This was a planned trip. We had 5 days. We rented a mini-van and started off well prepared with atlases, and Yahoo driving directions. We had another family for company, and we shared the driving.
It was my first long drive, and I was happy. The drive, to say the truth, was least scenic. It was Texas first, flat and flat and flat; then it was New Mexico - flat and flat and flat; and then it was Arizona - flat and flat and flat. To make things short, we drove the full day through vast plain lands, had burgers and other sorts of fast food (these first bites were tasty, but soon we got tired of it), and reached our first camping site at night. We set up the tents and slept. We had not carried the foam to sleep on, and the ground, for sure, had rocks.
After another half a days drive we arrived at Las Vegas. But this drive was real scenic. We were driving amidst mountains, brown first, and sand colored later on. The landscape was real beautiful. We drove over Hoover dam too.
Las vegas, the entertainment capital of the world - as we saw it - was a place of hotels (read casinos). The hotel rooms here are cheaper compared to other places in the US - the hotel administration banking on the casinos to make the big money. The hub of activity is in 'The Strip' (pun it) lined with great hotels on both sides. Each hotel had some sort of show going on, and this line up of hotels, each contending to grab attention, reminded me of a string of models walking down an aisle. The strip was more beautiful in the night coming alive with great colours. We gaped as much as we could. Also, this city, looks like, owns Elvis Presley. While we were gaping, we saw this man standing near a car dressed up like Elvis, with a note that said - 'Pose with Elvis'. I was, sure, afraid to photo this scene.
Ofcourse, the other face of Las Vegas we saw was the gambling. Each hotel had big casinos - Slot machines, Black Jacks, Roulettes, ... Some of the slot machines had this big figure incrementing on the top, of the order of $98,000, the jackpot, which you could win with 5 cents! We played 5 cents for $12.95, and then we hit the bonus with the next nickel. The wheel of fortune above the machine started to rotate and it stopped on 100X once and 25X twice. And, we did miss the 1000X once real narrow. Thus we were rich by $7. But, then we spent $20 more before stopping. Gambling is big business here. This hotel in which we were staying said - 'Win guaranteed. Or, 110% of your money back'. I guess, the win could be as less as 5 cents, though!
Now the Grand Canyon! The first expressions were - Wow! It was huge. It really looked like a lost empire to me. I am pretty sure :-) that this is the often repeated scene in Macanas Gold type movies - the lost empire amidst which the Red Indians take the gold seekers around. There were these structures resembling temples - named Vishnu temple, Shiva temple, Brahma temple, Budha temple, etc., etc.; they are supposed to be formed by river erosion and other geological phenomena; but I can just not believe that nature can do such wonders. If it is natural, it is a real wonder. Now, after getting back, I feel that I must have trekked down and looked at it. We had not trekked down because we had kids with us. We saw the Colarado river flowing calmly down below as a narrow streak, which was supposed to have eroded and formed this great wonder (and we discovered at the IMAX nearby that the river had real rough rapids).
On the way back, we stopped at the giant meteor crater - supposed to have been formed when a giant meteor hit the spot 50,000 years ago. We could see the earth's strata that had been squeezed and thrown up due to the impact.
And then we reached back home and slept a long night on a foamy mattress!
