Against the Oddities

I was about to book a hotel room deal online at the Luxor for $40 a night, but I fell asleep and when I woke up at 4 am the offer was gone. It was a lesson on the fast games in Las Vegas. Seems like it's easy to get "deals", but in the end this town will find a way to take your money one way or another.

The ride from Primm was pretty straight forward, one exit down on the freeway was the dusty, rural beginning of Las Vegas "Boulevard", a good 60 kilometres from the city. Again, it was already a hot early morning so I filled my water bottles and reservoir bag with cubes from the hotel ice machine. It certainly did not take long for them to melt.

This is Las Vegas Boulevard way, way out in the desert

The city suddenly comes to view

Las Vegas rises out of the desert abruptly, but its suburbs are slowly creeping out. With water and sewer services being quite a premium, I imagine it wouldn't be difficult for the city to put a lid on sprawl but it still happens. Cycling to the beginning of "The Strip" to where my motel was was surprisingly comfortable There was a semblance of a bike lane throughout, weirdly changing in width from 3 feet to as much as 12. I noticed cars giving me a wide berth, later I found out that in Nevada drivers are required to move a full lane over for a cyclist on a multi lane road.

Actually, my 3G data has been pretty skimpy, Wind Mobile/ T-Mobile

I easily found my cheap motel, just across the street from the back of the MGM Grand. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't get that room at the Luxor — checking in with a bike would have been so embarrassingly out of place with all the resort-type tourists, although it would have been so funny to get it valet-parked :) I had arrived early, before 11 am, but I was lucky to have a room ready.

I promised myself a rest day after a week of riding, and Las Vegas fell right into that slot. After spending a few hours on this city, however, I realized why I had never been here before: It's really not my kind of place. At best it's a well-rehearsed entertainment centre a where you can see blockbuster shows, and get the most luxurious goods and services at a price (which I have no need nor money for); at worse it is a string of shopping malls with gambling (which I don't do much of), bad air (indoor smoking, yuck), and people behaving badly (yup, what happens in Vegas....)

Still, it has been fun for me to be here. As an industrial designer, I love dissecting things into their elements to find out how they work. It's fascinating to observe how these casino resorts are all formulaic, a sort of Disneyland geared towards an adult crowd. They are designed so that you get lost in them; the signage is likely deliberately bad and inconsistent to give you very few clues as to how to get back out onto the street. They all have hooks to draw people in — from ridiculous moving Roman statues, to elegant dancing fountains.

I've been to the real Venice, and the water definitely does not look and smell like this

When I was climbing the Cajon Pass, a Mexican guy I chatting with told me to look for Tacos El Gordo if I wanted good food in Las Vegas. I figure if a Mexican tells you about good Mexican food it’s got to be good. I bought a 24-hour pass on the transit system and thought it might be a good way to discover Las Vegas beyond the tourist traps. when I got to this place and it was a good twenty minute lineup just to order your food!

A great tostada with carne asada

The other side of Las Vegas that's struggling for attention

Not everyone can be creative and original all the time (yes, not even me :) ), and sometimes being able to pretend is an easy and accessible surrogate. My impression of Las Vegas is that it is a place where people come to pretend — for the weekend they can rich and sexy, have the same things as movie stars and millionaires, or “travel” the world. It is a place to escape, but after a day and a half I am just about ready to escape from it.

A Cinderella lost her shoe after a night out at the MGM Grand