Day 213 : Los Angeles to Las Vegas (baby!)

Viva LAS VEGAS!!

High Point: Seeing the bright lights of Las Vegas appear out of nowhere in the Mojave Desert then saying hello to “Sin City” properly by rolling Martha right down the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard!

Low Point: Getting out of L.A. during rush hour (which is basically all day). L.A is a massive sprawling concrete jungle of a city dominated by cars. The traffic was frustratingly heavy while the highways themselves are probably the worst Martha has seen since Russia and Poland! Sort it out Arnie!

No Point: Driving around downtown L.A for two hours trying to see the enormous “HOLLYWOOD” sign and eventually realizing you can’t get close to it at all….. OH… MY… GOD!

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Boldest Gamble of the day: Ben Battye`s amazing decision to “HIT” when having 21 in Blackjack didn’t quite pay off… Mind you, he saved himself 75 dollars when he quickly removed the 100 dollar chip from the craps table he mistakenly threw down thinking it was 25…. great panic!!

Authors comments…

In an effort to miss L.A. rush hour we had planned our first lie in of stage 7 but although we all wanted to sleep until 9am our body clocks seem to of frustratingly adjusted to waking up at 7am each day. And so 7 to 11am was spent with the crew catching up on all the admin work that comes with being part of FTFE.

A visit to Beverly Hills was first on the list and as we drove the rig down Rodeo Drive we could see the houses getting bigger and bigger and could almost smell the money in the air! Here Martha was as much out of place as a back street alley in China or the outback of Australia. As we passed the exclusive shops and restaurants I (quite worryingly) pointed out all the scenes of Pretty Woman to Amy, while Ben was shouting “Follow that fire Engine DOT COM!” out of the window to anyone who would listen. Steve meanwhile was hanging out of the window of our producer Aurdrey’s hire car, fittingly like an action hero taking some great film of Martha’s experience of the high life.

Next up for us was the famous Hollywood sign situated in the star filled hills that dominate downtown L.A. Unfortunately it seems that although you can see the massive letters from everywhere in Hollywood, trying to actually get close to them is near impossible which resulted in Martha chasing around tinsel town and then Mulholland Avenue for around two hours in search of the one shot we needed for the FTFE photo album!

Las Vegas was now calling us and we set off thinking 2pm would be fine to miss the notorious rush hour. How wrong we were, with an annoyingly indecisive sat nav (it really is!) and the nonstop L.A rush hour, Rob had a torrid time getting us on the right highway to the Nevada border. However his driving was superb and he negotiated the worst roads I’ve seen in some time amazingly well, even with the distraction of everyone in the cab trying desperately to learning the games of Craps and Blackjack before we made it to Vegas … three hours just wasn’t enough!

As we drove Martha through the Mojave desert the sunset was lighting up a martian landscape in a bright red colour as the sandstone mountains caught the last of the days light perfectly. On a slightly different note I would like to thank the guys in the truck that pulled along side us on the highway, doing 50mph, who passed me a can of Monster energy drink …. they must have known where we were heading!

As soon as we reached the Nevada border the first thing we saw was a “resort” town with a giant themed casino, it`s something that could easily be mistaken for Vegas itself. The popularity of gambling here in Nevada is due to the fact that it was the first state in America to legalise gambling, and like the gold rush itself, once the people came all the other razzmatazz soon followed! Now for better or worse there really is nowhere else like it on earth. The bright lights then appeared on the night horizon like a blazing sunrise….. we had finally arrived in Sin City!

Arriving at the strip itself we had a short time to drive down Las Vegas Boulevard and see what all the fuss is about… and it didn’t disappoint! Within 5 minutes we had driven past the most spectacular sights of Paris, Venice, New York and Cairo, it truly was Disneyland for adults! We had an 8:30 appointment with a local TV news company by the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign which was then broadcast the same night at 10pm announcing our arrival into Vegas!

Finally we arrived at the ‘New York, New York’ Hotel excited about our first night in the ‘fun’ capital of the world and considering we would normally be in bed by 11pm headed out into the bright lights of the strip with an energy that defied another long day on the road!

Viva Las Vegas Baby!!

James J

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