Over the Hill and Far Away……….

Today has been a day of contrasts, both in relation to yesterday, and in the things that we have done in the course of the day. Yesterday was mainly about getting a few miles further along whereas today has been a kaleidoscope of different experiences.
We left Kingman in a leisurely fashion as we only had about 115 miles to cover to get to Las Vegas. Taking Highway 93 heading north, most of our journey was through the Mojave Desert – a fairly bleak landscape with roadsigns pointing to deserted mining towns up in the hills to the left and right of us. The wind wasn’t so bad today although there were a few gusts that made our past life flash before our eyes.
Out of curiosity we stopped off at Chloride, a mining town which can’t quite decide whether it is a ghost town or not. It seems to be a mixture of disused buildings and others which have been converted into gift shops. There were quite a few people about taking pictures and generally mooching around. We didn’t stop long and got back on the 93 to the Hoover Dam. The road began to climb and we could see the Colorado River down below us in landscape that resembled a mini Grand Canyon.
The Hoover Dam was very busy, with lots of people at the various viewpoints and walking across the dam itself. We stopped first at the viewpoint over the lake behind the dam and met a large group of French bikers on hired Harleys who were doing Route 66. We got talking to one of them who spoke no English but seemed very keen to show us his tattoos and advised us that Chicago was “tres dangereuse” before wishing us “bonne journeee”. Moving on from there we rode down to the dam itself and crossed it. Having viewed it from that perspective, we went back over it and got the view from the front looking back.
After that it was only about 30 miles to Las Vegas. We passed through Boulder and decided that we’d rather not walk from Boulder to Birmingham despite what Emmylou Harris might say.
The ride into Vegas was overwhelming. After the emptiness and tranquility of the desert we were suddenly confronted by the towering hotels and electronic billboards of the city. We both, independently, suffered something akin to a panic attack and wondered if we should just keep going! We are staying in the Paris which, perhaps unsurprisingly, is modelled on what Walt Disney might have thought Paris looked like about 100 years ago. The ground floor is vast and is set out as a Parisian street would look if it was full of American shops, restaurants and one-armed bandits. The French theme is further accentuated by putting “le” or “du” in front of the English description (as in “le gift shop” etc). There is even a model (and when I say model, this thing is about quarter life size) of the Eiffel Tower in the grounds by the swimming pool. We have a room up on the 31st floor which is just about as high up as you can get! We have tried out the fitness suite and the outdoor swimming pool (both very good although the latter actually has jets spraying perfume into the air!) but we have not yet had cause to use the Wedding Chapel on the second floor.
We also discovered that nothing is cheap here – like being charged $15 for every device we want to connect to the Internet! So I’ve had to write this post on an old manual typewriter connected to the interweb with string and paperclips. Everywhere else we have stayed the Internet has been free.
Having found ourselves here, we think we might as well go out and explore the place although the hotel seems designed to make it unnecessary ever to set foot outside it. Assuming that we survive the experience then further updates will follow tomorrow.
We plan to ride through Death Valley in the morning in an attempt to purify our spirits after the excesses of today.