Vegas or Bust!!!!

No, Vegas WAS a bust!!
Okay, I'm kidding...
I'm not big on gambling, though, not a big fan of the slots, and I don't find them fun, but Vegas is a cool site to see and it's entertaining.

The trip to Grand Canyon was really awesome. It's no wonder they call it one of the seven wonders of the world. It's really amazing. I'll put some pics on my other website soon.

As for the horse-riding tour, that was like a series of unfortunate events -- a tragic comedy. We never ended up going horse-back riding, and here is the break-down of what happened:

1st, the van picking us up at the hotel to take us to the horse "ranch" was an HOUR late;
2nd, the van was crowded and all the seats were full - until they told us that the back seat could hold four people, at which point the three people already back there scrunched together which still did not leave a whole heck of a lot of room for my fat ass - so someone else gave up their seat for me and scrunched back there with them (I guess it was clear I wasn't going to sit back there where I couldn't have a seatbelt on);
3rd, the van blew a tire on the freeway about thirty minutes into the drive to the "ranch", and I thought the thing was going to flip as the driver panicked before finally pulling over;
4th, the van's spare tire had a huge chunk taken out of it (I mean, HUGE, people - one of our van-mates from Ireland took a picture of it and we asked her to email it to us, so if she does I'll put a picture my other site to show you what I mean), and it immediately went flat the minute the driver finally got it put on the van (which, by the way, was a miracle in and of itself since he originally started tightening the lug nuts on the blown tire when he should have been loosening them since he was trying to REMOVE the thing);
5th, the woman who ran this sham of a tour was VERY rude to those of us who called her as we were on the side of the road (she told the girl who called when we first pulled over that it would be at least an hour to get a tire to us and that the driver could drive on the spare as long as he drove forty-five, and pretty-much told her "this is life" - and then when I called an hour later to ask if someone was on their way and announced that I was one of the people stranded, she YELLED at me, "I didn't need to be reminded of that!" and then mumbled some things I couldn't understand, so I yelled back at her, "Excuse me, do NOT yell at me - I'm not reminding you of anything, I want to know if someone is on their way!!!" She complained, "I'm driving as fast as I can!" I asked loudly, "How much longer will you be?" and she just said "I'll be there soon.")

It wasn't a complete loss: at least we all chatted and joked around and had a good attitude with each other. We may not have been happy with what happened, but we didn't let it ruin our day. We hung out & small-talked while we waited for the chick. But when this woman finally showed up, she tried to make light of everything and tried to be friendly with all of us, saying, "Let's go to the ranch! You still have plenty of time to do the ride, and we'll show you a real good time, and..." (blah, blah, blah) So she took us to the "ranch", still hoping we all would stay for the ride, I think. This "ranch" was a non-paved road of big sharp rocks. No stables, no pasture for the horses to graze. I don't know where they really keep the horses, but the poor things were just rounded up and tied up into one area all together.

At this point, none of us were having it. It was the principal of the thing, too many factors to let it go. Two people did decide to do the ride, but the other twelve of us insisted on a refund and a drive back to our hotels. I think this lady really thought she could talk her way out of it, too. When she took offense to all of us getting on her case and insisting on a refund, etc., she even went as far as saying something about having been worried about us on the side of the road, at which point I cut in and said, "Don't even try to pull that one on us, lady, I spoke to you on the phone, and there wasn't one ounce of concern in your voice or in what you said. You were very rude to me, and you didn't have any reason or right to be." So, we put an end to that, and finished our day. I hope that girl emails me the pic, I want to put that on here so you can see how bad that spare tire was.

By the time Dave and I got back to our hotel, it was early afternoon and so we just decided to go to the strip and take a walk and enjoy the cool casinos there. Again, I'll put pics on my other site soon... :-)