Day 01 - Travel to Las Vegas

It's day 1 and we’re in Vegas, baby.  What more do I have to say? 

We are going on a trip to visit some of the National Parks in the West (USA) and today we began our trip by flying from Orlando to Las Vegas where the tour begins – and will also end.  Since our flight leaves Orlando at 8:30 AM, we began our day with the alarm ringing at 4:00 AM.  We were on the road by 5:00AM and at the terminal by 6:30 AM, right on time.  We were late leaving and late arriving so we were happy our connecting flight in Atlanta was in the same terminal, although at the far end.  And the Atlanta terminals are long.  Got off the plane, quickly moved on down to the new gate (arrive at gate 68 and leave at gate 6) just in time to board. 

The Tour (Trafalgar’s Scenic Parks Explorer) counts this as day one even though all we do is travel to our departing city and do a short get together with the others on the trip.  Not until tomorrow do we actually get on the bus for our first destinations – Zion and Bryce Canyon. 

As I mentioned, tonight we meet with others on the trip and the tour director.  We’ll get the low down of how things will go tomorrow.  Things like what time the bags must be ready by, when is breakfast, and most importantly, where and when to get on the bus.

One of the main reasons we chose this trip with Trafalgar instead of other companies is the stop at Monument Valley.  We are supposed to take jeeps into Monument Valley and we are both looking forward to that.  We are (or at least I am) hoping to get some pictures of the mesas in the valley known as the “Mittens” and other formations seen in many of the John Ford and John Wayne westerns.

Tonight we’ll get to bed early, after a little gambling at the tables of course and taking a few pictures.  Until we have more tomorrow, bye for now.

Oh, before I sign off, here are a couple of pictures of Vegas at night.  As Elvis sings “A little less conversation, a little more action”, so I’ve got to go hit the tables before going to bed.  This is a picture from the Tropicana (where we are staying tonight looking at the pool and the Luxor and Mandalay Bay hotels in the background.  You can see the light ray from the Luxor in the picture.

New York, New York.  My kind of town!

Till later, Bob and Carmen.