Bicycle Journey Progress

The journey begins on July 29th and ends on September 11th, 2023

Ride Progress: ABOUT TO START!
Daily summaries:
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segunda-feira, 11 de junho de 2012

Day 59 – 05/31/2012 – Las Vegas, NV – Day 3

Since we had seen the first half of the Vegas strip in the previous day, our plan was to go the middle of it and explore the second half. We had breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant and took off towards Caesar’s Palace.


The day was very hot and even getting there, a short 4 miles long ride was difficult.

Once we got to the parking lot we realized there was no bike rack anywhere around. An employee of the casino told us to go straight to the employee’s section and tie our bikes there. So that’s what we did, we passed straight by the security guard as if we were workers and tied our bikes in a rack in the back of the building, then entered through the employee’s corridor.


Once we got into the casino we started exploring the place. Caesar’s Palace was one of the most impressive casinos in the region, very well taken care of and with tasteful Roman-styled decoration. Next we walked further in the Vegas Blvd passing through other resorts such as Treasure Island and Mirage. We got in the Mirage hotel and had some nice coffee in a local Starbucks.

Then we walked all the way up to the Encore, and started returning through the other side of the street. Once more many casinos and hotels in our way, but what caught our attention the most was the overall look of the city as a whole. That is an incredible place, with many buildings and hotels interconnected by corridors and passages. The new Aria complex was amazing as well, with a very modern decoration and glassy walls.

Our timeframe to explore the city was limited due to David Copperfield’s show which we had tickets to. The show was at 7pm, so we had planned to get back to our bicycles by 4pm and go back to the hotel to shower and exchange clothes before the show. However, we also decided to walk all the way back to a Subway not close at all from our bicycles and ended up spending much more time there then we should. Once we got back on the street we had to walk as fast as possible to get to our bicycles. That was quite a walk, with very high temperatures and the hot sun not helping much.


Once we arrived at Caesar’s Palace we then got our bikes and pedaled fast back to the hotel. We dressed with the clothes we had purchased in Ross in the previous day and took off to the show. Of course using a bicycle to get there was not an option: we were dressed with jeans and long sleeves and temperatures were around 100 F. We got into a bus and in a few minutes arrived in the MGM Grand where the show was about to take place.


The theater was very small which was good. Even being in a back row we were able to see the stage very closely. David’s show was incredible as expected, with illusions that defied our sense of reality. At some point he made a car appear on stage out of nowhere right on top of two volunteers from the crowd. He also managed to make thirteen people from the crowed disappear from their chairs and appear in the back of the theater, amongst many other tricks.


After the show we walked to a nearby food court and had a pizza for dinner, then headed back to the hotel. But we were not ready to go sleep just yet. Then we went out to party! We tried to go to a bigger party, but most of the clubs were closed due to the fact that was a Wednesday. We found an opened lounge on the top of the THEhotel called MIX lounge. We got in and had a lot of fun!

 

That was another great day that will stay in our memories as one of the major highlights of this journey.


Lunch in Hanford, CA

This is the last spot to eat before Selma, our next planned stop.

We found a small gas station with a few snacks, so that's what we gonna have for lunch!






Pause for chocolate milk

We're 15 miles down the road and found a nice shade to rest and drink some milk! =)





Leaving the hotel

We're now on our way to Fresno, CA.

This is going to be a hot day, so we'll need lots of sun blocker!




Day 58 – 05/30/2012 – Las Vegas, NV – Day 2

This day we woke up late and went to the hotel restroom to have breakfast. After eating and having a nice coffee we got our bicycles and rode to the New York New York hotel, where we found a bike rack to tie them up. We walked inside the hotel and started our tour through hotels and casinos.



After spending some good time walking in the casino we saw a Starbucks and decided to stop and drink some more coffee. My uncle then realized he had forgotten his camera tied in the bicycle, so I waited for him there while he ran back to get it. Thankfully it was there, untouched.


From there we crossed the bridge to the MGM hotel and looked for a place to buy tickets to the David Copperfield show. They only had tickets for the next day, so we got those and moved on to the street. We walked several blocks until we reached the section where the Ross store was located at. We needed clothes to enter in David Copperfield’s show, so we stopped by and got pretty much everything: pants, shirt and better shoes.



Once we were done it was time to eat already, so we stopped by a local Subway and had a great meal as usual.

Next we saw all hotels up to the Ceasar’s Palace. It is very hard to describe Las Vegas. This is a place that is so big, so luxurious and so different from other cities in the United States that any description will certain be incomplete. The buildings are incredible, and new constructions are always in progress. At the same time there is a sad side to Vegas. We see people in the casinos, mostly old folks smoking and spending all their money on those electronic games. Very sad because it’s only the gambling component acting, there is also a loneliness factor associated with it.

More on a positive side, we had a great time visiting the city. We walked until night time, then got our bicycles and headed back to the hotel. It was very good not having to rush so much preparing the food or washing clothes. We had a great night of sleep and rested enough for another upcoming busy day in Vegas!

Here are some more pictures of this wonderful city: