Day 6 Week 1

I awoke to an absolutely stunning morning this today. Not a cloud in the sky and the snow was piled high.

I filled my esky with drinks I bought last night at SAFEWAY and then filled it with snow from a snow drift outside my room. It is still partially frozen now 12hrs later. I should be in Colorado tomorrow afternoon so I will be able to refill it with snow.

After checking out, I had a great breakfast of bacon, sausage, hash browns and eggs at a diner in Williams.

As I was leaving the diner, I noticed the store next door sold bric-a-brac, guns and whips. They also taught whip cracking and fast drawing. I wandered in for a look around and left an hour and a half later after chewing the fat with the owner ‘Buck’ and his various mates that wandered in. I was even talked into learning to quick draw by Buck who holds the title of 5^th fastest quick draw in the world. We were using an 1872 Colt open top revolver in .45.

 Me learning to quick draw. I had to wear the hat.

Buck and the boys, oh and the waitress from the Diner next door.

I finally headed off towards Nevada. Next stop the Hoover Dam. I had intended to go to the Grand Canyon Sky Walk but stopped at a Diner on the way to use the restroom and got talking to the owner.

The Diner on US 93

I asked for directions and she advised me of the true costs of the Skywalk. In addition to the $29.95 entrance fee to walk on the skywalk, they charge a compulsory ‘Legacy Fee’ of $43.05 which goes to the Hualapai Indian Nation. Personal cameras are not allowed on the skywalk but a guide can take your picture for you and you can purchase those for $30 each. I checked out her figures online and she was right. Needless to say, I gave it a miss as I had already been to the South Rim of the Canyon yesterday.

When I got to the Hoover Dam, I was amazed at the amount of people there to sight see. There were hundreds of people all over the top of the dam. Not to mention the people all along the new bypass bridge. I am really starting to notice the huge amount of people here compared to Australia. Whenever I am driving, there seems to be a constant stream of traffic coming from the other direction. The Dam itself is huge and the bypass bridge is just as impressive if not more. US 93 used to wind its way down over the dam wall until 19^th October 2010 when they opened the new bridge. Now visitors have to detour off the Interstate to visit the Dam.

I continued on to Las Vegas which is only 30 miles away.

Approaching Las Vegas

The Interstate led me into the main centre of the city. I jumped off the freeway somewhere in the city and just got pushed with the traffic. I have NEVER seen traffic like it. Sydney has nothing on Las Vegas traffic. I drove around and around the city trying to get to something that looked like a place to park. I finally saw a small motel so I pulled in and breathed a sigh of relief.  I got to see the Strip a bit and the huge casinos but oh my God the traffic.  

I booked into the motel for $40 for the night. It looked a bit rough but I was just glad to be out of the traffic. After putting my bags in the room, I took the managers advice and wandered down the street to a bus stop intending to get a bus to the Strip. There was an African American lady sitting on the bench and her male companion was kneeling beside her whispering something. There was another white gent, in his early twenties on the other side of the shelter wall. I asked the single gent for advice as to what I should refer to this area as on my return journey. He looked at me with a surprised look on his face and said “You’re not staying around here are you?” I said “Yeah, in that motel right there”. He said “Man, this is crack town. You’re in the worst part of the city.” He said he was just sitting there nervously waiting for the bus to come so he could get the hell out of there. He said that if I stayed there I would find people “turning tricks” all night in the motel and chances are my car wouldn’t be there in the morning.

He said that there is no way I could walk outside at night.  When I looked around there did seem to be a lot of less fortunate looking people around and a lot of empty lots and rundown buildings. A police car was stopped down the street with its lights going and come to think of it, the steel door to the motel reception that led to an area about 1.2m x 1.2m square, where you then spoke to the motel manager through a glass screen with a money slot under the glass, should have been a giveaway. Also come to think of it, when I asked the manager if it was a Non Smoking room he looked at me weird as if he had never been asked that question before. And the room really did look and smell disgusting.  I decided that the traffic wasn’t that bad after all and I might continue on my journey. Not that I was scared or anything, I just decided that I had seen enough of Las Vegas.  I walked back to the motel and told the manager that I was moving on and he understood completely, funnily enough. Because I hadn’t used the room he gave me my $40 back.

I had another nightmare journey out of the city but finally made it onto the Interstate heading north. I passed through the most amazing canyons when I re entered Arizona.

I have stopped tonight at a little town in southern Utah called St George. St George was founded by the Mormon founder Brigham Young. St George also got soaked in radiation by the prevailing winds from the Nevada Atomic Test sites in the 50’s.

Tomorrow I hope to make it across Utah and into Colorado but I will see what happens.