Day 6 "Leaving Las Vegas"

I never had the opportunity to travel to Sin City when I was younger.  The family was excited to see "The Strip". Well, all of us not including my wife. The Vegas life is not her thing, she prefers nature. We left the South Rim and drove straight through. The drive was nice. The boys took turns in the copilot seat listening to their music. I'm not always a fan, but it is fun to discover new tunes. 

The trip to Vegas was almost ruined by an oversight on my part. I had hooked up the jeep, did my final walk around and was about to pull out. Right before I did, my oldest son Evan asked, "Did you put the jeep in neutral?" Crap! I had forgot. This would have destroyed our tow vehicle's transmission, and probably our will to travel. I'm a big fan of the book "The Check List Manifesto" by Atul Gawande. It's a smart book about the power of documenting routine. Just because people read books, doesn't mean they put it into practice. I should have made a check list before we left, but we were in a hurry to leave. Being in a hurry is the #1 reason oversights lead to catastrophic failure. There is now a checklist on the steering wheel. 

We pulled into Vegas at six in the afternoon and took the Dogebago down the Las Vegas strip, checking out iconic casinos: The Mirage, Bellagio, New York New York and the pyramid shaped Luxor. My youngest son is huge into FortNite and wanted to stop by and see the E-sports arena, but it was closed. My oldest son (college) asked if we could go to Area 15 and see an art exhibit called Omega Mart we agreed and rolled into the parking lot after dark. 

Huh... holy shit. I was not in the mood or ready for The Omega Mart. I went to college and read Fear and Loathing. I did this scene in my 20s. The ganja and other substances were hitting the young people around us hard as they tripped on the sensory overload of this place. All I wanted was to eat and see some of the real Vegas. It took us over an hour to make our way through. The constant rhythmic thumping of techno music was giving me a headache. 

After escaping Omega Mart, we hit the Las Vegas Strip for some good food, and the Bellagio fountain show. Both of which ironically never came since we nixed food to view the last Mirage fountain show (11pm). We mistook it for the  Bellagio's. Our faces said it all realizing we gave up food in a hot crowded Vegas strip for a show we never intended to see. Luckily, my amazing wife offered to go get the jeep and pick us up at the Bellagio so my youngest could finally get video footage of the "Blinding Lights" fountain. It was a real spectacle to say the least. My youngest son had an amazing time recording the sights and snapping pictures of Lamborghinis and Audi R8s that sped down the strip.

We finally made it to our RV spot after waiting 45 minutes for the best Wendy's fast food midnight feast, but the Dogebago's air conditioning unit could not keep up with the blaring Las Vegas sun. It took well passed midnight to get the RV cooled down enough to rest. It was miserable and we couldn't wait to get out of Vegas onto friendlier places like Area 51 and Death Valley.