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17 Oct 16, 08:47 PM |
#1
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 09
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Four States, One Big Adventure: Day 13 - The Day We Hired A Mustang
This morning’s alarm was very painful. We were still tired from the travel day, the holiday had started to catch up on us I think, and it was only 6am. However, we had a fun day ahead so quickly hopped out of bed, and were out and about at 6.30pm.
The plan was to redeem another MyVegas voucher at Cravings for a breakfast buffet at The Mirage and then go and collect our hire car at Treasure Island for 8am. However, the Gods were once again against us today. Cheeky shot outside Caesars Palace on the way! Firstly, we weren’t able to redeem our MyVegas for breakfast because we had already redeemed three. I had understood that it was the time you ‘purchase’ the vouchers online but DaytonaBabe has since confirmed that it’s the actual use of the voucher that counts. However, the representative at the MLife desk couldn’t explain that to me, so combined with my tiredness, led to a very abrupt departure from The Mirage, unfed. Instead, we opted for a cheapy McDonalds over the road, where Matt had his (shock horror) first ever McMuffin, and I just had a smoothie. This came to $10.25. At 7.45am, we headed over the road to the Treasure Island to collect the car, to be told that they didn’t have any convertibles available. I had booked a convertible to collect at 8am so this was a bit frustrating. We were asked to wait and see if another one came back in. About 20 minutes later, there was one available. However, it still wasn’t to be, because the driving licence and credit card that we had been asked to bring on our paperwork was just not sufficient for Dollar, and they insisted that we needed a second form of photo id for the driver (Matt). I explained that we hadn’t been asked to bring it, so we hadn’t brought it, we were now 30 minutes late getting the car and we had a lot planned for today, couldn’t they make an exception on this occasion?! I even offered my ID and credit card and to sign any kind of waiver document that they needed me to. She laughed in my face at that! I was absolutely raging and stormed out of the TI, shouting at the Dollar lady that we’d be back in 90 minutes, as that’s how long it would take us to get back to our hotel and back there again. It just seemed so unreasonable to me. Anyway, we got back to the hotel, where I was still seething, and marched back to the TI again and were finally allowed to take the car. At 10am, we were finally on the road! I was determined by this point not to enjoy today because of our bad luck that morning but from this point on, all was happy and wonderful and we had another fantastic day! We headed straight down to the Fabulous Las Vegas sign at this point where we skipped the queue, stood slightly to the left and took lots of piccies of the sign without waiting. We found a lovely person to take a photo for us! We then saw Elvis stood there and I just had to have my picture taken! We saw this same Elvis last time and he was a real character. I was happy to see him again! I love this one! Our next stop was the Valley of Fire state park. This was about an hour away from Las Vegas, but that was no bother to Matt, he was loving driving along in his Mustang! We paid our $10 entry fee to get into the park, and the attendant gave us a map to track our way through. I had already done some reading before we came away so I knew the main sights that I wanted us to see (though I left my notes in the hotel, unfortunately). Just before we pulled in, we spotted a creature in the rocks ahead, so I snapped this piccie…it wasn’t until we were in the visitor centre that we realised this was a pretty rare sighting! What an approach! I won’t say too much more about it, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. If anyone is looking for something a bit different to do when they’re staying in Vegas, please do this. Hire and Mustang and come out here. It is a true wonder. I’ve cut down loads on the photos we took, we took hundreds! These are authentic caveman drawings (petroglyphs)! During our tour, we stopped off at the visitor centre, where we bought two sodas, a bag of Lays (I hadn’t had much for breakfast in my rage) and a magnet, which all came to $8. I decided to do a mini photoshoot of Matt and his Mustang, what a perfect backdrop! After a couple of hours driving around, we made our way out of the Lake Mead exit this time, and started our drive out to the Hoover Dam. This took an hour and 20 minutes and was a beautiful drive through the Lake Mead National Park. Again, this was stunning and Matt was in his absolute element driving the Mustang. We could have stayed much longer if we had opted to do the hikes but it was just so hot and dry and we just weren’t equipped for it. They were for the hardcore! |
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17 Oct 16, 08:48 PM |
#2
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 09
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We found the Hoover Dam easily, parked up ($10) and made a quick toilet break, bought a magnet ($5.41) before walking out. I’m so glad we did this, it truly is a wonder. We crossed over into Arizona too, which was cool, but I couldn’t see the plate which shows when you cross the state line.
You can see here how the water level has dropped! I had one hot boy on my hands! After a wander around, we stopped off at the café near the car park for a drink and ice cream each, which came to $12.56. Once back in the car, we started our return to Vegas. The plan was to visit the Outlets and Walmart to stock up on our final ‘going home’ provisions. We went to the South Outlets first, which were a bit of a disappointment, as there was nothing really different here (in terms of stock and prices) than the ones in Hawaii. I don’t know why but I expected them to be different. Never mind, it was good to save some money! After this, we went to Walmart where we got some Cheetos, M&Ms, Oreos and a pack of pens as we needed to complete the car hire return form, and this came to $26.87. We’re being very careful to ration our snacks very carefully! Next stop was the North Outlets. I had read on various forums that people thought that the North Outlets is better than the South, so I wanted to check if this was true. But no, still the same stock, and the same prices, as Hawaii and the South Outlets. It must just be that there are a few different shops that we’re not too fussed on anyway. However, it wasn’t a wasted trip, as there was a Cheesecake Factory there, so that would do for our dinner. We arrived at 7.15pm and we were seated straight away. Matt ordered wings and the Spaghetti Carbonara, and I had the Chicken Romana. The food was great but I did not like our waiter. He kept ignoring me. He came over to take our appetisers order whilst we were choosing entrees, Matt asked for wings, and he acknowledged that and just walked away. I didn’t even get asked! And then for the main course, he just looked at Matt and ignored me while we ordered. Matt got refilled drinks, I had to ask. I asked for the bill at the end, he gave it to Matt. He was just down right rude. I asked Matt if I was imagining it but he said I wasn’t. Needless to say he didn’t get a massive tip! These people need to remember that it’s not always the man that holds the purse strings! The food was good though, and the bill came to $58.29. Our next and final stop was the gas station before dropping the car off. It cost $20 to fill the Mustang back up, and we headed into the TI carpark at 9pm, and very reluctantly dropped the keys into the box. On our way back through the TI to get back out onto the Strip, we saw a sign for Krispy Kreme happy hour, 2 for $1. I was sure this couldn’t be true, but sure enough, it was 2 Krispy Kreme donuts (any type!) for $1. We grabbed 4 for $2 for breakfast the next day. You wouldn’t believe that a bargain donut could make two grown-ups so happy, lol. We had had a fantastic day (after 10am) and Matt has vowed that he will never allow me to rent anything less than a Mustang again when we hire a car in the USA! His only exception is a Jeep in Hawaii because that’s just cool. We’re off to Italy in September for a road trip so we’re yet to have the discussion around what is acceptable to drive over there. I’m a bit nervous that he may only find a Ferrari acceptable! It had been a long and busy day and we were fairly tired so we just made our way back along the Strip to our hotel and headed for bed. We’d explore the Strip by night the next day instead. We showered and were in bed not long after 10pm. Steps: 20,058 (19.11km) |
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17 Oct 16, 11:23 PM |
#3
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Imagineer
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After the car hire fiasco it was a nice day :-)
I think the South Outlets are dire, I couldn't tell you the last time we bought anything from there, Didn't get much from the North either.. Imo the outlets just aren't great anymore. I'd rather shop in proper malls. |
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18 Oct 16, 12:41 AM |
#4
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Deck 4, Disney Wonder
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Another good day once you actually managed to get the car which sounded like a complete faff!
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18 Oct 16, 07:33 PM |
#5
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 09
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It really was! It's hard to be mad about the fiasco after how the day ended up! Many laughs and fond memories!
I think the problem with outlets is they're not really outlets any more. A lot of the stock is specifically made for the outlet stores to sell off cheaper. Gap is a really good example of that. I was thrilled with Osh Kosh but it was the same stock everywhere which is why it was disappointing. Disney Store was not even an outlet, it was mostly the same stock as the other stores! It was a total faff but totally worth it! |
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18 Oct 16, 10:32 PM |
#6
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Surfing at Typhoon Lagoon
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What an annoying start to the day, thank god things picked up and you ended up having a great time.
The state park looks cool, never seen so many different, interesting shaped rocks! Another cheesecake factory what strange behaviour from the waiter though! Wonder if he had any self awareness as to why his tip wasn't great?! |
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20 Oct 16, 06:45 PM |
#7
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 09
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It was a great day, thank you!
There we so many rock formations, I need to go back and be more specific about the names when I do the scrapbook! Cheesecake Factory is our fave lol, we love it! And we think it's great value too! The waiter was so odd, never had anything like that before |
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1 Nov 16, 12:04 PM |
#8
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jan 10
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Wonderful day again, Vally of Fire was an option for us last time but we did Red Rock instead. Maybe this trip! Hooverdam is always good! Love your car too.
Nightmare about the MLife, their rules are quite hard to follow but you would think the lady on the desk could have explained if for you. Dollar too, I have never been asked for additional ID, what a load of cr*p! CF again, always good although men that treat women as inferiors are one of my major pet hates! Grrr. He wouldn't have got a penny tip from me! |
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2 Nov 16, 09:16 PM |
#9
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Imagineer
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A good day,lovely photos.
Valley of Fire is such a beautiful place with lots of lovely walks to explore. We had a Mustang for the day in January it was such fun. Booked a Chevvy Tahoe ( me being sensible)for our road trip to Utah in March but OH has talked me into changing it to a Mustang 😊😊😊.
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8 Nov 16, 11:13 PM |
#10
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Very Serious Dibber
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Have visited both Valley of Fire and Red Rock and they are amazing. Such wonderful views.
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