Las Vegas Strip After the New Years Party
New Years has come and gone. The Las Vegas Strip is back to the normal jammed up traffic and sidewalks crowded with visitors swilling beer from plastic footballs. All of the holiday parties are nothing more than foggy memories.
Motorcycle jumping and truck flipping took center stage during the festivities. Rhys Millen stayed healthy enough to successfully back flip his off road truck although the landing was rough and he ended up upside down; but, he did complete the first ever (intentional) back flip in a truck.
Robbie Kneivel was billed to be jumping the new volcano at the Mirage. He did not jump the volcano and never intended to do so. Apparently Fox TV promoted the stunt as a jump over and through the erupting volcano. Instead, those that watched this one got a rather ho-hum 200 foot jump ramp to ramp in front of the volcano.
The other Robbie, "Maddo" Maddison, stole the night with his spectacular first time stunt of flying his bike from the ground to a landing atop the Arc de Triomphe. He then did a couple of laps around the top and then drove off the side to free fall more than five stories before landing hard on the down ramp. The incredible forces of the landing injured his hand; but otherwise, he was OK. The crowd was thrilled and certainly got their money's worth for the free show. I wonder what the Australian plans for next year?
The fireworks show was lame after officials refused to allow them to be launched from the tops of the strip resorts. They used the parking garages instead and all of the thousands of people milling about on the strip had no view of the $550K pyrotechnics show. Parking garages are located behind the towering hotels.
Overall, the crowd was somewhat subdued from years past even though the numbers beat last year's 200K plus. A few photos of the aftermath from America's Party on the Las Vegas strip.
