California: The Road to Vegas

It has been a while since I have updated but have I got some updates for y'all now. For the past two weeks I have been on a road trip round California including Las Vegas. I went with Lawrence (Loz) from school. Loz had never been to the states and I thought it would be a good idea for us to road trip round California. We had a bloody good time. Here are the pics. First off I know y'all wanted superman pants, well here they are!

That picture was actually taken later in the trip but I couldn't resist putting it in. Below is the car we got. I thought it was a bargain @ $350 for 10 days.

This was the beast we got. A 4.0 litre V6 Ford mustang. We knew we were gonna be spending on the gas but it was so cool to drive. The engine sounded great and we were doing a road trip in the states. We actually got almost 30 mpg that first day. It took us about 65 miles to get out of civilization. LA is massive. The total journey was about 300 miles (give or take a few errors, I was kinda navigating at first), here is on a map.

This is actually the point where I took over driving for the first time. Loz managed 200 miles, fulled on by great American fayre; a breakfast of pancakes and a Barstow dinner lunch. I was pretty nervous as the mustang was a beast and I hadn't really driven much. After a few minutes of panic it all came back and thanks to the automatic transmission and cruise control we were eating up the miles with ease. It is great just driving a long listening to classic songs on the radio.

I took this photo because years ago I saw a series of photos by an American photographer with the Union 76 gas stations as the subject. Alas the iconic ball is no longer there but it is cool that something so mundane can be beautiful.

After a nerve wracking journey through Vegas in the rush hour we finally got to the hotel. it was a pretty cool trip to have on our first day. From the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, through the fantastic mountains and deserts, to the neon of Vegas. It's easy to forget that Las Vegas is in the middle of nowhere, you can see in the background of the picture the mountains that most people just forget about as all they think about is the money.

Here is one of the lions that live in the MGM grand in Vegas. It is just that kinda place.


It is so bad I do love it.

The first night we were pretty tired, but we managed to gamble a bit, I was even up $10. We just wandered round looking at the sights and even got some all-you-can-eat ribs for dinner. Ah Las Vegas the place of excess.

Check back for more adventures tomorrow!