As I write this we are staring out of the window of the largest hotel room we have ever stayed in. Our free upgrade at Caesars Palace is, well, palatial! We have a fantastic view of the Strip and directly overlook the Bellagio water fountains from up here on the 30th floor. Quite a difference from the $20 hostel we stayed in behind a Texaco garage last night!

Earlier this morning as we looked out across the plains of Arizona with a fresh coffee from the garage and the sun beating down on us we saw our first cowboy emerge from the field. This guy was the real deal - complete with spurs and a convincing moustache! After breakfast we drove through Williams and headed down the historic Route 66. As we drove through the ever changing scenery we saw groups of bikers heavily clad in leathers and bandanas roaring past on oversized shiny machines, tourists flocking around any sign depicting the famous shield and a number of intriguingly bizarre road side adverts. We certainly took our pics on Route 66!

We stopped in Kingman for BBQ ribs and pulled pork and enjoyed a 'Route Beer' before turning off the famous road towards our final attraction of the day - the Hoover Dam. A truly mind boggling feat of engineering and a lifeline to most of South West America the dam simply looks awesome - 200m thick concrete holds back the ferocious Colorado to form Lake Mead which sparkles innocently in the afternoon sun. We took a tour into the heart of the dam to see the giant turbines and then drove over the top of the dam to pass from Arizona back to Nevada. With dusk approaching, Vegas was calling so we headed back and checked into our luxurious hotel room where we could have happily stayed all evening if it were not for the draw of the shows and casinos to entertain our last night in Vegas.