America: Part 2

We awoke metres from the Grand Canyon… well probably a couple hundred. Lets settle on pretty close.

More (or possibly the same) elk were wandering around camp, munching on bits that populated the forest floor. We followed suit, but after quick deliberation we got out the porridge.

As we were on the footstep of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, we headed back to the big gorge (or whatever its called) to see the marvel in the morning light.

Before long, and with a substantial drive ahead, we hit the road. Not just any road, Route 66, which had been freshly resurfaced for our comfort.

After a few hours on the road, and after passing the Lake Mead campsite turn that we had previously taken two nights before… we were on route to see one of man’s greatest engineering achievements, followed by one of our greatest sins.

The Hoover dam lies nestled below a key arterial route into Vegas; its presence is surprisingly low key, you only really see it when you’ve turn off the freeway and are less than a minute out. It doesn’t need to shout, to be honest, the impact on seeing this monstrous monolithic chunk of beautifully shaped concrete is one of astonishment. How can a man made structure hold back the force of 35,000 kilometres cubed of water. Although we decided not to go for a guided tour, it was excellent to view the structure in all its marvel then research its design and construction further from the comfort of our own tent!

It was nice to see how art deco the dam was, especially the towers to the front which house exquisite art deco toilets, complete with a fantastically detailed terrazzo flooring in a deep emerald green. I hope terrazzo makes a comeback; I might help persuade the revival. Okay, sorry Hatti, we’re going to have terrazzo all over the shop.

We were disappointed not to find a vacuum cleaner near the dam (to give the car a quick once over), a simple misunderstanding, this was the real reason we had programmed in the stop on Google Maps. We were after all on route to Vegas, we had to look our best.

Light was fading as we approached our stop for the evening. Our hotel stood out from afar, a giant glass pyramid reflecting the glowing red orb that some call, ‘The Sun’.

Starving after our long drive and dam experience, we threw our bags into our room and hit the casino floor in search of some grub. Soon we found a suitable pit stop, a Mexican restaurant with American portions.

Next on the list was a walk down Las Vegas Boulevard, to soak in as little as we could while still enjoying ourselves. I kid, some of the casinos are marvels in their own right, perhaps we have been spoilt for choice when it comes to culture on this trip; the strip seemed somewhat hollow in comparison. We switched off our consciousness and appreciated the overview of the neon theme-park.

Rocking up just in time, we were lucky enough to see a performance by the Bellagio’s automated water jet array. I joked to Hatti that the show was performed by 52 snorkelers with head torches… a theory that is yet to be disproven I might add.

We briefly wondered to ourselves if making it back to the hotel would be an orienteering nightmare, but after dark the spotlight on top of our hotel was very visible. Luxor the beacon of light, the beacon of hope.

After a comfortable nights sleep we handed in our valet ticket, waited briefly for our car to be driven to us, and headed towards a retail park at the North side of Vegas. We topped up on vegetables, for the nights ahead, and filled up on pancakes… to keep us going in the meantime. Grandpa this is a dessert for you!

Although we understand that a balanced diet is important and all, we’re in America folks, iHop… the International House of Pancakes had to reviewed. Back to the Simpson’s logic, ‘Purple is a fruit’.

We crawled to the car, surrounded on the parking lot floor by other iHop diners. America, the land of the free.

As we were leaving the city limits we noticed the presence of drones circling around and to the right of the car. Not the fun drones that take aerial footage, the war machine type. As it turns out we were passing Creech Air Force Base, a command and control centre for overseas contingency operations using remotely piloted aircraft systems (CCCOCORPAS). Google maps tells me that there is a Subway (the sandwich shop) in the military base, a Subway!

Although Manly Lake once covered most of Death Valley, it disappeared during the Holocene only to occasionally reform after heavy rain. Rain was not something we saw during our visit to one of the hottest places on Earth, spiking at 56.7ºC in 1913 (the year not the time, thankfully it was rather pleasant when we visited).

We arrived at the campsite in the nick of time. A stones throw (we tested) from the main thoroughfare, this campsite was free to use, and although we were off season it filled up quick. We took the last space, and before long dug into some freshly boiled Tortelloni.

We decided to sleep in the back of our Nissan Rogue on this occasion, as the ground was particularly rocky. The Rogue, or Qashqai as its known in the UK, sleeps two comfortably with the back two seats lowered. A luxury we didn’t have in New Zealand, but thankfully everything in America is bigger… even a ‘compact’ hire car! With the windows cracked open, we hit the hay ready for more wilderness tomorrow as we work our way up the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

See you all next time!

James