Tuesday, 1st January
Very cold again. Left at 8:30 am for The Grand Canyon Caverns which were on Route 66 near Peach Springs (on which Radiator Springs in the movie ‘Cars’ was modelled). The caverns were 22 floors below ground.
They were very dry (6% humidity) and contained some interesting things – emergency supplies of food and water for 2000 people for 2 weeks stored during the Cuban missile crisis of the sixties, a mummified bobcat over 100 years old and a model of a huge prehistoric bear based on a skeleton found in there.
We had lunch at Jack in the Box at Kingman and left Route 66 to go north on 93 to Las Vegas. The landscape was extremely dry, rocky and mountainous and it was windy.
The road crossed over Hoover Dam. A lot of people were leaving Vegas after New Year’s Eve (traffic jam in the opposite direction). We arrived at our hotel Circus Circus at 3:15. Check in was unbelievable – Michael spent 45 min circling the registration car park waiting for a spot while I joined a 60 min queue of about 200 people waiting to check in!
We finally made it to our rooms then spent the rest of the night exploring the hotel, having a $15 buffet which was very extensive, then going on a short walk to see the lights in the next 2 blocks. Saw an acrobatic show. The hotel has a huge indoor theme park adventure dome and free 10 min circus acts every 30-60 min.
