Roll the dice and take your chances

Up bright and early to move on over to Las Vegas.  We thought we would get some breakfast from McDonalds on the way because it’s always a safe bet right.  We learned this morning that simply isn’t the case.  I ordered the boys bacon and egg  McGriddles.  Turns out the ‘bun’ for the mcgriddle (which I thought was like our English muffins) was actually maple syrup soaked pikelets!!  Err what the?? They tasted as bad as you can imagine….

not 66 but still historic

The drive to Las Vegas looked pretty straight forward on the map and indeed it was - onto the I-15 for about 6.5 hours.  We stopped for lunch at Barstow at the In’N’Out burger place as I had read that their burgers were pretty good.  The first thing I noticed was the number of people there – absolutely packed.  They only have 4 burgers + fries on their menu which I also thought odd, but now having eaten their burgers I see why they don’t need unlimited choices. The burgers were awesome – fresh and tasty!
 

lonely little house

perched on the side of a hill

one of the rare times I drove the car

wide open freeway

grey nomads - they're everywhere

Back on the road again and we stopped for bad coffee at Peggy Sues 50’s diner.  A very cute traditional style diner, complete with waitresses that had probably worked there since the 50s when it opened.  As I said, the coffee was bad but at least it was made with milk – not the fake stuff.

The scenery on the way was pretty amazing.  As was the elevation we drove up to.  Initially is was 4000 feet, but at one point it got to about 4700 feet and at some points it really felt like we were just going up and up with no down in sight.

still 100 miles to go

scenery is amazing

only 4000 feet at this point - our ears were a poppin

 We arrived in Vegas around 3.30 and went straight to check in, well to the check in queue anyhow.  The Flamingo Hotel and Casino is a massive complex – you come in from the car park and have to walk a long way past a myriad of shops just to get to the lobby.  Pretty early on we got signed up by the timeshare people and booked in for a quick presentation tomorrow – we were rewarded with the promise of a $50 dinner voucher and 4 free tickets to a show.