Day 133 - Tusuyan, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

We have a bit of a lie in this morning before heading off back to Vegas :-)

We have decided that going to Monument Valley and then onto Vegas in a day is too much driving for me. It would be about 13 hours so we have our left over pizza for breakfast and hit the road for Vegas. 

So long Red Feather Lodge. You have been very pleasant. 

And so long to the sleepy town of Tusuyan with your crazy weather. 

Snow capped mountains on the drive back. 

We get to Vegas at around 5pm and check into our luxurious hotel. Well maybe not so luxurious. As Vegas hotels are so expensive on a Saturday (£350 for a main strip hotel) we have opted for the cheap and cheerful Super 8 just off the strip. It is certainly a come down from the Wynn. Actually on the spectrum of Vegas hotels they are firmly on opposite ends. 

 

Can't handle such luxury in the room...

And all the high tech gadgets...

And to top it off we open our door (onto the parking lot of course) to see all the nice hotels being flaunted at us. 

At the Wynn we had Encore and Palazzo next door. Super 8 on the other hand has this... 

I am not sure what the Wynn guests do when they need fast access to phone cards. In their faces. 

The brilliantly named "high roller" that is due to open shortly. Americans really are obsessed with safety. I watched a whole program and have heard so much chat about their mitigation plans if things go wrong. The Linq is a new shopping area around it. 

It is quite nice to walk to the strip from our hotel to see the strip from a different angle. Good view of the Ballagio. 

The not so good looking Ballys. 

The Flamingo. 

We cross the strip and head to Caesars for a few before dinner at Gordon Ramsay's Pub and Grill. We go to the Shadow Lounge but unfortunately there are no silhouette dancers on show. We then do some fantastic people watching sat in Numb bar in the middle of the casino. We play a very amusing game of pick someone who is wearing something that you would actually wear. It's a damn hard game with very limited options. 

The restaurant is really cool and like a little piece of home with pies and good British grub on the menu and even Match of the Day on the TV. The general knowledge of the waitress was very questionable though. Here is how the conversation went:

Me (pointing to Buckingham Palace): "can't believe you have got a picture of my house on the wall"

Waitress: "I don't even know what it is"

Me: "It's Buckingham Palace where the Queen lives"

Waitress: "Is that like your equivalent of the White House?"

Me: "No, that would be Downing Street. This is where the queen lives"

Waitress: "But the queen is the same as Obama right?"

Me: "No.  Obama's equivalent in England is the Prime Minister, David Cameron"

Waitress looking very confused: "Do we have a Queen?"

What an idiot. Needless to say I was very surprised when our order came and it was actually correct. Rammo needs to sort his waitresses general knowledge of the place the work out. 

Great food. 

The walls are made up of beer barrels which look really cool. 

After dinner we head to Ghost Bar at the Palms hotel. I have tried to get in this bar at least three times before with no success so fourth time lucky we actually get in. 

It's a pretty cool bar on the top floor of the Palm which a fabulous panoramic view of Vegas. It is set back behind the Rio which makes for a similar view to the Voodoo lounge. 

Glass floor. 

Panoramic view of the strip. 

It's a pretty good bar and amazing space but he clientele is really weird. Not quite where all the cool kids hang out as we thought. After a few hours up here it is about 2am so we decide to head back to the mighty Super 8. I am intrigued to see the casino at our hotel so we have a look there and it is actually pretty good in a dive bar type of way. It is very old school but has a microbrewery on site and sells $2 beers. Can't be bad! I also have a bit of a flutter on Black Jack and despite the lightening quick dealer who barely left me time to add up my cards I managed to come away $120 up. I'm on a bit of a streak - that's $250 up in total now. I am sure it will all end up back in the pockets of some casino before we leave though!