Day 78 - Las Vegas, NV & Furnace Creek, CA

We had chosen a site at Valley of Fire State Park which had a good amount of shade in the afternoons but in the morning, the sun shone onto the tent and made it feel like an oven. We were therefore both up early, packed the tent away and headed on the road.

We hadn't planned to go into Las Vegas but we needed to drive through it to get to our next destination, Death Valley in California.

As we were driving, we both commenting on how early we were up and how much ahead of scheduled we were. We were both hinting that maybe we could squeeze a little trip into Vegas just for a couple of hours. So we decided to do it! Rather than heading to the strip which is where we usually stay, we decided to try Fremont Street, an area of Vegas we haven't been to before.

It was interesting driving into Vegas. We probably got to see more of the 'real' Vegas. Rather than the flashy touristy areas where there is lots of money, we saw large numbers of homeless people sleeping on the street, the very poor queuing up outside the Salvation Army, dirty rubbish covered streets and bailbond companies at street corners. There was even one advert, which you can see in the video, for free calls from prison to your cell phone. We hadn't strayed off onto a side street when we saw this side of Vegas, we were on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the main road going through the city and the same road that a couple of miles up from it, you'll find Fremont Street and a couple of miles further, The Strip.

Every town has this side to it but in Vegas, its the two extremes of wealth and poverty being so close to each other. You have to wonder if one is the cause of the other.

Another unusual thing we saw on the way in to Fremont Street was a sign for 23 miles per hour speed limit. Normally speed signs are either 20 or 25, we have never seen a 23 one before. It's very difficult using your speed dial to make sure you're going at 23. Maybe a clever ploy from the local government to make money?

We reached Fremont Street and parked in one of the big casinos where they offered free valet parking (although you still need to tip).

Fremont Street is the old strip, where the original casinos were located. It has a really cool covered area which at night turns into a light show and during the day, there were people zip lining down it. We arrived in the morning so it was very quiet but over the couple of hours we were there, things started to liven up with bars and restaurants opening and street performers starting. It would be cool to see Fremont Street at night where I expect there is a party atmosphere, a lot more people and lots of lights.

One of the more disturbing places we saw on Fremont Street was Heart Attack Grill, a restaurant claiming to fight anorexia with the worlds highest calorie burger, a whooping 9,882 calories and according to wikipedia (we did not eat here!) consists of 4 half-pound beef patties, twenty slices of bacon, eight slices of cheese, a whole tomato and half an onion served in a bun coated in lard. The restautant also offers anyone over over 350 pounds the opportunity to eat free. At first we thought it was a joke but its a real restaurant, with nurses for waitresses, a spanking if you don't eat your food and even scales outside to see whether you make the 350 pound requirement! Whilst Lee was tempted by the nurses, he was pleased when the scales showed he was too light for the eat for free offer.

We went to a couple of casinos on Fremont where we put a few bucks into the machines. We didn't manage to win anything but we did make our money last long enough to get a couple of free drinks each and we had a lot of fun cheering each other on.

After a couple of hours, it was time to move on. We headed back to the car and decided to drive along the stip end to end, something we've never done before. Even at lunchtime, the traffic was bad with us constantly having to stop / start at all the traffic lights. It was good to drive along the strip and it brought back memories of the times we have stayed there and the good fun we have but to see the strip properly, you have to walk from casino to casino. The strip definitely looks prettier at night when all the lights are on, there are times when it looks a little boring during the day.

I had read about a scenic drive and a look out called Desert View Point just outside Vegas. We decided to try it out. We headed up highway 157 and then 158 at the Mt Charleston Recreational Area. As we climbed up the mountain, the air temperature changed, it became less dry and about 20 degrees cooler.

Once we had reached the look out, there was a short paved trail with multiple look outs and a lot of information stations. The view was of the Mojave Desert and this is where a lot of people would have come to observe the atomic bomb testing. Today it is just a stunning view of the desert and a view of where we were about to drive into.

We were surprised to find out that the Mt Charleston Recreational Area also had ski facilities at Lee Canyon. Skiing whilst in Les Vegas would be awesome although we might get some funny looks walking into a casino kitted out in our ski gear!

We left via highway 156 and headed towards the border with California which is also the enterance to Death Valley National Park, the largest National Park in the 48 lower states (Alaska has the top 4 largest parks).

Before leaving Nevada, we stopped off at the Area 51 Alien Travel Center for gas and lunch. This is a weird place. It is a gas station, convience store and diner all alien themed selling everything alien. Oh, and there is a brothel next door which is alien themed too. They offer free tours of their alien themed room, something which even Lee was put off by so we gave it a miss!

As we were leaving the Travel Center and Brothel behind, we noticed a big billboard with a 'vote for me' advert for the local elections. We've seen hundreds of these on our trip but this was was for the owner of the brothel. It just felt a little bit wrong but we were just outside Sin City so anything goes!

As soon as we reached Death Valley, we headed for our hotel for the night, we would be exploring Death Valley more tomorrow. We stayed at Furnace Creek, a motel in the heart of Death Valley and a place we'd stayed before and knew we liked. When we arrived, we panicked as the hotel looked like a building site. Worried we'd made a mistake with the reservation, we headed next door to the National Park Visitors Center where we were told by a park ranger than the hotel was renovating its shop, restaurant, office, bar and some of its rooms but it was still open. The poor park ranger was giving the same message to lots of worried people coming in like us, I'm surprised he remained so patient. It was also really naughty of the hotel not to put a sign up in front of the building work saying they're still open or even telling people ahead of time about the limited facilities.

We went into the hotel and checked in and whilst it wasn't ideal that so much was unavailable, we were only there for one night and all we really wanted was a bed to sleep in, a pool to cool off in and a place to have some food and drink. We managed to get all these, even if the food came from a temporary canteen, at least the pizza we had tasted good and Lee got to beat me a Corn Hole afterwards in the gardens.

The pool at Furnace Creek is a spring fed pool which is the same temperature as a bath but as its so hot outside (it reached 127F whilst we were there), the warm bath water feels cool and refreshing. Lee learnt to do a handstand in the pool, his best one is featured in the video.

I love the evenings in Death Valley. Even though the sun has gone down, the air remains really hot and the temperature doesn't drop by much. For most people sitting outside is probably uncomfortable but for me, it was perfect. We tried to cook some cookies by wrapping them in foil and using the heat of the air but that didn't work, they remained raw so we opened a bottle of champagne and toasted our awesome honeymoon.