Day 6: Stratsophere Tower

Since we arrived at the campsite really late last night and went straight to the Strip, we never got a chance to explore our campsite. So it was on the agenda today and we discovered a stunning swimming pool and since some of us have not got a chance to swim yet, we spent the morning lazing around idly at the swimming pool.

In the fact, it was a god-send considering how hot it was, Sara and I could see the sizzling air like you see on TV at formula one racing circuits where the air looks as if it was boiling.

We all decided to go food shopping at a upmarket supermarket as we can't find Wal-Mart. The food on the show there typifies the American culture. There was ice cream sandwich cakes and giant birthday cakes, microwave foods from well-known food chain restaurants such as Pizza Express and TGI Friday.

Stuart,Lucy,Sara,twins and I decided to visit Stratsophere Tower which is in layman terms- three fairground rides stuck on the top of a hotel. There was Insanity which is a swinging chairs carousel but soon as the ride starts, an arm extends the ride over the edge of the hotel into the abyss. It felt like we were playing a version of Russian roulette to see which chair will stop at outside of the edge and to be dropped!

The second ride was called Scream which is a mini roller-coaster that lurched over the edge and stopped at the end of the track dangling below. This is fun in the theory but in the practice it was rather dull and the ride only lasted ten seconds so you don't really get the sense of zooming downwards towards to the earth.

The final ride Big Shot was a classic ride where you get strapped into a seat and get shot upwards in the air. It was still exhilarating and the view was something to behold. I could see the entire city and the desert that surrounded the city and stretches out for miles. It just summarised up how dry Las Vegas was.

We then made a quick detour to casinos where Stuart tried out and won seven dollars on Blackjack! We then started our drive to Grand Canyon in the evening but the toilet was starting to cause a stink because we ran out of chemical blue tablets to eliminate the odour.

We settled at the petrol station which amusingly enough is stationed next to another petrol station and there was also a petrol station opposite on the other side of the motorway! Stuart and I exploited this to our advantage as we visited them all including crossing the motorway late at the night to find the increasingly exclusive chemical tablets. There are none so our odour problem carries on for another day.