Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev.

Grand Canyon today.

I’ve never encountered such room keys before. LA, Laguna Hills Lodge

I wish someone would open a Denny’s franchise in Russia. In the US, it’s a lifesaver – open 24×7, the food is decent, relatively healthy, and affordable. The menu can be greatly customized according to customer requests. There are 1600 restaurants worldwide, but none in Russia.

http://www.dennys.com

In the States, hotels and motels have some sort of standard for what should be in the room and how it should be arranged. Since we stay in a new place every day, trying not to repeat brands, we have already gathered about ten different ones. Travelodge, Days Inn, Luxor, The Grand Hotel, Motel 6, Motel 8, Rest Haven Motel, Hilton Garden Inn.

So, there are no chandeliers or overhead lights anywhere. All the light comes from floor lamps and table lamps. Sometimes it’s a brain teaser to figure out how they turn on (it can easily be in the opposite corner).

The table lamp always has built-in sockets. It’s convenient for charging devices. Unlike Europe, there are plenty of outlets. Right now, in my room, I have eleven free outlets and four are occupied.

There is an ice bucket. The water seems drinkable from the tap (but I don’t like the taste, so I don’t drink it). An ice machine for free ice is always nearby.

The heater/air conditioner is built into the wall under the window, delivering hot/cold/fresh air. Once, I encountered an additional gas heater. There was actually a flame.

The mattresses and beds are usually of good quality. They are comfortable to sleep on, and you don’t want to get up (except for the first few days when I had severe jet lag).

The plumbing: the shower nearly always features a single handle, is always fixed, and the bathtub is always below the knee.

The room always includes a microwave, often a coffee machine, often a pod-coffee machine. There is never a kettle and never any tea. Sugar is hard to come by, usually just one or two packets, the rest are substitutes.

Hotels with a single door are common.

Hotels (not motels) often block funds in case of “something happening”. They return it if everything is okay. About 30 bucks or so.

Currently, at the hotel in the Grand Canyon, there’s also a balcony and fresh newspapers in the room in the morning. But this is the first time for that.

So far, from what I’ve observed, the cheapest way to book a room is off-season, a couple of hours before check-in.

Yesterday it rained all day. So here’s a wet photo of the Hoover Dam.

The interesting “drainage hole” with a diameter of 15 meters and a depth of 650 meters – it’s for the event of reservoir overflow and water discharge, in the photo – one of two. They were used only once – in 1988.

Beautiful place.

In Las Vegas, I encountered the only McDonald’s where they serve Pepsi instead of Coca-Cola. They carefully conceal this; there is no logo or name anywhere else, just simply drinks.

It’s pouring outside.

In Las Vegas, about 5 cm of rain falls annually (http://gustfront.ccrfcd.org/rainfallhistory/loadrainfall.aspx)

I’m curious about the weather on the way to the Grand Canyon. We’re leaving in about 30 minutes.

Las Vegas was certainly astonishing. After the pale “Hollywood Boulevard” in Los Angeles, I did not expect what I saw.

Las Vegas is a city styled in luxury, where night clubs, casinos, and shops intertwine with each other, sometimes quite tightly and inconspicuously. The difference between “our luxury” and “Las Vegas luxury” is visible to the naked eye. Here, it feels like money is nothing for the sake of effect. The design everywhere is breathtaking – there’s nothing like “ah! it looks fine from afar, let’s make it out of plastic”.

I stayed in the “Luxor” hotel, shaped like a pyramid. It’s the 7th largest in the world. At its apex, the brightest beam in the world shoots into the sky, at 42 billion candelas (a regular light bulb has about 100 candelas).

Tomorrow morning – off to the Grand Canyon. If anyone knows anything interesting along the way – let me know, I’ll make a stop. One interesting site on the way to Las Vegas was the town of Calico – the ghost city.

Finally made it.

A Wild West style restaurant, the table is stocked with buckets of unshelled peanuts, the shells are thrown on the floor here, water is served in jars, and there, a piano from the mid-last century.

A machine for creating duplicate keys. Haven’t seen anything like this around here