“Las Vegas looks the way you’d imagine heaven must look at night.” – Chuck Palahniuk.
14.09.2017
Day 6: Bishop to Las Vegas
I can’t even begin to describe how excited we all were when we woke up the morning after the hot springs. Even though it was a ridiculously early start, it was worth it because we were heading for VEGAS BABY! We packed away our tents and said goodbye to them for the next two nights. We’d only been camping for a few days and we were already so glad to be rid of them, even if only for a little while.
Back on Gail we headed through the hottest place on earth – Death Valley. While we were there it was ‘only’ about 40 degrees. Nowhere near the 50 degrees it can sometimes get to in the desert. Let me tell you though, it was still pretty damn hot on that bus. The huge windows which were really good for looking at the view while trundling down the road became our worst enemies. The glass actually got too hot to touch at one point, and I’m convinced I got sunburnt through the window. (No I don’t even know of this is possible but it sure felt and looked like it!) The highest temperature reliably recorded in the world was actually in Death Valley, so when I say it gets pretty hot there, I’m not joking! There was genuinely a massive danger sign that recommends people to not go walking in the desert past 10 am because of the heat. Crazy.
On our way to Vegas we stopped have a little impromptu photo shoot on the dunes. This is where a few of us girls realised we’d made great friends already because we all understood the need for taking multiple shots from different angles to give us plenty to choose from for the daily instagram post! We were all about the plandid (the totally natural and not posed candid). We also stopped at the lowest point in North America at 86m below sea level. This was quite a surreal experience looking back, as there was a marker showing where sea level was, way up the side of a cliff.
Even just driving into Vegas was a really cool experience. Everything is so massive and excessive, it’s literally like driving onto a huge film set. We were staying on Freemont street, which is the old strip, in a hotel called The Golden Nugget. I got really excited recently as I watched the film Now You See Me, and you can see the hotel in the background after their Vegas Show. The hotel was absolutely amazing after a few days of camping, there was a pool with a shark tank in the middle (?!), and our rooms had two massive double beds. I don’t think Liv or I had ever been so happy to see a bed in our lives, we both may have cried some happy tears whilst running around the room and jumping on the beds. After sitting and watching Friends for a little while (it was the episode where they went to Vegas – what a coincidence?), we all went and grabbed McDonalds for dinner. I know, I know, of all the places to go whilst in Vegas we picked a Maccas, but we were in a rush because we wanted to get ready to go out. We’d booked a party bus/limo to take us to see some of the sights and then take us to a club! It was our first proper night out of the trip, and we actually had the facilities to get ready so we all spent a lot of time pampering ourselves before heading for pre drinks in the one of the boys rooms.
We saw a few things while in the limo, like the first wedding chapel and the Belaggio fountain show, but my favourite story from this experience was at the Vegas sign. Bearing in mind we’d all been drinking quite a bit (and dancing in the back of the limo), naturally most of us girls really needed to go to the toilet. Now, there were no public toilets by the sign, which is basically just in the middle of a massive road. This was a problem as none of us could wait! Our solution was to make a little shield of people and take it in turns to wee by the side of the road. Not exactly any of our proudest moments but we had spent a few nights camping so I guess we weren’t really phased by it as much any more. If that didn’t create a lasting bond between us I don’t know what would! Whilst this is pretty tragic, I would just like to say that a couple of guys were in such a state that they didn’t even make it to the club and went straight home to bed! I can’t quite work out which is the most tragic story to be honest, but at least we managed to get to the club on our first night in Vegas!
After all that excitement and a ridiculous amount of laughter the limo dropped us off at Surrender nightclub where there was a pool party going on. After spending ages queuing and a dancing for a while, I did my usual, and got suddenly really tired and nearly fell asleep on this sort of floating sofa at the edge of the pool. I think that was a sign to call it a night, so Anna, Liv and I decided to grab some food and go home. We actually missed Diplo djing because we left so early! But we still had an amazing night, although when I woke up the next morning with my opened but uneaten subway on my chest I did feel a little worse for wear!
15.09.2017
Day 7: Las Vegas
Even though we were all feeling a little rough the next morning, we still wanted to do some sightseeing. So, The Girlband (me, Anna, Gabi and Liv – yes we named ourselves the Girlband) spent the next morning wandering the strip and checking out all the famous hotels. Words can’t actually do Vegas justice, everything was just so over the top and absolutely enormous. After the excitement of the night before, we decided to have a pretty chilled afternoon and evening. We caught some rays at the pool and then booked ourselves in to do a zipline down Freemont street. So actually maybe it wasn’t as chilled as I thought! The zipline was one of the best things I’ve ever done though. Even though (as I’ve definitely mentioned multiple times, and will mention more) I’m scared of heights, I thought what better way to face my fears than fly down the original Las Vegas strip attached to a tiny wire! The worst part was actually the start, as you basically had to hang there, 7 stories high, waiting for them to release you. It was such a rush though, I would definitely do it again. Although I did see a young child get stuck on the longer one where you go down face first! (I did the sitting down one, there was no way I was going down face first thinking I was superman or something!) One of the guys who worked there had to Spider-Man shimmy all the way along the line and clip the kid to his harness before shimmying all the way back. You should have head the cheer go up from everyone watching on the street when he finally reached him. To be fair though, we did have a pretty chilled night after that, just doing a little bit of gambling (because you know, when in Vegas). I can’t remember exactly but I think I won about 7 dollars on a slot machine which I got very excited about! After that big win we decided to head upstairs to bed to make the most of having a hotel room as we were about to spend over a week camping!
So that was how we did Vegas. I think we did a pretty good job to be honest!
Until next time,
Aimee x
The Life of an Aspiring Writer 