourite is the Venetian which has a mock Venice in the middle of it. Yup it's Venice in the desert. There's gondola's that you can go for a ride on and be sung at. There's shops, a market place, bridges. I was absolutely amazed and completely in love. The whole concept was brilliant. The Mirage Casino is home of the famous Siegried and Roy and their white tigers (Roy got mauled by one a coule of weeks after we had been there - oops) and a gorgeous tropical garden. The Bellagio has the most beautiful dancing fountains which play every half a hour. They are absolutley incredible. Can you tell that I liked it yet? The actual Casino's are brilliant. I was a little miffed that wasn't winning anything but soon found a 5c machine that I could play and win lots out of and made about $7.00 in all, so I was quite pleased. The majority of the casino's bring you free drinks aroudn in order to keep you at your machine. So if you wanted a drink you sat down stuck 25c in a machine, waited for the long legs and lipstick to appear and get a beer for absolutley bugger all.Marvellous, should be down at all fruit machines in England too. The Rio Casino had a Mardi Gras spectacular a couple of times a night where the ceiling would come alive with floats and platforms and they performers would dance and sing whilst being whisked around the tracks high above us. There was an amazing massive steamboat covered in flashing lights which looped the casino twice and then just disappeared back to where is came from and the casino was back to normal. I LOVE LAS VEGAS All the Casino's we visited are listed below for you to have a look at. |
| THE GRAND CANYON After semi clubbing the night away on our first night we headed of for the Grand Canyon the next day. Our tour guide was a slightly mad Kiwi called John who was very talkative and was swigging beer as we went along. Our first port of call was the Joshua Tree Forest. They are one ugly tree, their leaves can kill you with their razor sharp edges and they look menacing to say the least. We carried on to the Canyon and right from the start I began to understand what the fuss was all about. Typically the moment we got there my ears started to play up and I didn't seem to be able to appreciate completely what I was seeing (Mr Warner, holiday suggestions for the future - Grand Canyon and Vegas!). We had some lunch and the nutty Kiwi took us for a little ramble down the canyon a bit so we could see more. It is so big that the helicopters taking the slightly better off day trippers on tours looked like flys going along the bottom of the canyon. We met some really lovely people on tour. YES DAVE AND EMMA I'm talking about you (unfortunately we bumped into them again in Fiji and now it looks like I might HAVE to go and see them in Oz) Another guy who had arrived at the hostel the morning we went on the trip managed to find a rattle snake and was rather determined that we should all see it. Thank's Garry but No Way!!!!!! Even the nutty Kiwi was quite impressed that he had seen one. One the way back to Vewgas we saw some Golden Eagles on top of the telegraph poles - little birds aren't they! |
| LAS VEGAS AND THE GRAND CANYON |
| PICTURES TO COME |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |