Day 15

We got up this morning in Mojave, CA to some sweltering heat. After packing up the truck, we realized that we had not cleaned out our cooler in some time (since before arriving in San Fransisco). Actually, it was not as bad as we had thought, seeing that everything was in its own sealable container or Zip-Loc bag. After emptying and cleaning it out, we set off towards Vegas. We stopped briefly in Barstow, CA for lunch at a Bob's Big Boy restaurant, and filled up the truck ($3.09 a gallon; yipes!).

We hit the road again, and encountered a big traffic backlog at the Nevada state line. We were stuck in traffic for about a half hour or so, crawling along at not more than 10 mph. We have learned that traffic jams kind of kill our excitement. It opened up again, and we soon found ourselves in Vegas.

We saw all the big hotels and casinos as we drove in from the south along the Interstae to the north end of the Strip, where our hotel was. We got really nice rooms at the Stratosphere for $50 a night (their week day rate). After parking the car, we stood in the registration line for about 20 minutes. Brett gawked at all the sight in the hotel lobby and casino. When we got to the front of the line, we were directed to the check-in line (oops!), which was a little ways down the lobby. We were a little nervous about our reservations, seeing as we booked them at about 11 PM the night before and the website said that our reservations should be on the system within 7 days (?!). Thankfully, our reservations were in the system. We had a good talk with the check-in clerk about the hotel, its amenities, and everything else(including a "tops optional adult pool" on the top floor). We parked the truck, grabbed our luggage, and made our way to the room. It has a strip view, and it's only 2 floors from the top. Nice! Brett's only issue with the room is that there's no fridge. Oh, well. Seeing as you can take your drinks everywhere you go that shouldn't really be an issue.



Once we got our wi-fi connection sorted out, we went back downstairs to visit the concierge and find some show tickets. Brett was set on seeing the Penn & Teller show, while Rhonda was set on seeeing one of the Cirque De Soleil shows. We're staying in Vegas for 3 nights, so we were hoping for 3 show tickets; one for each night. We got P & T tickets for Monday night, and we settled on the original Cirque show "Mystere" for Tuesday night. We still needed something for tonight, though. The Blue Man Group has a show here in Vegas,and we had thought about it, but tickets were pretty pricey. What the hell, it's Vegas! So we got 2 tickets for this evening's later show at the Venetian.

Rhonda was going to dress up a little, but Brett didn't have any really dressy clothes, so it was time to go find some decent evening wear. We went shopping in the Stratosphere's hotel shops, where Brett soon found a nice button-up shirt to wear, while Rhonda found some perfume.

We went back to the hotel room to figure out where we wanted to stay on Tuesday night. We had only booked 2 nights at the Stratosphere, and we weren't sure whether we were staying for a third night in our original plans. With 3 evening shows to go to, we needed one more night in Vegas. The Luxor (the big black pyramid on the Strip) had some reasonably priced rooms during the week, so after a lot of consideration and deliberation, we booked a room there for Tuesday night. We are actually staying in the pyramid!

We dressed up and took a cab to the Venetian. Our cab driver was interesting and pointed out the sights, but he was of the "The Old Vegas was SOOOOOO Much Better" category. I guess after being here 35 years, you get a bit disgruntled. Our Blue Man Group tickets came with a free voucher for Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, so after wandering around the Venetian's lobby and grounds for a bit, we went into the Wax Museum. It was much nicer and much higher quality than the wax museum in Newport, OR (imagine that!). When we first went in, one of the first statues is Oprah. One lady in frongt of us quickly dismissed the likeness, saying that she is not that skinny at all (imagine it being said very loudly with a southern accent and a dismissive tone. It was pretty funny). It even had a 'Scream' tour, sort of a haunted house-thing. We went in after getting some careful instructions from a zombie girl. It was Brett, Rhonda, and 3 other tourists in our little group. Brett and Rhonda fared pretty well, but the other 3 were pretty scared by the whole thing. Lots of actors in costumes, loud noises, flashing lights, and stuff. It was lots of fun!

After getting out of the wax museum, we wandered into the Venetian's Grand Canal shopping centre. It feels like you're outside, with the sky painted on the ceiling, and little water canals all through the centre with gondola rides. There were some outside displays going on, with a volcano exploding, it was pretty cool.

We eventually found our way to the Blue Man Group theatre, waited in line for a bit (there was a guy with programs and the two behind us asked if they were free, and the guy responded with "This is Vegas", I guess that was all that needed to be said.), and got our seats, which were quite good. The show itself was really cool, with lots of pantomime, audience participation and (Brett's favorite part) lots of 'found' percussion. They even stopped the show to point out the late arrivals, which was pretty amusing. It was funny and interesting. We loved it! Our first Vegas show was a success.



We took a cab back to the hotel, grabbed a midnight supper (Brett tried corn beef for the first time, and I think the last time.), and retired for the night. A great (if overwhelming) day. About 400 km's put on the truck today, and everybody's out of the truck for the next few days.