MY SUMMER TOUR - VEGAS AND GRAND CANYON

One Evening, Naveen and I were having our usual useless talk... and there was a mention about a tour to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. But at that moment, not much thought was given to it. However the next day, both of us started getting ambitious to make this plan work out. We spoke to our room-mate Satyajit, and he at once agreed to join us. Now, we are three of us ready for the trip... but it was very hard for us to find a fourth guy. No one was ready to spend some bucks on a jolly trip to Vegas. After lot of pains, Naveen atlast got hold of Pulkit, convinced him, and we all started off for the yatra on May 7th, 2005. This day is very special to Naveen, as he had his Graduation Ceremony on this day. Naveen is no more a student from now onwards :-)

We rented out a mid-sized car (Dodge Stratus) for 6 days. The car is very spacious for 4 guys, with enough leg-room for the back-seaters. Though the road-trip to Vegas takes nearly 19 hours from Dallas, we were feeling comfortable in the car at any given point of time. We crossed Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and reached Las Vegas located in Nevada. The drive across New Mexico and Arizona was uninteresting due to their barren lands and deserted roads, and not much of living force exists.

May 8, 2005

We reached Vegas at around 10:00 am local time, and had a drive through "Las Vegas Blvd". I was peeping out of the window, gazing at the architecture of the buildings and replication of various monuments. We then drove straight to the hotel where we had our room reserved, moved in our luggage, and got refreshed. At around 3:00 pm, we left the hotel, and started exploring every casino located at "Las Vegas Blvd". At the end of the day, we had covered half of them in Vegas. Some of the casinos visited on this day include... Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, Wynn, Tropicana, Paris, etc.

May 9, 2005

Rrrrrnnnngggg... The cell phone alarm rang early in the morning. We got ready to visit the Hover Dam, which is just 1/2 hr drive from Vegas. It is one of the most beautiful dams in United States. The Dam is built between the walls of the Canyon in 1932. It was built within the budget constraints during the years of depression, and was completed well before its due date. This dam is well know for its architecture and the technologies that were used to build it.

Here are some statistics...
726.4 feet high (221m)
1,244 feet wide (379 m)
660 feet (203 m) thick at the base
45 feet (13 m) thick at the top
$165 million dollars to build
4.5 years to build
4.4 million yards of concrete used for construction
March 1931 building began
Lake Mead serves as its Reservoir
September 30, 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the completed dam

In the afternoon, we went ahead exploring the remaining Casinos in Vegas. They include... Excaliber, MGM Grand, Mirage, Mandalay Bay, Stratosphere, New York, Luxor, Aladdin, and many others.

May 10, 2005

We had our breakfast in the morning, and vacated the city at 10:00 am. A four-hour drive took us to Williams (a small village located near Grand Canyon). We had our room reserved in one of the hotels here. In the evening, we visited Grand Canyon to see the sunset. At my first sight, I was surprised by the vastness and depth of the canyon, and the splendid colors reflected by the layered walls. This canyon was formed by the erosion created by the Colorado river for millions years.

We had a 3-mile walk in the chill weather, admiring at the canyon. After gazing at the canyon for more than 1/2 hr, I was reminded of the fact that nothing is permanent on earth. Its all pure materialism that we go after... instead we should also go insearch of Divinity. The materialistic pleasures should go hand in hand with our search for the TRUTH.

We waited patiently in the cold weather to view the sunset over the canyon. Lot of pics were taken in my digi-cam ofcourse. At around 7:30 pm, we had a chance to see the IMAX film on Grand Canyon that was on our way back to the hotel.

May 11, 2005

We explored the country side stuff at Williams... tasted freshly made sandwiches, spoke to hand-full of people who were living there, watched the "Wild West Show" and the Steam Engine, and visited the museum. For the first time, I've been to the country-side life at US. One thing that surprised me is the tidyness of the village. The roads are very clean and people care very much for their place. The people here are very friendly, and are willing to spend time talking to strangers. This is unlikely the case in urban cities of USA. Anyways, we left the village at 12:00 noon local time. We fortunately visited a Meteor Crator on our way to Dallas.

We reached home at 6:40 am on May 12, 2005. It is indeed a very memorable trip !