Saturday 30 March 2013

Day 14 - Williams to Las Vegas

I know what you're thinking about me being in Las Vegas, and you'd be totally wrong. I'm in my hotel room writing up my blog, sorting out maps and references for tomorrows leg and doing a load of washing....although I did make time to have a nice salad and some fries for dinner served by young girls in tight orange shorts and white singlets - something to do with owls - I'll figure it out one day... ;-)

Anyway - today I decided that we (as in my vehicle) would stick stringently to the itinerary I'd written up prior to the commencement of the tour. Thankfully the Johnson luck of finding trains kicked in and I filmed 10 trains in total - all before 2 pm. Within 10 minutes of turning up to the new location, something would turn up.

We departed Williams and headed back east to check out a few spots I'd identified on Google Maps and they turned out to be really good. We then returned to Williams to witness the departure of the Grand Canyon Railway train, led by a couple of F40 locos - ex Via I think.

We then headed to Seligman, but this time I stuck to the itinerary and got onto Route 66 on Crookton Road to check out the overpass. Excellent. Further along the road the trains just kept coming and coming. At Seligman I took a break from driving and Greg got us to Crozier Canyon where things seemed to slow down a bit, but we still got a couple.

We then continued onto Kingman where we then swung north and headed towards Las Vegas, stopping off at the Hoover Dam. This place isn't on my bucket list as it's man made, but it's still pretty darned impressive. The heat was pretty intense but we all managed to make the long walk up a gazillion steps to view the dam from the new road bridge.

A quick stop at the Lake Mead info centre for some scenicky photos and it was off to Las Vegas. Sally (we call her that) the GPS Hertz Neverlost told me one thing, and I saw another - and I missed the off ramp to our Motel so had to double back via - oh gawd - Las Vegas Boulevard. That was a driving experience and a half.

Despite my best efforts, Sally got us to the Motel unscathed - just in time to see a guy being arrested and carted off - right on the doorsteps of the main foyer. Great !

Dinner at Hooters, bought some stuff from their store, and I'm back in the Hotel. Personally, I dislike Las Vegas. I get the impression that the general attitude is "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" and being there is an open cheque book for personal behaviour that would not be normally carried out at home. Maybe I just need to spend more time here and take in more of the good side of Vegas.

Other than that, bright lights, big city, lots of people - including a raft of young adults from California on a weekend holiday. I'll be glad to get to the peace and quiet of the Mojave desert again - Ludlow tomorrow and we're there for three days - they're so remote I don't think they have internet - we'll see.

Erin.

Lots of these little fellas hanging around - he sat still just long enough for me to shoot off this shot. It's a railroad milepost marker.

Some of you will realize the significance of this sign, and how old it is.

The Grand Canyon Railway departing Williams AZ

Mr Hoover's little concreting project. The difference in colour above the waterline shows where the waterline should be - it's 128 feet low.


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