Hey Everyone!
Okay, at this point Josh and I are in Bakersfield and one day into our roadtrip. We got up early in Bakersfield eager to be on the road to beat the holiday traffic. Generally when Josh and I drive to places, it tends to be very flat and boring. However, as we drove to Death Valley, the scenery started to get very interesting.
Death Valley is huge and we knew it was unlikely there would be a petrol stations in the Valley once we entered. Since Josh and I wanted to enter the Valley with a full tank of petrol, we asked our phones where the nearest Mobil was and stopped there to get petrol.
Okay so Josh and I are roadtrip newbies and from this one pitstop we learned a very valuable lesson. DO NOT stop anywhere that only has a single car parked out the front. The mini-mart was unmanned (although open) and stank of cigarette smoke (even though there was a no smoking sign on the door). We went to the toilets and Josh said the men’s had a sign saying don’t drink the water because they failed the water inspection. My toilet had a sign that said donations were needed to keep it clean. We got the hell out of there as fast as possible. The really funny thing was if we had just driven an extra 2 km down the road we would have found a better place to stop which we did anyway because we still needed to go to the toilet and get something to eat. This second place was much better.
Okay, slight hiccup but not to worry. Josh and I were back on track and roaring (in a Honda Civic) down the road. The scenery started to really change as we got closer to Death Valley.
And then yay! We got to the edge of Death Valley.
By the way, Death Valley is called Death Valley because 13 explorers died in one of the first expeditions across the valley. (Spoiler Alert: Josh and I survived). At this point, Josh and I spent a couple of hours driving through Death Valley and soaking it all in.
About 30 minutes into our trek across Death Valley, Josh and I lost phone and radio reception. So we turned to a trusty friend to help us see our way through the desert, Johnny Farnham.
Guys, if you ever get a chance to visit, a drive through Death Valley is a must. I really felt like I was on another planet.
My advice for visiting Death Valley: Don’t do it during summer. Its the peak of winter at the moment and Josh and I were rocking around in a t-shirt and light jumper. It felt like we had crossed hemispheres instead of states.
Before Josh and I stopped for lunch, we decided to visit a famous ghost town at the other side of Death Valley. There are ghost towns all over America. These towns are usually established for a reason like the gold rush, a new train line or new mining. Eventually when the reason for opening the town disappears, everyone leaves the town and it disintegrates over time. Josh and I visited Rhyolite.
This place was huge, it had enough people to support 50 saloons! However all that’s left is:
It was pretty cool. The whole time I kept thinking about how there had been a huge town here about a hundred years ago and now, nothing. After walking about, we decided it was definitely time for lunch. For this, we stopped in the little town of Beatty nestled in the mountains as you make your way out of Death Valley.
It was actually really cool eating lunch surrounded by mountains. And as we walked around, we discovered that some of the buildings had been from Rhyolite (they dismantled them and reassembled them in Beatty). Refreshed after lunch, Josh and I decided to head to…..LAS VEGAS!!! We were both pretty excited. Josh had been there before but this was my first time. Because we were not travelling the traditional route to Vegas (from the South), our entrance was a bit anti-climactic.
However, once we started getting closer to the Strip, that began to change.
Now don’t laugh, Josh and I stayed at a hotel called Treasure Island. It was actually pretty nice and situated right on the Strip. I think we were pretty lucky. Josh described it best that Vegas seems to be a giant theme park. And when we turned down a street called Siren’s Cove Boulevard to get to our valet parking, I really felt like it was an accurate description.
Anyway, it was clear everyone else had the same idea to celebrate New Year’s in Vegas because the line to check in was out of control long.
After lining up for ages, Josh and I finally got to our room. With a lot of excitement, we pulled back the curtains eager to see what our view was and we were faced with:
Yugh! Okay the view wasn’t that great. Eager to escape that, Josh and I decided to look around Vegas. Remember what I said about Vegas being a giant theme park? This was outside our hotel as we walked out.
The Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip) looked amazing at night.
Keeping in line with the whole theme park feel of this city, Josh and I ducked into the Venetian. Check out the ceiling!
We then wandered down the Strip to the iconic fountain at the Bellagio and was in time to see the fountain do its thing.
It’s deceptive but when the big jets sound, it thunders like a plane is going past. Very cool. At this point, Josh and I were pretty tired from our big day so we headed back to our hotel to get ready to bring in the New Year.
Check out how we brought in the New Year in Vegas: New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas (December 2017).
Talk soon,
Sim & Josh
