Getting Lucky in Vegas

Current Location: Williams, Arizona; Total Miles Traveled: 4,759 Miles

Bonjour from Arizona!!!

I'm not getting lazy on you guys! We stayed up all night last night in Vegas and then the hotel Nazi's called soon after we got up and asked if we were checking out. Well, I mean, obviously if we only got ONE night then yes... we are checking out.

Yesterday morning, we got up pretty early and headed back to Los Angeles. BTW, we love LA. We did a little more sightseeing in Hollywood, and Beverly Hills, and then we spent the next three hours wandering aimlessly around California in search for Marilyn Monroe's grave. In case I haven't mentioned it before, I love Marilyn. Like, to pieces. I'm not obsessed with any other celebrities, but, man, I love me some Marilyn Monroe. So anywho, we drove and drove and drove and drove forever searching for it. I gave up. I was like "obviously the google directions are WRONG! Let's just head to Vegas." But Ricky said that we had "blown" so much time looking for it that we had better keep looking until we find it. And we did... ride for another hour or so. Three (!!) hours of driving, three random street walker's directions, about 35 u-turns, and six profanities later, we found it! And honey, let me tell you. That grave yard is tucked away in the middle Beverly Hills. There are NO SIGNS, no directions and no big show to get you there. The enterance is a small alleyway tucked behind a theater and church. If you didn't have very specific directions, you would never, ever find it. There are beautiful trees, and it is very peaceful there. And, her grave is one of those little drawers that is stacked. It very much blends in. There were fresh flowers and lipstick kisses covering her space. Inside, there was a letter tucked away that someone "left her." It was so strange to know that this person that I adore was right there, just on the other side of the marble that my fingers were pressed up against. FYI -- we read online that Hugh Heffner reserved the space right beside Marilyn. Another thing that was really weird about it is that there were people all around her. Like on top, on bottom, to the right and all the way across. How lucky are they to be buried right there with her! :)

Speaking of lucky, we went to Vegas last night. And... yeah, we did NOT get lucky in Vegas. We took $---, uh, an unspecified amount of money, and lost every dern penny. Then, Ricky had another $15 in his wallet, and honey, we LOST that too!!! Oh wait... I forgot, I left with $.07 and some lent in my pockets.

Las Vegas is such a different place!! I think that we were the only sober folks in the whole city! :) Oh, and there are naked people everywhere. Billboards, t-shirts, even the newspaper racks contained naked magazines. Naked, everywhere! I just never realized it. I guess that is maybe why they call it sin city?! Perhaps!

We woke up about 9:30 this morning (we didn't go to bed until about 4:00!), and no sooner than we started getting ready, we got that phonecall asking if we were checking out. Oh yeah -- I forgot to tell ya where we stayed... The ONLY hotel in Las Vegas that wasn't sold out - The Super 6. Recall that last week we had a very bad experience (boogers, stains etc) with one so I was so against it. But, it was the only hotel that still had rooms and I guess beggers can't be choosers so we stayed there. Don't judge a book by it's cover because that room was actually really nice! I took a picture, and they will be up in a few hours at http://www.photobucket.com/rickyandamy along with alot of other pictures. As always, click the album names off to the left side.

Hoover Dam -- there we went! :) It is BEAUTIFUL there. Remember how cold it was in California, Colorado, Kansas... etc, etc -- basically every state we've been to? Well, well, today we finally got our wish for WARM WEATHER!!!!!!! :D Nevada and Arizona were both extremely warm, I mean like... oh my mexicans! Heat stroke weather!! As we waited to enter the hoover dam, I thought I was going to pass out from the heat and lack of air passing over us. I think Ricky underestimated how thirsty I was because when we left the dam to go get something to drink, he was being picky about the location (I might have told him to aim for a resturant, but hey, who knew it would take so long?!), because we drove for 50+ miles before stopping at a Hardees wannabe called Carl Jr. Can someone tell me why they are the exact same resturant, but have different names?

Then, we drove and drove and drove... until... it got freakin' cold again!! In Arizona! What the heck people! It's a desert. So, we had to stop at a Howard Johnson's for the night. They had a heated pool (finally!) so we went down to go for a swim. All that was great until we got there, stuck our piggies in and realized that it was NOT heated. It was like ice!!!!! We stuck to the hot tub instead, and it felt great!!!!!!!

We need to get our rest because we have a long day of driving ahead of us to get to the Grand Canyon and New Mexico tomorrow. IF it isn't cold! We will see tomorrow. Good night readers -- thanks for keeping up with our travels!

Amy & Ricky