My roommate Brendan and I left for Las Vegas early Sunday morning. The 6+ hour drive was interesting because I-15 descends into Arizona's Virgin River canyon, which was quite impressive.
Las Vegas appeared seemingly out of nowhere as we traversed the desert. Unfortunately, huge storm clouds were pounding The Strip with rain and lightning.
When we arrived at Circus Circus at about 4:00 p.m. to claim our $40 room, we were greeted by a zoo of people. The check-in line snaked through the lobby for about 50 yards, and a hotel employee said this line would not dwindle for at least 5 hours. She said, "The best time to check-in is 3:00 a.m. Leave and come back later."
We took her advice. We returned our bags to the car, and set off down The Las Vegas Strip, on foot.
Somewhere around the Stardust, we decided that we would walk the entire length of The Strip. We would stop in each of the casinos, walk around each long enough to form a developed impression of the place, take note of attractions, shows, etc. to investigate further on Monday, and then move on to the next casino.
So, for the next 9 hours, we walked about 10 miles (through a drizzly, but steady desert rain) up and down the strip while stopping at 17 of the casinos resorts.
We saw a ton in just this one day. We saw 17 of the Las Vegas Strip casino resorts, Pete Rose in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace and, morbidly, some poor woman's compound ankle fracture outside of the MGM Grand (it was gross, and I do hope that she'll be OK).
Needless to say, my feet were aching after traversing Las Vegas for so long. Thankfully, our room at Circus Cirus was clean and comfortable so we could rest up for the next day's adventures.