LA to Vegas 19/9

We left LA a couple of days early as we did everything we wanted to do in the city and on the Hollywood tour. We both think we would have spent a bit more time there if we knew someone with some 'in the know' places to go. Without that inside knowledge the city isn’t that interesting. We hired a Dodge Caliber to get to Vegas which was a fairly easy drive, about five hours in total. Driving out through the desert on the large highway gives you a bit of an idea why there’s so many large SUV’s and trucks on the road. They really suit the landscape out here. The Caliber had a satellite radio which was great as there was no loss of signal out in the middle of Death Valley. We cranked some ‘80s hits to get us through the drive. This one had us singing along (badly):

Having an American voice on the GPS made a nice change too. I was fed up with the English lady on the GPS we had in the van - she had a bad attitude. We are staying at the Tropicana, a bit of a faded star amongst all the grand and over the top casinos on the Strip. We are happy enough with the room as it’s comfortable, clean and not too expensive. Once we were checked in and the blazing sun had gone down, we took the car back and walked back to our hotel along the Strip. It’s such an amazing specatacle at night, with huge crowds out and about checking out the neon, huge decorations, rides and gaudy opulence. It took us an hour or so to walk back to the hotel so by that time we were ready to go to bed.