On the road to Vegas and Via Verse

Last weekend we went to Las Vegas. I drove, listened to nice music, sang a lot and was impressed of the completely different parts of the countryside we passed. This trip is around 900 kilometers, each of them.

From hills, through mountains, through the desert. With sunblocker in the desert I only got freckles and not the usual red-lobster color I got if one sunbeam hits me! Someday there will be enough of them maybe, that everybody thinks: nice taint! 

In the last big city before the death valley we stopped, buy something for me and had have a lunch at Mama (McDonalds).

We visited the Ghost Town Calico, in the desert, where I grabbed 2 geocaches at least. This city was very interesting cause of the idea that it only existed round 100 years. They found lots of minerals there, so in a few years the population of this city grew very fast but in the end of the last century most of the people were gone. No silver anymore. 

We found a blacksmith, school, beer garden, train – but no church. In the information paper were written down the information that there also was a Chinatown.

 
My boss was making faces on me as we visited the school. So the teacher told him he got an detention now and has to sit on a hard wooden chair and look out of the window: “We are not here to entertain you, mister!” I really like the idea and want to organize such a chair for his house here, too. 

So we drove on to Las Vegas. You can’t imagine this if you weren’t there by your own. (Same for the countryside) 

I was so impressed, it is all extraordinary huge, gigantic huge, to be honest. Most of the hotels there got a theme. There is Venice,  Paris, Egypt, a Castle, MGM, something Greek style, Hardrockcafe, Pirate Bay, Volcano, …We got our rooms in the hotel “Treasure Island” the pirate one at the begin (or end) of the strip. And then he showed me the strip. It was really amazing.

Inside or in front of every hotel is a kind of show of the theme of the hotel. In front of ours there were 2 pirate ships, one with “Sirens” and on the other very good looking, well trained pirates. The Sirens were also nice to look at but the pirates…

After that we went to “Venice”. He bought me ice-cream and I had have to remember all the time to take care of it before it was completely melted. And I had have to remember to shot my mouth while I was really staring around. Inside the hotel they have build – beside a mall which is in every hotel there – a real Venice plaza, with gondolas on waterways, houses, bridges and a real looking sky.

We went on through the other hotels – only a few more and I felt completely happy all the time. We saw moving fountains which were telling stories, a break out volcano, a rain forest…

Through the strip a free tram travels between the hotels.

Lucky us, we both have ipods and mobile internet so we could stay tuned and saw that we won the grand prix.

Next day we went for breakfast in the Luxor, a gigantic huge pyramid. On our way back I found a rollercoaster around one of the hotel and I took a ride! In the very front and on my own. Boss found a Star Wars Computer Game so I left him there. 
Actually I also wanted to make a Bungee-Jump but there were no appointments left.

Back to the hotel we grabbed our car back and drove to the Hoover Dam. Impressing big building, and again: what a countryside! It was incredible warm – it lays in a canyon – and we also visited the museum, sadly not the inside cause of a lack of time.

In the evening we visited the “Star Wars in Concert”. Before we got there, we made a stop in the “Hofbräuhaus” and I tried to explain an American that this is not typical German at least. But I got no chance. His friend, a Mexican , understood my point of view.

Star Wars in Concert. What shall I say. This was my first job for here, writing an article about it. Boss and I discussed a lot, he the view of the Star Wars, “what Lucas wanted to say” and I am from the side of the music and the Leitmotif and the strictness the conductor had have to deal with his orchestra cause of the arrangement of the whole show.

Sunday we drove back to San Jose, at least grabbed one more cache along the road. I praise the speed control of this nice car! Here I cleaned up a bit, sorted my things again and thought about, what I can write for you all.

More pictures are available on facebook.