Arizona and Nevada

The previously mentioned unknown time zone change meant that our early start was even earlier than planned. Happily this would lead to us beating the majority of the crowds to the Grand Canyon.

First though was a long and scenic drive through the Vermillion Cliffs area.
The low lying cloud only enhancing the stark contrasts of this landscape.

As we crossed over the Colorado River at Marble Canyon we got a quick glimpse of the canyons yet to come.

The lack of queues at the Grand Canyon was when we figured out that we were an hour earlier than we thought, for Mike the ease of parking didn't quite make up for the 4am start though. 

The grand canyon is indeed grand. Almost too big to take in. 

We were surprised though at its lack of Canyon-y-Ness, being up to 18 miles wide it just looks like a huge valley rather than the steep sided canyon we had been (perhaps naively) expecting!

We also found it amusing reading about one of the historical landmarks, built in the 1930's of concrete and made to look like an ancient monument. Why anyone felt the need to add to the natural splendour of the area is a mystery to us.

After driving 20 odd miles to see the same view from a different angle (it really is VERY big) we headed on our way to Las Vegas.

First stop in Vegas, after navigating busy roads, was squeezing the van into the hotels multistory car park. This successfully completed we checked in to our hotel and began to get ready for "date night" AKA having a much needed shower! 

Giant cocktails in hand we arrived at the theatre and presented our tickets, to be informed that the complimentary ponchos were on our seats. Slightly concerned yet excited, we were then provided with some glow in the dark paper to make headbands with and after some scrolling text-prompted audience participation the Blue Man Group took to the stage.

They were absolutely hilarious and we hugely enjoyed the performance. To top our evening off we had a quick flutter at the roulette tables and managed to come away a full $8 richer, happily just enough to cover the taxi ride back to our hotel and our first night in a real bed for far too long!

We were in no hurry to leave the next day and so, after spotting some sneaky minibar charges (they automatically charge you for the full item even if you just have a look at it and put it back, very sneaky!) we headed out for breakfast.

Feeling happily full we decided to try our luck on roulette again, despite it being Friday the 13th. Amy lost $15 but Mike won $5 overall, clearly not affected luck wise by the date. Having both decided that gambling is definitely a fools game we headed over to the Las Vegas campervan depot to have the van checked over. 

It had become apparent recently that something was making it unbearably hot and this was discovered to be whatever was under the passenger seat, making it quite literally the hot seat of the van. As no one, including the manual and Google, seemed to know what it was a check by a mechanic was deemed necessary.

About 5 minutes after checking it into the garage the mechanic reappeared laughing, the rear compartment heater is underneath the seat and through poor design is always heating its reservoir just in case you want to heat the back, even when the air temperature outside is over 40°c. Sadly this meant nothing could be done and so we headed on towards California and hopefully lower temperatures.

 

After a stop at "the world's largest gas station" (96 pumps, 60 restrooms, 13ft tall Sasquatch, 3 aeroplanes, 2 NASCAR cars and 1 candy village) Mike received a phone call from the sales manager of the company with a potential solution to the problem and a request to return to the nearest depot to get it fixed and if needs be swapping to a different van the next day. Friday the 13th then ended badly for Mike as his credit card fell out of his pocket and the finder failed to hand it in. Luckily booking Vegas had already blocked it but it meant we could not get a replacement until we reach New Zealand due to the short amount of time left in the states.

So after a hot, sleepless night at this service station we headed back to Vegas. A different mechanic looked at the van and confirmed that nothing was wrong other than bad design and there was nothing that could be done about it. After considering swapping vans, ruled out as the older models looked much harder to drive (the handbrake is foot operated and where the clutch normally is???), we decided to head to California (again) and the lower temperatures we were sure desperately hoped this would entail.

Despite the design flaw with the van Escape Campervans have been extremely helpful and considerate throughout, we really cannot fault their customer service and we felt well looked after throughout.

So having learnt a lot and gotten some invaluable life experience we headed on another long drive to California, passing nothing more exciting than a solar death ray (until someone has a better idea what it is) and a crash caused by onions, thousands and thousands of onions.

Next up: California should be cooler, right?