Sea of experiences ~ Siebe Vanhee

It has been only 5 days ago that I wrote on my blog. But all the information I want to share with you is huge! I saw a lot, I did a lot, I thought a lot and enjoyed a lot. Actually I experienced a lot!

Road kill!

The day after the Hueco Rock Rodeo when I wrote my last news was a lazy hangover day. Good, sometimes I love those days. In the evening I searched on the internet for the best way to go to the Grand Canyon and from there to Las Vegas where my Colorado friends, Thom and Mike, where waiting on me to crush the red sandstone.

Monday morning at 4 am I left the Hueco Rock Ranch with a Slovenian guy, Gregor, in my Van to bring him to the airport. Always lots of fun with those Slovenians!
After I dropped Gregor at the airport I bought a map and a lot of gas and I was ready for the road! I first drove up to Albuquerque (New Mexico) and from there to Flagstaff (Arizona).

It took me the whole day to do this drive with my car. I drove between 55 and 60 ml/h (70 and 100 km/h) to save my car from braking down and also to save some gas. A normal car would drive this distance in 8 – 9 hours. It took me 15 hours with some stops and rests! But I’ve the time and enjoyed the landscape during the ride!
The scariest thing on driving alone is the fear that the car is going to break down. But I take care of my car; I changed the engine oil and checked everything! It is going to hurt in 6 months when I’ll need to sell my car.

Another scary thing are the big trucks that passed me all the time, they drive 75 ml/h (120 km/h) or more! You can see this on the pictures!
Once I arrived in Flagstaff, I parked in front of Wal-Mart and slept well in my king-size bed!

Being a real tourist in Grand Canyon!

The next morning I made my porridge, search my way out of Flagstaff (beautiful city by the way) and left to the Grand Canyon. I was so psyched!
When I arrived to the gate of Grand Canyon National Park I could get in for free with my National Park Pass I received from Bart Den Das in Leuven! Thanks for that Bart!
This national park even has an airport, school and little village. This was all really nice. When you drive through this forest everything is so flat! But suddenly you arrive at the canyon and you’re in a complete different world! Because I already drove a lot those days I took the bus tour to see all the viewpoints. I also walked a lot between the viewpoints, it was just beautiful. On the bus I was the only young man, the others where all grandpa’s and grandma’s! I took a lot of pictures as you can see, it was amazing.

At 5pm I jumped back in my Van and drove straight to Las Vegas. I arrived at 10 pm on my destination! It was mind-blowing when I was on the hill and had a view of whole Las Vegas! I was getting way too psyched behind the wheel.

On some strange and lucky way I found the Colorado school bus boys on a nice parking lot. They just gave me the street name and I found there bus without a map of Vegas or anything. It was a street who went through whole Vegas, so I had good luck to find the right parking lot. We chilled out at our vans and went to bed, I was tired of being a tourist.

Red Rock Rules!

The next day we left to Red Rock with a lot of motivation. I hadn’t climbed in three days so my hands where sweating whole night. Red Rock is just outside of Vegas, we could see it from the parking lot we slept on. It is really red, fire red! Amazing structures to!

We did some sport climbing. It has been one month and a half since I’ve been sport climbing. But my endurance is still there, I did a couple of 7c’s and 7b+’es on sight! I feel I gain some power in my body! The style suites me to! The structure reminds me to Krohntal but nicer! A lot of flakes and crimps! Love it!

Las Vegas night life!

Sounds great ey? Night life! But I couldn’t taste of this too much because I’m only 19 and they always ask your ID! After the climbing we went to downtown Vegas where we stayed in a hotel! Two friends of Thom and Mike came to Vegas and rented a room in MGM Grand. This was a really nice and huge hotel and casino with a big pool and everything on it.
Like you can see on the pictures. I parked my van in the garage of this hotel and slept in my van. But they let me stay and hangout in there room to. So I could use all the possibilities of the hotel. Thanks for that guys!

So that first night we went to the casino of the hotel and those guys gambled a little bit. I couldn’t gamble because of my age. But I didn’t care too much because it didn’t attract me. It was just really nice to be there and see in real life what all this gambling is. I see why it is really addicted. Once you win money, you think it’s easy and you want to win more! Once you lose money fast you thing you’ll be lucky for once and try to win your money back! I saw people losing some hundreds of dollars and still playing. Really special world. After that a guy offered us a free entrance to a nightclub with a free ride in a limousine. Two of our group did it. Me, Thom and Mike stayed at the hotel. I just wanted to ride in a limousine, which could be nice. I wasn’t really psyched for the nightclub.

The next day we hung out at the pool (like you can see on the pictures). In the afternoon I decided to walk through the city together with Mike. We saw hotel and casino New York New York, the fountains of Bellagio, the small Eifel tower and way more! Take your time and look at the pictures. Really funny culture here. When you walk on the sidewalk there are at every intersection at least 8 people who give you flyers and publication for nightclubs, strip clubs and hookers. After a while you get used to them and ignore them. After the culture walk we went back to the hotel. A friend of Thom could get free VIP tickets for all of us to go to a party on the roof of a nice hotel. You could also drink everything for free! Too bad I’m only 19 and needed to stay at home. It was a great opportunity. Instead of going with them I took my van, drove to a parking lot and had an easy evening.

If I need to summarize Las Vegas it would be like this. It is all about money and the needs of people! Las Vegas includes everything the new but weak human being wants. Las Vegas is one dirty trick and uses all the weaknesses of humans to earn money! But on the other side I don’t think this city is going to last for a long time. It is all fake and for the eye.
I can say more but I’ll definitely keep that for myself. It was a nice experience to see what money does to people!

Now I’m waiting on my hangover friends to go climbing!
I need nature and rest back again!