Nevada and Arizona: More than a money oasis.

Vegas Baby!

It’s been a while since we had the energy, or more precisely the motivation, to get you all caught up on our adventures from the last two weeks and the best place to start would definitely be Vegas. For those who do not know Las Vegas is in the Nevada desert surrounded by mountains on every horizon and is constantly rated as one of America’s best cities to let your hair down and let your wallets open.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon after a long drive from San Diego through some pretty amazing scenery. The way the American landscape changes so dramatically from urban jungle to desert plains studded with monoliths and mirages of mountain ranges in the hazy distance is quite something and we are so glad we chose to drive, rather than fly, across this unfathomably beautiful and rugged terrain. Las Vegas is as glamorous, in parts, as it is made out to be in the media and when the sun goes down the lights come on and the whole city awakes from its daytime hibernation.

Even strolling around the Las Vegas strip you get an appreciation for just how much money is in this city and many try to capitalize on that, some more successfuly than others. If you can look past the peddlers selling wild fantasies through to urban hip-hop jazz fusion artists pushing their latest audio offerings the streets are safe and alive with an electricity like we have never experienced. We were staying at a motel on the Las Vegas strip and we spent one day collecting tickets for David Copperfield and trying out an amusement park on the top of the Stratosphere Casino. The ride we went on was a rollercoaster wannabe and if the roller coaster was not 108 stories high the ride would have been rather lame, we were kind of feeling a little ripped off as it cost about $50 each including entrance to the Stratosphere observation deck, so we spent the next couple of days wandering around without any goal in particular. Antoinette developed a curious, and honestly tempting, craving for espresso martinis and this would take us a few days to stumble across, but we will save that tale and it’s consequences for later.

Each casino has it’s own theme and most are kept in pretty good repair. The MGM Grand has a lion enclosure on the casino floor, the Venetian has Venice inspired gondolas cruising the moat in front of the casino and well you get the idea. The temptation to consume booze most days was hard to overcome, as everybody else seemed to be doing it, but with money being tight for the time being it was probably a blessing in disguise. The shopping in Vegas is truly world class. Almost every major hotel has three things. A Tiffany’s, Gucci and Louis Vitton store either inside the complex, or adjacent to, but there are plenty of other stores to visit and we spent a good day or so strolling through a mall with clouds painted on the ceiling and indoor fountains supposed to fool you into thinking you are outdoors.

Delicious, but deadly.

We did eventually locate somewhere to get an espresso martini, which was delicious, but for some bizarre reason the waitress told us about a place we could get an even better one [which was pretty daring because the ones we had in front of us at the time were lush] and we decided that would be our destination for our large Friday night out on the town. We arrived at Blue Martini around 5.30 to take advantage of their happy hour specials [$7 cocktails until 8pm which included the shaker they were made in that doubled the amount of cocktail goodness you received] and the results were messy. After slamming down four cocktails each, and the extra from the shakers, we were uneasily intoxicated and barely had the sense or energy to make it back to our motel, let alone any casinos. It was a good thing, however, because we would have been cannon fodder for the highly trained fortune distributors behind the smooth felt tables of any casino. The hangover was disastrous and we spent most of the day flicking between anything and everything on a disjointed cable network while avoiding any mention or sight of the sun and the scary neon lit world that lurked metres from where we lay defenseless and in need of a miracle.

This afternoon held promise, not similar to the afternoon before it, but the thought of seeing David Copperfield at the MGM Grand was enough to lure us from our incapacitated state, although we were both hoping he could make our hangovers…disappear. The show was brilliant and Copperfield really does things that defy logic and leave you scratching your head thinking ‘How?’ Even though the show did not seem too important to Copperfield he was still having fun, mostly at the audiences expense, and the show was worth the money. So after succumbing to the temptations of Las Vegas, perhaps a little too much, it was time to escape the strip and head to the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon 1.0

After another eastward drive we found ourselves on highway 64 50 miles south of the Grand Canyon in a town called Williams. We were a little bewildered when we checked in and were given a sheet saying ‘freeze warning,’ but we quickly figured out why. This place was freezing. We woke up in the morning to find ice on the inside windows of our RV, seriously it was so cold we could not sleep, but after a hot breakfast and an hour long cruise down highway 64 we arrived at our destination. Photos really do not do justice to the Grand Canyon and although you can capture, preserve and display portions of the canyon in great light and detail the vastness and gargantuan space this wonder occupies can not be described by any single image. The park was really well run, with free shuttles running constantly through some of the parks better spots, and we found ourselves walking within metres of the canyon rim in no time.

Grand Canyon near Desert View

We took as many photos as we could before deciding it was time to head somewhere else and we tackled the 30 minute drive to Desert View where a lone tower watches over the plateaus and crevasses and forgoes magnificent views deep into the canyon and over the plains. We do not know what it was, maybe the extended hangovers, but for most of the trip we were both speechless and did not feel the need to gasp and gape because the views said it all for us. Even though the light for most of the day was horrid with shadows stretching through almost every shot the journey out here was really worthwhile and even though we might never come back the majesty and immensity of this place really is something you have to see for yourself.

After another cold night in Williams we headed south for warmer weather to a small town called Sedona, literally a blip on the map, and found a strange affinity with the red rocks and desert hills that make up so much of what we are now seeing. For us the south-west really feels like the real America and being able to drive through such mind blowing natural phenomena makes us realize just what we are doing and makes us really glad we are actually doing it. We have a couple of things to take care of in Sedona before heading through to Albuquerque, Roswell, Senora and beyond, which, undoubtedly, will hold plenty of sights, sounds and tastes for us to write about, but you will just have to wait a while.

‘Till next time,

Antoinette and James.