Driving the Big Two

februar - marts 2025
  • ronjea
  • George Munroe
Exploring some of the West of America and Canada from Las Vegas to Seattle visiting friends along the way during 1-24 March 2025 Læs mere
  • ronjea
  • George Munroe

Liste over lande

  • Canada Canada
  • Forenede Stater Forenede Stater
  • Irland Irland
  • Nordirland Nordirland
Kategorier
Bil, Par, Venskab, Seværdigheder, Ferie, Ødemark
  • 12,9krejste miles
Transportmidler
  • Flyvning4.525kilometer
  • Gåture-kilometer
  • Vandring-kilometer
  • Cykel-kilometer
  • Motorcykel-kilometer
  • Tuk Tuk-kilometer
  • Bil-kilometer
  • Tog-kilometer
  • Bus-kilometer
  • Campingvogn-kilometer
  • Campingvogn-kilometer
  • 4x4-kilometer
  • Svømning-kilometer
  • Padling/Roning-kilometer
  • Motorbåd-kilometer
  • Sejlads-kilometer
  • Husbåd-kilometer
  • Færge-kilometer
  • Krydstogtskib-kilometer
  • Hest-kilometer
  • Skiløb-kilometer
  • At blaffe-kilometer
  • Cable car-kilometer
  • Helikopter-kilometer
  • Barfodet-kilometer
  • 117fodaftryk
  • 25dage
  • 812fotos
  • 52kan lide
  • On the road to Dublin…

    28. feb.–1. mar., Nordirland ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Left the lovely miniature daffodils growing in my front garden ❤️ As most know, we usually travel light… photo to prove it 😆 … however, taking that we’ll be travelling in *really* cold weather, the suitcases with warm clothes were already in the boot!

    We decided to leave this afternoon to book in at the Clayton Hotel Dublin airport for the night. It’ll be a long day tomorrow. Las Vegas is 8 hours behind us and the flight is 10 hours 30 mins long. So even though we’ll arrive at 6pm, it’s 2am UK time.

    Delicious food for dinner at The Playwright Bar, ground floor of the Clayton.
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  • Dublin airport

    1. marts, Irland ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    Lovely breakfast at the Clayton… getting the bus from the hotel soon to drop in our suitcases and relax for a while.

    As ever, there’s lots of shops at the airport… one sampling that I was offered was McConnell’s Irish Whisky. Turns out its distillery is in the A wing of the old Crumlin Road Gail… learn something new every day. Nice soft taste to it.

    It was easy going through US Preclearance… thought we would have a series of questions to answer but after photos and finger prints were taken, we were through. We must have honest faces 😄
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  • Flight to Las Vegas (Harry Reid Airport)

    1. marts, Forenede Stater ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Found our seats and settled in. It’s my first time flying with Aer Lingus and their seat console was brilliant. I paired it with my iPhone so I could control it from my phone. I settled down to watch a few movies that I’d chosen and put into my ‘Favourites’… ‘Here’, ‘We live in time’ and ‘Anora’. After the first two, I had enough and dozed off, but I was mindful that both of them reviewed life over time… they made me feel, that if we can, to make the most of every opportunity because time is short.

    After a 10 and a half hour flight, we arrived at our first American stop at around 17:30 (01:30 GMT).

    We took the long way around to reclaim our baggage 😄 but then stood in a queue to get the shuttle for car rental. Eventually one arrived and after a 20 minute journey got the car rental building.
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  • Third time lucky 😄

    1. marts, Forenede Stater ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Went to the Enterprise desk to confirm registration and then down to garage to pick up a Ford Edge that we’d booked.

    The Enterprise staff there said “just go to Row 8 and pick one, the keys are in them”. No Ford Edges but there was a Ford Expedition in another row so another Enterprise person said we could have that as an upgrade. We started to familiarize ourselves with it but we wanted to make sure it had 4 wheel drive (we might be driving in snow as we travel north, so we wanted to be sure).

    Another Enterprise guy informed us it wasn’t, so he found a a lovely red Ford Edge on another row that was. So we familiarized ourselves with it but we couldn’t get the CarPlay to work (some parts we’ll have no signal so I’ve offline maps on my iPhone I need to use instead of the GPS system). Same guy went looking for another Ford that had both 4 wheel drive and CarPlay.

    He brought us an upgrade of a brand new grey Ford Explorer, bigger than the Edge with a large screen for GPS that worked like a dream. All credit to Enterprise staff. As this all took time, so we met a number of them and each one couldn’t be more help 😊

    Now we were on the road… destination set to Sahara Las Vegas.
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  • Sahara Las Vegas

    1.–3. mar., Forenede Stater ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We arrived at the Sahara about 15 mins from the car rental building. As we drove we saw the famous hotels in the distance and witnessed the fast driving and an accident with recovery vehicles, fire engine and police on the scene along the five lane highway.

    Sahara is near one end of the famous Las Vegas Strip. Although there was a queue at reception, it wasn’t long before we were welcomed by staff. After getting the key cards, we went up to the 25th floor to our room. However, we had to go back down to reception again because the number that the receptionist gave us was the wrong number 😄 But we got free drinks in any restaurant or cafe in the Sahara for our trouble 😊

    Here’s hoping we’ll have a good night’s rest and the energy to walk the Strip tomorrow…

    … we’ll, after a not-so-good sleep, here’s the view from our hotel room on 25th floor as sun starts to rise.
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  • Sunday, making a start

    2. marts, Forenede Stater ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Knowing we’ll be on the road for 3 weeks we unpacked our suitcases so that all our coats and boots were easy to hand in the car. Then went down to familiarize ourselves with the vehicle… what it does and doesn’t have… it doesn’t have a setting that’ll remember my seating and mirrors when I’m driving (as opposed to George’s), and you have to manually pull in the wing mirror when you park 😆But it has a lot going for it. Really pleased!

    Then bought breakfast in the Sahara foyer at Prendi’s… yoghurt, granola and fruit… to get ourselves ready for a day of walking 😄
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  • Windy day!

    2. marts, Forenede Stater ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    I thought we’d left windy days back in Ireland, but obviously not. It was cold as the gusty wind blew dust and dirt into our eyes as we walked down the 4.2 mile The Strip, Las Vegas Boulevard. Starting from the Sahara entrance, peculiarities appear along the route like a car on its end 😄. Observing the street names like the one outside the Conrad, Elvis Presley Boulevard.Læs mere

  • Hidden gems

    2. marts, Forenede Stater ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    We had to get out of the wind! So we went into the hotels to walk in parallel with The Strip if we could. And in every hotel there are shops galore, restaurants, casino halls busier than all the streets.

    George found a ceramic ornament of the classic Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ album cover… the four walking across the zebra crossing.

    I found a lovely pair of boots I must save up for… decorative, delicate and blue… my favourite colour. Not very practical in Ireland though! Didn’t dare ask the price 😄

    The shopping mall displays reminded me of Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi.

    And one shop reminded me, that when I went away in business and Abbie was small, I always brought her back a pair of fancy or Disney socks ❤️

    I was aware it was a Sunday when I heard the church bells of a small church near the Encore Las Vegas. It was the Guardian Angel Cathedral. Looking at the casino halls most were unaware of its beckoning.
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  • Taken by the Sphere

    2. marts, Forenede Stater ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    I could not believe it… you can see this thing as you land in Las Vegas. This big sphere is an entertainment complex, which has a capacity for 20,000 people and displays imagery in its 15,000 square metres LED screen throughout the day and night. It’s awesome!

    It cost a mere $2.3 billion! It could only be in Las Vegas!

    See the two videos I was able to take from the Monorail.
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  • Venice in Las Vegas!

    2. marts, Forenede Stater ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    I couldn’t believe it when I walked into the Venetian Resort that there were literally hallmarks of Venice… Saint Mark’s Square, Rialto Bridge, replica of the Venice streets and river meandering through them with gondolas and their gondoliers singing to their occupants. I have been to Venice three times, once when I was 16, a day trip with Abbie in 2007 (I think) and more recently. I couldn’t believe the detail of this reconstruction nor the painted sky! However, this one has no fear of sinking due to the effects of climate change!

    But as we walked through the wee streets, I was cajoled by a beauty assistant into trying their collagen natural product. Such was the state of my eyes puffy from lack of sleep, travelling and dare I say it, age 😂 Handed over to her colleague one eye was given the treatment… the other eye left alone to show the effect of their miracle cream. All through the treatment, she gave me the sales pitch and pricing… for the normal price of $350, I could have it for $250 and it would last a whole year. Yes, I could see a difference… then she reduced it to $200. Well, that did it… if someone can’t give the best price first, it’s not worth it! And I walked away, one eye improved. 😂

    Turned into another street and there was another beauty shop also selling collagen products. After pleasantries and me explaining what the other lady had done, this shop assistant insisted that she would give her collagen treatment to the other eye and explained that she would never do that to a customer!

    I left thinking… ladies, it’s not what you look like on the outside, but who you are in the inside. Get that right and you can shine and be a help to many. Anyway, I don’t think I look bad for 83🤣🤣🤣
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