Reply To: Las Vegas and road trip

[davefl]

@NorthernLass I hear ya. Each time I visit I love it a little less and I definitely wouldn’t consider moving there any more. The far right MAGA crowd are destroying it. But there’s still so many amazing things to see and do that it keeps drawing me back despite the crazy hotel and food prices. Gone are the sub $100 HIXs and $15 meals, it’s now $150 – $250 average a night and $50 for dinner. (I do appreciate there are cheaper places and I try to find them, you can’t beat stuffing your face at a Golden Corral for $20 and watching the average american family do the same with a piled high plate in each grubby hand)

One issue with the long drives is the lane hogging on highways, so I try and avoid those and use the back roads, but falling asleep at the wheel is a big problem when you’re solo and driving into the sun on dead straight roads. It’s happened a couple of times where I’ve done the overly long blink… and scared the shit out of myself.

Once you’ve driven both coasts, most of route 66 twice, the great river road – Mississippi (all in fragments over the years) you start doing even crazier things like this one https://travelnevada.com/road-trips/loneliest-road-in-america/ just because it’s there.

VS from Man gets you into the 2 main gateways, JFK and ATL and then onward to anywere on Delta, so I wouldnt dismiss them too readily. But since I’ll be voucher and points poor in future years (after I’ve spent my balances as no more churning CCs possible) but time rich I see my westbound flights being more Aer Lingus from MAN or DUB, and my returns being Aer Lingus or the Delta points and $6 to AMS etc as a return in the future.

I’ve got a lot of Africa and the East as well a couple of european continent places to visit as well as a south american Argentina/Chile/Urugauy/Paraguay for maybe next year on the planning list. San Marino was my 51st country… which one is next I’m not sure 🙂