Having got into Furnace Creek so late last night it was no wonder we woke a tad behind schedule, however, waking in Furnace Creek at anytime is a wonderful thing, ..crawl out of bed, don swim gear, head for pool.. I've said it before & I'll say it again, The pool at Furnace Creek is perfection.. despite the temperature being an unseasonably low 97 degrees the pool was at its normal 80-something and all's right with the world. (not bad for 9:30am)

Today is RK's last day so we have to end the day in Vegas and drop her off at the airport,  we planned to drive out of Death Valley at about 11am, take our new (faster, smarter) route to Vegas avoiding the interstate, get some food in Pahrump and hit a few of the Vegas hotel attractions.
 

In front of the car....

behind the car.....

All was almost going to plan when we discovered that Parhump doesn't have anywhere to eat.. so as we haven't had our customary West Coast "In n Out" burger yet we decided to wait until Vegas & do the burger thing. It only took about 45 minutes of aimless driving around town to find the "In n Out", not bad for us.. we arrived at about 2:30pm, the place was absolutely hopping, we were order number 7 they wee serving number 82 when we got in line.. why the hold up?? they only have 3 things on the menu: 1. Burger. 2. Cheeseburger. 3. Both of the above in a bun. ..but what a burger.. fresh ingredients make the "in & Out" king of the burger places.. I have a feeling I'll be indulging again before I leave town.

We had planned to see the replica of King Tuts tomb "Reproduced in full as found.." but it was $5 to get in, & it looked a bit school trippy to us so we scratched that from the plan & went straight to attraction number 2. The Liberace Museum, what an odd place, once again in the Roy Rogers style they make no mention that the subject is dead.. and in this case I think the word "AIDS" has been erased from their vocabulary.. still, we got to see his clothes, pianos & cars.. oh, and the postcard he bought at the House of Lords whilst visiting London of "Black Rod" ... how apt. The place is run by Old ladies, the youngest looked to be a sprightly 83.. we weren't allowed to take pictures, but I did anyway.. I fancied my chances in a fight if challenged.

Beware tortoises..

Liberaces museum

From here we went to the swanky new Mandalay Bay resort to check out their Shark tank.. Did I mention this place is swanky? we hadn't been in this casino before but it really is the yuppies home from home, very tasteful (gak).

We'd seen an advertisement promising "100's of Sharks" now, I can't resist anything like that, even the $12.95 entrance fee didn't put us off.. after a small wait we entered the fake jungle environment, they were keeping the air very moist with sprayed water, goodness knows you wouldn't want any of the plastic vegetation to die..  we passed alligators, giant turtles, and cool walk through tunnels with fish all around us, as aquariums go they've done a pretty good job, it culminates inside a fake (obviously) sunken galleon, you stand in the hold, and the walls and floor are glass, sharks, rays & other assorted fish swim around.. oh, and divers in chain mail swimsuits chasing the shyer fish out of hiding so we could see them..

Do not touch..

Jellyfish..

Next up was the History of Vegas exhibit in the Tropicanna, $4 to get in, but once again worth it, they have tons of stuff from the classic casinos, you can even buy fire damaged chips from the MGM Grand fire (87 died.. tasteful..) they were showing a video of old casinos being demolished or "imploaded" which I really enjoyed, but I wish they hadn't blown up the Sands, what a cool building.. I think it's time for some enterprising soul to build "Vegasland" with replicas of all the classic casinos done "New York New York" or "Paris" stylee, however this casino idea will probably go un-noticed like my last mega-resort concept: "Gay-sino"

We had arranged to meet our pal Craig at 8pm at the Bellagio buffet, Craig has been on the road this week too & this is where our trips crossed, first of all we checked me into Treasure Island (view of the strip.. cool..) and changed out of the desert wear we've been in all day and into some Bellagio buffet gear.. (Loose waist-band, veneer of respectability).

Craig had arrived with his brother Neil 25 minutes before us & had used the time to win $250 on the video poker so dinner was on Craig! (yay) ..The Bellagio buffet is expensive compared to the $4 all you can eat buffets that seem to be eveywhere, ($22 for Saturday dinner) but it's worth every penny, it's even worth the 50 minute wait we had in a veeeery long queue to get in.. still, we had road stories to swap so the time passed quick, we all had a typical buffet diner: beef, venison, duck, game hen, crab legs, shrimp, salad & pizza.. all on the same plate.. followed by another *slightly* smaller plate of all the best bits again, then 3 desserts each.. <burp> Craig avoided the deserts & vegetables completely, but made a way huger dent in the entrees than the rest of us..

It was time to take RK to the airport so we left Craig & his brother to explore & I took RK to the airport in the 'stang.. having seen her on her way I called Craig on his cellphone to find where he was but as usual for cell phones in Vegas I didn't get through, I went to check out the moving statues in Ceasers Palace that my friend Doug had recommended but it was closed for refurbishment, either that or it was in the basement amusement area & cost $70 with dinner included to see. I think not.

I was tired so I called it a day, went back to my room & without anyone to insist I wrote the travelog went straight to sleep.. (I'm paying for it now.. I have to write 2 reports tonite..)

The rest of the trip is solo, not half as much fun as with RK around to play stupid roadtrip games with, but better than working.. Thanks for a great trip RK!

G'nite!

Tomorrow..