Day 104 - 7 Oct '23 - Williams to Lake Havasu City. Yesterday, while sitting on the deck of our campsite, I told Dan this KOA campground would be a great place to come to for a summer holiday. I am now revising that statement.
It would be a great campsite if they put up a sound wall against the four-lane highway that runs alongside it, as well as ban trains from using their horns.
Our first night's sleep was great despite the cold, as we were all tired. The second night's sleep was a little broken, but it was warmer than the previous one. Last night both Dan and I were throwing the covers off around midnight (despite it being 8°C), and the earplugs the campground provided (should have been a giveaway...) did diddly squat to stop the noise of the highway and trains. At one point I counted 14 seconds of silence.
We eventually got out of bed around 9, and enjoyed a lazy morning. I did some more laundry while the kids played on the playground and Dan packed the car, and after we checked out at 11am we played another round of minigolf.
Abi had a tantrum halfway through the first nine, so she was made to follow us for a while, then rejoined us at the second nine. It was totally different playing in the day, and it seemed to serve me better as I won by one point against Dan! (And that was before taking the five point handicap he had bestowed on me following the night-time game).
We stayed at Lake Havasu City tonight, as it was as partway-ish-after-a-little-detour between Williams and Las Vegas, which we wanted to avoid until the weekend was over.
Having been in 7-25°C temperatures the last couple of days, we got out of the car to 37°C! Just a wee bit of a change...
Day 105 - 8 Oct '23 - Vegas, Baby! We all had a good sleep, and after eating a supplied minimal breakfast of cereal and yoghurt, we hopped into the car.
Our first stop was a quick detour to a huge Route 66 sign you could drive through! Abi had read about it in one of the many brochures she liked to collect at every stop.
After that, we went to the Hoover Dam. This isn't the biggest dam in the world, by any means, and isn't even the biggest in America, but it is incredibly well-known, having been in numerous movies (Transformers and Superman to name a couple).
It was 35°C when we got out of the car to walk over the concrete arch bridge in front of the dam, which allowed us to see the downriver concrete side. It was BIG - made us wonder what a big dam looked like!
After driving our car across the top of the dam to another parking lot, we got out of the car once again, this time to walk over the dam and look down over the edges. Ooh, it was high! I don't think any of those movies that have people sliding down the side (and surviving) would be possible in real life! Even the side with water still had a tremendous drop before you'd reach the surface; broken bones for sure, if not a broken body.
(If you zoom in on this photo, look for the guy in the bright orange shirt, to the right of the first column - it should give you an idea of the size, and I couldn't even get the bottom of the dam in the frame!).
We drove to a nearby visitor centre to have lunch in their carpark (as we do...), then carried on to Las Vegas. We were staying here for two nights at the casino Circus Circus, which had free circus acts every hour!
We got there just after 3pm, and stood in the check-in queue for around 30 minutes, before being given our keys to a room on the 14th floor.
Then the fun really began. And by 'fun' I mean 'torture'.
The lifts were under repair, with the call buttons not working during check-in or check-out time, so the lifts had attendants in them who would take you to the relevant floor.
No problem.
We got to our room and dropped our few handheld items, then went back to the lift, to return to our car and collect our rucksacks and food.
Problem.
Remember the call buttons not working?
"They must have security cameras or something, so they know when someone wants to get down from their floor," I suggested.
We waited 15 minutes, then a man came round the corner and said the lifts haven't worked for two days, and we have to call housekeeping to ask them to get a lift sent to pick us up.
???!!!
Another man who was waiting went back to his room to call for the lift, and eventually (now been 20 minutes) we got down to the carpark.
We got our bags and went back up to our room, after waiting at the bottom for a lift to be going up, as there was only one lift for every seven floors.
"Can we go to the pool now?" the kids asked in unison.
"Okay, let's go!" we replied.
We remembered to call housekeeping for the lift, but the phone rang and rang for a few minutes (must have been because everyone else was calling them). Eventually I got through, but even then, the lift still took almost five minutes to arrive.
It was 4:45pm when we got to the pool, and it closed at 5pm. So, without even dipping so much as a toe in the water, we headed back to our room, via the queue at the lifts.
"This is ridiculous," Dan said. "We've been here almost two hours and haven't done a single thing, other than spend almost at hour on the lift. I'm going to complain and get our room changed!"
A 20 minute wait for the lift this time, and we walked to the reception desk, where we got to speak to a supervisor.
I stepped up to the plate, and came out swinging, mentally rubbing my hands together with glee (if that would be physically possible while swinging).
"We checked in shortly after 3pm, and it's now 5:30pm, and we haven't done anything other than go up and down the lifts a couple of times. NOBODY told us the lifts were broken, and we would need to call housekeeping to send a lift to our floor. This is utterly ridiculous!"
"You shouldn't be calling housekeeping," the supervisor said. "You need to call security and mention there is a fault with the lift. The lifts aren't broken. It's only like this because it's a long weekend, we are at capacity with all of our 4000 rooms fully booked, and it will be fine tomorrow when most people leave."
"No, the lifts are broken, it's not a case of too many people pushing the buttons for the floors, as the call buttons don't work."
"Well all I can suggest is you swap rooms to one on the third floor, then you'll only have to wait for one floor instead of 12, and tomorrow I can change you to the other tower, which will be an upgrade but with no charge."
"Is there a stairwell nearby we can use in the meantime, as it's only one floor?" Dan asked.
"No, well, yes there is, but you can't use it, unless it's an emergency." (What the actual?)
"This is ridiculous!" I said again. "The lifts are broken, and we're having to call for the lift. It will be the same on the third floor as it would be on the 14th!"
"As I said...the...lifts...will...be...bet-ter...to-mor-row...as...there...will...be...less...peo-ple."
Oooooooohhh...
"You...don't...need...to...talk...slow-ly...to...me! I...un-der-stand...what...you're...say-ing. You...can...speak...in...a...nor-mal...voice. This is talking in a normal voice. See?"
At this point, Dan stepped back in. Probably a good call.
"I think I'll take it from here... Yes please, we'll take the room on the third floor."
"Okay, and I'll write a note on your account that tomorrow you can change to the other room if you wish."
So! We went back to the car to get the chilly bin and a couple more things, then got the lift to the third floor. The window looked out onto a concrete wall.
"Okay, well, never mind. We'll go back to the 14th floor and get our stuff."
Call security for the lift. Security said not to call them, and to call housekeeping. (For f*cks sake!). Call housekeeping for the lift. Wait 10 minutes.
"You know what Dan? The wait is just as long on the 3rd as it was on the 14th. Why don't we just take the chilly bin back up to the 14th and stay there?"
"Yes, good idea. I've had enough of this."
Quickly grabbed our things from the 3rd floor room. Waited another 10 minutes for the lift. Told some other people waiting that they need to call housekeeping for the lift. They were just as amazed as we were about this.
Back at the 14th floor, Dan called reception to let them know we would stay on the 14th, thanks very much.
"Okay, well you'll need to come down to reception , as your keycard was only authorised for one more opening for you to get your bags."
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
"RIGHT!" Dan said as he abruptly hung up the phone. "Grab your things. I'm NOT going back to reception. We will just go back to the 3rd floor and stay there!"
Call housekeeping for the lift. Wait 15 minutes. Carry EVERYTHING on a single load that we brought in two loads. Die a little inside.
Back in our 3rd floor room.
"It's 6:30pm," Alex pointed out, "and we haven't done anything. This is the worst thing that's happened to us!"
"I can think of worse things," I answered. "What about us eating cereal for dinner at Wawa because the shops were shut?"
"Or the problem at the airport when we couldn't leave the country?" Dan joined in.
"Or not being able to buy the car?" I added.
"Come on," Dan said, "let's go and get some dinner, and check out the kid's arcade area."
The hotel/casino had free circus acts every hour, so we went there first, and watched a clown balancing on two rolling cans stacked on top of each other, that were rolling in different directions! Amazing!!
We had to walk through the casino to get anywhere, and it STANK of cigarette smoke. Nevada's Indoor Clean Air Act says people can smoke in the gambling areas but not in the corridors. Given they are right beside each other, with no physical barrier, and smoke follows all natural laws of physics, they may as well have said "smoke wherever you want".
We had Burger King for dinner, as it was the only place we could quickly find that had anything gluten free (the fries). Then we went to the kids arcade, and gave them each $40USD to play with.
We had so much fun! We were there for over an hour, trying all the different machines. By the time we left, Alex had won almost 1000 tickets and Abi was around 500, and they still have money left to use tomorrow.
Day 106 - 9 Oct '23 - Las Vegas. Today we decided to walk the strip, which took us just over an hour to do in one direction. It was pretty hot at 35°C, but was great to see the famous hotel casinos such as Treasure Island, Bellagio, Caeser's Palace, and Flamingo (which is the oldest on the strip).
One place we stopped at was the M&M store, where they had every colour possible to pick from, and all the flavours too, never mind the incredible variety of merchandise. Abi had an absolute blast, as they are gluten free in the states, and this was the first time she was able to eat them.
We bought an all-day pass for the bus, at $8USD each, so we could use it later tonight to see everything lit up, and enjoyed the air-conditioned ride back to the hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, we decided to take them up on the offer to change rooms for the upgrade.
"Stuff them," Dan said (and I thought, too). "They can clean all three rooms."
I called the bell service for a bellhop, and the person on the phone actually SIGHED when I asked for someone to do their job. I somehow managed to bite my tongue, and used my best manners. Well done me!
Our new room was on the other side of the complex, and was an upgrade in size of the main room alone. The bathroom was smaller, the view on the 2nd floor was of slightly more concrete than the 3rd floor, there was no privacy curtain on the window, and there was a spray of sauce stains on the wallpaper above the beds.
"Right - let's go to the pool!"
We found a couple of spare loungers in the shade, and Dan and the kids went on the hydro slides, while I watched people swim in the smaller of the two pools (the larger one was now closed for the season). Everyone who got in, did so with their arms up and a funny look on their faces, so I could tell the water was 'solar-heated'.
Sure enough, Dan came back and said the water was cold, and when both Alex and Abi preferred the jacuzzi over the slides, I knew it wouldn't be long before we went back to the room.
After showers, we returned to the circus area and watched some trapeze artists swinging and tumbling high above us. What an incredible skill, and so awesome these performances are free!
We went back to the arcade area so the kids could finish off their credits, and while they were (painfully slowly) picking their prizes, Dan went and played on the pokies.
"How did you do?" I asked him when he came back.
"Good! I'm up $82USD! I spent $100, and won $182!"
"Oh well done!" we all cheered.
Then Alex did some quick maths:
"So you spent $80 on our cards, and won $82, so you've really won $2 and we got all our goodies for free!"
Yay! Even better!!
The kids and I ordered some Mexican food for dinner, and Dan walked off to get some Louisiana chicken. After 25 minutes, we were finished and wondering where he was. I tried calling him four times, but my phone wouldn't connect, so of course Abi was convinced he'd been kidnapped. This was despite my assurances that it would be almost impossible in a casino, given the copious number of security cameras and personnel everywhere.
But just as we set off to find him, Dan came towards us holding a plate of Chinese food! Turned out there was no chicken left, and his phone had lost reception. Never mind!
After dinner, we decided to catch the bus to the end of the strip, and walk back to the hotel, so we could see it all lit up.
We waited 10 minutes in the queue for the bus, but when it arrived, it was super full. Since we were at the back of the queue, we changed our plans to 'walk to the end and get the bus back'.
Everything was totally different at night! It was all very pretty lit up, with flashing neon lights everywhere.
One of the more spectacular sights was a new building called The Sphere, which is a MASSIVE spherical screen (inside and outside) and venue. The outside display changes constantly, with incredible clarity.
We walked all the way to the Bellagio, which is arguably the finest casino on the strip (and one we undoubtedly could not afford). Inside, their lobby had a stunning glass-art sculpted ceiling.
They also had a simply gorgeous conservatory, filled with an incredible, magical fall scene, with plants and fairies and toadstool houses everywhere!
We then went outside and watched the world-famous fountain show. Unfortunately, the main viewing area on the road was completely blocked off, as spectator boxes were being built for the Formula 1 that's coming in November, but we still got a great view from the entryway.
The fountains (which blast over 30m high!) were dancing to Pink Panther, and lasted about five minutes. It was very cool to get to see it in real life!
After this, we waited on the other side of the road for the bus. We waited, and waited, and after about 10 minutes, Dan called it quits.
"There's a huge traffic jam up the road," he pointed out. "There haven't been any cars coming down this side of the road the whole time we've been waiting. I can't even see the bus in the traffic that's stuck."
And so, we walked all the way back to the hotel. Again!
By the time we got there it was almost 10:30pm, and we all had an ache of some form, somewhere or other, as well as being desperately thirsty! It was still 30°C, and the couple of drinks we'd bought along the way hadn't lasted very long between the four of us. 28,732 steps total (for us adults, anyway).
Day 107 - 10 Oct '23 - Las Vegas to San Diego. We had a five hour drive to San Diego, where we were staying for two nights. It was a funny five hours, as no matter how far we drove, it stayed at five hours! This was due to an accident halfway through the route, whose delay we watched climb from 15 minutes to an hour and a half!
Our first stop of the day was to the Seven Magic Mountains, an art installation of seven towers of rocks, all painted in different and vibrant colours.
Our next stop was to a small town called Primm, where Al Capone's bulletproof car, and the so-called 'death car' of Bonnie and Clyde, were displayed.
It was rather eerie to see the car where Bonnie and Clyde met their end, riddled with all the bullet holes. The six members of the posse who took them down, each had an automatic weapon, a shotgun, and pistols. All the weapons were fully unloaded on the car, and in the words of one of the posse, they kept firing on it after it had rolled to a stop as they "wanted to be sure".
Al Capone's car also had bullet holes all over it, however, he was never shot at! The owner of the car after Capone was arrested, wanted to 'authenticate' the car's bulletproof nature, so got a friend to shoot at it. This is a massive shame, as we could only imagine the value the car could have had, had it remained in pristine condition.
We had another quick stop at the world's largest thermometer! We don't think it was very accurate though, as the temperature on my phone, and the one displayed on a nearby shop, both said 91°F. And it sure felt a lot hotter than 83°F!
The rest of our drive was uneventful, despite the traffic jam that we eventually caught up to. Whatever had caused it was long gone, but it still caused massive delays as we crawled along for ages.
Arriving in San Diego and negotiating an EIGHT lane highway, was a whole new type of 'fun', which I thankfully got to enjoy as passenger. I really don't know how Dan does it!
Day 108 - 11 Oct '23 - San Diego Zoo. Today's entire sightseeing was the world-renowned San Diego Zoo.
This zoo is HUGE! We were there for about seven hours, and we were rushing at the end to make sure we saw everything (and I'm not even sure we did).
There were three aviaries, with some beautiful birds we've never seen before, and it was amazing to see so many of them making nests!
(This particular weaver bird builds his nest in just 11 hours, then will hang from the bottom, flapping his wings and calling out, in order to attract a mate).
Even though we have been to a fair number of zoos, it's always exciting to see the animals moving around, and even more so when you get to see animals you've never seen before, such as leaf cutter ants. They had their own specially-designed island, with viewing windows to the inside of their colony, where you could see their fungus gardens.
San Diego Zoo was created in 1915 after animals that were displayed in the Panama-California Exhibition, were abandoned. It was also the first zoo in the world to come up with cage-less exhibits.
After we had some lunch at one of the many eateries, we went on their free 'Skyfari' gondola ride, that took us high across the zoo to the other side (and saved us a bit of walking). Also, right before we left, we hopped on their free tour bus, that took us back around most of the zoo. It was a double-decker, open-roofed, open-sided bus, and we were on the top deck; this gave us an incredible view of some of the animals, including some spectacled bear cubs that were playing!
We had a lovely day, even though spending all day on our feet got rather tiring, and if you ever get the chance, this zoo is well-worth the visit. Bonus, kids were free for all of October!
Day 109 - 12 Oct '23 - San Diego to Los Angeles. A game we have all been playing since we landed in Canada, is 'spot the plates'. This was where we looked for the different province (Canada) and state (America) number plates on vehicles. It had been loads of fun, and just over a week ago we had found them all (apart from Hawaii, which would be nigh on impossible since they're an island miles away).
Well, what do you know...checking out of our motel today I walked past a large ute with a number plate from The Aloha State itself!
"Ha! Guess what? It's Hawaii! Hawaii!! How about that?!"
Today we went to the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that had been turned into a museum, berthed in San Diego. (Incidentally, it was difficult to take a decent photo of it due to its size, the buildings around it, and my only having a standard camera).
It was incredible! We got to walk through the galleys, mess rooms, the Admiral's and Captain's and XO's quarters, the engine room, the medical and dental wing, and the brig.
We also got to see the mechanic deck, the flight deck, the radar and communications room, the control room, and the flight ready rooms, where the Top Gun pilots would get their briefings.
This ship had 4500 men on board, and was commissioned just one week after the Second World War finished, but it did see service in the Vietnam, Korean, and Gulf Wars. It took just 18 months to build, and was done mainly by women (since all the men were at war). By comparison, the navy's latest ship has been getting built for the last eight years...hmm...no women working on that one?!
They would serve 13,000 meals a day; their cooks and chefs were nothing short of miracle workers, and if apple pies were on the menu the next day, would make and bake 650 pies in ONE NIGHT!
It was crazy to see the planes and helicopters on the flight deck, with their collapsible wings folded onto their backs. Even though the ship was obviously big (we certainly didn't get to see all of it), the deck didn't seem as big as it looked, and even more bizarrely, looked quite short when we got back onto the port.
We had a small lunch in the carpark before leaving. We were running rather low on supplies; Dan and Alex had two rolls each, and I had a handful of seed crackers and three slices of turkey. (This followed on from my three prunes, and a roll and butter for breakfast). Very much looking forward to dinner!
By the time we left San Diego, the two hour drive had become a three-and-a-quarter one, and the highways were getting really busy, with lots of reported crashes. Dan missed a couple of exits while negotiating the spaghetti junctions, and at one point Google made him cross five lanes of traffic in just 200m! (Which he did magnificently, and earned a round of applause from us all).
As we neared our destination, the buildings were becoming more rundown, with either windows boarded up or with bars on them.
I looked over at Dan, and he looked back at me, with the same kind of expression.
"Em, Dan, what is the name of this area called?"
"Crompton, no, Compton!"
"..."
"What?" he asked with a grin.
"Well, if Tupac's singing about it, you know it's going to be great!"
The street we pulled into was ever-so-slightly better, and the Airbnb host (who was super lovely, and super talkative (we heard about how much her fence cost, the fact she's adopting her granddaughter, and she had a possum in her bedroom a week ago)) told us how surprised she was when she moved here a year ago, that there were no bars on the windows! She was also super generous, and had filled a fruit bowl with crisps and lollies for the kids, as well as put drinks in the fridge, apples and oranges in a bowl, and a packet of pastries for Dan and I. Then she came back with a white baseball cap for Alex and Abi, for them to decorate with paint pens! Such a wonderful lady!
Feeling suitably safe (which was helped immensely by the alarm above the garage that would periodically say "hello, you are being recorded"), we put all our belongings in her RV, which was our accommodation for the next three nights.
We went to the nearby supermarket, but there was very little selection, and nothing gluten free, so left with just a bottle of milk and no microwave meals. Our host had asked if we would cook on the oven, to which I replied "yes", but I didn't find any saucepans in the RV.
"She must just bring her ones from inside the home when she goes away".
The second supermarket yielded breakfast cereal and rolls, but again no microwave meals. By this stage it was 7:30pm, I was starving, and everyone else was hungry. We went across the road to Burger King, and I ordered a honey mustard chicken burger.
"Does your burger taste of honey mustard?" Dan asked me as I was halfway through wolfing it down.
"Hmmnnoorrullee," I mumbled past my mouthful.
The guy behind the till had mixed our orders up. I didn't care. I was starving.
It was at this point we got a text from our host saying the pots and pans were stored in an outside cupboard. Never mind, we'll go shopping tomorrow for proper food!
Day 110 - 13 Oct '23 - Los Angeles sightseeing. This morning we one again braved Los Angeles traffic, but this we were armed with an express lane pass, kindly loaned to us by our host. It probably saved us about 10 minutes, which was amazing.
We went to the Griffith Observatory, which has been in numerous films, such as Rebel Without a Cause, Bowfinger, and Yes Man.
From here we could see the famous Hollywood sign up in the hills, but it was still pretty far away; if we wanted to get closer to get better photos, we would have had to do some serious hiking. Interestingly, when the sign was built it said 'Hollywoodland' and was a real estate advertisement!
From the back of the observatory we had a fantastic view of downtown Los Angeles, but it was unfortunately obscured by a lot of haze.
Inside the observatory were some pretty cool exhibits of astronomy, photos of the sun, and a 113 year-old Tesla coil inside a Faraday cage!
There was also a pendulum that would knock some pillars over approximately every seven minutes. The incredible thing about this pendulum was that it swung in the same direction back and forth, yet looked like it was moving around the dial; in reality, it was the floor that was slowly moving around due to the rotation of the planet! And the really weird thing was it takes 42 hours to do a complete 360° revolution! Science is really just magic, everyone knows that...
We had some lunch at a nearby playground so the kids could run around for a bit. They have been seriously driving us up the wall! From being super active and outdoors a lot of the time, we are asking them to sit in a car for hours at a time, and to be quiet to boot, especially at the end of the drives, when Dan is negotiating highways and intersections. It's not exactly fair on them. That being said, neither Dan nor I have had any time away from them in the last three-and-a-half months, so small things are becoming big issues. Tempers are short, patience is minimal, and headaches are frequent.
We went to a supermarket to get some supplies for dinner, and after eating a delicious chicken pasta dish, I had some wonderful compliments from Abi:
"It's nice, but I don't like the sauce, and the chicken is dry."
Alex also had some lovely things to say:
"I don't think the pasta was cooked, I had some hard bits."
Little shits!
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