We entered Pensylvania in the early afternoon…  I was amazed at the drivers here…  At every ramp onto the interstate, we found people stopped, waiting for a large break in the traffic to get onto the interstate.  People in PA do NOT know how to merge!  They come up the ramps at 30 mph, onto a freeway where the traffic is flying along at 65+ mph, and then slam on their brakes, coming to a complete stop…

Then, to make matters worse, we ended up staying in the worst hotel of the trip…  A Days Inn at New Stanton, PA…  The room was dirty, the floors were sticky, the towels were dirty, and there was mold on the shower curtain…  The free “Hot Breakfast with Sausage and Eggs” turned out to be cold sausage and egg patties… and a microwave.  The parking lot was a mess…  It looked like the back alley behind a night club, if you can imagine what that means.  Anyways, after this experience, we won’t be staying at this “4 star” AAA approved Days Inn ever again… and probably not at ANY Days Inn for that matter.

We arrived at Eddie George’s Grill in Columbus just before 5, right on time…  and met with several friends from our EQ2 guild CLAW…  In the picture, from left to right, you will find LucianClaw (Brian), Vestanpance (Dan), Myself (Moshek), Letycia (Chantale!), Azri (Sara) and Searril (Brian)…  We had a great meal at Eddie George’s, and then Vesty led us on a tour of part of the nearby campus (Where he works!).

After supper, we decided to move on to Cincinatti, so that we could sleep in the next morning before visiting SportTour to pick up some motorcycle luggage!

Day 8 left us in St. Louis, so of course we had to go see the St. Louis Arch…  I was amazed at how large it was, and I didn’t know it was made of metal…  Not to mention that there is a huge complex below it, including a museum, theatre, and tram rides to the top of the arch!

I also found the road system connecting to the interstate to be extremely annoying…  The connecting expressway had access to every single tiny little store along the way, making the traffic extremely slow…  And then when you try to get up on the interstate, they don’t even give you an acceleration lane… You basically have to fly up as fast as you can, hope like hell nobody is in the rightmost lane, and just go for it!  Can’t say I’ll ever go to Amarillo again.

We did end up staying in a very nice Days Inn at Tulsa…  They didn’t even have a coupon, and the room was only $55… I would highly recommend it!

Day 6 ended up being mostly a travel day, with a brief stop in Holbrook, Arizona to visit the museum, and then a drive through the Petrified Forest nearby.  The trip through the “forest” took about an hour, and wasn’t nearly as “exciting” as we had hoped…  We did get to see a bunch of petrified wood…  And some nice views, but after leaving the Grand Canyon it really didn’t compare!

We ended up driving the rest of the day, and stopped in albuquerque, NM for the night.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we visited the Grand Canyon yesterday…

What I didn’t mention, was that I took this opportunity to ask Chantale to marry me… And she said yes!  So now it is official!  Here’s a shot of her new ring enjoying the view of the Grand Canyon from the spot where I asked the question…

We started our fifth day with a trip to the Silverton, which is quite a bit farther south than the strip.  The Silverton is famous for it’s HUGE 117,000 gallon aquarium and the Bass Pro shop attached to it.  We stayed for a while and watched the fish, gambled a bit on the slot machines, and then got out on the road towards the Grand Canyon.

It was about a 5 hour trip from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, and the road led us back over the Hoover Dam.  We arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park at about 5 PM.  Walking to the edge of the canyon, we were awestruck by it’s amazing colours and size.  We spent 3 or 4 hours walking along the rim of the canyon before heading to Flagstaff (Another hour and a half drive).

We got up early, and drove to the Hoover Dam…  About a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas, and well worth the trip!  For $7 parking and $12 each for the tour, we got to see a movie about the Hoover Dam, and then tour down to the generating area of the hydro-electric plant.  Afterwards, we went up to the obversavation deck and took some pictures of the dam and Lake Mead behind it.

We then drove back into Las Vegas to enjoy an evening on the strip.  First, we walked over to the Sahara and bought two monorail passes for $9 with a coupon, which gave us unlimited rides for 24 hours.  This was a great deal, as single ride passes were $9!  I highly recommend getting a monorail pass for getting around the strip… Walking it can take hours… time better spent in casinos or seeing shows!  We took the monorail to the Imperial Palace station, and then walked to Caesar’s Palace.  We decided to go to Rub BBQ again for supper (Yeah, it was that good) so we walked to the Rio on the opposite side of I15.  This was a BAD move.  It’s a LONG ways from Caesar’s Palace to the Rio, and in the desert heat, it was not a fun walk.  After finishing supper, we discovered an amazing thing…  FREE shuttles!  From the Rio to Caesar’s Palace (And back again)!  That would have been nice to know a couple hours earlier.  If you need to get around the strip, between the monorail and shuttle service, you are pretty much covered.  After riding back to Caesar’s Palace, we visited some of the casinos in that area, such as the Bellagio.  We stopped to watch the water show in front of the Bellagio, and then headed back to catch the monorail back to the Sahara.   We then went back to our hotel (The Stratosphere) and saw the show “Bite” in the Theatre of the Stars…  A great (Somewhat erotic) show about vampires, mixed with some rock and roll, dancing, and acrobatics.

One more important thing I’d like to mention about Vegas… Watch out for all the Tahiti Village time share scammers… they are EVERYWHERE.  They are like a parasite, as you walk through the hotels they approach you with lines like “Have you received your free show tickets yet?”  “Are you staying at this hotel?”  “Would you like some free slot play?”  “Where are you from?”  They don’t leave you alone…  I’m sure this is where a major part of revenue for these places is coming from.  My question is this… If time shares are such a great deal, why do they use such forceful sales tactics?  Ugh.

Stay tuned, in the morning I’ll write up a story for our Wednesday trip, and you won’t want to miss it!

We’re finally here!

We paid for a room for two nights at the Stratosphere right on the strip, and got a great deal, $132 total for two nights!  The Stratosphere is a VERY nice Hotel/Casino, and is located at the North end of the strip, with easy access to a variety of Casinos including Circus Circus, the Sahara, and several others.

For supper, we drove to the Rio, and had some southern BBQ at a place called “Rub BBQ” in the Casino.  Excellent food, and a great price!  I highly recommend it!

After supper, we drove back to the Stratosphere, and went out for a walk along the strip.  It’s amazing how long the strip is…  We walked for an hour and didn’t even make it to Treasure Island or the Mirage.  We visited the casinos close to the Stratosphere, and decided we’d drive farther south tomorrow to visit more of the casinos in that area.

I must say, the one thing that is easily available in Las Vegas is parking… Every casino seems to have their own parking garage, and they are all free!  It’s easy to just cruise to a casino, park in their garage, and then go walk around visiting the nearby casinos.

Tomorrow, we plan to sleep in, then drive out to the Hoover Dam for a visit…  We expect we’ll be back in Vegas by shortly after lunch time, so we can plan which shows and casinos we want to see in the evening.

I won’t have internet access for a day after 6 pm tomorrow, so it will be the day after before I get another update done!  See you then!

Our second day of traveling has been fairly uneventful…  We tried to make up time lost the day before so we’d be closer to Vegas…

First thing, we stopped at Wal-Mart in Helena and loaded up with some food…  That place has everything!  And it’s sure handy having a 12V Cooler in the car so we can prepare food on the way, instead of spending a bunch of money on fast food.

The path through Idaho and Utah was extremely scenic as we got into the mountains…  The van was having a hard time climbing some of those hills!

We stopped for lunch at a rest area that had a nearby trail, called “Hell’s Half Acre”, so we walked around that and snapped a few pictures of what was a lava flow a few thousand years ago… Pretty interesting to see all the hardened lava and holes where the rock was so heavy that it caved into the ground below…

We plan to head into Vegas today (Monday) and check out the sights…  We will upload more pictures when we get there!