Still in Vegas....

Ok so we have been a bit quiet the last week and a bit, we havent really done a lot. We have been back on the the strip a couple of times, more sightseeing and window shopping. We had the rig washed, he looks shiny and new now....well new for an old git, and we had a new slide out awning fitted. Thats basically what it sounds like. An awning fitted over the slide out to stop water and leaves and such from sitting on the slide out roof and damaging it.

As a result of my melt down earlier in the week (evidence on Facebook) and in fear of his life, Adam did take me to "The CSI Experience" this week...It was awesome. You go in, put on your "optional CSI vest (which Adam refused to wear) get given a clip board with your crime scene details on and get a briefing from the man himself Gil...yummy...well not really him, a video of him, but he looked right at me.... Then you are off to your crime scene.. Ours was called "Who got served?"

There was a dead body and everything, ok, it was a dummy, but it looked real. We had a dead woman in a maids outfit lying on the floor in an alley. We had to record as much as we could on our clipboards.  There was no time limit, you just walked around gathering the evidence. it was very cool.

Once you where sure you had everything you then moved on the the lab. Most of the information was on the computers in the labs already, you just had to check that you had picked it all up at the scene. Her mobile phone with texts sent and received was in evidence so we could check who she spoke to before she died. She had a suspicious bag of "White powder" that had to be tested along with some lovely magots and flys found on her body at the autopsy.....yummy, and finally she had been run over so a mould was taken of the tyre marks to check against the DMV computers.

Your put your final findings in to a computer at the end to identify your suspect... if you get it right you pass, and we did....yey.
Poor Penny was knocked off by...sorry no spoilers.
But we got our baddie... see, the evidence never lies.......

M&M World. The sweets not the singer...

My purchase. Look pink  ones.....nom nom.

No you cant have it.....

Who the hell is this?....

Vegas baby!

Day one,
   Well technically it's day two as we arrived yesterday, but we didn't do anything, so today is day one.

We arose early due to the time change again, we are now 8 hours behind the UK so it's all getting a bit confusing.  The site here has a pool and it was one of the  things raved about in the reviews we read before deciding on this site, so this morning we were there, and it lived up to it's reviews.  Now anyone who knows Ali knows she's not the best with water, but come the end of the time in the pool she was doing widths with a float!

After breakfast we wandered out to the main road and caught the bus into the north end of the strip, just outside of Treasure Island or ti as it's rebranded itself.....  anyways, we then spent the next six hours walking round the strip, we gave up when we got to the MGM Grand there's more to see so we will have to go back and continue again, but not tomorrow as we are both knackered.  Lunch was had at Pampas which is an all you can eat buffet with a twist, all the salad and 'stuff' is out for you to have as much as you want, but the meat is brought to your table.  You have a tag with a red and a green side, green is feed me, red is I've had enough for now.  Needless to say we ate well and it was real good.

When we got back to the RV it was hot, I'm not talking mildly warm I'm talking the wrong side of 100F.  We (I) had elected to leave the Air Conditioning off all day (A mistake I now know) So to cool off we hit the pool again! and we sploshed about till the sun was almost down, it was a lovely way to finish off the day.

Day Two,
  A Lazy but expensive day!  We went out to Camping World which is one of those big camping stores, it's a nationwide chain where you can buy everything from RV's to RV lightbulbs. anyway, we went because the awning / slide cover we have that covers our slide out is broken, the mechanism is all but shot and the material is ripped, so it's pretty much not doing what it's designed to do.  Well we ordered a new one, and it's just a case of waiting for it to arrive then get it fitted.  We did a bit of shopping too, normal household type stuff so nothing interesting, just a lazy expensive day.

Day Three,
  Today was a cheep fun day...back in the pool in the morning, which is bloomin lovely, and helps wake us up and then we spent the day in the rig, surfing, sorting out pics, calls to home, stuff like that. We had some dinner and then got our glad rags on for an evening on the strip. i have to say it was brill. The highlight for me was the fountains at the Balagio. Wonderful display to music. i got some video but it doesn't do it justice. The Volcano at the Mirage was pretty awesome too.
The whole strip lit up is a sight. This place turns you in to a kid again.. its like the first time you see the turning on of the christmas lights, but bigger...  Imagine Blackpool on acid...

The MGM from a walkway over the road

New York, New York casino floor

Outside the Balagio waiting for the fountains to start

New York, New York

Excaliber 

Impact...

So the whole point of this trip was to see as much of America as possible and it became apparent very early on that there was a lot to see......

We had specific places and things we wanted to visit but we also knew there would be places we didnt know about. As we plotted our coures on our map, deciding on general direction heading towards large points of interest was easy and the only way to see what was in our path was to google everything.  The phrases "things to do in" or "whats interesting near" have become a way of life in the Plevin rig.....

But this has become the best and most interesting way to travel here...it may have changed our direction a few times but then we wanted the real America and not just the tourist bits.

One of those interesting places was a place originally known as Diablo Pit by the locals. Namely the Navaho indians. The 1 mile wide, 570 feet deep crater was originally thought to be a gas vent or air bubble created by lava flow deep underground that had collapsed but turned out to be the first ever confirmed meteor crater.

Words cant describe this place. amazing, awesome, BIG.... na they dont do it justice.....

Meteor Crater.

The VLA...(very large array)

Contact is one of our favourite films ever. We decided long before the flight tickets where bought that we would be visiting the VLA or very large array, which was featured in the film. Well, it didn't disappoint. For us it was a quintessential point in the USA we couldn't miss.

The VLA is the largest array of radio telescopes in the USA. 27 telescopes in a huge "Y" spread across the dessert. It may not be everyones cup of tea but we where in awe...

The array

Big....

say (very large array)

Display in visitors centre

Valley of Fires

This was a last minute decision stop. I spotted it on the web and it looked cool. It turned out to be the most wonderful and interesting place. Its basically a huge lava field. Not an eruption but simply a huge fault in the desert that just opened up and pushed lava out of the ground. It is between 2 to 5 miles wide and 44 miles long. We stayed on the only piece of land high enough in the area that did not get engulfed by the lava.

Lava formation

A crack in the Lava

A triffid...ok so its a Yuca. But it looks like a triffid...

Nobbly Kneely Down Tree. Or a 100 year old Juniper to thous that dont know...

Sun set

And again...

White Sands National Monument

White Sands is 275 square miles of crushed Gypsum. Mineral rich mountains surround the vast basin in the Chihuahuan Desert. As it rains the water runs down the mountain sides filled with hydrous calcium sulfate (yes i looked that up) the basin filters the water and as the deposit dries it forms crystals. The strong winds in the are break bits off the crystal deposits and steadily tumble it till its a fine sand. Resulting in the dunes.

Cool hu?

White Sands Visitor Centre

How white?

Glare!!!

The aliens are coming...

So we have been in Roswell, New Mexico for a few days now. Not only was it our first proper sight seeing mark on our original map but it was to be a stopping point to get a few things sorted...

Our postal redirection was set up so we could register the vehicles and give people an address for important contact, so, we are sat here waiting on our license plates for the rig and toad. Adam also purchased some tinterweb equipment so we are waiting on that too. Plus he has done some re-wiring of the sound and vision in the rig, and put up our new TV. I have beautified bits too. Recovering our sofa and sticking up some decals to make our plain walls a bit more interesting.

As for the sight seeing, well we visited the UFO Museum. A must for any alien enthusiast. It was very interesting actually. The obligatory account of the "Incident" namely the 1947 UFO crash was very detailed. Accounts from all sides detailing what "did" and "didn't" happen.
UFO's throughout the years with photo's and incident reports where very cool. And even a wall dedicated to bogus accounts and photo's like "hovering hubcaps".  There where plenty of "Cheesy" bits too, like life size aliens stood around a rotating dish complete with flashing lights and sound affects and a mock up of an alien autopsy. They also had a wall full of autographed posters of sifi actors who had visited the museum.

Most of the shops have some sort of alien theme. Even the McDonalds was in the shape of a huge spaceship...Little green faces peer out of most shop windows and huge billboards advertising radio stations or storage are covered in the little green men. Its pretty entertaining really.

Alien Ale from Pecos Winery

This bloke wasn't that helpful if im honest...

UFO Museum

"Star Child" the very first Alien themed shop in Roswell

According to the American Government this is one of the test dummies that was mistaken as an alien body at the site of the Roswell crash.... Whatever....