Tuesday 10th April

The approach into Vegas does not present you with the image of the city that we have been indoctrinated with from its representation within TV and film, that being that Vegas is a city of sin and corruption. English presenter, actor and writer Stephen Fry wrote in his 2008 travel book ‘Stephen Fry in America’, that Las Vegas was “a symbol of human kind’s perverse and remorseless will, a symbol of cupidity exploiting stupidity, of capitalism taken to its furthest limits, of gullibility, fallibility, optimism, cruelty, vulgarity and greed." In fact the first thing that was apparent to me, was the sheer vastness of Nevada’s deserts, truly awesome mountains and beautiful blue rivers, not the strip itself. I was told by people who had previously visited America to expect everything to be far bigger than it is in England, but still I was not prepared for the scale of the landscape. Although amongst this hostile environment I could make out winding roads and the occasional car which then gave way to the perfectly planned suburban homes. This was very surprising because Las Vegas is often thought of as a tourist destination, not a place to raise a family but statistics back this up with the city having a high number of schools and still needing more to be built as well as the planned community, Summerlin and the recent addition of Town Square which is calm and serene in comparison to the strip. Journalist J.R Moehringer said that “Vegas discourages everything prized by book people" however, in addition to the growing number of permanent residents filling the local school, Vegas is also home to its own University implying that it is not just flashing lights and a good time that attract people to the city. Suburban Vegas then gave way to the more traditional picture of the Las Vegas strip where the buildings are all unique in architecture to one another, all competing to be bigger and better than the previous with their neon signs visible from the plane. McCarran airport proved itself to be no different to the hotels with billboards and adverts on every wall and the ceiling being made up of reflective silver squares, making it glaringly obvious that you could not possibly be in any other city.

The perfectly planned suburbs of Las Vegas.

Wednesday 11th April

After an initial exploration of the strip where everything was new, exciting, inviting and loud, one thing struck me more than anything else and that was how Las Vegas tries to emulate other cities, predominately those from Europe with The Venetian being the most obvious example. However, there were more subtle imitations to be found particularly within the Bellagio. It had its own miniature Holland complete with clogs, windmills, upside down umbrellas and bicycles, a ‘Parisian’ café and other dining areas being named in a continental fashion such as Picasso. On the strip British telephone boxes and even buses could be spotted and within eating complexes the televisions were showing English football, not American. At first I thought that all of this copying could be equated to the relatively short lifespan of America, that it does not have such a long history as other countries and so it feels the need to compete to prove it can do just as well as Europe if not in fact better, because it can recreate such architectural feats with relative ease. However once I started to pay attention to the people around me I realised that there were relatively few tourists as I imagined tourists to be, the majority of people were Americans not foreigners. This therefore presented me with an alternative argument for the mimicry; many Americans do not travel abroad and so it is relatively easy to bring aspects of other cultures to Vegas for the Americans who would find international travel too expensive or difficult. It also provides a unique selling point to the city opposed to just rows and rows of identical casinos, which would not bring people back year after year.

A tiny piece of Europe found in The Bellagio

Thursday 12th April

Callaway Golf Centre, situated further away from the strip than where we were staying provided the chance to do something I usually do in England and compare it to playing in America. The landscape of the driving range is such a contrast to what I am used to and as I stood up on the range, about 20 foot from the ground below and surveyed the scene it was incredible. It was strange that you could turn to the right and see how Las Vegas as it is meant to look like without the interference of people with its clear blue skies and snow peaked mountains, and then look to the left and see the gaudy reflective gold of the Mandalay Bay hotel. In addition to this there was almost a continuous number of planes flying close overhead, approximately 15 in the hour I spent there. This just goes to show the huge number of people that come in and out of the city every day, and how they are helping to contribute to the 36 million people who pass through each year. This volume of people was reiterated at Hoover Dam along with the number of American visitors opposed to international. I had expected places of historical interest to be crowded with foreign holiday makers coming to see a work of engineering exceptionalism, but perhaps the increasing fear of water shortages by the rapidly decreasing water reserves in Lake Mead has created new interest in the Dam to those it would effect. Lake Mead is currently only 41 percent full and eventually when this falls to a certain point, there will not be enough water to power the Dam, plunging millions of Americans into darkness. I could not help but notice the irony of my day as I was staring out over the Dam, realising that I had spent my morning on one of Nevada’s 133 golf courses which unnecessarily uses water for decoration while the reservoir is reaching critically low levels. Levels made obvious by the white ‘bathtub rings’ highlighting where the water level used to be and by how much it has dropped in recent years, following an almost decade long drought.

The  'bathtub' ring highlights the alarming rate at which water is decreasing.

References:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Las-Vegas-An-American-Paradox.html?c=y&story=fullstory.
‘Golf Link: Nevade Golf Courses’ - http://www.golflink.com/golf-courses/state.aspx?state=NV

Friday 13th April

Citizens of the State of Nevada are well within their constitutional rights to open carry guns on their person at any time, and many do as seen through public events like the Tea party rally which took place March 27th in Searchlight, where approximately a dozen members openly carried weapons. Scenes like this are almost incomprehensible for anyone who is not American unless those with guns are part of the country’s armed forces, so our experience at the gun store was therefore all the more important in attempting to understand what it is to be an American. Sources would tend to agree that guns and shooting are quintessentially American, with CNN listing going to The Gun Store on their compilation of top 10 classic American experiences. It was rather intimidating to begin with being in the relatively small range with bangs going off that were loud enough to deafen you if it were not for the ear protection, and the instructors who were all fully armed in case anyone were to become threatening but that gave way once it was time to step up and take your turn. Griping the SIG P226 Pistol with both hands, knees bent and arms stretched out you take aim, your finger then firmly squeezes the trigger and the adrenaline hits you with the same force as the bullet that shoots your zombie clown target between the eyes. It was definitely an exciting and addictive activity using a gun for the first time and feeling the rush it provides you, but after the combination of serotonin and adrenaline has worn off you are able to begin to get a more reasoned sense of the power they have and why so many Americans would object to anti-gun movements, and any proposition to take away their constitutional rights. A poll conducted in October 2005 by Gallup.com, a news website dedicated to opinion polls, politics and economics found that 4 in 10 Americans have a gun in their home with the purpose of crime prevention being the most popular reason for the ownership, something that I would not have understood let alone approve of before handling weapons myself.

Brings to mind the idea - phone for a pizza and the cops and the pizza arrives first.

A gun of every kind at The Gun Store, Las Vegas.

References:

 ‘Las Vegas Sun: Nevadans are free to don their arms in the open - Steve Kanigher’ http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/07/nevadans-are-free-don-their-arms-open/

http://thegunstorelasvegas.com/archives/4704.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/20098/gun-ownership-use-america.aspx

Saturday 14th April

Driving is an inevitable part of life in America because of the country’s size and scale, but that fact did not make the six hour journey any easier to someone used to England, where a six hour road trip would allow you to cross into Scotland not just pass into a neighbouring county! However, while the drive may have been tiring it provided me with new insight as to just how empty and large the American West is, because at times we were the only car to be seen for miles around. In addition to this, the weather changed dramatically within a couple of hours as a result of the sheer distance we were travelling and the changes in height from sea level. We witnessed the weather shift from the rain in Las Vegas, to hail on the open road, from snow which at times made it difficult to see a few feet in front of us in Jacobs Lake, to the sun (albeit cold) in Marble Canyon. A short stop at Jacobs Lake not only offered a break, but a first glimpse at life for those Americans who choose to live and work in such isolated areas. So isolated in fact that the broken ATM had a sign stating it would not be fixed until the following month and outside the lodge was a parked snow plough showing to what extent the snow could fall in the area, making it even more remote than before.  The location and weather did make me question how the lodge is economically viable, the most likely answer being that it relies heavily on tourists heading towards the Grand Canyon, but only in the summer months when the road is open, as well as a few regulars in the area like the highway patrolman who entered at the same time.

Sunday 15th April

The most incredible and rewarding experience came on Sunday morning with the hike down Marble Canyon and as I reached the Colorado river I spent some time imagining how the first explorers of the American West had felt upon discovering this beautiful place for the first time. In particular I thought about John Wesley Powell who in 1869 led the groundbreaking first expedition through the Colorado river and its canyons. The marked out trail we followed enabled us to get a feel for the wilderness without too much danger but at the same time this took away from the experience because there is always the possibility of other tourists and the real wilderness would not have other people in close proximity, you would be isolated and more at one with your surroundings. The difficult terrain I had just finished maneuvering led me to contemplate the fact that the first explorers who navigated the canyon, did so with no prior knowledge or marked out trails. I would be apprehensive to hike without knowing my surroundings to some degree, but this did not deter Powell who was quoted as saying “We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things. After seeing and experiencing what Powell did I have a new found respect for him and others like him, something that could not be gained without participating and certainly not from studying text books.

References:

 ‘John Wesley Powell: Mapping the Colorado River - American History Magazine’. http://www.historynet.com/john-wesley-powell-mapping-the-colorado-river.htm.
‘Powell Museum’ http://www.powellmuseum.org/museum_about.php”.

Monday 16th April

Williams via Wupatki was our next destination with more open roads and dramatic changes in landscape and a surprising little reminder that America is older and full of more history than we often give it credit, with the appearance of dinosaur tracks and fossilised eggs not far from the Native American town of Tuba City. However, what came across the most strongly throughout the day was the divide between the cultures of the Native Americans and that of the Americans. Our guide was of Native American origin and sadly this was not the first time that day we had heard talk of the white man trying to claim everything as their own and for their own benefits. We had previously been spoken to by one man in Tuba City reminding us to respect the land and to remember who it belonged to, and as our dinosaur track guide explained what was happening in the area it was not hard to see why there is still so much animosity today between Americans and the natives. A small forest area on the rock cliffs was pointed out to us, the place were this woman and her family and friends live which also happens to be the home of natural water springs, water we were told has a special meaning and that is considered to be a life source. The United States wants to take this water to use for another city despite it being on Native American land and it is deeply upsetting to the Indians that they have to continue to fight in order to keep it. Later in the day our visit to the Wupatki National Monument brought to light other cases of cultures clashing, with the Pueblo people not being allowed to stay on the land and denied any recognition that the land belonged to them after the area became a park. More recent than that the Hopi people were denied access to the site for a religious pilgrimage they make annually. The director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma made the following statement which brings into question whether the first amendment is really being upheld “On one hand, they eloquently preach about their relationships and partnership with the Hopi Tribe and on the other hand, they systematically interfere with and prevent practice of Hopi religion. We question their ability to be good caretakers of our ancestral villages. Their mistreatment of Hopi people will not be tolerated. We consider the First Amendment an important right for Hopis. If Hudson, Henderson, Tom Metzger and Kim Watson, all employees of the park, have their religious rights protected, why can't the Hopi?"

 References:

‘Los Angeles Times: Hopis Demand Right to Raid Eagles’ Nest - Matt Kelley’ http://articles.latimes.com/2000/aug/20/local/me-7462.



‘Northern Arizona University, Press Release: The Hopi Tribe’ http://www8.nau.edu/hcpo-p/wupatki.pdf?”