We'd gotten a bit ahead of ourselves and were in Vegas a full day ahead of the scheduled RV service, so all that was left in the morning was for me to get a bus to last night's stopping point and a leisurely jog into town. On the way I had two very cool encounters. One was with a chap called Kevin who was just making his way on foot across the country at his own pace and I think I caught him sneaking out from an overnight stop. He told me the key to success was good footwear and swore by his Doc Marten's. “They're British. They're the best.” I liked that. I'll still with my Nikes for the time being – they haven't done me badly! The second was even more intriguing. I saw a sign for a local print shop called Tough Prints on the wall and went over to have a look as I was wanting to add to my t-shirts to include something on the front that might make people driving past me realise that I wasn't just a local out for a jog. I saw that TP did printing for MMA and martial arts, so they were likely tough enough! As I was looking, the owner, Chase came out to see if I could help. I explained my situation and he gave me one of the biggest positive reactions yet, telling his team and almost jumping straight on the print process. I told him I was in town for a few days and he said he'd be happy to do the printing at cost price and he'd also make a few phone calls…
Back at the hotel, it was time for a bit of semi-unplanned R+R, which left me conflicted as we wouldn't be making progress. Once I'd accepted that fact though...there's no point in being miserable eh? Especially not in Vegas. First of all was a trip to KLAS-TV the CBS station in Vegas, where Kacey Montoya had helped to arrange an interview and we were lucky to be Bryan Friesen's first full interview! I still feel like I don't really know what I'm doing in front of a camera, but I'm getting a bit better...I hope. It had a slot later on with Denise Valdez (Emmy winner!!) and you can watch it here: http://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/cross-country-runner-re-enacting-a-popular-hollywood-scene/645648813 After that, we had a good wander down the strip, sampling Vegas' wares, taking in the fountain show at the Bellagio, the Grand Canals of Venice, the streets of New York and a few bars (the ones with good beer). I put a whole dollar (count it!) in a slot machine and won 24 cents. I quit there. The next day was going to be a big one though and we're just not used to late nights at the moment, so an early retreat was always on the cards…
Start: Jct of Highway 160 and Rainbow Drive. Finish: Excalibur Hotel. Total 8.5 miles. Day 86 Tune of the Day: ACDC – Sin City. Chosen not because of the high amount of debauchery we were about to get up to, but because of Vegas' nickname and the brewery of the same name that I was going to find. It's also a hidden gem of an ACDC song.
Last night's premature end was because we had to take Jenny to the RV Doctors at the other end of a 90 minute bus ride back to our hotel at 9am. We dropped her off and crossed our fingers things would be ok, though we feared something would crop up. First thing after we took the tram to the Mandalay Bay, so we didn't have as far to walk to the famous Las Vegas sign. We saw it. It was like it looked like on the telly. I liked it. Good review, huh? There was an Elvis and also an “official” photographer stood ten foot in front of the “No photographers are licenced to operate in this area” sign… I headed over to Tough Prints where Chase and his team enhanced my kit to the effect of having a large “RUN ROBLA RUN” put on the front, to possibly help confused, or interested drivers who see me coming. I had some potentially very interesting news from a business partner of Chase that I'll let you know more of if it comes to fruition and with that, a lift back to the hotel where I was to have an interview with Blake Apgar, a splendidly beardy reporter from the Las Vegas Review Journal (http://www.reviewjournal.com/local/las-vegas/man-recreates-forrest-gump-run-charities) which was impressive in the fact that Blake seemed to memorise the whole interview, not writing a thing down! These were both exciting in themselves, but I had my eye on something later on. Cirque du Soleil have created a show based on the story of the Beatles and the way they affected people's lives, mostly by singing about love (pretty much all of their first six album songs had love as the subject), which just happens to be the name of the show! The show is truly incredible. The skill of the performers and the intricacy of the stage set-up is like nothing I've ever seen and of course, the soundtrack is amazing, with a reworked, remixed mash-up of the Beatle's best (and some lesser-known) tracks providing the background. It only features in the Mirage casino due to the purpose built stage and if you're in Vegas, you should pick it above any other show, in my opinion. If you're a Beatles nut, or from Liverpool, you should fly to Vegas especially to see it. I'm not even joking. We headed into the night babbling about how good it was and continued our rave review all the way to Sin City Brewery where we calmed down, before another early night.
Start: My bed in Excalibur. Finish: My bed in Excalibur. Miles: Some run, some walked, none counted. Day 87 Tune of the Day: The Beatles – All You Need Is Love. There's nothing you can do that can't be done, y'know?
We'd heard nothing from the RV people, despite requesting an update so we were pretty peeved about that and it got worse when we heard our generator needed a new carburettor and it was going to cost, with a service, over $700. We pretty much killed time all day as we were waiting onword when to pick Jenny up, so I won't bore with that, but bright spots were popping into Bubba Gump Las Vegas, where we had a lovely free feed and some photos with the team, followed by a free shake at Sticks n' Shakes, which were very tasty and hopefully very calorific! We eventually picked Jenny up and parked up for the night and rejoiced in the much nicer noise the generator was making than pre-service. Please don't let anything else go wrong.
Start: My bed in Excalibur. Finish: My bed in Jenny. In a truckstop. Miles: Some run, some walked, none counted. Day 88 Tune of the Day: Radiohead – Let Down and Hanging Around. I just want to get on with things now.
Total: 2,638.87 miles