Wednesday 31st March 2010

[23:27 PDT]

It was checkout day today, we were leaving the Signature, picking up a car and moving up the Strip to the Palazzo hotel.

We'd already been half packed last night, so getting everything ready after breakfast wasn't a big issue. However, it required two trips to the room to get all the stuff down into the Foyer. Linda then stood guard over our cases whilst I went off to collect the rental car. 55 minutes later, I pulled up outside. This in itself probably doesn't sound too bad, but the car had been collected from the MGM Grand, just 15 minutes walk. What had delayed the collection was the Dollar desk with a single rep. trying to work her way through 8 other people queued up in front of me. :(

We've got a Dodge charger this time. It's a moderate sized car, with a surprisingly large boot. Easily capable of taking two of our cases. this left just one case sitting on the back seat as we drove away from the hotel. We didn't head over to the new hotel immediately, however. Instead we drove off to the West and up to the Lodge on Mount Charleston. This lodge sits 7,700 feet above sea level (the mountain itself is over 11,000 feet high). The drive took about 50 minutes. As we climbed, the cloud descended and it was soon very overcast indeed. Eventually, we climbed above the snow-line where some of the smaller side roads leading off from the mountain road had signs like "Closed for the Season" blocking access to what was obviously a completely snowed-in path. There was also some snow in the air, although nothing too heavy. That can't be said for the temperature, which was decidedly cold. Inside the lodge, the climate was a lot more acceptable thanks to a large open fire in the middle of the room.

We ordered lunch which was very nice there. I then popped out into the cold to take som e more photos. We then headed off down the mountain and back to the strip and our new hotel, the Palazzo. Check-in was relatively painless and we parked the car in the self-park area (although we've since discovered that valet parking here is complimentary. Once unpacked, we went back to get the car and drove North to the Freemont area to watch the big screen displays that are put on there every hour. We saw a 10 minute tribute to the Doors at 9pm and at 10pm there was a tribute to Queen. We had a go at some slots in the Golden Nugget, but sadly they were not playing ball! A quick drive back to the hotel (valet this time!) and as I'm typing this I can hear explosions and fireworks below me at the Treasure Island casino perform their Pirates Show far below. [07:19 PDT +2]

Here's a little video on another dollar going up in smoke! You can watch it in HD too by changing the 360p button.