Sadly, our time in Vegas came to an end, and our time came to leave for Phoenix. This was after a great last evening when I finally figured out the Rolette machines, and won a total of about $40 on the $5 tables – not bad for a beginner.
So it was a 4:30am start to get to the airport by 6 in time for our 8am flight – which incedently was only 45 minutes long.
We are at our hotel in Phoenix – the JW Marriott Desert Resort and Spa, prepering for the Toastmasters Annual Convention. Arizona is exactly like in the old cowboy movies – with barren landscape and the cactus plants holding their hands in the air like on cheap tequila bottles. I beleive that the bigger cactui can hold 5 tons of water – enough for 5 years of drought. The land also reminded me of the Pielandsberg mountains – except with the cactui.
Today I bought a couple of items in the supermarket, and I did something that I have never done before – I used the self-checkout. With nobody supervising, I scanned the items, paid into a machine, collected the change and left! Just like that. Imagine that in SA.
I thought that Vegas was hot, but I had no idea! The temperature yesterday was a min of 28, and a max of about 42 deg C – so hot that the shops give you free water when you leave. Unbeleivably hot, so we will be spending much time indoors.
Off to bed now, will update you soon.
Craig
PS – Karen I hope you luggage arrives soon!
We only drove into Phoenix to get to the airport to catch a plane for El Paso, so never saw much of it, but I do remember the heat – at least it’s that lovely dry desert heat, not sticky humidity. I do remember the cacti – suddenly all those cowboy comic books from your youth make sense as they really DO look like that! Eat lots of TexMex food while you’re there – we could not stop eating it and it’s a whole lot different to the Spur ;-)!
Jeanne-
You are so right, however the only problem is that we struggled to get really HOT chilli. It was generally mild to medium, and both Lois and I like it hot!
I suppose that if we managed to get to some of the more “local” restaurants we would have faired better.
But the food is great!