Day 6 Grand Canyon

I was hoping to have pictures for this but i still have not uploaded them from my camera, i am lazy. That is why i waited so long to post, but it is time i keep on plugging at this.

Today was our grand canyon day. I woke up feeling really sad because now we were not even close to the middle of our trip. We were more on the other end of closer to going home. 

I had the alarm set for 5:35. We needed to be at Bally's by 6:55. I get really anxious when it comes to having to rely on alarms. Before we left i set 2 alarms and one i set for pm and i have done that many times in my sleepy state so i just don't trust them or myself. I also do not trust wake up calls. It was about midnight when my husband was snoring and i was still laying there awake. So i continued to read a book hoping to sleep soon. I use a small light and read until i fall asleep every night. Having the smaller light keeps the room dark so my brain registers as night (those issues are for another day lol). 

I left my sleep aids at home because as i stated before i didn't want to waste my time in vegas sleeping. This night i wanted sleep though! Good sleep at that. I wanted to feel rested as i planed to do the 2.2 mile walk from one spot to the other. In total i ended up with 3 hours at most. I was extremely restless (i also have restless leg syndrome so legs ache and kick) the rest of the night so i felt like crap in the morning. I was excited for the trip but tired and sore. 

I had checked times for the 202 online before leaving home as being canadian i kept phone in airplane mode and did not wanna have to rely on wifi. 

We got to bally's by 6:30. It was only about a 15 minute wait for the shuttle as it got there early and left at the 6:55 time it said on the ressie. As we were pulling away a couple people ran up so he stopped to let them on. I do not get it, they were the 2nd set of people that were real close to the time. If you are to be picked up at 6:55 you should be there no later than 6:45 IMO. Anything after that is just asking for something to go wrong. I am almost always early (unless for work lol) so i just can't fathom it. Why pay all that money then take the chance of missing it?

We had to wait about 20 minutes in line to check in and our bus was almost filled up. Time to leave said 7:30 but soon as it was full he left. It was an ok ride, took 7 hours to get there (4.5 by car it says) though with 3 stops. We stopped at the hoover dam and one person called in sick at the store so lines were long. 

Lunch was ok, only about 6-7 items so that sucked for a buffet and service was non existent for drinks. You would think with the amount of people that come through there they would have enough on. It seemed there were more people directing people to tables than servers. 45 minutes is just not long enough with the lines. 4 buses got there with in 5 minutes of each other. 

After 60+ minutes we were back on the road and everyone was anxious to get there. I have to go to the bathroom lots, there was a couple sitting right at the back who started talking to me. I ended up talking with them for almost 30 minutes. We are now Facebook friends, so that was cool, and passed time lol. 

My leg was acting up that morning bad. I really wanted to do that walk, but i also have sleep apnea which gives me some breathing issues and i have had a sinus infection since October. Soon as i stepped off the bus i had a bit of trouble breathing. I told my husband there was just no way i could do it. He was disappointed. My brain wasn't functioning at that point but a bit later i said you should have done it by yourself. He said he thought of it but then i would be bored. Um, no. Not a chance. I would have just taken in the beauty of it all. If he had been by himself he would have done it in an instant. After 7+ years together you would think he knows i can occupy myself by now lol. 

I still feel bad that he missed out on the vastness of it but what can ya do. 
Obviously the ride back was much faster. Only about 4.5 hours vs the 7 there. He played 2 movies and that took us back to the city. I loved driving through it both on the way there and on way back to see the different areas. 

The original plan was to use our groupon for Toby Keith on Wednesday but i changed my mind. If we used it Tuesday (today)we could do the prime rib buffet at gold coast on Wednesday and just have a relaxing day off strip. It was settled then. We got dropped off at the mirage, tipped the driver and cross the street we went. We got there about 30 minutes before the restaurant closed (but the lounge stayed open, areas were not separate). 

Service was HORRIBLE, took 10 minutes for a server even to come to us. We got our food in a decent time but being a server myself that was just unacceptable. When she did come she was ok. The people that came after us never did get service so they walked out. Band was good, people were drunk and dancing and generally having a blast. That is my kind of scene so i was enjoying it. Husband, not so much. 

I tried getting him to go to casino royal for the 1$ beer but he didn't want too. He just wanted to get back; so off we went to the bus stop. Bus was 45 minutes late. There should have been 2 in the time it took to get 1 as they go every 20 minutes on flamingo. Construction delayed them i guess but still weird how it could delay them that long. 

There were some real shady acting characters that everyone was leery of so people kinda piled into groups as they arrived to have safety in numbers i assume. Anyways we started talking to some locals. This older Asian lady was the one i was talking too. She was telling me how much she spends gambling in a month. I think to get anywhere living in Vegas you have to not gamble. Anyways, not my money so whatever, i kept my mouth shut and let her tell her story. She then says with so many places to stay why are you at the gold coast. 

I started laughing. It wasn't my first or 2nd choice but was better than the riviera. I liked the gold coast. It has a good vibe. It also seems full of a lot of average folk and that is what we are. Average suits us just fine. MB would be about as high end as i would feel comfortable. 

We could have walked there and back in the time it took the bus to come but it was after midnight, with crazy drivers and no real walking path that i could see close to the junction of I15 so i told my husband no way. We could have taken a cab too but the thought just didn't occur to us. On that side of Caesar's it sunk like sewer real bad. Being so close to VIP entrance one would think they would do something about it. There were also these huge cockroach kind of bugs. Grossed me out. I couldn't believe that a high end hotel like that had them on their walls. Here exterminators would be there every day!

Finally got to bed about 2 am. I had alarm set again, for 11 am this time as we decided to forgo breakfast for that extra bit of sleep after the really late nights. I still didn't wanna waste much time sleeping though which is why i set the alarm. I knew if we didn't it would prob be 2 or 3 before we got up. We were beyond tired.