Viva Las Vegas!!

Day 6: Williams, AZ to VEGAS! (well, Mesquite)
miles traveled: 234

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAMA SHINNERS!!!!

We left the KOA pretty early (around 8:20 mountain time) and got into the Kaibab National Forest around 9. We drove down this long road for a very long time until we got to the Grand Canyon! We all were amazed by the beauty of the Canyon, which is obvious, but roll with me here... We walked along the southern rim for about 2 hours. Sarah and I were hanging back just a bit and found a squirrel that was very used to humans being around; we named him Lonny. Turtle was getting a little apprehensive at times because of the height thing. It freaked him out a little bit when Jenn, Sarah, and I got closer to the edge than he was comfortable with. Jenn and Sarah found another squirrel while Turtle and I were exploring other parts of the pathway. They called us over, and when we got there, we saw this squirrel perched on very edge of a rock cliff. He sat there as if he was posing, and ended up coming closer to all the humans that were milling about. He, like Lonny, was very used to humans. After getting our pictures and memories of the view, we went to the bookstore and bought some postcards and such and then headed on our way. We got gas before getting back on interstate 40. We hit 3000 miles on the trip tik about an hour before we got to the Hoover dam. There was a police security checkpoint before we crossed over the dam which consisted of one guy glancing in our car and assessing that we weren't terrorists. He waved us on and we got in the seemingly endless line of cars. We got into Pacific time at 4:10/3:10 when we crossed over the dam. After driving over the dam, we switched drivers, and I took over for Turtle. We got into Vegas around 4:00 and headed north to Mesquite which is about an hour north. We stayed in a hotel, so we were all able to get showers and relax on queen size beds before getting ready to head back to Vegas for a night of fun. Sadly, all of us are too poor to have too much fun, but we managed to get a good share of it. We started off towards the Bellagio, but sadly, the light and water show wasn't playing for the rest of the night. Turtle bought a drink that consisted of 3 margaritas and now has a giant glass to take home as a souvenir, Jenn broke even, and I lost $5 at blackjack (the one hand I played). We all walked around and found an amusing sight outside of the New York New York Casino. One incredibly drunk guy was sitting on the ground without his shirt on while his friend was fighting with the bouncers. The drunk guy on the ground had the paramedics called for him, but we weren't sure what his friend was so angry about. The bouncers were trying to restrain him, and the guy ended up spitting in the bouncer's face. That caused the bouncer to push him into a metal fence-like apparatus and say that he was going to get him arrested. The drunk guy then proceeded to shout "7,6,5,4. When I get to zero, I'm gonna sue your ass!" This made all of us chuckle a little. There was a couple standing next to us enjoying the show as well. The guy turned to us and said "I'm just waiting for him to get tased." After the paramedics arrived, we all ended up leaving and let them do their jobs. We arrived back at the car (which we parked for free at Mandalay Bay) and headed over to the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign where we took pictures. We then drove back to the hotel and got there at 3:20. We crashed almost the second we were in the room.

- Megan