bt3.com/Baz's 1992 USA Holiday
California and the Golden West.

Where and how?

Day 5: Sunday September 27

The USA. As I mentioned at the time you clicked the link to this page?

To be precise, a fully escorted coach tour, starting in San Diego CA and thence stopping in Phoenix Arizona, Williams AZ, Las Vegas Nevada, Visalia, Merced, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo before finishing the tour in Anaheim near Los Angeles (all California).

Marvellous.

No, better than that, the Holiday of a Lifetime.

Do yourself a favour, and navigate through this holiday using the hyperlinks scattered throughout the text. If you want to go back to the start, or feel a need to go to my site homepage, well, by now you should know what to do? :o)

Getting up early yet again, we got the suitcases packed ready for the 218 mile journey to Las Vegas, then went for breakfast directly across the road from the Travelodge. There we got talking to an Australian couple, from Perth, Western Australia, who were undertaking a similar itinerary to ourselves, but in the reverse direction. After the meal, and the purchase of a number of souvenir badges from a display in the restaurant, I bought a copy of the USA Today newspaper weekend edition from the sidewalk machine outside the Travelodge.

At the relatively late start of 8:10, we had a brief ride to the Williams railway station to view the steam trains which we had seen the previous day on the way down from Grand Canyon Village, and a few 'cowboys' prior to a demonstration which, because of our schedule we, er ... didn't have time to see. 9:00 came and we had to leave and, passing the local 'Boot Hill', we left Williams and got onto Interstate 40, which by-passes the town heading west.

Interstate 40 is a relatively boring road, the only interesting things pointed out to us being the town of Seligman, which has a large "S" painted on the hillside above the town. Later on the route, the town of Chloride, off US 93 has the letter 'C'. This presumably was to indicate the presence of the town at long distance to the miners who founded and populated these settlements. Before passing Chloride, we made a stop at the K-Mart store in Kingman, population 9,200. Here, we had a walk around to buy supplies and had a talk to a lady trucker from Miami, Florida.

The next stop, at the Hoover Dam, the point at which the Colorado River turns southward from Lake Mead, complete with power boats, provided the opportunity for a cheeseburger meal, and break from the drive, at the 'Snackateria' overlooking the lake, and a chance to gaze at the magnitude of the Dam project. After leaving the dam, the view from the road up the mountainside proved spectacular, another chance to get an idea of the scale of the dam, related to trucks and people. We crossed over into Nevada and passed Boulder City, population 9,500, and ultimately arrived at the outskirts of the gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas.

This city is a place where, according to Hilary, the running costs of some hotels can approach $1,000,000 per day, and whose population swells to 750,000 from a native population of 214,000. This city is, quite possibly, the only one in the world to have no public clocks whatsoever, this being a device to keep the punter gambling for the longest possible time, the majority of casinos being insulated against day and night and the awesome temperatures of the day. On our route into the city, along US 93, and onto Tropicana Avenue, we passed by the Liberace Museum and the construction site of a hotel with the plan of a grand total of 7000 rooms.

The heat here seemed tremendous, this obviously having some bearing on the extremely low average rainfall total of 4 1/8" per annum. Our accommodation for the next two nights, the Travelodge Center Strip on 'The Strip', the popular name for Las Vegas Boulevard, couldn't have been sited in a better location, being immediately opposite both Caesar's Palace and The Mirage Hotel, to the south of the local branch of Dennys, a national restaurant chain, and within easy walking distance of a number of shopping malls. After checking in, we were briefed on the time required to meet to go out for the evenings amusement.

After a wash and brush-up, we went to Dennys next door for a meal. I asked for a salad as a starter, to be followed by fried chicken. The biggest salad I had ever seen arrived, this being my first experience of the generous American portions we had heard about at home by reputation. After this salad and the main course, I found that I couldn't eat another thing, so paid the check and left to await the evening's entertainment.

The tour party met in the Travelodge lobby at 6:00 for transport to the Riviera Hotel and Casino, to see the 'Show of the Year' - Jeff Kutash's 'Splash', starting at 8:00. After being seated at our tables, a waitress came round to take our orders for the two complimentary drinks included in the admission fee and to peddle souvenirs of the evening, including flashing ear-rings and brooches! Needless to say, they didn't suit me.  :o)

The extravaganza began with a laser light show, then went into a programme of music and dance centred around 20,000 gallon water tank on the stage and the dancing jets of water. The second act, the Ariz brothers displayed an acrobatic tumbling act was followed by a semi-tribute to the musical Jackson family. The highlight of the showas far as I was concerned culminated in the erection of a lattice-work globe on the stage, in which first one, then two, then three motorcyclists gyrated around its inside. After this, Shimada, a Japanese magician displayed his sleight-of-hand. The evenings entertainment concluded with a spectacularly-costumed water and sea-related song and dance finale.

After the show, roughly 9:40, we were taken on a tour of The Strip and 'Glitter Gulch' at the north end of The Strip. The illuminations here eclipsed Blackpool, England's by an immeasurable factor, there being no street lights necessary to see clearly. We walked through a couple of casinos, and viewed the biggest golden nugget in the world, at The Golden Nugget Casino, which we briefly toured. Unfortunately, after Hilary said that the show promoters in Las Vegas do not allow cameras into the theatres, I left my camera in the hotel room. The drive and walk around 'Glitter Gulch' wasn't mentioned to us beforehand as being part of the itinerary, which caused a bit of disappointment, not just with myself, but, this was tempered with the provision of the opportunity to view one of the most famous areas in the world.

10.30 saw bedtime, which, believe it or not, came as a very welcome relief from the 'rigours' of the day.

To Day 6

Back to the Index