• Started the day with a trip to the LA Holocaust Museum. As always, a very sad part of history and the fact it was allowed to occur is just mind blowing. Then you read how the nazification of Germany played out and there’s so many parallels to the way certain situations have played out in recent history and you start to see the path.
• We were at the museum at the same time as a much of school kids who weren’t super interested in the places. Can’t say I blame them really as they are young kids and it’s all a bit ancient history for them, but the tour guide was getting a little upset at how little they cared for what was close to her personal history. While we were poking around in one small area to the side another bloke introduced himself and it turns out he was the photographer of some photos they were exhibiting in that area. There photos were of his mum, so he told us about her and her families life. Two siblings of a family of seven children were the only survivors. I had already read the plaque about the photographer (him) and he’s a CEO of some large company and has patents to do with fibre optics so he’s kind of a big deal, but here he was chatting with us in some tiny exhibit about his family. That was cool!
• Next up was a bus ride from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in an optimistically named “LuxExpress”. Despite the fact the old Sprinter and it’s pleather had seen better days, the driver got us there quickly and efficiently and I got to learn some very interesting facts about aliens from him. Turns out the reason they haven’t given us their technology yet is because we fight too much. Hard to argue to be honest. Considering our originally organised transport “Megabus” cancelled on us at the last minute, I’m not hating too much on LuxExpress for being a little bit Real Estate Agent with the truth. Despite the bus/van only having half a dozen people on board they still did the trip they committed to and that’s worth brownie points right there. Also it’s worth cash, which we have to the driver because we’re in America and that means tipping!
• Then we got to Las Vegas. I hate it. It is gaudy, sleazy, and built from money stolen from gambling addicts and laundered money from criminal activity. It’s in a rubbish location in the middle of a bloody desert and for some reason they’re running out of water (gosh, what a surprise) so I need to limit myself to one flush of the toilet a day while they operate a stupid underwhelming fountain which evaporates more water per hour than I could waste flushing the toilet after every individual nugget for the entirety of my trip. But it’s ok to waste fountain water, cause it lures in the addicts to blow their cash on the equivalent of pokies at the Greenbank RSL except with an extra 0 or two at the end of every cost. I currently hate everything about the strip itself and am basically counting down the hours until we leave. If I was doing my itinerary over, I would scrap this part of the trip.
• There are no redeeming features of this area, but you do have to tip your hat to the engineers who designed the technical side of this place and the construction teams that put it together. The buildings are BIG man, and they keep finding ways to stack more of them in here. The engineering involved is beyond my tiny fridgie brain, but I assume there were equations all over the place like a scene from Good Will Hunting and a lot of sleepiness nights for the eggheads as it all came together wondering if they’d forgotten to carry a 1 somewhere or whatever.
• Actually one tiny curve on the redemption arc – we did have Bubba Gump shrimp for dinner, and I discovered the deliciousness that is jambalaya. Put it on the menu Judy Watts, I have discovered a new favourite dinner!
• Tomorrow is Grand Canyon day, except actually it was today because I was so bitter and twisted about Vegas that I didn’t post last night. Grand Canyon was a happier place, but you’ll just have to wait until the next update which maybe I’ll do in a few hours or so.
Leave a comment!