Ahh, Friday at last - which means Vegas baby!! I've done the usual - left my packing to the last minute, and sod's law dictates that my sole appointment today turns into two - leaving me little time to get my emails out of the way, before leaving work to pick up my hire car - typical!!

I have to go to the airport, where a shuttle-bus picks me up, and drives me to the hire-car place - I could've done that part myself, and the whole process wastes me about 40 minutes - why me?? But the car's cool - a Dodge Stratus - with plenty of poke, even for an automatic! I'm gonna enjoy driving this!!

I get back to the hotel, have a quick spit and a lick (that's a wash for all your pervy-minded folk out there!) and we hit the road. I've printed off some directions of how to get there, and it reckons that it'll take me about four and a half hours - not looking forward to driving for that long, but once we get there it'll be worth it! Four and a half hours turns into SIX hours - traffic jam after traffic jam - seems that everyone in California is going to Vegas for the weekend - and the highway agency has chosen the only road to Vegas to reconstruct - fan-fucking-tastic!!

The drive is long, with hills and mountains everywhere, and these Yanks need to realise that the accelerator is the pedal on the RIGHT - but my driving frustrations are soon diminshed by the bright lights exploding into the desert sky - WOW - this place is well and truly awesome! We drive past all the major hotels (on the Strip) and up to our home for the next two nights - The Plaza Hotel! It's right opposite the Freemont Experience - which is the now-pedestrianised Downtown area - excellent choice of hotel Jem, well done babe!!

We drop our things off in the room, and decide to head out for some drinks - I haven't had a good drink in the three weeks that I've been here, so tonight could be a sleep-in-the-bathroom Hippy special! There's people smoking and drinking on the street - world's apart from California, where smoking and drinking are virtually frowned upon - so I think we're gonna fit right in!

We spot some people drinking out of see-through American footballs - I decide to have beer, and Jem has some frozen strawberry shit! I have dollars that are burning a hole in my pocket, so we head into the Golden Nugget Casino - we spend $20 on the loosest slot you'll ever meet, and come out $45 up - somehow, I don't see our luck staying like this, but we quit while we're ahead!

As the night goes on, the drink goes down, and the Casino's welcome us - I spot a sign for Hugo's Cellar, a bar in the 4 Queens Casino - it reminds me of my mate Hugo, who's the biggest queen of them all!! Or maybe it's just the drink!!

We don't lose any money on our first night, which is a result. We head to bed around 2'ish - mildly drunk, and very tired after the long drive. I can't believe that I'm here - Vegas is somewhere I've always wanted to go - I'm a lucky fella!

END OF DAY 21