We survived the maiden voyage without hitting any icebergs (or other cars)! With a tentative plan to leave at noon, we departed at four. Further, Google Maps deceived us: expecting to arrive at 8pm, we parked at KOA RV Park Circus Circus Las Vegas (the true name) at approximately 11:30pm. Granted, this probably had more to do with the fact that we travelled the entire distance at 45mph (72kmph) than with Google's failures.
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| Zoom in to the rear view mirror to see a fellow Westy! |
The same is not true of angry big rig drivers, who were all in all unimpressed with our speed (or lack thereof). Here we are about to be overtaken (and probably honked at) by one:
We also had the pleasure of viewing some prime American real estate:
We saw trailer parks that were ten city blocks long, trailer homes with giant holes in them, with boarded up windows, with scores and scores of broken down, rusted cars in the front, you name it.
Other notes on the trip:
-We spent more time at gas stations bickering over how to use the pump (newfangled gas pump technology has mocked our backwards, southern-hemisphere ways, stumping us time and again) than filling our tanks.
-After a while (around 8pm, to be precise), it became apparent that we wouldn't be arriving before 8pm. Not wanting to strain the battery running the radio--see previous post for more about our narcoleptic battery--we instead strained our vocal chords until arrival. What's a good road trip without a terrible rendition of "Loving You", by Minnie Riperton?
-At 9pm, the van began to slow, now struggling to hit 40mph (64kph). It was dark, and we were still hours from Vegas. We proceeded to panic, until we noticed an elevation sign stating that we'd climbed 2,000 feet in 10 minutes. The slow incline, combined with the dark made the problem difficult to diagnose.
-After what seemed an age, we saw a light on the horizon; heading due east, we thought briefly that we'd hit sunrise. These lights, it transpired, were the lights of Vegas.
Coming up: Las Vegas, as viewed by vagrant Kiwi backpackers.
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| Our heater doesn't work, it turns out. Frosty! |
Other notes on the trip:
-We spent more time at gas stations bickering over how to use the pump (newfangled gas pump technology has mocked our backwards, southern-hemisphere ways, stumping us time and again) than filling our tanks.
-After a while (around 8pm, to be precise), it became apparent that we wouldn't be arriving before 8pm. Not wanting to strain the battery running the radio--see previous post for more about our narcoleptic battery--we instead strained our vocal chords until arrival. What's a good road trip without a terrible rendition of "Loving You", by Minnie Riperton?
-At 9pm, the van began to slow, now struggling to hit 40mph (64kph). It was dark, and we were still hours from Vegas. We proceeded to panic, until we noticed an elevation sign stating that we'd climbed 2,000 feet in 10 minutes. The slow incline, combined with the dark made the problem difficult to diagnose.
-After what seemed an age, we saw a light on the horizon; heading due east, we thought briefly that we'd hit sunrise. These lights, it transpired, were the lights of Vegas.
Coming up: Las Vegas, as viewed by vagrant Kiwi backpackers.
The Quest Quotient by Nancy Howie and Steff Werman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at thequestquotient2011.blogspot.com.
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