My day trip was meant to be 12 hours hotel to hotel, and having to be picked up at a nearby hotel at 5:45 meant to me that I would be back by 6pm in the evening, and thus have plenty of time to go to another show, which was my plan. I ended up finally getting back after 11pm, having missed my chance to see anything else and very tired and bored of being on a bus, however confortable it was meant to be.
I didn't have time for a breakfast before being picked up, so it was nice once we had got all together to be given free muffins, a fruit drink and a hot coffee. The company were runnin trips to the West and the South Rims of the Grand Canyon, the West with the advantage of being able to take new Sky Walk across to look directly down on the floor, but the South has the Imax show, the worlds most watched imax film, and also supposedly has the best views.
The guide let us know that we would not be back in 12 hours and that we sould not expect to get back before maybe 9:00 or 9:30, which was news thta I wasn't too keen on hearing and which is why when I got back at gone 11pm I was pissed as at no stage was the traffic bad or anyone late getting back to the coach, so why were we almost 2 hours later than planned !?!
What I also wasnt expecting was that it was the closer I got to the Canyon the more cold it got, in the end it was -10 degrees celcius, which is ten degrees below freezing. Although I had some warmer clothes, especially thanks to my xmas present from K and her family back in Mexico, but I hadnt brought them and neither had I thought to buy or borrow some gloves, hat or scarf, but I really should have.
The first stop we made was passing through Boulder City and then stopping to take photos of the other side of the Hoover Dam. For safety and security sake, in both directios every vehicle is searched before it is allowed to cross the dam, the speed limit is restricted to only 10 miles an hour and no vehicle is allowed to stop not even for a moment to take photos. Thus the traffic that crosses the dam almost always has a backlog that delays you no matter what time of night or day you chose to travel, and at peak times it can take over two hours just to cross the dam.
It wasn't snowing before we reached Boulder City, but pretty soon after the landscape showed signs of snow in the shadows, getting thicker until it was about 2 foot thick before we made our first proper stop.
Because of the recent snowfall and the low lying fog, the Helicopter rides were cancelled, but the Imax show was worth seing, even if the screen wasn't like the imax I had visited in Ecuador and wasn't very domed or rounded and was just like a much taller screen than normal. The film was US $6 for a 35 minute film, but it covered the unknown hidden original settlers, the native american indians, the european / modern americans and finally left us with some great views taken from a microlight glider that was truly breathtaking.
Our first stop actually at the grand canyon was an hour long, but with me being unprepared clothes wise for the freezing temperature I spend most of my time in the gift shop watching a display video of the first americans to film their crossing form the north right down through to the south. It was more a documentary than anything else, but had lots of nice bits and the brothers were as nutty as they came, but thankfully both survived the ordeal and their films did indeed ensure them a place in history for their effort.
An hour or so later we made our second proper Canyon stop, and here I managed to get the courage to get near the edge and have my photo taken, despite being unable to stop my teeth chattering wearing only a t-shirt and my flimsy jacket. I was very temped on buying a fleece and hat at the gift shop, and for only US $25 each they would have been good investments and souveneirs, only I know that my bags are already full and so any extra clothes will just weigh me down on the travel up through Australia and the Far East, and they would probably be too bulky to send cheaply home after just the one use.
I spend the rest of my second stop admiring the sunset from the safety of the nearby hotel and restaurant ( while cuddling a wonderfully warm hot chocolate for less than US $2 which was a bargain anywhere let alone in a tourist trap like here), while my american fellow tourists watched the big game of football on the television. Despite being set out from Las Vegas I was very surprised that there was really no majority of tourists from any one country as I spotted Romanian, French, Canadian, Russian, English, Japanese, Korean and German tourists.
The trip back was broken up by a couple of pit stops near road side cafes where the driver let us out for toilet breaks and to grab a bite to eat, and also by watching Shanghai Knights and Shanghigh Noon movies with Jackie Chan.
Coming from a small downtown hotel I was last to be dropped off and althogh I had wanted to watch a show and do a little gambling before going to sleep, by the time I left the bus I was shattered and so were most of the other guests in the hotel as the gambling card tables and roulette wheel were quieter than I had wanted, so I just gave it a miss and went to bed.
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