Vegas Vacation and What-Have-You...

With the threat of June Gloom hanging over our heads (it actually was a perfect weekend along the coast), the plans called for a trip to Vegas. Vegas, baby, Vegas! I wanted some heat! Besides, Jam is in town from Miami and she needs to see some sun, baby!

Vegas. Haha! What can you say? I always feel out of sorts in that town. Maybe it's because you feel like you landed on the moon, nothing seems real and all sense of time is lost..maybe it's because the air is so dry AND HOT (105F+, 40C+). Maybe it's because you're drinking too much (of course I didn't, I'm a lightweight, right Saki?). Maybe's it's the constant drone of slot machines and crap table cheers. It could be the unending flashing and flickering of thousands of bright lights...perhaps that lounge singer singing Nelly's "It's Getting Hot In Herre"..or the prostitutes and the drive-thru marriage "chapels", but I think it's quite possibly that tree there...yeah that one with the electrical outlet on the trunk, did the Statue of Liberty just wink at me? AM I LOSING MY MIND? Let's get in that taxi for some A/C...yeah that one driving through the Sphinx's ass...

I've talked in recent posts about happiness and Drew's mention of what gives a place soul, and I can't determine what gives a place soul, but I do know that I've come to the conclusion that Vegas has no soul. It's a souless city. It's so souless you can't help but like it, but in very small doses. There are those who go to Vegas, "To Do Vegas". I've never done that. I've always looked at it as more of an anthropological expedition, observing one the strangest cities on God's green earth.

GONZO: I hate to say this, but this place is getting to me. I think I'm getting The Fear.
DUKE: Nonsense. We came here to find the American Dream, and now we're right in the vortex you want to quit. You must realize that we've found the Main nerve.
GONZO:That's what gives me the fear.

-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas



A brief, unexpected, Vegas reunion took place when I met up with my friend Hud (we drove out to Vegas from Michigan back in 1999) . I think he summed it up best: "We took the Eiffel Tower, shrunk it down, made it plastic, drilled a whole in the top, and filled the damn thing with booze".

Classy. "Americans are marketing geniuses!", sez Burcu. Anyway, good to see ya Hudson, if you're reading this, we gotta hang from some streets signs soon!

All in all, it was an awesome trip. Jam and I braved the sorching heat and headed over to Lake Mead and then down to the Hoover Dam. I've always seen documentaries on it, but quite honestly never thought I'd go there. It seems so, so, Chevy Chase and Lampoonish. That's probably why I liked it. It was just families and retired grandparents. The young and single demographic was surprisingly absent..haha. Random factoid..did you know: About 25% of the energy produced by the Dam goes to Southern California? We're always stealing other states' power and water. It makes me proud;)



On the way home we impulsively took a detour off of I-15, and headed south to the mountains, where the temps quickly dropped from 100+F to a cool and comfortable 75F...in the matter of 30 minutes. It was so beautiful up near Big Bear Lake, and highway 18, which traverses the mountains in San Bernadino National Park, made me say under my breath..almost in utter disbelief, "this is the most beautiful drive I've ever had"....flashbacks came to me quick..the cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea in Turkey, the rolling hills of western Austria, the Rockies in Colorado..but this just seemed better.

As we decended down into the valley, the snow capped mountains disappeared, and I watched the thermometer rise...75..85..95..104 degrees! We were entering Los Angeles city limits, and within minutes we were stuck in a traffic jam, smog, and six lanes of traffic...and strangely enough, I was glad to be home.