Another fabulous day in Las Vegas. We woke late and managed to stumble downstairs by about noon time. We headed straight outdoors and north, in the direction of the stratosphere, a big complex which holds gambling tables and slot machines of course, but also an indoor mall selling cheaper clothes than further down the strip, cheap food and housing four very exciting amusement thrill rides.

I played my first slot machine, and found the experience less than inspiring, so moved on after I had waved my one dollar goodbye.

Wasting no further time we ascended the tower to the thrill rides. There were two rides on the lower deck, both hanging you precariously over the edge of the building with a long drop down, providing and excellent and terrifying view of Las Vegas, and the third ride was up the spindle on top of the building, called a sling shot. Spencer and I opted for this one and one of the other rides, and scared ourselves silly, screaming like small children!

The fourth ride was a free fall type thing down the entire side of the building, obviously with a controlled landing. It cost 100 dollars or more for the pleasure of riding this ride, so Spencer and I gave it a miss and happily took to solid ground once more.

As we had woken quite late and the rides had taken some time, we didnt have much time until we needed to get into the queue to pick up our tickets for the show that we had booked to see. We had chosen a show about Las Vegas and its history, being a cheaper option than many of the other shows that were all selling for around 100 dollars each, and seeing as Tom Jones was sold out.

We made our way down the strip, which was a very, very, very long way in the insane intense heat of Las Vegas. It took us a fair bit of time, and by the time we got to Planet Hollywood, where the theatre was, we had just enough time to collect our tickets, find a bar for a quick drink and then return to the theatre to queue up as it was first come first serve.

We got into the queue and were a bit concerned as to the kind of show we had booked ourselves to see as the average age of the crowd was about 68. But, I guess we were going to see a show at 7pm and all the young folk were still out partying at this time. Anyway, we eventually were let into the theatre and got pretty good seats quite near the front. The show started and I enjoyed myself from start to finish. The show was infact loosely based on the history of Vegas, but really a jolly good excuse to sing lots of great songs by Sonny and Cher, Tom Jones, Elvis, Elton John, Tina Turner and so on and so forth. There were sexy dancing girls wearing very little, they even did a Can Can which Spencer was very pleased about. I believe I was the most vociferous audience member, I have just been on a bit of a high since we stepped foot in Vegas yesterday. I was rewarded for my exuberance with a bit of Tom Jones hip gyration directed straight at me and a bit of a wink from the singer. That made my day I can tell you!!

I was inspired after the show to sing my song for Nevada, so see the bottom of this blog for my song of the day. Let me tell you that there is NOWHERE in Vegas that you can be alone (apart from say in my hotel room, or in a lift - but where would the fun be in that?) so I sang my song on the bridge between Planet Hollywood and the Bellagio side of the road. There were many people passing, but this is Vegas baby, everyone is mad here. I even got a small round of applause and a whistle - which you can hear on the video.

That done, we walked back towards our hotel. We have been very lucky to catch various shows just by happening to turn up at the right time. Yesterday we caught the Pirate ship show with the Sexy sirens outside Treasure Island, today we caught the INDOOR THUNDER STORM in the shopping mall, and on our way home we caught the fountain show set to music outside the Bellagio. It was very beautiful.

We made our way through the streets, passing the mexicans slapping their hands with business cards for prostitutes and trying to hand them out to every passer by. They have this little technique for slapping the card on their wrists or flicking the cards with their fingers so they make a noise and then make a swooshing passing gesture to you. Spencer amused me with his britishness offering a polite 'no thank you' every time we passed.

We stopped in a 7 Eleven so I could pick up some snacks for my trip tomorrow. It is currently about 1am and I am due to wake up in about four hours to catch a very early bus so that I can do my day in the Grand Canyon.

The 7 Eleven was just across the road from our hotel so we crossed and entered the casino, searching for a 5 dollar table to try our luck on the black jack. I exchanged 50 dollars for chips and saw my pile dwindle to just a few chips before my luck changed and before I knew it I had doubled my money. That was quite enough for me, so I changed up my chips and I had my very own black 100 dollar chip!

Spencer of course did even better than me and once he was finished and he collected his black chip as well as a couple of green ones and a few pink ones, we went in to exchange our tips back into cash.

I did a spot of souvenir buying and then headed upstairs to pack and get myself ready for a very long day with many hours in a coach tomorrow, with hopefully about 3 hours at the Grand Canyon. I am hoping it will be worth it, I will let you know after I get back to Newport.

Enjoy the photos and movie!