from Las Vegas to Los Angeles

August 22

8:00 a.m we wake up, the weather is already very hot, so we go to swim in the lake.

Then, direction the visitor center, a girl, not so pretty but very friendly (obviously) gives us many tips on how to repair our tire, to eat and to take a shower because we didn't have a wash since last Sunday !

Thus we go to Ralf's place to have the tire repaired, the mechanics are cool and laugh with us but they cannot manage it with a manual gear box.

We finally take a breakfast in the casino of Boulder, there are pancakes, eggs and coffee. As we didnt have a wash for 4 days... we start to look for showers. One more hour of search in vain, so we decide to go to the next Mc Do and to wait till tomorrow to take a shower.

Let's go, we park the car in the carpark of MGM Grand and we plunge into the casino. Whaoo ! impressive, lights and music are everywhere, we are in the world of Gambling ! After MGM, we go to Excalibur, New York-New York and Luxor. Luxor is superb and around 11:00 a.m we go down for an "All you can eat" buffet.($8)

The visit goes on and we end the day in the Old city of Las Vegas. The casinos are animated as well but less decorated, the districts seems to be less safe.

We wait for the light show and then we contunue to visit the casinos. At Stratosphere, Phil goes to the top of the building to catch a view of Las Vegas. We end in Circus-Circus and we are back to the camp-site around 4:30 a.m.

August 23

We are not early this morning, and before leaving we go and swim in Lake Mead where the water is really cool.Afterwards, we find a SHOWER in a camp-site close to the lake, finally ! The last one was 6 days ago.

Today, we stop at Dixie National Forest, it's in the mountains so we can forget the heat of Las Vegas. The guy of the camp-site tells us that we have to share the site with another family, no problem. We quietly spend our day at the bottom of the ski slopes.

The car makes some noise again, maybe because of the altitude. Sylvain makes a cascade : he is pricked by a bumblebee on the back, and while going to seek the antipoison, he slips, falls and slashes the wrist. Anyway he cannot be lucky everyday.

While going back to the camp-site, we make friends with this family from Las Vegas : the mother is a Korean and they have a 2 years old son. The mother is a teacher and him : we don't know.

Later another family joins us, they are from San Diego and left a few years ago to start a new life in Las Vegas. We spend the evening talking about France and US and making roasted Marshmallows.

August 24

We wake up at 3:00 a.m to go to the Death Valley. Phil's driving !

Around 7:00 a.m we are at Furnace Creek and around 10:00 a.m we get out of the Death Valley. It's a desert, very dry but not as hot as expected.

At first, we wanted to stop in San Diego, but we finaly go to Tijuana - Mexico. We arrive there just before lunch so we go into a local restaurant with view of the city. The place is very good and Sylvain gets a " feeding-bottle Tequila " from the waitress.

Phil : " Tijuana is a very crowded city, but not so interesting. On the other hand, there is this odor which reminds me of Asian countries, Ahh... ".

We cross the US border, then we set out again towards Los Angeles. In the evening we arrive at San Clemente where we find an expensive camp-site ($ 17). Before going to bed, we have dinner in the KFC. Now it's clear, we won't come back to their premises again : the food is so disgusting !