Last stop in USA… for a day

So we woke ourselves up in northwestern Illinois, patted ourselves on the back for having successfully avoided death by tornado and headed on towards the first city we’ve seen since Seattle.  We were only a couple hours outside of the city and had absolutely ZERO desire to drive all the way into it… the first stop on the L was quite close enough.  We met up with our friend Liz and decided to hit the town, starting with a visit to Wrigley Field.

The neighborhood Wrigley Field is in has really embraced the ballpark.  Most ballparks seem like they kinda plop a big coliseum right in the middle of either A) a city area/downtown or B) nowhere.  Wrigley is in a pretty residential area and everything around it that wasn’t a condo/apartment/home of some sort seemed to have something related to the Cubs.  Of course there were t-shirt vendors advertising such catchy slogans as “The Cardinals take it in their Pujols” and “Fukudome is my Homie” and the classic “[insert team name here NOT the Cubs] sucks”.  On top of these guys,  also saw lots of peanut vendors walking around outside as far as 2 blocks away from the stadium.  And it’s not just the vendors who have this unbridled team spirit, but the residents as well.  There are posters hanging from the condos just across the street from the stadium and bleachers on the rooftops to see the game from the outfield… yes, these homes have seating on the rooftops.

After we our plan to crawl up a fire escape to a rooftop/bleacher to watch the game was spoiled (there was a locked gate… oh yeah and COPS) we decided to head downtown and check out what is known as the second city after most of the first one was burnt to the ground.  On the way there, one thing became very clear and that was that Chicago is a very vertical city.  Their mass transit system is mostly above street level and they have more skyscrapers than any other US city.  Interestingly enough, the building accepted as the first skyscraper ever built was the Home Insurance Building in 1885 (now demolished).  And where is the best view of this skyline?  On the ground, downtown, NOT on a hill or elevated surface.  It’s in a bean.  From here we walked along navy pier, and got to see the Chicago “coast” and all the tourist trap that is navy pier.

For lunch, we had none other than authentic Chicago deep dish pizza.  One thing to say about that… very cheesy.  I honestly don’t know why they charge you extra for the toppings, they don’t take up that much of the pizza at all.  From here, we wanted a real taste of old Chicago, by way of the mob.  We decided to visit a speakeasy that was frequented by Al Capone himself and in all honesty, it really didn’t shock me at all.  It is far from downtown in a “low profile” part of Chicago and has one window facing the street.  Of course, it’s extremely tinted so it would be impossible to see in if the lights were turned down low enough.  It was impossible to see in.  There was also a door with a small window at the top that you couldn’t see in but you could certainly see out.  Once we got in, the place was almost pitch black and the music was very quiet.  There weren’t many people in the bar and I really did feel the need to whisper to my friends whenever we were talking.  I guess that was the attitude back in the days of prohibition as well, only with a slightly bigger necessity.

After a full day in the city, we headed down to Hinsdale where our wonderful host family let us stay for the night before we made the run to Canada.

Too many days of crops not yet grown

So we started on our way towards Mount Rushmore only not too particularly early this time.  We weren’t in any real hurry to see it, aside from getting there before sundown.  We were leaving from a motel in Cody, Wyoming and as we wound through the windy roads of the Big Horn Mountains we started to see fresh snow.  Our first instinct was to think that it had snowed last night, which it probably did there.  Then as we continued to climb up the mountain, we saw something else that had me slightly concerned: two cars coming down with snow on them.  So upward we climbed and we eventually came to a totally white landscape with snow blowing in pretty strongly.  Luckily the roads were clear enough for travel and we made it all the way up and then all the way down.

After our last glimpse of snow the trend was pretty much the same as far as driving went the next few days.  Farm, farm, farm, get gas, switch drivers, farm, farm, farm, gas, lunch, new driver, farm, farm.  At least, this is how it began in South Dakota and then continued through Minnesota, Iowa and a small part of Illinois.  This was of course broken up by a couple of visits to Mount Rushmore and the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.  Mount Rushmore was definitely a disappointment, but I am glad I saw it so that I could say that I saw Mount Rushmore.  First off, the faces are only about 60 feet from chin to the top of the head and they don’t even take up that much of the mountain face.  After having just visited Glacier National and Yellowstone I found myself wondering what it may have looked like without those faces being carved in.

We decided to stop and take a look at the Crazy Horse statue nearby which is supposed to be the biggest statue of a single person in the world.  It is also entirely privately funded and has not made much progress in the past 30 years.  There is about a rough outline and nothing else.  After all this, we ate nearby and then drove on in search of a campsite.

As we drove, we began to see signs for a place called Wall Drug.  Apparently it is the largest drug store in the world and a first class tourist trap.  Here are 5 of the THIRTY signs we saw:

Kids love Wall Drug!

New T-Rex at Wall Drug!

Free ice water at Wall Drug!

Free coffee for veterans at Wall Drug!

Homemade pie at Wall Drug!

After we made it through this mess of signs we camped out for the night in what was very calm weather with fantastic stars.

We woke up the next morning relatively late again (we didn’t set up camp until around 10:45 the previous night) and then set off for Dyersville.  We exited South Dakota into Minnesota briefly enough to stop for lunch and enjoy their fantastic accents.  We then dipped into Iowa where we would search for the field of dreams.

Now, the one thing I absolutely love about the Field of Dreams is that it has refused to become a tourist trap.  There are signs that will lead you there, but there is no “Field of Dreams Hotel” nor a “Field of Dreams Grill and Bar”.  There is a gift store, and you drive through an actual neighborhood to get there and yes, the property is still privately owned and he does continue to grow corn in the outfield.  There is also no required donation.  All this being said, we arrived just after “closing time” which basically meant that there was no one there playing on the field (yes they let you play on it) and the gift shop was closed.  We walked over to a display case to read some on the movie and the farm and then we all ran the bases since we didn’t have a bat nor ball.  We climbed the homemade bleachers too and got to see where Kevin Costner carved in “Ray loves Annie” in the middle of a heart in the movie.  I know it sounds weird, but the trip to see the Field of Dreams was way more enjoyable than Mount Rushmore.

We climbed back into the car and looked back towards some pretty ominous skies from the west.  Luckily, we were continuing east.  We drove on into Illinois and had planned to camp in Lena, but as we listened to the radio we heard a severe weather warning issued and decided it would be best to drive a little past there and find an actual hotel or motel.  We found one in Rockport and woke the next morning to hear that Lena was hit by a tornado.  Good call by us.

Into the wild… again

The drive to Yellowstone went much along the lines of the drive to GNP, minus the trip odometer turning over. When we were about 15 miles out of the north entrance, we pulled over and grabbed some buffalo burgers. They were good, but if you hadn’t told me they were buffalo and not beef, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. Well, I guess it was a little leaner, but still as greasy as ever though when you get it between two hamburger buns. I think the grease may have been blue colored as well, but it could’ve been the loss of recent sleep.

The first thing we saw was a couple of hot springs. They had a path set up so you could walk around and get “close” to them without stepping on the thermal area. Basically there was only a thin crust of land above the “thermal area” where the hot springs were bubbling beneath. A misstep could result in falling through th surface and awakening a new hot spring while you enjoyed the searing hot pleasure of being burned alive. Another thing they pointed out was the presence of sulfur in the springs but trust me, you’ll know it’s there by that lovely smell. Apparently though, there is a myriad of creatures that love the hot water and when mixed with the sulfur, (and water) they make sulfuric acid. So once again this all comes back to… STAY ON THE PATH.

The hot springs had a variety of colors in them. We saw, blue, yellow, green, red, orange and maybe even purple too.

The wildlife in Yellowstone was nothing short of impressive. While we drove around, we saw a bison rolling around on the ground trying to probably scratch that itch it just couldn’t reach. It seemed kind of funny for a little bit, and sometimes you may think about approaching it, but then you remember that this creature weighs as much as my car with all of us in it. We were hoping to see a wolf or coyote, but they do a good job of staying hidden (most canines and felines are smart like that). We also saw a lot more bison and a lot of elk.

Driving around was amazing. The park is the original national park and I believe it. In may the weather goes from around 60 degrees and nice outside to somewhere around freezing with just a 20 minute drive and no, that drive does not include a dive into the lake. We could see ice still formed just inches away from geysers which was a confusing sight. We also saw a couple of pines that looked like they could survive in the springs. After a long day of wandering around the park, we finished up at Old Faithful. Now, apparently he’s not as faithful as he used to be (stil within about 10 minutes of predicted time though). We were also told not to expect much since it was only well known for its punctuality, but it still shot up about 30 feet into the air which was pretty impressive.

We had planned on camping out in Yellowstone, but a less than inviting weather forecast had thwarted us once again, so we decided to drive into Cody, Wyoming and put up there for the night. While we drove, it got dark and began to snow. Fun stuff when you’re driving.

A lot of nothing and a lot of something

After Seattle, our next stop was Glacier National Park where we hoped to camp… weather permitting of course.  It did not.

Starting off on the drive around 5:30 AM (and it was my turn to drive… goody) we waved goodbye to our ballin hostess Katie, grabbed coffee and hit the road.  The first bits of Washington Interstate were surrounded by some pretty spectacular mountains with evergreens and a little snow around.  The last 90% of driving in Washington was less than so mostly with rolling hills/flat areas.  The weather was pretty good though.  For driving.

We rolled into Glacier National Park in the afternoon and immediately set out to find a glacier.  Our plan was pretty much thwarted by the fact that the main road that runs through the park was closed after about 12 miles or so.  We did manage to make it to the trail leading up to Avalanche Lake which was about 2 miles or so.  It took us through mud, dirt and a ton of snow.  There was a lot of birch lying around, and we walked along Avalanche Creek for a bit (which had some pretty powerful rapids for being a creek).  When we finally got to the lake, we just kind of stood there with our jaws dropped for a while.  It was set in some snow covered mountains and we’re pretty sure we saw a glacier out on the other side of the lake, but it was pretty small.  David, Drew and Kris started to venture off the trail towards the lake shore and what ensued was pretty entertaining.  Drew took a misstep through a thin layer of snow that looked like a rather thick layer.  Luckily for him, he only dipped his shoe barely into the water.  He needed help getting out, so Kris gave him a hand… and then he paid the price.  He managed to soak his entire foot in water, to which Drew laughed his head off at him.  Kris didn’t get a helping hand up, not even from Drew.  Karma didn’t take kindly to that, and found yet another thin spot in the snow for Drew to slip through and soak his other leg up to his mid-calf.  After all this madness, we found an actual trail.  Then David proposed going and actually touching the glacier.  Now, I didn’t really want to go all the way over there for a couple of reasons. A) That was more than a mile away without a trail. B) It was after 7PM and we were running out of daylight.  We took a few steps in that direction then stopped and turned back.  Then I fell through the snow (didn’t get clothes/shoes wet though), but I guess I just had the need to join in on the fun Kris and Drew enjoyed.

The walk back was a lot easier, and we saw some really cool wildlife on the way back to the car.  I also got some excellent footage of Kris dominating Drew and David in a snowball fight.  I almost got involved but my shoulder was still a little sore from a soccer injury I got about a month or so ago.  We walked by a group with some binoculars out looking at a mountain across the way and they pointed out some mountain goats to us.  They were too far away for me to get a shot with my camera unfortunately.  But as we walked further along, we saw some deer, up close and personal.  We were very quiet not to spook them and I got some pretty excellent video of them.  We got back to the car then (relatively incident free) and told the folks waiting by the beginning of the trail about what we had seen.

The drive was pretty amazing.  We drove around Lake McDonald for a bit and then saw a car on the opposite side stopped.  It was kind of curious, and then they flashed their brights at us, so we stopped.  On the opposite side of the street in the ditch… there was a BEAR!!  No joke, a black bear!  So we all whipped out our cameras and got the best pictures we could, but it was kind of difficult since the bear was in the ditch.  We tried to hang out the windows to get a better shot of it, but it really didn’t improve much.  And we were definitely not even thinking about getting out of the car for a better look.  After a little bit of that, we then drove on and Drew and I caught sight of a Red Fox dashing across the road from the lake back into the woods.  We only got a glimpse of it, but it had a white tip on its tail which gave it away.

After all this, we drove on towards Kalispell, Montana for a late dinner (seriously, got there right at closing time) and then grabbed a motel for the night.  Weather.com told us to expect freezing weather and an 80% chance of precipitation.  We weren’t too wild about that at all.

If not for the weather

One of the things I’ve been doing along this trip is thinking of places to live in the future, and Seattle has made the short list so far (Austin keeps it company).  We rolled into Seattle and took a look at the Space Needle.  Nobody wanted to part ways with 16 dollars so we just looked at it from the outside.  Then we met up with our friend Kyle and he took us around the city to see some much cooler things (in my opinion).

We walked towards downtown to Pike’s Place, the road where the open market opens up on.  It’s probably one of the coolest markets in the world and the seafood there is legendary.  We saw some of the workers tossing the fish back and forth which was pretty cool.  Kris and I had an interesting discussion about these guys.  They are basically the bottom of the ladder working class guys doing a job that probably none of them want to really keep (they all looked 20′s or younger) yet when people come to Seattle, they come to see them.  Despite having a working class status, they have more fame than almost everything and everyone else in the city.

We could also see the shipping port out in the sound.  Unlike San Francisco, this port is modernized and wheeling and dealing in the 21st century.  After we were done checking out all the gigantic loading cranes from a distance we finished up our tour of the market with a visit to the so-called queen mother of Seattle, Starbucks.  The shop looks a little different from the other Starbucks you will see (in that, the mermaid on the front door is an older picture with breasts showing… something you don’t see many other places) but it really operates just about 100% the same as the others.  I am totally amazed by how well Seattle has embraced the idea of globalization.  Obviously they have natural advantages (such as a large port) and they have helped a company like Starbucks go from a single, tiny coffee shop into the dominating chain that has multiple shops on individual corners at times.  Another reason for the success of Starbucks could very well be due to the competition around it.  I haven’t looked any further into it, but I imagine that Starbucks was not the only kid in town for coffee and that they had to compete for market share.  What this could lead to is a better tasting coffee at a lower price.  If this didn’t happen, Starbucks probably would not have been able to go global since nobody would want a low quality coffee shop in town.  As a result, Seattle brings high quality coffee around the world quickly and cheaply and Starbucks takes full advantage of that.
After we met up with Katie (our hostess for the night) we went putt-putt.  We played some competitive miniature golf with her coworkers at a place where they served beer on the course.  It was an… interesting experience involving rap music, tailgating, teams dressed for themes (ours was white trash) and lots of missed shots.

Over the border and through Redwoods

I guess I should really refer to this as the part of the trip where we drive to Seattle, despite the fact that we spent the night in Corvallis, OR (where Oregon State is).

First off, when googlemaps tells you that a trip is 6 hours based on the direct route and you want to go see a coast and some big trees… add in a substantial amount of time.  We left at 8AM and arrived around 11PM.

This time was spent mostly in the drive to the coast, which featured lots of wonderful grades.  It is very unnerving when you are driving downhill and see a ramp that goes up off of a turn for “runaway trucks”.  It is downright terrifying when you are being followed quite closely by a truck and the RV in front of you just won’t go any faster.  Thank God for those turnouts.

After some amount of driving, we made it to the coast, and as promised, Kris and David ran right into the water.  Beautiful.  They were soaked, and I was entertained.  The sand was a very interesting color, black.  After they dried up some, we headed onward to see some trees taller than a football field.

The redwoods were amazing, and can stand up to 370 feet tall, making them the tallest trees in the world.  Sequoias can be wider but Redwoods are on average taller.  Here’s another factoid to throw at you.  They weigh 500 tons.  For those of you who lack our mad math conversion skills… thats a million pounds.  We walked around Ladybird Johnson’s Grove for a bit marveling at these things (all the while being pursued by bees) before we headed back into the car for Corvallis.

What followed was something of a comedy of errors.  First off, we totally misjudged how long this was going to take us when we started averaging a speed of about 40 MPH until we finally hit the interstate at Grant’s Pass.  We did hit a landmark 4000 miles during this part, so that boosted morale all around.  We were getting pretty hungry and low on gas so we decided to take care of both of those in Eugene (about 40 minute drive out) at around 9:00 PM.  Or at least… we thought it was Eugene.  We grabbed some dinner at this deli which seemed a lot less sketchy from the outside.  When we sat down to eat however, we noticed a couple of people walking in off the street, into a back room NOT a bathroom and every time this happened the person at the front turned and walked to the back.  On top of this, we saw one of these characters walk in TWICE and whenever one of these interesting people walked in they took a few looks around before going back.  One guy actually stutter stepped once he saw that there were actually people eating there.  We finished our food quickly and ran.  As if this experience weren’t enough, we couldn’t find a gas station… not even with the use of our GPS.  We finally got back on the interstate, discovered Eugene to actually be a couple exits down gassed up and made it to Corvallis for a quick night’s rest and then up and out early morning.

The drive from Oregon to Seattle was much less eventful.  We tried to go see Mt. St. Helens but thanks to terrible weather we saw nothing (terrible weather = clouds covering the entire volcano).  Before we got into Seattle, we changed the oil and filter in my car… yes we have actually been in the car that long.  Then we rolled on into Seattle.

I left my weather report in Sacramento

Note to self: when grandma says bring a sweater, bring a sweater!

Despite the fact that Sacramento and the surrounding area were experiencing record highs in excess of 100 degrees, San Francisco was not the place to go to without a jacket.  We really underestimated the wind and temperature of the Bay City and wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I was not thrilled.

Rather than drive all the way to San Fran, we decided to avoid that monstrous traffic by way of the BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit.  We got on in Richmond which if you’ve seen the movie Coach Carter you know it isn’t necessarily the best of neighborhoods and I wasn’t excited about parking my car there.  Still we rode into the financial district of San Francisco and decided the first thing we wanted was lunch.  And Chinese.  The first thing we did however, was get lost.

After getting directions from a German and a map from a hotel, we found ourselves in the middle of Chinatown.  It looks, exactly how you would picture it from a movie, filled with tiny shops restaurants (presumably individually run/owned).  Some seemed like they were trying to take advantage of tourists by offering a lot of Asian wares as their chief products, while others looked like cheaper versions of the dollar store.  Either way, everything looked like a dive.  We had our Chinese food and started to head towards the piers.  Piers 1-38 are excessively boring, as are piers 40-47.  Pier 39 is the infamous fishermen’s wharf.  From there, we could get a great view of the luxurious hotel Alcatraz advertising bars in every room.  Ritzy.

On top of the fantastic views of things like the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge (despite low clouds covering its top) and the rock, we also saw some sea lions… lots of sea lions.  They choose to hang out around the piers because there is an inordinate amount of fish available, which is good, because they eat lots of it.

After the wharf, we found our way to Ghiradelli Square for chocolate and milkshakes.  I like how the founder’s story really is a true example of the American dream, despite the fact that he ended being successful in a “different” American dream.  The American dream used to be coming up from nothing to run your own life and business and become successful thanks to your hard work.  These days it seems that the American dream is to win the lottery or sue somebody.  Ghiradelli came up to California from South America in search of a “get rich quick” American dream (the Gold Rush).  Unable to find any gold, he set up shop nearby selling his delicious confections before opening up a second shop in the city.  The rest is history.

After the square, we walked down Lumbard street, which is not a fraction as entertaining as driving down it, but watching people attempt to drive down it was fun enough.  Then we wandered around trying to get into a cable car but upon failing miserably, we abandoned hope and decided to go tie shopping for Kris.  Apparently he likes to get them as souvenirs from trips.

As we walked along, we definitely began to notice San Francisco’s more liberal attitude.  One thing I noticed in particular was how much everyone was “checking you out.”  It kind of reminded me of walking around in Spain where you would get the eyes of passion from just about every woman you crossed paths with.  This time the same thing happened only with both genders… mostly male.  We walked by this store called Pink which specialized in men’s clothing.  Pink?  Only in Frisco could you get away with that.  After we had had enough of the tie-shopping (no ties on our budget) and being undressed by eyes of the not-so-fairer sex, we headed back to Granite Bay via the BART.

A bad milestone

We got up and out for Sacramento/Granite Bay/San Francisco pretty early the next day, so really just the usual 5:30AM.  While driving through Nevada, we came across what could win the prize for funniest sign/place name.  Shady Lady Ranch Brothel.  Through this much of the trip here are the standings:

1) Shady Lady Ranch Brothel

2) BJ’s Cocktail Lounge

3) Elephant Butte… yes we have been liberally mispronouncing that word the whole trip for our enjoyment.

When we drove by there, we discovered they really weren’t messing around with the “shady” part.  It was just a collection of trailer homes in the middle of a dry, barren desert with zero cloud cover or… shade.  We held our breath as we drove through to avoid catching any and all diseases.

Our first planned stop on this trip was Yosemite.  We were really looking forward to it and when we got close we began to see a terrifying sight… snow in May.  It was obviously not fresh, but seeing a partially frozen lake in what was not a winter month caught us off guard a bit.  Later on the road, something else caught us totally off guard with the closure of Tiago Pass or the eastern entrance to Yosemite.  Bummer.

We were forced to ad-lib our way around the park and by the time would eventually get around to where we could go into the other entrance, it would be too late.  We did still get to see some amazing landscape in the Sierra Nevada though.  This part of driving also proved to be the ultimate test of my 120 horsepower compact car as we found ourselves going up a 26% grade.  To say I was concerned would be the understatement of the year, at least until I saw someone driving a Toyota Prius in front of us.  That was a pretty big boost of confidence seeing someone with an electric engine even attempting this feat.

After we got past the mountains, we were on our way to do some wine tasting in Murphy’s, California.  Yes that is the name of the town, yes they have a decent collection of vineyards and no, basketball is not their biggest sport… It’s frog jumping.  Taking a page from Mark Twain, the day we arrived, the frog jump finals were going on, although we did miss it by the time we rolled in.  We did manage to taste a few different wines at a local vineyard, Chatham.  All in all, we tried 2 whites and 3 reds before walking out with one of each.  It was a pretty interesting experience and the woman serving us didn’t seem to mind me videotaping the whole thing.  She also brought out some chocolates to go with the wines, two things I wouldn’t have imagined going well together but they did.

After we left the vineyard, we started off for my grandparents’ place in Granite Bay.  We plugged the address into the GPS, but it was giving us some odd directions and kept predicting us arriving 3 hours later despite having us only travel a total of less than 90 miles.  So we nixed the GPS for the time being and called my grandpa who (sorta) gave us directions.  After finding our way into Sacramento (just getting into town past Arco Arena) I called my grandpa again for further directions only to discover… we were lost.  After we got new directions, we looked at the GPS and behold it was right all along.  The first time we got lost and the first time we had to change travel plans both happened on this one day of traveling.  Needless to say, when we rode into a delicious dinner, drinks and hilarious stories I will not publish for the sake of my uncle Joe’s embarrassment, we were very relieved.

Vegas Baby!

We hit the city of sin up for two nights in this trip so we could afford to be a little irresponsible with our behavior for one night, because I feel like that’s part of being in a city where you are just a vodka martini, a woman and an Elvis impersonator away from being married at any given time. Never fear though, as four bachelors we entered Las Vegas and as four bachelors we left. We drove past the strip on the way to our hotel, showered and hit the town.

We were pretty hungry so we kind of wanted to find one of those legendary Las Vegas buffets. What we did not want to do however was part with 30 dollars to do so (no thank you MGM Grand). So after walking around the strip for about an hour and a half, we came to the realization that it wasn’t gonna happen here. We saw the Hooter’s casino advertising 25 cent wings and all you can eat ribs for about 15 bucks. That definitely tickled our fancy, so we went in there only to discover the wing special was from midnight to 6 only and the restaurant was not an actual Hooter’s restaurant. It was Dan Marino’s restaurant. Seriously? The professional football player who is a spokesman for freakin NutriSystem!?!? The ribs however were delicious and interestingly enough, they were the cheapest thing on the menu (salads and soups aside). After we ate, we decided to walk all the way up the strip to digest this ridiculous amount of food and lose some money.

For those of you who may not know, the Las Vegas strip is one of the brightest places on Earth. There is a light at the top of the Luxor that supposedly shines brightly enough to be seen from space on a clear night. There is also a plethora of men handing out flyers for strippers… or prostitutes. The general trend among these guys was they all appeared to be Hispanic. In fact, that was the only trend that rang true as some of these people handing out these flyers were in fact Hispanic women.

We continued walking and tried our luck at gambling, which really just translated into losing different denominations of money at a time. After successfully managing to lose about 20 bucks in roulette, David and I strolled over to Caesar’s Palace where we had one goal: get free drinks while gambling at the penny slots. While there, I managed to make 5 dollars last about 4-5 hours in a penny slot, all the while getting free drinks. I was thoroughly impressed.

After all the gambling, we strolled towards our hotel and picked up a cab. I “interviewed” our cabbie, although it was far from formal. He had migrated from Eastern Europe about 20 years ago and had been driving a cab almost the whole time since then. He told us a lot about how the system works with the company he’s with. He gets his choice of hours to drive based on seniority at the company. He’s number 6 in line at his company behind some guys who have been driving there for about 25 years or so. He said it pays pretty decent, but there really isn’t any opportunity for advancement.

The next day, we hit up the old Vegas strip. We saw the Binion’s casinos where they host the World Series of Poker and we also found one of those great buffets for 10 dollars. The old strip is definitely host to a much “seedier” crowd but also home to many cheaper games. In fact, we saw single deck blackjack with 5 dollar minimum bets while we were there. They are really just asking people to count cards with that one.

After we were done losing money in the old strip we decided to go head down to the new strip and lose more money. Not too much though, just on things like the penny slots so maybe like 5 dollars tops between all of us. Mostly we just wanted to walk around the casinos we missed on day one. After that leisurely stroll, we decided to hit the hay pretty early to gear up for our next day of travel. For your entertainment, here are some superlatives/numbers from our time in Vegas:

Celebrity Impersonators – 2 (Elvis and Michael Jackson)

Grooms – 6

Brides – 7

Casino with the most disappointing interior but an awesome outside – Luxor

Casino with the most impressive interior but a cheesy outside – Excalibur

Casino with most over the top theme use – New York, New York

Casino with best use of theme – Caesar’s Palace

Money Lost

Drew – $3

David – $60.25

Kris – $50

Josh – $78

Proposed alternative nickname for Vegas: Playground for the businessmen

Get your kicks

Well, the road to Vegas took us through Kingman, Arizona, which you may recognize from Allstate commercials, but it also was a part of historic Route 66.  Which is always neat to see motels in the shape of teepees.

Really the only thing to see along this way was the Hoover Dam, which was something of a disappointment. We could see the lake side coming in where I got some dam souvenirs, but we really couldn’t get a good glimpse of the other side. We opted out of the tour on account of it being 2-3 hours long and we were pretty sleep deprived from our night in the freezing weather of the Grand Canyon. So all we did was just drive over it which wasn’t terribly fun. It’s honestly a lot like driving over a bridge in rush hour traffic where you can’t see over the ledge to the water.

We were pretty excited for the end of this driving for a night on the strip.