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Day 27: Sun Aug 17, 1997

 Helen Hayes made breakfast for us, then Sharleen watched one of the video tapes on diet that she had while I checked my email. We finally packed the car and got on our way early afternoon. Helen had given us a lot of her time and we really enjoyed being with her. She had driven 60 miles from her home to meet us at Loma Linda Friday to take us to visit Hulda Crooks. She asked us to stay at her apartment and fed us really good food, she had Sharleen do our laundry at her place, she met us at Whitney Portal and hiked part way up with us. She is a nutritionist, her card says "Reversing Disease with Knife and Fork". She has a lot of useful information and contacts, anybody in the area (Palm Springs area) that is interested can call her at (760) 776-9504.

We went back to San Bernadino to catch I-15 to Las Vegas. Since we would be passing the Indian restaurant anyway we stopped there to eat, then drove to Las Vegas. We didn't make any reservations. I looked at the AAA book to get an idea of which places to check out for a room, casinos often have good prices for both rooms and food. We decided to check MGM Grand first. We wound around to their parking garage, then tried to find the hotel check in area. It took a lot of walking. The insides of the casinos are very elaborate with an overwhelming amount of details, flashing lights, sounds, and activities. The ceiling was covered by thousands of gold stars of various sizes, the carpet was filled with detail related to movies. The way wound maze-like and it was a definite concern whether we could ever find our car again. We finally found the check-in area and waited in line. At our turn we were told they were full and given a list of places that still had rooms. One of the closer places on the list was The Luxor, a giant black glass pyramid, we had passed it on the way in. We decided to leave the car and hike around to see the sights. One of the famous areas of Las Vegas is Las Vegas Boulevard, which is known as "The Strip". Both sides are lined with giant casino hotels. Each one is a large complex that would take days to explore. It was now twilight and the lights were coming on, even the little bit of The Strip we saw walking was amazing with the tall buildings and the lights. As we approached The Luxor we noticed a bright beam of light emerging from its top, they claim it's the world's brightest beam of light, and it seemed to slant over our heads but actually shot straight up to a point directly overhead. The reflection of the beam could be seen in the black glass of the pyramid's sides and as we walked along the angle of the reflection changed. Internal room lights could be seen faintly behind the glass, randomly dotting the sides. We didn't approach from the right direction for a good view, but a larger than life-sized Sphinx stands in front and a large Oblesk in front of that.

We got inside, it's hollow, with what is claimed to be the largest atrium in volume. We found the check-in area, waited in line, and got a room for $69. As we were walking away from the check-in, Sharleen tripped over somebody's baggage and fell, landing hard on her elbows. This was just a symptom of the disorganization I found there. It's not easy to get around inside. We had to use inclinator number 2 to get to our room (it's like an elevator but goes up the edges of the pyramid). It was at the opposite corner and we had to wind our way through the casino area to get there. All these casinos look alike to me, they are a bit interesting at first, but are smoky, noisy, and crowded and the sound of the gambling machines gets old very quickly. I guess they would sound good if the money were going in your pocket. Anyway, we found the inclinator and headed up to the 12th floor. An elevator makes you feel a bit heavier when it takes off, an inclinator, because of the angle, mostly throws you off balance. The worst part is that nothing is visible outside them. It would be much more interesting with a transparent floor. Our room was at about the middle of the pyramid face so we had a good walk to get there. We could look down to the lower level, actually the level above the casino level, called the attractions level. The room was pretty nice, no Little America, but not bad. It had ancient Egyptian type designs and what looked like a carved stone on the wall. The main weird thing about the room was that the window was at an angle since it was the outside of the pyramid. It was good for looking at the sky, a full moon was shining brightly peeking through some thin clouds. Our window didn't face the Strip, so the view wasn't great. At check-in they assured us the computer wouldn't work with the phone, they said we would need a room in the tower for that, more expensive. When I checked the phone it looked fine and worked very well when I tried later. It's pretty bad when they don't even know their own hotel. Sharleen took a nap, I got ice and drank water, trying to rehydrate. After awhile I woke Sharleen so we could get the car. We had a pretty long hike back to where it was parked in the MGM Grand parking lot. We got to see the Strip at night. Somehow we found the car and found parking back at the Luxor.

The big casino hotels are a real pain if you need access to your car. You don't have easy access, it's a long hike between the car and the room. So we grabbed a few clothes and things needed (like the computer) and took just the basics to the room. Then we went looking for food. Finally ended up standing in line at the Pyramid Café and got a little bit of food for quite a bit of money. The buffets are the food bargains, but this was no buffet. It was past our normal eating time, I think around midnight. I would have skipped it but Sharleen likes to eat, more than I do. Eating and searching for food takes a lot of our time, if it was just me I'd live on nuts and dates (and probably drop over somewhere along the way). Slept well when we finally got to bed.

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