It was another beautiful day in paradise, with sore muscles from yesterday’s workout.
Before launching into the daily events, I would like to offer some observations on Las Vegas traffic.
While touring country, you can notice real differences in driving style from region to region. For the most part (except in Texas) small towns have courteous drivers and slower traffic. The best behaved drivers were in Buffalo, New York. Driving in South Florida is like driving in a third-world country. Driving in Philadelphia is suicidal. The few cars in WaKeeney, Kansas poke along at 2/3 the speed limit. You get the idea.
After spending months driving in remote and rural areas, we were not used to driving in Southern California style traffic. Traffic in Las Vegas is fast, dense and cars zoom at you from all directions. The mix of locals, tourists, little old ladies and 20-somethings means there is no predominant driving style. 45% of drivers are using cell phones, 30% are intoxicated and 15% are applying makeup. The streets are littered with shattered glass and other evidence of past crashes.
It took a few minutes, but eventually our Southern California driving habits returned. No wonder insurance rates are so high in Los Angeles. Any space between cars, no matter how small, is an opportunity.
The plan for the day was to meet Nick and Barbara sometime in the late morning. So, having time to kill, we stayed close to the coach until boredom forced us into the outlet mall.
We met Nick and Barbara at the Venetian Hotel. It was good to see them again and they look good. As South Florida residents, they had very recently experienced a hurricane. It was not something they wanted to go through again.
The afternoon was spent walking through the various casinos on the strip and shopping. We gambled a little and I calculated the free drinks cost us about $20 each. They were going to meet some friends for dinner and a show, so we returned to the coach and spent the evening quietly reading and watching TV.
Tomorrow, we’ll connect with Nick and Barbara again.