This is a travelogue written by my wife and it was on an old website of mine but that website is now defunked, so being eco-friendly I’ve decided to recycle it here.
We landed at McCarran International Airport (http://www.mccarran.com/), Las Vegas, Nevada, after a very long Virgin Atlantic flight. We jumped on to the complimentary Hertz bus to collect our hire car. Having booked a convertible we were pleased to be handed the keys to a Ford Mustang. After struggling to squeeze our two large suitcases in to a very small boot, we were approached by an American family who insisted that this was their rental car, apparently it had been double booked. As it was the last convertible car in the parking lot, we thought that rather than stand there with the blistering sun beating down on us, arguing over who was the rightful recipient of the fiery red Mustangm, we would do the decent thing and so we drove off to our hotel! We arrived at the Luxor Hotel (http://www.luxor.com/) and relinquished the car to the valet guys. The entrance to this hotel is a ten storey replica of the Sphinx. The main building of the Luxor is a glass pyramid, which has approximately 2,500 rooms that are reached by ‘inclinators’, elevators that rise at a 39 degree angle like an enclosed ski lift. 
Although we have travelled extensively, and seen lots of hotels, large and small, we were overwhelmed by the size of the lobby. Even more surprising was the amount of people who were queueing to check in, I guess the fact that it was July 4th weekend could have had something to do with it! It took us 2 hours to check in, after which we were very pleased to finally get to our room. Once we had caught our breath we went back 
downstairs to the gaming area to have a good look round. Las Vegas has to be the most surreal place we have visited, it is so strange, morning, afternoon, evening, weekday, weekend, it all feels the same, time just stands still. Although most people are there to gamble, after a while one slot machine is much the same as any other, and we could only play so much black jack, and we were not particularly interested in gambling! I know,why go to Vegas, if not to gamble? We were there because we had often talked about visiting Vegas to get married. We were already married by this time, had been for years, but we thought we would go anyway. Actually, Richard arranged this trip as a surprise for me. Thankfully we had the car, so we didn’t have to spend all of our time gambling.
Rhyolite, Nevada
The next morning we drove off with the top down, and headed in to the desert to Rhyolite (http://www.rhyolitesite.com/). Rhyolite is a photogenic ghost town established in 1905 after gold and silver were discovered in the Bullfrog Hills, once with a population of 10,000 by 1912 the town was deserted. Now a mass of various crumbling brick buildings, ghost sculptures, train depot, school, and the town jail. Also there, constructed when building materials were very scarce, is the famous ‘bottle house’, which as its name suggests is made from old bottles as there was no shortage of empty beer bottles from the town’s 50 saloons. There was only one other couple there when we visited, so the whole place felt even more eerie. There is an annual Rhyolite Resurrection Festival held in march.
We were only in Nevada for 7 days and didn’t want to spend every waking moment at the hotel, so we made good use of the hire car.
The Little A’Le Inn, Rachel Nevada
We had heard about ‘The Little A’Le’Inn’ (http://www.littlealeinn.com/)(alien – get it) many years before. We had always wanted to go there so off we drove. The Little A’Le’Inn is in Rachel Nevada on highway 375 also known as the Extraterrestrial Highway, in fact it was officially designated ET Highway in 1996 to coincide with the launch of the film ‘Independence Day’. Rachel is the only settlement on the highway, and has a tiny population of just 80 people. There is only one official state Extraterrestrial Highway sign remaining, all of the others have been stolen, alas not by us! The Little A’Le’Inn was smaller then we expected, but as we approached it we knew we were at the 
right place, there was a tow truck parked up outside with a flying saucer hooked up to it! We went inside, had a much needed beer, and a good look at all of the alien related literature and UFO photo’s that cover the walls. We also purchased a t-shirt with the Little A’Le’Inn logo, some little green aliens, and the extraterrestrial highway printed on the front, tacky but it had to be done.
Another day, us being partial to a nice cold beer or three, we sensibly took a taxi out of the centre of surreal Las Vegas to the Gordon Biersch bar. This prize microbrewery is apparently one of Las Vegas’ most popular pick-up joints, but being very happily married obviously this did not apply to either of us! This bar has fine brew, live music, and an extensive menu with colourful names such as Angry Prawns. As it turned out taking a taxi, so that we could drink to 
our hearts content, ended up not being the great idea we first though it was. By the time we were ready to leave the bar was very busy, and we found it impossible to get a member of staff to call us a taxi, oh well we went outside to flag one down … big mistake! To cut a long story short, we ended up walking all the way back to the air conditioned paradise that was the Luxor hotel, where we thought we deserved a lovely cold … you guessed it beer! Another great place for a tasty beer is the Monte Carlo Pub and Brewery, situated in the Monte Carlo hotel. Like everything in Las Vegas the interior is absolutely huge. There is live piano music every night, and an outdoor patio which overlooks the lavish pool area. The atmosphere is good, the furnishings are antique, and there are huge copper beer barrels. We always sat up at the bar, well we didn’t want to be too far away from the booze!
As I mentioed above, a few years before we went to Las Vegas we had talked about the possibility of getting married in one of the many wedding chapels there. Maybe at a drive through tunnel of love, or with an Elvis impersonator, seriously tacky, seriously cool! But as we were already married by this time it was not to be, you can renew your wedding vows but it’s not the same.
As well as the Las Vegas wedding, we had also wanted to see a film at a drive-in, this we did. In the 1960’s there were half a dozen drive-ins now long gone, but there was one remaining just north of rancho drive. It has 6 screens and provides an authentic drive-in experience. We parked facing the screen, showing our chosen film ‘Men in Black II’, but most of the other visitors reversed toward the screen in huge four wheel drive vehicles, and then proceeded to set up picnic tables and chairs, some even had double mattresses in the flat-bed part of their trucks and got truly settled in for the night. Everyone appeared to have bought lots of food and drinks with them. We sat in the car, and were more than happy with an ice-cream that was purchased from the onsite shop/snack bar.
All in all Las Vegas was very enjoyable, good fun, and incredibly surreal, and for us 7 days was more than enough!
Our Las Vegas Videos
Bottle House ~ Rhyolite
A look at Rachel, Nevada
Las Vegas -part 1
Las Vegas -part 2
For further info see: http://www.visitlasvegas.com
Published on www.zoqy.net
America is a funny country. In some states it is easier to buy a gun, than it is to buy a bottle of wine. Pennsylvania is one such state. Until recently you have only been able to purchase wine at state owned liquor stores, but Pennsylvania has now ‘relaxed’ its drink buying laws! Supermarkets in Pennsylvania are now permitted to have wine vending machines in them (see video). The vending machines offer a very limited choice of low quality wines, and if the cheap plonk was not bad enough the customer needs to swipe their drivers license, payment card, and …….. take a breathe test to prove that they are not drunk. 
