Back To Las Vegas

 

Welcome to Vegas

Las Vegas was never a place I really wanted to visit. I just figured that we are not gamblers so why go to Vegas?

New York?

During our RV trip this summer we wanted to see the Grand Canyon and this put Las Vegas conveniently on the route, so we booked a campsite at Circus Circus, and had an overnight in Vegas. It was a bit of a rush, but if you read the blog entry on Las Vegas you will remember that although it was a rushed visit, we enjoyed ourselves and decided that a return visit to “Sin City” might be in order.

Kurt Bush is in Town

My wonderful “Travel Planner” decided that it was time that I finally actually got to see a NASCAR race and since Las Vegas hosts both the Nationwide and the Sprint Cup races in March, we could see Las Vegas at a more leisurely pace and I could get to spend a weekend watching NASCAR in person instead of just on the TV. She found a fabulous deal on flight and two weeks at the Tropicana for less than the cheapest rates for the flights or the resort, and we were booked for a March Break in Las Vegas.

We arrived late in the evening, so decided to let others braver soles enjoy the Las Vegas Night Life, and waited until we had a good night sleep to start exploring. The Tropicana is at one end of the famous Las Vegas Strip. You look out one side of the hotel and see the airport and the desert beyond, but the other side (Our room faced this way) looked out onto Las Vegas Blvd. So we were able to see something of what we could expect. There was a resort that looked like a giant castle on one side, the MGM Grand was shining in green chrome on the other, and straight ahead was the Statue of Liberty with New York; New York behind it.

It was cold cloudy and windy when we arrived, but the morning dawned with clearing skies, but once outside the hotel it was still cold and windy, and we retreated to don extra layers – so much for escaping the cold up north.

We walked down one side of the 'Strip” and back the other, just getting he feel of the place. We will go back later to really explore some of the casinos and resorts. The newer casinos are at this end of the boulevard, and the further you go towards “Downtown” the older the hotels get. The problem is though, they can't go much further this way, because the airport is here, but you can see how huge tracks of land have been cleared of buildings back down the other end and are waiting for bigger and fancier places to go up. You can't help wonder however, how far can it go. How many gigantic hotel complexes can they build before they reach the saturation point. There is one huge new building down the other end that looks like construction has stopped, and rust is forming on the steel. Perhaps the tipping point has already been reached.