First, we had to get a bus from downtown San Diego to the airport. Which didn't come. We waited nearly an hour and, when he arrived, the driver was very stressed. This didn’t help our back up plan to get a flight, so we resolved that we had to hire a car.

We arrived at the airport and took a complimentary bus to the car hire places . We started in one place, and despite a number of discounts being applied, it was still too expensive. We went around the corner and tried somewhere else. They too were too expensive. We’d done some searches beforehand so had an idea of what price we were expecting for a car, but this was nothing like it. We realised that, like everything else in the USA, taxes are added on after the price given, and taxes in California are crazy high. Also the estimates didn’t include insurances – also expensive. The chap we spoke to in the second car hire place suggested we reserve a car online there and then, which we did. That helped a little with the price, but it was still expensive. It was a necessary expense, however, as other methods of getting around to where we wanted to go were impractical or would be even more expensive in the long run. So, we sucked it up, and hired a car! We asked for the cheapest possible car, but were for whatever reason given a mid-range (read: large) Nissan Sentra. Driving was all new to us. Not only had we not driven for nearly six months, but this was automatic, on the right hand side of the road, and with cruise control.

We set off, and made our way out of San Diego. We quickly realised that the sat nav, for which we had paid good money, was rubbish. Also, the car tracked to the right which was very distracting and didn’t help with road positioning, and it was something of a gas guzzler . Otherwise, all was well. The freeways were concrete monsters, but did the job and we were able to get ourselves out of San Diego and head on the I15 towards Barstow and Las Vegas. The countryside became increasingly brown as we went. California is in the grips of a severe drought so we expected this. When we reached Barstow – a town on the edge of the desert, located between several major destinations – we stopped for fuel and supplies. It was amazingly hot, with a hot wind blowing that was like being blasted with a hairdryer. We checked the car’s thermometer, which said it was the equivalent of 42 degrees celcius. Ouch. We quickly set back off with the air conditioning blasting out and headed on the I15 to Las Vegas, following the historic Route 66.

We crossed the border to Nevada and were immediately greeted by a handful of casinos and gambling establishments, with the flashy lights. After more miles, we passed by Baker, and arrived in Vegas at night time. We were able to see the famous casinos lit up as we passed by, as well as loads of wedding chapels . Vegas was light filled, glitzy, gaudy, pretty and awful all at the same time. We found our casino, the El Cortez, with no problems, parked up and checked in. Despite being night time, it was again amazingly hot, at about 41 degrees celcius. After our tiny room with a single bed in San Diego, we were greeted by a huge en-suite room with two kingsize beds in the casino, for a fraction of the price. It couldn’t have been more different. Opposite our casino was a venue, advertising the fact that Guttermouth had played there the evening before we arrived. Gutted! Outside of our bedroom window was a huge painting of 'Duran Duran’ written on the roof. We have no idea why. We were tired after the journey so didn’t do much that evening, but stayed up for a bit to adjust ourselves to the Las Vegas body clock – late mornings, late nights.

The El Cortez is located downtown, in old Vegas. Built in 1941, it is the oldest continuously operating casino in Las Vegas. It was right on Fremont and next to the Fremont Experience. We wanted to go to Vegas for the experience, but not to stay for long because we thought it would be quite a ridiculous place. It was, in fact, a hedonistic hot mess. You can basically do whatever you want. Gamble all day? No problem - if you've got the money. Want to shoot a gun? Go ahead. Quickie wedding? Sure. Quickie divorce? Of course! Prostitute, topless cabaret, or stripper? Why not?! Drink all day? It's pretty much encouraged .

On Monday 17th, we discovered that there were vegetarian places very close to our casino. So we went for lunch at a veggie café, which swiftly became our go to place for delicious, high quality and filling food. We wanted to see the sights of the casinos, so bought two $8 24 hour bus passes, and took the Deuce bus all the way to the other end of the route, to Mandalay Bay Casino. Each bus ride was an experience, with a variety of characters, the most memorable being really drunk people. This journey was only about 7 miles, but took over an hour. It was another kilometre to the famous ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign, and Ken was keen to walk it. So we trawled along the side of the road, sweating in the 45 degree heat and baking sun. At least it was a dry heat. We went to the Vegas sign and took some cheesy photos, before walking back along the Strip.

On the Strip, we walked past Mandalay Bay, Luxor (the casino is one of the largest pyramids in the world), Excalibur, New York New York, MGM, Planet Hollywood, Paris Las Vegas, the Bellagio, Flamingo, and Caesar's Palace . We took in all the replicas along the way, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. We took a wander inside the Bellagio, which was confusing and strange. Outside the Bellagio, we watched a water show in the fountains, and took a bus back to our casino. Here, we showered, changed, ate a Subway sandwich, and headed back into the Strip on the bus.

We went to Planet Hollywood and the complex of shops next door, and headed to the theatre for our evening’s entertainment – ‘Vegas! The Show’. This was a show about ‘old’ Vegas, and a variety of performers gave us a show, recreating famous acts, including Elvis and Elton John (of course), parrots, magic tricks, hula hooping and the can-can. It was glitzy, didn’t have much of a plot, and the singing was top notch. The performer who sang Rocketman by Elton John was awesome, while we watched footage of casinos being demolished.

We went to see the Bellagio water fountain show at night again, and took a wander through Caesar's Palace. It was bewildering, like the Bellagio, and very easy to get lost in. That’s probably deliberate. We headed back to the El Cortez, drank cocktails during happy hour (11pm to 1am), and wasted a few dollars in the gambling machines, among people smoking on the casino floor. It was amazingly busy in all of the casinos we went into, no matter what time of day it was. Gambling is serious business . Even the 7/11 a couple of blocks away had gambling machines – and there were people using them.

On Tuesday 18th, we had a late start, lunch in the delicious veggie café, bought another set of bus passes and headed to Stratosphere. This is another casino with a tower, the tallest freestanding observation tower in the USA. We went up the tower, to floor 108 and then up to the very top at 329 metres, for views over Las Vegas. Which was very nice. There are also fairground rides on top of the tower. We went on Big Shot, a tower on top of the tower. The ride was exceptionally short but literally took our breath away, it was so quick at rising and falling. Stratosphere said this was the highest thrill ride in the world. So we ‘got high’ in Las Vegas!

We got back on the bus and went to the Venetian, and saw the replicas of the Rialto Bridge, San Marco Campanile and the venetian waterways, complete with gondolas. We headed back to Planet Hollywood and the complex next door, picked up our tickets for a comedy show that evening, and got some dinner . We drank the coldest daiquiris ever, so cold that we had to go outside to warm up, before heading in for the comedy show. For whatever reason, the VIP section tickets were half the price of the standard issue tickets. So of course, we opted for the VIP tickets, joking that we would get seated directly in front of the comedians and heckled in the show. It was no joke, we were seated directly in front of the comedians and were heckled during the show! Thankfully only once but it was a truly terrifying experience. The headline act was very funny, called Edwin San Juan, he really made the evening.

After the comedy show, we took in the night time sights of Las Vegas one last time, watched a guitar player for a while, with the Bellagio water fountains going off in the background, and took the bus back to Stratosphere. Our ticket let us in in the day and at night, so we went to see the lights from on high at night time. Again, it was very pretty. Back in our casino, we wasted a few more dollars in gambling machines, before getting a late night with a plan for an early start the following day.

On Wednesday 19th, we didn’t have an early start, but did check out on time, got lunch again at our favourite veggie café, stocked up on water, supplies and gas, and placed a couple of final bets at a roulette table in our casino. At the specific request of friends, we placed $2 on number 8, and lost. Then we placed $3 on red, and lost. Satisfied that we were really bad at gambling, we collected the car and headed out of Las Vegas. Next stop – the Hoover Dam, Ash Fork, the Grand Canyon and Barstow!