Roadtrip Across the USA: Day 11, 12

Hello Vegas and now goodbye Vegas.

I liked you and I disliked you.

I liked you because you are pretty at night. So colorful and vibrant. Cheap food if you find the right places (which we did a couple of times) and our hotel which rocked.

I disliked you because you are crowded, too hot (111ª F is a bit too much), we did everything we wanted to do in a day, food is extremely overpriced if you dont find the right places, and I'm not even going to start on the gambling. I set aside $50 bucks but only gambled $30 of it and lost about $14. I stopped there. Luck was not on my side.

My entire life I never wanted to visit Vegas. Nothing here interested me up until about a year ago when I learned how to play poker. My friends and I learned together and played together but we never played with real money. After my beginner experience with this I started having an interest in visiting Vegas. Now that I have seen, somewhat conquered, and experience Sin City, it will be long awhile before I come back, if I ever want to in my remaining lifetime.

We got a nice Asian themed room on the 18th floor of the Mirage. It was the cheapest we could find on the strip so we went with it. Our first night we walked up and down Las Vegas Boulevard and saw Vegas come to life as the almost unbearable sun set. The heat, even at night, felt like there was a massive hairdryer blowing hot air through the streets. At times it burned my eyes and at times I got dehydrated quickly. Later that night I gambled around $2 and ended the night with $2.23. Sweet. A profit. That was the first and last night I made more than what I gambled during my stay here. Sad, isn't it? Or just what I was expecting?

The next day we ate, strolled the strip more, ate, swam, gambled and ate. Vegas is in two parts. There is the strip on Las Vegas Boulevard that has all the massive hotels such as the MGM Grand and Caesers Palace then there is Old Vegas on Fremont Street in downtown, the place where Vegas was born. I was excited to see Old Vegas. For years I had this vision in my mind from old movies and pictures of it a night time but when I got there that image in my mind was completely destroyed. This is just me expressing my opinion but it had a different vibe there than our hotel area, I vibe I didn't care for and one main thing that completely took away from the essence of the original Las Vegas was this massive roof/screen that covered everything. It was nice when they did a light display but other than that it was nothing but advertisements up in the sky covering what made Vegas, Las Vegas. I dont know, I guess the city thought it would be a nice feature to do this but I didn't care for it nor did Whitney, Andrew, and Meghan.

And by the way, I bought an $11 milkshake. Yeah, eleven dollars. It was good but I'd say it was $6 good.

I am not a tourist, and I've never really cared for tourist spots. They are always crowded, always sell souviners (which I hate), and always have this appeal to them that doesn't make them feel like they are what they are portrayed to be. If you get what I am saying but anyways, I am a traveler and will be for the rest of my life but Vegas has nothing to offer to anybody but tourists. That's just the way I see it. It is a town for people who want to spend money, lots and lots of it. $7 for oatmeal? You can get it in Vegas. $17 for a pastrami sandwich? Come to Vegas. $3 for a bottle of Coke? Vegas Baby!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and the happening is your money going bye bye because it is staying in Vegas while you hop on your plane to go home.

And yes I am aware that the Grand Canyon is a tourist spot and that is where we are going next. But all you have to do is a little research to find out how to experience these spots as a traveler, not a tourist. We did our research and are going do to just that.