And We’re in London

So, . . . a far more adventurous and fun day in Las Vegas on Tuesday than we expected and an eventful (in a good way) flight from LAS to LHR. All in all, it was quite a Tuesday.

We had breakfast at the hotel buffet – usual Residence Inn stuff. And I checked in for our Virgin Atlantic flight which leaves at 7:30 tonight. They offered an upgrade from Premium Economy to Upper Class for $1,400 each. We seriously considered it but decided against it. That’s a lot of money for a lie flat bed and a better meal.

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At 8:30 we took the interstate from the hotel to the downtown Las Vegas area to visit the Neon Museum. It’s a graveyard of old Las Vegas neon signs. It was actually quite an interesting way to spend 45 minutes. That’s about all the time you spend there.

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On leaving we headed a few blocks closer to downtown and visited the Mob Museum. Housed in the one time federal courthouse and post office, it’s four floors of memorabilia and history of the mob, prohibition, smuggling, murder, and the Kefauver Senate hearings into organized crime that all got rolling after the Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929. (The actual brick wall where the mobsters were killed in that event has been moved and reinstalled in the museum.) It was good to see that our old Boston friend Whitey Bulger is well documented here in Las Vegas. We spent about three hours and enjoyed it a lot. Very well done.

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Then we walked around Fremont Street and Binion’s Downtown Casino. This area is a magnet for street performers, con artists, sleaze balls, pan handlers, and other disreputable weirdos. It’s something that has to be seen with even zip lines overhead. But it was nice to get back to the car and out of the area. Not many pictures because I didn’t feel particularly safe with my camera out. One video though.

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After lunch at Chipolte we still had a couple of hours to kill before heading to the airport. So we took a drive the full length of Las Vegas Boulevard. We drove past all the wedding chapels, gift shops, old casinos, new casinos, and the whole “Strip”. We continued on past the Airport, past South Point, an outlier casino where we used to stay, and past even the “M” Resort which in a beautiful place on the outskirts. We continued on on what was now just one lane in each direction. We passed a heliport and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where you can drive a fancy sports car around a big track (at quite a cost, I expect). We demurred. We continued on and finally came to quite a site! The Seven Magic Mountains. All of a sudden it’s just there in the middle of nowhere. Pretty amazing. It’s probably best described as a psychedelic Stonehenge in the desert. Next time you’re in Vegas, drive out and see it. It’s probably 20 miles out Las Vegas Blvd from downtown. An unexpected find!

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Finally to the Airport! We dropped the car and went to check in for our Virgin Atlantic flight to Heathrow. We had a great VA agent. I asked about upgrades and said $1,400 was a bit steep for us. She talked to her manager and offered us the upgrade for $1,100. We decided to splurge and do it! That got us into VA’s club room pre-boarding – nice! And we got to board first. The seats are wonderful with built in hassocks so you can sit with your feet up and fully extended for the whole ride. And at bed time, they recline into lie flat beds with a comfortable pillow. The bed was even long enough for me! I actually slept for four of the nine hours of the flight. The food and drink were excellent too. And, especially nice, they gave fast path immigration privileges, so we were through UK immigration in five minutes instead of ninety minutes minimum. As we exited immigration, our bags were just coming onto the carousal and we were out of Heathrow in like fifteen minutes total. That’s a world’s record.

Now we are at the London Heathrow Marriott enjoying the club lounge. Free food, free drinks, free breakfast tomorrow. At 9:30 tomorrow (Thursday), Peugeot will deliver our new 3008 SUV and we will be off. Thursday night will be in Bangor, North Wales. Early Friday morning we get the ferry from Holyhead (Wales) to Dublin and will immediately drive on to Dingle. Expected ETA: Friday at 5:00 PM. Next post: maybe from Bangor tomorrow night but most likely from Dingle on Saturday.