Palm Springs/Las Vegas

I shall start with a joke:
 
This guy is in serious business trouble.  He owes $10,000.  One night god appears to him in a dream and tells him that he should take all his money and go to Vegas.  There he should go to the Saraha, straight through the lobby, and play the 3rd Blackjack table on the left.
 
He does as his dream commanded.  Takes his last five grand and hops on the bus to Vegas, where he enters the Sahara, goes on the 3rd Blackjack table on the left, puts all his money down and says, "Hit me."
 
He gets a six.  God says, "TAKE ANOTHER HIT."
 
He takes the hit.  It's an 7.  He's got 13.  God says, "TAKE ANOTHER HIT."
He takes the hit.  It's a 3.  He's got 16.  God says, "TAKE ANOTHER HIT."
He takes the hit.  It's a 2.  He's got 18.  God says, "TAKE ANOTHER HIT."
 
Sweating now.  The guy takes the hit.  It's an ace.  He's got 19.  God says "TAKE ANOTHER HIT."
 
Trembling, he does as god commands.  It's ANOTHER ace.  He's got 20.  God says, "TAKE ANOTHER HIT."
 
The guy's a wreck, he can barely force the words out.  "Hit me," he says.  It's ANOTHER ace.  He's got twenty-one.
 
"UN-F*CKING-BELIEVABLE!!!!" says god.
 
All right, it's not a very funny joke.  But it's the only Vegas joke I know.  And we heard it in Vegas, in the Sahara, from a Joey Bishop impersonator.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.
 
When I left you last, I was on the road, man - headed for that infamous Den of Iniquity and Vice that is Las Vegas, Nevada.  
 
How exciting.  It's at this point that I envy you people as you sit in your comfortable chairs, reading this.   

For you see, you get to imagine that it IS exciting.  And not excruciatingly-f*ckingly boring as we trundle along, cramped onto a sweaty bus with a lot of people who might have forgotten some vital areas when they applied their deodourant if you know what I mean.  It's not like it was a short journey - America is a Big Country - much bigger that England.  Americans love to rub this in.  "Did you know that England could fit into Texas 350 times???" is the sort of thing they are always saying. (Source:  The Guinness Book of Made-Up Facts.) 
 
Well, maybe they aren't ALWAYS saying this sort of thing, but it's always in tourist brochures.  Anyway, if you are suffering from feelings of inadequacy of the size of your country, then please try to remember that much of America is made up of Dirt which they aren't doing much with.  
 
Sorry I didn't mean to rant there, but at least it helped pass the time while we're stuck on this bus together.  The major thing that happened on the bus was that some horrid woman who had been drinking tequila collapsed as she left the bus in Baker (Baker - home of The World's Largest Thermometer - 350 feet and reading 117 degrees when we arrived).  The authorities were alerted and a fire engine promptly arrived.
 
A FIRE engine?  I wondered if they were planning to drag her off the bus and hose her down.  However, this was not the case.  It's just a small town and they were first on the scene.  Maybe there's this whole race between the cops, the paramedics and the fire service that we don’t know about.  Anyway, about 15 minutes and the woman's life story later (she knew what day of the week it was, yes she knew who the president was, yes she'd been drinking tequila all day...) they let her go and we were back on our way to Nevada!
  
At the border, a mirage appeared.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, out of red rock, and desert and tumbleweed there appeared ginormous tv screens!  And billboards!  And a rollercoaster!! 
 
This was the rather inappropriately-named town of Primm, and the start of Nevada.  Las Vegas was only about half an hour away, but when you hit the city it feels like you've left the galaxy and are on another planet.