The Longest Drive Ever!!!!! U.S.A.

After we left Yosemite Park we headed West back towards the coast, after 4 hours we arrived at Santa Cruz, Unfortunately most of the town centre seemed closed, so after spending about 5 mins there, we decided to head down the coast, driving through monteray and Big Sur, again it was a bit disapointing as it was way too cloudy to see anything. So at this point we stopped off for a coffee (or as Becky would say "a quoffee") and discussed what to do from here, the choices were either drive 4 hours down to Santa Barbara then get up early in the morning and drive about 7 hours to Las Vegas or venture on the longest drive ever and head 11 hours straight to Vegas crossing 2 states, bearing in mind we had already driven 6 hours by this point and with only 2 drivers, anyway we decided to GO FOR IT!!!! straight to Vegas, this way at least when we awoke in the morning we would already be there and not face another drive and it would also save us a day. So having left Yosemite Park at 7.30am that morning we finally arrived in Vegas at 11.30pm that night, approximately 16 hours of driving - wow!!! I wish i could say there was a lot to see along the way but there wasn't, mainly barren land, we did get to see a big bush fire which was unfortunately in the process of burning some poor soles house to the ground. When we arrived at Vegas we headed for some of the hotels on the strip for a room only to be told the minimum was about $200 a night and was told it was pretty much the same all over as there was a convention on, Shit we thought, until we stumbled across a Travel Lodge right in the middle of the Strip (across from New York New York for those that have been) and had rooms for $60 a night, they weren't the best but whose complaining, at least we had digs. The next 4 days we just chilled, gambled, ate, chilled, gambled and ate again. Along with losing a small fortune (to us anyway) on the Roulette table, we (well myself Becky and Nigel) had a go on the rides at the very top of the Stratosphere Hotel, a good 995 metres high, one of them had you dangling over the edge spinning you around which was very scary. Beck and Nigel also flew to the Grand Canyon which they enjoyed (Sonya and I had been there on a previous trip). The final night we spent at downtown Vegas (the original Vegas) which was a lot seedier than the Strip but seemed a lot more fun with live bands playing outside, lots of flashing neon lights and plenty more money lost. We did manage to find the best all you can eat buffet in Vegas in Downtown Vegas too!!! Vegas Baby.

Lee