Feeling like my right arm has been cut off at the moment!!!No internet!! I can't email, check the weather or update my Facebook status or the blog.We do have internet but we are not prepared to pay £10 a day (that's Vegas for you).We have managed to find a Starbucks just a short drive from the hotel where, for the price of a cappuccino, I have access to free wi-fi!!Only problem is, I have to come here every morning (oh what a shame!!) even though we have Starbucks in the hotel.

We had a pretty horrendous journey here - it's approximately 2,500 miles from Miami to Vegas.We had a 5.5 hour flight on a very full plane where we didn't get to sit together and there was no room for our luggage in the overhead lockers so we had to have it at our feet.Still we did land early and got to pick the car up quite quickly.

I had wrongly assumed that leaving Los Angeles at 2.00 pm on a Monday would be relatively traffic free (LA is notorious for it's traffic and can take hours to do a short 5 mile journey).W got out of LA itself quite easily but hit 2 lots of traffic on the freeway which added 2 hours onto our journey!!!We have done this trip several times in both directions and it normally takes 4 - 4.5 hours to drive the 280 miles - not this time!!! 6.5 hours and when we got to the hotel the valet parking guy said we were the 3rd person to tell him that.

Our problems weren't over when we came to check in (it was after 8:00 by now but felt like 11:00 to us because of the time difference) as the non-smoking mountain-view room that we had reserved wasn't available!!!They have upgraded us to a pool view smoking permitted room (not an upgrade in my opinion!!).However, after having now spent 3 nights in the room, it's actually OK!!The room is quite large, there is no smoke and it is surprisingly quiet.We are stopping at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino which is a little way off the strip but actually has some good facilities and great restaurants with special offers on food!!!The hotel charges a £10 day "resort fee" for which we get free valet parking and use of the gym.The gym is actually really good and we have used it 3 times already (honestly!!).There is a Starbucks 4 floors below us and a great Italian restaurant which does a daily special for just £10 (including a tip) of soup or salad, bread basket, main course and a glass of wine - we have eaten there twice already and plan on working our way through the menu before we leave!!!

We have managed to get out of the casino once or twice.On Wednesday we went to the AtomicTestingMuseum.As well as telling the history of the atmospheric and under ground testing of atomic and hydrogen bombs, there is also an i-beam here from the bombing of the World Trade Centre on September 11 2001.It was a very interesting visit and I learnt something I had never learned at school!

Yesterday (Thursday), we paid a visit to the Hoover Dam.We have crossed the dam on several occasions and last year when we were here, they were part way through the construction of a new bridge over the Colorado River called the Mike O'Callaghan Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. Check out the photos in the album called "Bridging the Colorado".The first photo shows the progress of the bridge (which was started in 2005) when we were last here in May 2009.The rest of the photos show how the bridge was built and what it looks like now (it just opened in October 2010).The Hoover Dam has always been a bit of a tourist attraction and the building of the bridge has relieved the pressure of tourist traffic competing with travellers just wanting to get to Arizona and the Grand Canyon!!!

Today is New Year's Eve and we will be on the Strip tonight celebrating with fireworks.Unfortunately, today is the coldest day of 2010 in Las Vegas with daytime temperatures set to reach a high of about 3 or 4 degrees!!!This is also the coldest December 31st in Las Vegas since records began in 1937!!! Tonight it will drop below freezing and we are hoping the 18mph winds will drop enough for the fireworks to be set off from the top of the casinos at midnight (the winds need to be 10mph or lower)