Our final morning in Viva Las Vegas saw us having for breakfast the fruit that we had purloined from the Bellagio buffet yesterday – it truly was the meal that kept on giving.
At 8.30am, we headed back down to the pool area for one last chilled hour before heading back upstairs for a quick shower and to pack up ready for check-out. Neil showed us the view from his room before we left. It was magnificent view overlooking of the High Roller and Sphere. We had had a dingy back alley to look out on.
After doing that, we went down to the rideshare area where we ordered an Uber to take us back to the airport to collect the rental car.
The problem today with the driver was that he spoke no English, apart from being able to say “no English”.
He drove very sensibly, although he didn’t seem to understand his Sat Nav instructions, in whatever language it was set to, and he clearly couldn’t read road signs either.
On the first attempt at the airport, he missed the turnings for the terminals completely and we almost ended up in a staff multi-storey car park.
The second time, he changed his mind at the last moment, swerved across and missed the turning again.
By the third attempt, and by now not really caring, we just asked him to let us out where others were being dropped off.
Another one not getting a tip.
Ironically, once out, we then discovered we could have got him to drop us at the Rental Car Centre, which was only a couple of miles away.
Fortunately, there was a shuttle bus waiting that we got straight onto.
However, it was a rookie planning mistake by me.
There was no queue, and we were soon in our dark blue Nissan Rogue. We took a few minutes to load it up and get ourselves organised.
As ever, we had some problems getting Apple CarPlay working, and it wasn’t until we were well into the journey that I realised it needed a wired connection rather than Bluetooth.
Our first planned stop was just over 20 minutes away – Seven Magic Mountains.
This is an art installation in the desert just off the highway.
Basically, it is just coloured rocks piled on top of each other. The symbolic meaning was just that – without the symbolism.
However it worked, I thought it looked fantastic against the backdrop of the deep blue sky, mountains and desert.
A further 65 miles on, we arrived at Baker, always a hot place in the Mojave Desert but a welcome place to stop.
When we first used to stop here, there was just the Mad Greek Diner, the tallest thermometer in the world and not much else.
Now it is almost a thriving little metropolis of cafés and shops, including our first port of call – the Alien Fresh Jerky shop.
Obviously playing on the proximity of Area 51, we tried to decide whether they were suggesting that aliens made the jerky or whether it was actually made from aliens.
It had some amusing items inside and was quite busy.
Unlike the Mad Greek Diner, where it was almost deserted.
Both Karen and I had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, and jolly good they were too.
Neil had something Greek and meaty, which he also enjoyed.
It was then a further two-and-three-quarter-hour drive onto Palm Springs through the desert and across the mountains.
We managed to listen on BBC Sounds to the Radio 5 commentary of the France v Sweden match in the World Cup.
Well, Neil and I did.
Karen fell asleep.
We found the hotel easily enough through the car park gate. However, we couldn’t actually get to reception, as the side gate was locked and gave instructions to call them and they would provide the code.
At that point, we discovered none of our phones were capable of calling a USA number from within the USA.
After banging on the gate, jumping up and waving, Neil then told us off for resorting to shouting for assistance.
After 20 minutes of frustration, another guest came out of a different gate and let us through.
The girl at reception was very apologetic, but I think secretly she thought it was funny.
I did suggest that a camera at the gate might help others in the future.
It seems to be a very sweet boutique adults-only hotel, with only 21 rooms set around a pool.
It felt very Caribbean in style.
Karen, though, was hot, bothered and tired from her efforts of sleeping whilst I drove, and was not really in the mood to appreciate any of it when we got into our room.
Especially as the longed-for tea-making facilities were not quite what she had wanted.
Then, when Neil came to check our room, he was very grumpy too, as he found the TVs did not have the right channels to show the football and the Wi-Fi, he was convinced, was too slow to stream.
I felt that after driving for over five hours and without any downtime, I was immediately having to find solutions to everyone else’s problems.
There might have been a time when picking up a strange car, driving five hours across a desert on sometimes busy roads, would not have phased or tired me.
But age or fitness is creeping up on me, and I was in need of a little bit of chill time before bouncing back again.
After I had also done the research of where we should eat that night (and the plan of where we were going and when tomorrow), we walked to Billy Reed’s restaurant – “we serve breakfast, lunch and dinner – all day and every day” – as it was just around the corner.
I liked it and thought it had a good ambience.
Karen and Neil were not totally convinced.
All the food was cooked from scratch, and I liked my omelette.
Karen just had a small salad to leave room for the Boysenberry pie, which even brought a happy smile to her face.
With that, we headed back walking in the dark.
We had made it and stayed up and out until after 9pm.
After using the facilities in the “clubroom” to make some tea, we headed back to our rooms.
It was almost 10.30pm before lights out.
