USA Trip: San Antonio to Las Vegas (Sat 3rd Nov & Sun 4th Nov)

Saturday 3rd November - Got up, showered, dressed & finished packing. Had room service deliver a hearty breakfast as I wasn't sure what kind of food would be available while on my 36 hour bus journey. Checked out of the hotel & walked to the bus station. Bus left on time at 1pm & headed to Austin, then it was on to Dallas where I changed buses. After that we visited Fort Worth, Wichita Falls, Vernon, Childress (all in Texas) and then Amarillo, Texas where I had an hour layover & changed buses again, and where I went back in time, only by 1 hour & because daylight saving ended. It did mean an extra hour waiting in the bus station tho - the bus was scheduled to leave at 2.55am, but at 2am they put the clocks back to 1am. Oh joy. And it was a tiny bus station too. The 1st stop on the 3rd bus was Tucumcari, New Mexico - do not ask me when I changed states coz I have no idea how one even knows when one is in a new state, there are no big "You are leaving blah blah blah" signs along the interstate. It was then on to Albequerque, where again I lost an hour - the schedule said we were supposed to arrive at 6.10am, my watch said it was 7.10am, so I thought we were running late but then the bus driver said to be back on the bus at 6.55am which totally confused me, so I asked someone the time & they said it was 6.10am. Why did we go back an hour? I have absolutely no idea. Once we were back on the bus it was off to Grants & Gallup (both in New Mexico) and then we crossed into Arizona where we visited Holbrook before stopping at Flagstaff. Upon arriving at Flagstaff my watch said 1.20pm & the next bus didn't leave until 3.30pm so that meant I had a 2hr10m layover, but when I entered the bus terminal the clock on the wall showed the time as being 2.20pm and when I checked I was told the clock was correct, the time was 2.20pm. When did we gain an hour??!! Argh!! At least this was my last bus change (3rd transfer) before getting to Las Vegas. At 3.15pm I got aboard my 4th bus and we were on the road at 3.30pm with stops in Kingman & Bullhead City, both in Arizona before finally arriving in Las Vegas. After we left Bullhead City, and sighed a sigh of relief that in an hour we would be in Las Vegas, we crossed the Colorado River and the bus driver informed us that we were now on Pacific Time & although our watches showed the time as 7.30pm it was actually 6.30pm, we went back an hour by crossing the river. Huh??!! Huge sigh of confusion & frustration as I changed my watch for the 4th time. We finally arrived at the Las Vegas Greyhound bus station at 8.30pm on Sunday 4th November. YAY!!

All the following photos were taken somewhere between Dallas & Vernon in Texas.

I continue to be amazed at the amount of space in this country.

It would seem they raise hay bales, not cattle in this part of the country. This would have been about the 20th field I saw with only hay bales in it.

The space. Amazing.

Oh, a cow!!! They do raise more than hay bales here.

More cows! For the amount of space there are very, very few cows. Well, along the interstate.

Finally some actual real water, not a dam or a trough.

Again - all that space!!!

And more cows!!

Ulrich quite enjoyed the bus journey too. I think he would rather have been frolicking in all that space outside than stuck on the bus.

I got a taxi to my hotel & got a bit concerned as he went onto the freeway and not down the road, but about 15 minutes later I was standing in the hotel registration area of my hotel - Ceasars Palace. And what an amazing place it is, but then most of the hotels along the Sunset Strip are amazing. I checked into my room and when I checked that the room he had given me was the one I had booked which had the tv in the bathroom, the clerk said no he had upgraded me to a Junior Suite which was much better. I had my doubts as the tv in the bathroom was the deciding factor in my room choice when I booked online, but it was late, I was tired & smelly and just wanted to lie down & actually sleep, so I didn't argue. He then gave me a map of the hotel so I could find my way to my room, which was on the 26th floor in the Palace Tower, and a good 5 minute walk from the entrance. When he said I was on the 26th floor I mentioned that I had a fear of heights & he asked if I wanted to be on a lower floor. So sweet. As the room didn't have a balcony I said it would be fine. So I then made the trek to my room - past one of the gaming floors, a few restaurants, into the corridor & past some shops and finally arrived at the elevators. Pushed the button for the 26th floor, got out of the elevator, found the direction my room was in and was so relieved that it was not at the end of the hallway, it was quite close to the elevators. I inserted the room card key, opened the door and OMG!! I walked into a foyer, yes, a foyer, in the room!! I walked down the hall to the room itself and WOW was all I could say. I went over & checked the view from the window, explored the room a bit more and then got my camera to take photos, and I took a video of the room as well. LOL After admiring the room I got changed, hopped into bed, turned on the tv, found an interesting program to watch, closed my eyes during the ad break and woke up about an hour later. I turned the tv off and went back to sleep so I was ready to 'hit Vegas' the next day.

What I saw when I opened the door - a foyer & a hallway leading to the room!!

This bathroom is through the door to your right from the foyer, and behind the door is a toilet.

The shower, and yes that is 2 showerheads you can see, not just your eyes playing up.

And no, it wasn't a mirror wall in the shower, you actually saw through to the other bathroom. Yes, that is correct, there were 2 bathrooms in my room.