Today was one of those mornings where you keep waiting for other shoe to drop. I woke up to a notice that my car was ticketed to be towed. As I left the parking lot, I realized the majority of the cars I was passing were also ticketed to be towed! Then, as I stood in 90 degree heat in the parking lot of a Walmart scraping off the stupid sticker that used industrial strength adhesive (which the sun later melted into the glass making it even harder to remove), a bird pooped multiple times on my car. I DIDN’T EVEN SEE ANY BIRDS!!
I digress. Here is a list of 5 of the stupidest things I’ve learned about Las Vegas. These are in no particular order.
- They don’t joke about ticketing to tow. While I was pathetically scraping off the bright orange sticker, the lady in the car next to me sweetly offered me a razor blade and some water to scrape off the sticker–as she had just done this yesterday. Apparently, they search out cars…or make sure to take notice of every single car to see if it can be ticketed to be towed. Whether or not they actually tow it remains to be seen. I hope it’s not like this in all of LV!
- Your car is not safe at your apartment complex from being ticketed or towed for registration, parking permit, dirty windows, or any other issues. (Okay, fine, I made up the dirty windows one). You think just because you’re on private property and pay some of the highest rent in your area for luxury living that they won’t allow the towing company (or whoever it was) into the parking lots in the middle of the night to ticket and tow cars? Wrong. Again, I hope this isn’t the case in all of LV, but it’s definitely a change from Orange County!
- Cops/State Troopers lie in wait in groups to ticket cars on the freeway. This has to be the most surprising one to me. On more than one occasion (one being immediately prior to writing this post), I’ve watched multiple cars pulled over or get pulled over in the same area by different police vehicles. While I hope they’re deliberately looking for drunk drivers or more dangerous offenders, I can’t help but wonder if they, too, are checking license plates and registrations as people drive. AT 6 IN THE MORNING!!!!
- Stay away from state streets, letter streets, and number streets. Okay, this one’s not really stupid, it’s actually quite helpful. I’ve been told by numerous natives to avoid these streets all cost. Nobody has said why, but I have been told there’s quite a bit of gang activity in Northern Las Vegas, so perhaps it has something to do with crime rates. To be honest, I really feel bad about mentioning this one because I haven’t been to the area, and I hate when decent areas get a bad reputation unfairly, but everyone who told me this were North Las Vegas natives, born and raised, so I figured I’d mention it.
- Gas is more expensive the closer you are to the freeway or the strip. One day I decided not to get gas nearest my apartment and ventured up a few blocks away. The next gas station I found was actually 60 cents a gallon cheaper for premium gas! Whooof. LV really depends on those tourism dollars!
For anyone considering moving to Nevada or Las Vegas, I hope this information helps you have a successful transition. Despite these 5 really stupid things, I am absolutely loving living here. The locals and Nevada Natives are some of the nicest people I’ve met. In fact, I think they’d give “Minnesota Nice” a run for its money 💁♀️
Happy Ranting!
OC to LV 