Tour Diary - Day Fourteen
Dec. 28th, 2016 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanFrom the sublime, to the ridiculous. Or...
Monday 17th of October - St George, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada
Another relatively late start to the day - the sun was well & truly up before we were. Loading up Travis for what could be the last time, as we'll be going to the Enterprise Car Rental office at the Vegas airport when we pick up our friend Chris, who's flying in from Seattle (Insert joke about having tired arms here). Either Enterprise will swap the car over, or they'll arrange to get the oil changed ASAP. Let's see which way it goes
Crossing from Utah into Arizona again... if we had a dollar for how many times we've done that in the last few days... but then out of Arizona & into Nevada pretty quickly, probably our first 3 state day since we made the journey in reverse back at the start of this odyssey. Must say we're maybe a bit sick of the desert - as the scenery flew past it was nice... but nothing we deemed photo-worthy, either for stopping or drive-by shooting. Once through the canyons from Utah into Arizona, the landscape became very flat, muted colours with some occasional distant mountains. The good thing about the morning drive was that most of it was done at around 75mph, so what there was, passed by pretty quickly
Las Vegas came into view as we rounded a downhill bend & it occurred to us that we hadn't had breakfast yet, so Jeeves Navman mapped us to the nearest In'n'Out Burger place. Burgers in, we headed out to the airport. Once there, we found the Enterprise Rental office & let the battle begin...
The first guy who came up to us as we pulled in was eager for us to get everything out of the car & be gone before we'd had a chance to say that's not what we're here for. When we eventually got a word in, he said he'd go get a Manager. So - good start, moving up the chain of command quickly. But then - stonewall... Ryan the Manager said he could put us in either a large pickup truck... or a minivan. Neither of which I fancied taking through Death Valley, or on any roads at all - we are neither rednecks, nor parents of 5 children. He stressed that he wanted us to get "a safe car", but repeated that he didn't have any medium SUVs, even as 2 Ford Escapes (Hi Steve!!) & another Traverse pulled in while we were debating. Julia had enough of this & called the Enterprise National Office, while I kept an eye out for Chris, who had landed, knew where we were & was on his way over to us. There was another, slightly more official-looking Enterprise office building a little way over in the large carpark, so I went in, spoke with another Manager who told me the same sort of thing about safe cars & their lack of small SUVs (with a black Traverse parked outside the window), but also saying that they send all the cars to an off-site vendor for servicing & couldn't guarantee the car would come back to the airport site, it could be taken somewhere else... This is a crazy way to run a national business, surely
Julia was having slow, but better luck on the phone when I returned with Chris in tow. She'd got on to the guy in the L.A. office we'd picked the car up from & he was sorting through the BS that the rest of the company had spouted. Eventually, we accepted the plain fact that these guys weren't going to be any help at all & it was unlikely we'd get the result that we wanted, so followed the L.A. guy's suggestion & took Travis to the nearest Firestone service centre ourselves, a few miles from the airport, where they would do the service & oil change more or less immediately & we had a further 15% taken off our rental fee. Still a bit of a worry for a national chain that 2 Managers & a phone helpline were more interested in blindly following procedures that really help nobody & it takes somebody 3 states & a timezone away to get things happening
The Firestone guys were expecting us & said it would be about 90 minutes 'til the car was ready, so Chris Googled a nearby restaurant that sounded good - upmarket Mexican, a short walk away in a shopping maul. Some tacos, some oysters, some Dos Equis dark beers, corn chips'n'dips & general catch-up conversation with Chris, then it was time to head back & collect Travis, but... there was a shoe store between us & him. Julia came away with a pair of pink sneakers that don't exactly scream for attention, but do ask rather loudly for it
Travis was ready - oil changed, fluids topped up, but mercifully unwashed - we'd worked hard for all the dust & dirt on him & I want to return him to L.A. in a condition that says he was used like a 'proper' 4WD, not just to pick up the kids from school
A quick detour to a boot shop we saw on the way to the Firestone centre, where I finally found the boots I've been looking for - brown, ankle-height, zip on the side, $110US - sold! My search is over... for now. Chris found a hat & belt he liked as well & was instantly transformed into an urban cowboy
To the Excalibur Casino/Hotel/Complex then, where we'll spend the next 2 nights & Chris will spend 1, before returning to Seattle. With Chris & Jeeves Navman navigating, we only took one major wrong turn onto a freeway before finding the carpark entrance. I'm not sure why the place is named after a sword, when it's trying so hard to look like a technicolour Camelot, but I'm obviously overthinking. It could be argued that neither Excalibur nor Camelot are real things & Sir Thomas Malory isn't around to protect his copyright, so it doesn't matter. Anyway, with bags on shoulders we headed for the door marked 'Resort Entrance' & walked in...
... To the Casino, where you have to walk through about 50m of poker machines before you even see a sign for checking into the Hotel, if you still have any money left by that point. Despite the large Game of Thrones machine getting our attention, we resisted & joined the queue to sign in & get keys for both rooms, scoring an upgrade into the 'Royal Tower', as it was the only place where we could get 2 rooms near each other. Another walk through the machines & tables to the elevators, up to the 4th floor & peace & quiet for 3/4 of an hour before getting changed into evening attire & regrouping, ready to head to the Mirage Casino/Hotel, where the Cirque Du Soleil Beatles show 'Love' is playing. We'd wanted to see it last time we were here, but got to town on a Tuesday, which is one of the show's nights off. This time for sure! Taking note of where the Carnegie Deli have a Vegas branch in the Mirage, off to see the show...
It's a more dancey & less acrobatic & 'circus-y' show than some of Soleil's others, but there was still plenty of awe-inspiring aerial work, wonderful costumes & performers appearing out of every corner of the large room. 5.1 surround sound, projection screens & lighting ensured that, no matter where you looked, there was something interesting going on. Even if you don't like the Beatles (we do!), it's worth seeing
Afterwards, we headed to the Carnegie Deli for supper, which turned into quite a meal, in true Carnegie style - they just don't do anything small. The pastrami sandwich is as big as I remember from the New York store & the cheesecake slice was too big for all 3 of us by the time we'd made a decent job of eating everything else before it. Delicious... but we were overstuffed & waddled out onto the (in)famous Strip, ostensibly to find a suitable bar for a drink or two, but also because the idea of climbing into Travis & putting on seatbelts caused visions of Mr Creosote in our minds. There's one of those giant ferris wheels, like the ones in London, New York, Dubai, Singapore... Brisbane, so we headed towards it, finding a kind of laneway Mall, where the shops, bars, restaurants etc were all open & yet collectively unappealing. Plenty of people around too, most of whom were heading towards, or away from, the 'High Roller' (what else would you call a ferris wheel in Vegas?!?). As we got closer, the wheel loomed over everything quite impressively, which was enough for Julia to reconsider riding it. Chris & I were noncommital anyway, so we headed back to collect Travis from his free parking & return to Excalibur... again with only 1 wrong turn onto the freeway... I could get to hating this town's planning department
Once back at the Excalibur, we went wandering along the walkway that connects Excalibur to the Luxor & the Mandalay Bay Casinos - all without ever seeing daylight. By this time, most of the shops were closed, which was unfortunate, as I found the Guinness shop next to a small Irish pub (which, of course, was still open). Must remember to have a look in there some time tomorrow... After finding that the only bar we were interested in had closed for the night, we retraced our steps back to our rooms & took our food babies to bed
Monday 17th of October - St George, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada
Another relatively late start to the day - the sun was well & truly up before we were. Loading up Travis for what could be the last time, as we'll be going to the Enterprise Car Rental office at the Vegas airport when we pick up our friend Chris, who's flying in from Seattle (Insert joke about having tired arms here). Either Enterprise will swap the car over, or they'll arrange to get the oil changed ASAP. Let's see which way it goes
Crossing from Utah into Arizona again... if we had a dollar for how many times we've done that in the last few days... but then out of Arizona & into Nevada pretty quickly, probably our first 3 state day since we made the journey in reverse back at the start of this odyssey. Must say we're maybe a bit sick of the desert - as the scenery flew past it was nice... but nothing we deemed photo-worthy, either for stopping or drive-by shooting. Once through the canyons from Utah into Arizona, the landscape became very flat, muted colours with some occasional distant mountains. The good thing about the morning drive was that most of it was done at around 75mph, so what there was, passed by pretty quickly
Las Vegas came into view as we rounded a downhill bend & it occurred to us that we hadn't had breakfast yet, so Jeeves Navman mapped us to the nearest In'n'Out Burger place. Burgers in, we headed out to the airport. Once there, we found the Enterprise Rental office & let the battle begin...
The first guy who came up to us as we pulled in was eager for us to get everything out of the car & be gone before we'd had a chance to say that's not what we're here for. When we eventually got a word in, he said he'd go get a Manager. So - good start, moving up the chain of command quickly. But then - stonewall... Ryan the Manager said he could put us in either a large pickup truck... or a minivan. Neither of which I fancied taking through Death Valley, or on any roads at all - we are neither rednecks, nor parents of 5 children. He stressed that he wanted us to get "a safe car", but repeated that he didn't have any medium SUVs, even as 2 Ford Escapes (Hi Steve!!) & another Traverse pulled in while we were debating. Julia had enough of this & called the Enterprise National Office, while I kept an eye out for Chris, who had landed, knew where we were & was on his way over to us. There was another, slightly more official-looking Enterprise office building a little way over in the large carpark, so I went in, spoke with another Manager who told me the same sort of thing about safe cars & their lack of small SUVs (with a black Traverse parked outside the window), but also saying that they send all the cars to an off-site vendor for servicing & couldn't guarantee the car would come back to the airport site, it could be taken somewhere else... This is a crazy way to run a national business, surely
Julia was having slow, but better luck on the phone when I returned with Chris in tow. She'd got on to the guy in the L.A. office we'd picked the car up from & he was sorting through the BS that the rest of the company had spouted. Eventually, we accepted the plain fact that these guys weren't going to be any help at all & it was unlikely we'd get the result that we wanted, so followed the L.A. guy's suggestion & took Travis to the nearest Firestone service centre ourselves, a few miles from the airport, where they would do the service & oil change more or less immediately & we had a further 15% taken off our rental fee. Still a bit of a worry for a national chain that 2 Managers & a phone helpline were more interested in blindly following procedures that really help nobody & it takes somebody 3 states & a timezone away to get things happening
The Firestone guys were expecting us & said it would be about 90 minutes 'til the car was ready, so Chris Googled a nearby restaurant that sounded good - upmarket Mexican, a short walk away in a shopping maul. Some tacos, some oysters, some Dos Equis dark beers, corn chips'n'dips & general catch-up conversation with Chris, then it was time to head back & collect Travis, but... there was a shoe store between us & him. Julia came away with a pair of pink sneakers that don't exactly scream for attention, but do ask rather loudly for it
Travis was ready - oil changed, fluids topped up, but mercifully unwashed - we'd worked hard for all the dust & dirt on him & I want to return him to L.A. in a condition that says he was used like a 'proper' 4WD, not just to pick up the kids from school
A quick detour to a boot shop we saw on the way to the Firestone centre, where I finally found the boots I've been looking for - brown, ankle-height, zip on the side, $110US - sold! My search is over... for now. Chris found a hat & belt he liked as well & was instantly transformed into an urban cowboy
To the Excalibur Casino/Hotel/Complex then, where we'll spend the next 2 nights & Chris will spend 1, before returning to Seattle. With Chris & Jeeves Navman navigating, we only took one major wrong turn onto a freeway before finding the carpark entrance. I'm not sure why the place is named after a sword, when it's trying so hard to look like a technicolour Camelot, but I'm obviously overthinking. It could be argued that neither Excalibur nor Camelot are real things & Sir Thomas Malory isn't around to protect his copyright, so it doesn't matter. Anyway, with bags on shoulders we headed for the door marked 'Resort Entrance' & walked in...
... To the Casino, where you have to walk through about 50m of poker machines before you even see a sign for checking into the Hotel, if you still have any money left by that point. Despite the large Game of Thrones machine getting our attention, we resisted & joined the queue to sign in & get keys for both rooms, scoring an upgrade into the 'Royal Tower', as it was the only place where we could get 2 rooms near each other. Another walk through the machines & tables to the elevators, up to the 4th floor & peace & quiet for 3/4 of an hour before getting changed into evening attire & regrouping, ready to head to the Mirage Casino/Hotel, where the Cirque Du Soleil Beatles show 'Love' is playing. We'd wanted to see it last time we were here, but got to town on a Tuesday, which is one of the show's nights off. This time for sure! Taking note of where the Carnegie Deli have a Vegas branch in the Mirage, off to see the show...
It's a more dancey & less acrobatic & 'circus-y' show than some of Soleil's others, but there was still plenty of awe-inspiring aerial work, wonderful costumes & performers appearing out of every corner of the large room. 5.1 surround sound, projection screens & lighting ensured that, no matter where you looked, there was something interesting going on. Even if you don't like the Beatles (we do!), it's worth seeing
Afterwards, we headed to the Carnegie Deli for supper, which turned into quite a meal, in true Carnegie style - they just don't do anything small. The pastrami sandwich is as big as I remember from the New York store & the cheesecake slice was too big for all 3 of us by the time we'd made a decent job of eating everything else before it. Delicious... but we were overstuffed & waddled out onto the (in)famous Strip, ostensibly to find a suitable bar for a drink or two, but also because the idea of climbing into Travis & putting on seatbelts caused visions of Mr Creosote in our minds. There's one of those giant ferris wheels, like the ones in London, New York, Dubai, Singapore... Brisbane, so we headed towards it, finding a kind of laneway Mall, where the shops, bars, restaurants etc were all open & yet collectively unappealing. Plenty of people around too, most of whom were heading towards, or away from, the 'High Roller' (what else would you call a ferris wheel in Vegas?!?). As we got closer, the wheel loomed over everything quite impressively, which was enough for Julia to reconsider riding it. Chris & I were noncommital anyway, so we headed back to collect Travis from his free parking & return to Excalibur... again with only 1 wrong turn onto the freeway... I could get to hating this town's planning department
Once back at the Excalibur, we went wandering along the walkway that connects Excalibur to the Luxor & the Mandalay Bay Casinos - all without ever seeing daylight. By this time, most of the shops were closed, which was unfortunate, as I found the Guinness shop next to a small Irish pub (which, of course, was still open). Must remember to have a look in there some time tomorrow... After finding that the only bar we were interested in had closed for the night, we retraced our steps back to our rooms & took our food babies to bed
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2016-12-28 08:16 pm (UTC)But sometimes you have to go where the wild things are...
Don't worry - the Diary will be back in the great beyond very soon!!
(no subject)
Date: 2016-12-29 01:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-12-29 08:33 am (UTC)The car hire place we used in New Zealand in 2011 was easy to deal with... Ditto the one we used for a short trip on the Gold Coast years ago...
I don't know if things are just getting worse in general, or if it's a case of a company getting too big for its infrastructure, or so big it's split into little fiefdoms run by middle management who only care about reports, not cars for customers. Probably the former, as even their 'National Hotline' was largely useless