What happens in Vegas...

...will be totally disclosed in this blog post, as nothing terribly illegal happened while I was there (that I was involved in at least).

First though, I apologize for the delay in this post - I had a few blog posts ready to go (no internet for a while so I couldn't post them live) and then a wind storm blew my laptop off of the picnic table and bombed the hard drive. So I have had to wait for another laptop and then had to rewrite everything! But I am trucking on these things, I promise.

Anyways, here goes: 8/27:

I left Yosemite by way of Tioga Pass in the morning. There were some great winding roads to drive on the way out, though nothing like I had seen in California. I didn't stop much along the way as my destination was 7 hours away - Vegas baby!

This picture brought to you by EFI, the elevation conquerer! 

Giant mountains, weeny cars.

I followed the GPS blindly and at some point found myself pretty toasty. The A/C was blowing freezing, but the sun was incredibly strong. I now realize why window tint is so popular in the southwest - can't live without it! I would have given an unburnt left arm for some window tint about midday. Eventually I stopped at a giant convenience store once I hit Nevada and hung out inside cooling down and eating ice cream. I then found out that I had accidentally driven through part of Death Valley. So that would be why I was hot.

Pretty cool state sign!

A giant sand dune in the middle of nowhere

The GPS then continued on to carry me past Area 51 (or somewhere close enough to Area 51 to merit a souvenir shop). I was seriously questioning my GPS's intentions at this point but apparently there's only a few roads to get to Vegas from the northwest... still very questionable.

Surprisingly, they didn't sell tin foil hats

Anyways, around evening I finally hit Vegas! Just in time for afternoon traffic, but I suppose there's traffic at any time of day there. Either way, Jane's cooling system was still working hard and so I had no issues with overheating.

First view of the city and associated traffic.

Finally I hit the strip! And MAN I was not prepared for the actual level of ridiculousness that is Vegas. I kind of just assumed that Hollywood hypes the city up like it does everything else, but in fact it somehow portrays the city as less than what it appears to be when you actually get there. My hotel of choice was Excalibur, a gargantuan medieval-themed monstrosity right on the corner of the strip. It boasts real live jousting (with knights and horses, the whole nine yards) in the basement, an expansive casino in the middle, shopping, steakhouses (yes, more than one), and a few other restaurants. Just in the one building! Oh, and across from it? A hotel with its own roller coaster. A real coaster, not one of the rinky-dink ones from the state fair.

My god. How do these things even remain upright?!

Just in case you're not entertained enough.

So here I am and I haven't even made it down the strip yet and already I am freaking out. What an insane place. I parked Jane out in the lot and wandered in to find my way to my room. It took quite a bit of wandering to even figure out where it was as the main floor of the hotel was so HUGE. And there was so much to see! It was a bit overwhelming after the relative tranquility of Yosemite (even in the height of tourist season). So I just tried my best to look like I knew what I was doing to avoid people talking to me.

Eventually I got tired of wandering (just inside the one building) and plopped myself down for a nice steak at one of the steakhouses. Food in Vegas apparently used to be cheap and plentiful - my grandfather has reverently told me about the endless buffets many times - but now it is not so. The cheapest buffet was 40 dollars, so it was actually cheaper to eat at a steakhouse! I wasn't complaining though.

After dinner I went to haggle with the valets over Jane's parking for the night. I didn't want to leave her out in the lot unprotected, but neither did I want someone else trying to drive her and park her anywhere, even 10 feet away. Eventually I wheedled my way into their good graces and they said I could drive her up to park myself - and even better, they gave me a spot right up front where she would be seen but also well protected! Score!

At that point, driving Jane up to the main entrance of the hotel and trying my best not to do anything silly, I heard my favorite quote of the night from two guys standing on the sidewalk:
"Dude, look at that car!"
"Dude, look at HER!"
Ha! I guess I clean up okay. Must've been the dim lighting.

I didn't go out to see the rest of the strip that night, unfortunately. I felt that it would be a lot more fun to get in trouble with friends along than to get in trouble by myself. It seems very wrong to say that I had a nice quiet night in in Vegas, but that's what I did. Sometime (soon, hopefully) I'll be back with a bunch of friends to have fun and run around to experience the true Vegas!

Nighttime makes this place even cooler

In the morning I loaded Jane up and stopped at the Shelby American warehouse/factory/museum on the way out of town. Of course Jane is not a Shelby (though PO did do the gas cap and grill as such), but the sentiment remains: Carroll Shelby was one of the iconic people in the Mustang world and I felt the need to go pay homage. I was there in time to take the tour, which was supposed to last an hour but ended up lasting two. Learned some really cool stuff though and saw some awesome cars!

The pony that started it all

The first Cobra ever built, now valued at 26 million dollars

A bunch of Cobras, including an aluminum-bodied car (rearmost) and a Hydrogen-powered car (the red one)

Daytona coupe replica

Some lovely ponies at the forefront of the car gallery

An ugly, awful car, but I thought that the GLHS tag was funny - it stands for "Goes Like Hell"

The Shelby factory floor with all kinds of work being performed!

Signed the wall for Jane and I

After the two hours was up I booked it to Kingman, AZ - one of the key points on old historic Route 66! I was very excited to be on Route 66 once more (some may recall that I actually hit it in St. Louis, MO as well). I stopped at the Route 66 museum to check out their memorabilia, at which point I conveniently noticed that once again Jane's gas was boiling in the tank. By now I've resigned myself to the fact that this will happen occasionally for no readily apparent reason, so I just loosened the gas cap and let her be.

Nothing looks more inviting than this car with the door propped open

This plaque with a page from the Grapes of Wrath cracked me up - sometimes I feel this way trying to get Jane places!

Eventually I had done all the wandering I could do and Jane had quit boiling my dollars away, so we hopped back on the road. But first a stop at an old school gas station - wish the prices had been old school too!

I headed down 93 to Wickenburg where I met up with my landlord-turned-adoptive-father, Bryan. He and his wife Nadine live in the Phoenix area so I wanted to stop by and say hello for a bit before starting north again. Bryan owns a 2006 Stage 2 Procharged Roush Mustang (a fancy title which means that he owns a very fast powerful modern Mustang) and he wanted to cruise into town with me.

Beauty and the Beast. Not sure which is Beauty and which is the Beast!

Cactuses and Mustangs... not a bad view!

We pulled into Phoenix in late evening, for which I was duly grateful - the sun had been cooking me all day and I was about done with it. The elevated Phoenix temps on top of the harsh sun would've sent me over the edge I'm sure! Mighty little A/C unit or not, nothing can defeat the strength of the late afternoon sun in the southwest.

Anyways, I am now ensconced in the basement, safely away from any source of heat or light. There's steaks on the grill and people I love right upstairs. Feels like home. Kelly signing out.