3 nights in Vegas

Well what can I say….. 3 nights in Vegas rocks!
Halloween, an amazing hotel, meeting the guys from the US team from the Groove Glove and the business opportunities, new friendships……

Ahhh an now at LAX One world lounge. I have to say I love to travel it broadens our minds and rewards us on so many levels, you often have to step outside your comfort zone. I’m blessed that I am able to travel with my family and friends. But that one time when the queue is out the door to check in and Steve pulls out his lifetime QANTAS gold Business card…… I frigging love him! I can now say having never been in this lounge and neither had Steve- Los Angeles lounge is up there.

So Vegas is the Uber capital, you Uber everywhere as the hotels are so huge you go no where walking… we walked to the Cosmopolitan next door and across the bridge to Caesars Palace. You walk for miles in the hotels, to go to breakfast, the concierge, to get your Uber…… all through a cigarette smoke filled Casino…..

I’m not a gambler, in fact it is on my list of least favourite things to do. Unlike people watching, I love to do that. Wondering where they are from, why they are also in town….. but seriously if I don’t have to go in a smoke infested venue for a while I’ll be over the moon! I mean some of these hotels are so large and opulent, you can’t tell if its day or night and yes I know that’s what they are trying to create.

Anyway back to Uber, we have had a lot of Uber rides over the past 4 days, to the mall, to the convention, out to the helicopter ride, and therefore we have heard Siri, in Spanish, English, Portugese, Chinese and I think today German…. I couldn’t quite pick his accent he spoke of Africa, perhaps he is from Zimbawee and as he chatted all the way to the airport, I didnt get to ask him.

Last night Steve and I joined the guys from the SEMA convention at dinner in the Italian restaurant in the Westgate hotel. This hotel was previously The Hilton and before that built in the early 60’s was famous for where Elvis used to hang out and sing…
In typical boy fashion it was a large Italian meal, with loads of food, they love their food! These gents have been staying at this hotel for 5 years and had the manager bring in a waitress that they love. Her name was Mariah ( lovely girl), however when they kept saying ‘oh Mariah is coming in tonight’ for a brief 10 seconds,I wondered if it was the other Mariah! No the new Mariah catered for us all and it’s fair to say when desert and drinks came around, I couldn’t move nor eat and drink another thing…….. There were 2 other Australians there from Jax Tyres in Sydney, and the rest from good ol USA, all like minded car enthusiasts. Luckily I can mix it up as sport and sport oh and cars and a bit of wine talk and bragging that Lindy and I drove our Tarago’s around the Bathurst 1000 track -Ah schmoozing at its best!

So today on our last day we hired a car and drove out to Red Rock Canyon. OMG its amazing! Only half an hour drive from the strip and boom, we are in the wild desert. Heaven we are smiling and loving this little side adventure.. Wild animals roam, and the signs say don’t feed them, i mean who would be that silly, oh the donkeys and horse look real cute! So i guess thats why the signs.

We drove our Chevy out and stretched our legs, having a couple of small walks along basic hiking trails that we assume can only be amazing the further you go into the valleys. It reminded us of our trip out to Ayres rock and the Valley of the winds walks. The sand stone colours almost look like someone took a text a out and said now cold red here!

Of course we did not have the time to do a 3 hour hike, but stretching out in the sun with the wind in our hair, ahhhhh we loved it! There were a few groups of rock climbers hanging out, lots of hikers, loads of cyclists and a few people running the 26 kilometre well sealed road that runs through this valley. Today it was probably 20 degrees Celsius or 64F ( I guessed this so could be incorrect) either way perfect conditions for any outdoor adventurist.

They had a visitor centre and the whole park was a very small fee of USD7- well worth the effort.

Before we headed back to the hotel we did a quick drive by of the awesome Welcome to Vegas sign. It’s out near the airport no where near where we were staying and there were 1000’s of people there so I let Steve off and we just drove by….. what was amazing was all the #vegasstrong #vegastogether #vegasstrong.
Along side the sign were several American flags, with some beautiful flower tributes…… very moving, and although we know something happened in one of my Fav cities New York we haven’t heard what exactly happened.

We dropped the car back at the hotel and saw a bunch of corvettes all blazoned in cannonball Ireland. #cannonballireland One of the guys came up as I was taking photos and we started chatting about how they had the Ireland stickers on them. They brought hem from Dublin of course! A 14 day fund raiser tour with a 3 day layover in Vegas “ to get wrecked” his words!

I also shared the Shit box Rally in Australia, with our new friends where you enter with a car of no more than AUD1500 and travel from say Cairns to Darwin. They all had a good laugh….. It’s on my bucket list and if you are up for some sponsorship, let me know as it’s a fundraiser for cancer research and I know the skipper (AKA Lindy) and I are up for that challenge

Thanks babe for a wonderful few days and for cashing in your business class ticket to take me away, I love you. I hope we get to do Route 66 one day soon….

Mrs Wong x