WeaselAdventure

Our first trip into Vegas proper saw us catch a cab from the Gun Store to the Luxor hotel - a giant pyramid that is designed around an ancient Egypt theme. On top of the pyramid is huge light that shoots into the sky and can be seen from over 200 miles away. It's pretty cool.

We took a bus along the strip toward the Hilton hotel which is a fairly old establishment now, but still one of the nice ones. The Casino itself is a fairly bog standard but as you make your way round toward the Star Trek experience the theme begins to evolve into a futuristic spacey event. Even the toilets are Star Trek themed, which was exciting because no-one ever poops on the show.

Around the entrance was a collection of Klingon, Borg and assorted star fleet crew all milling about. We had struck gold. For the last week there has been a big convention on and everyone was out dressed in their finery on this Saturday night. We followed the throng up and around the museum pieces from the show, ooohing and aaahing at the uniforms and photon torpedoes. The wait was around twenty minutes long for each ride and we started with the Klingon Encounter. The story follows a plot by the Klingons to kidnap an ancestor of Captain Picard from the past, of course he's one of our lot.

So rather than get on the simulator ride there is an emergency teleportation of our group onto the enterprise. Suddenly we're on the bridge..the actual bridge of the enterprise... surrounded by chattering crew and Klingon threats. Next, it's into the turbo lift which loses control and shakes us about for a bit and then onto the shuttle craft which takes us through a really good bit of a dogfight with the Klingons and then through a wormhole back over Vegas.

The whole thing was pretty well orchestrated and the details were superb. We felt like years of geekdom were finally being rewarded.

Next up was the Borg Invasion in 4D. We'd spoken to some kids in the line who said it was pretty scary and looking at the creepy costumes we built it up quite significantly in our heads. Clutching onto each other as we were lead through the a series of Geoffery's Tubes. I expected an Alien War type event being led through the ship as the Zombie robots clawed at us. This was the case but it was a little half assed, lacking the detail of the Klingon ride. As we were led into a big room that represented a transport ship we were issued with 3D goggles and took part in the rest of the story, which saw us all being assimilated by the queen. I mean, it was kinda cool, but the were trying to cater to about 100 people at a time, so rather than a 3D simulator it was just a 3D movie and not a great one at that.

The opportunity for some scary action was dangled in front of us and it never really materialized. Never mind, we ran round and went back on the Klingon Encounter. Hurrah for Star Trek!

We waited in the twenty minute line for a seat in Quarks bar and were thrilled to guzzle down a boozy Warp Core Breach which arrived in a fishbowl steaming with dry ice. We dined on Steak and Seafood surrounded by numerous aliens, trekkies and the members of the DEFCON hacker convention. All of whom took a shine to Eli and warned us not to use cell phones of ATMs and invited us to a hacker party that would be going on to 4am.. wow! 4am!

As the Romulan Ale flowed chants of 'Kirk! Kirk! Kirk' lit up the room, followed by one of 'Star Trek! Star Trek! Star Trek!' We were giddy.

We got back to our room a little tipsy and had a quick shower before heading out on the town. Despite all its temptations of spending we opted for the old rum in a cup trick. We simply filled a big coke cup with some rum and topped it up with coke along the way. We took in all the major highlights of the casinos and just wandered our way through the buildings enjoying getting lost and confused as the architecture pushes you this way and that to encourage spending.

The lights are blinding and the people are drunk and stupid. What happens in Vegas really doesn't stay there, especially when you're lifting $3000 at a time on your credit card and being reminded by the cashier that you did the same thing an hour ago.

It's changed a little since the last time I was there, a few new casino's and some money saving at the others. For example, the Venitian casino no longer turns from day to night every hour..it just stays day. Bit of a swizz I think.

We pooled our resources and plucked up our courage to do a little gambling and headed to the window to turn our whopping $15 risk into chips. Craps was enticing, partly because of the name, but we couldn't work out how to play it. You have to go onto a holding strip and hope the number 7 comes up and then you an maybe place a bet and yadda yadda yadda.

So we took Alex advice. Black 11 it was to be. All or nothing. We tested the water with a quick flurry on Black and we won! Doubled our money! From here it was plain sailing. With our fifteen dollars now safe in our back pocket once again we went for the big time.

Fifteen Dollars on Black Eleven. The ball hit the wheel with an exciting crack and bounced it's way around and around clicking into the little grooves before finally coming to rest on the winning number!

Sadly, it wasn't our winning number. It was the house. Red four. House always wins.

We kept our $15 as a momento of our gambling experience and headed back to bed at around 7am. Sunset to sunrise on the strip. The only way to do it.

I've just changed the settings to allow comments without having to register...sorry Mom, I had it set like that, now y'all can poke fun at our big mugs with relative ease.

And sorry for the giant size of the pictures on the previous post, you kinda have to move them about to see the full image. Geoff has a new computer and it lacks photoshop to bring them down in size. Still though... I think they're pretty.

It took us about a day to reach Las Vegas. We navigated our way through the Mojave desert and into an old cowboy town. I forget the name of it, however the slogan is 'The Ghost Town That Refuses To Die'.

As we arrived our trek leader had staged a little bit of theatrics and the bus was held up by a group of armed bounty hunters looking for Flirty Girty. They promptly had a shoot out with the local law enforcement and much merriment was had. The town itself was a collection of old buildings and outhouses many of which had been converted to little shops selling the usual tourist fayre. We had a little wander up and down the street and were tempted to buy carrots to feed the Burros... wild donkeys that wander about the streets. They are bigger than regular donkeys and look pretty smart when you catch their eyes. Although I think they like getting hit by trucks and cars. The young ones can't swallow carrots either, so maybe they ain't so smart.

Onward to Las Vegas, which is easily the warmest place we've been. About 40 in the shade during the middle of the day. According to the guide book it's the fastest growing city in American and it builds a new school every month. Which seems a lot to me.

As we arrived we pulled into a little frozen yogurt bar and enjoyed a tasty treat. We checked into our hotel which was beautiful and, most importantly, cool before heading out for some adventures.

Our first port of call was the local Gun Store with it's indoor range. I was very excited about this as it was the final thing on my 'To Do' list from five years ago: Shoot a gun. WE had various discussions with people across the country about whether having guns is a good thing. The vast majority of the population believe it keeps the country safe and are shocked that we don't have them. The right to bear arms is as important to Americans as the right to vote. Sadly it is apparent that most people aren't too fussed about the latter.

Anyway, to us tourist Guns are as big a part of American culture as twinkies and cadillacs - you've got to shoot 'em.

The building was filled with typical American frat boy types proclaiming their manhood after the excitement of offloading their weapons in front of each other. It was pretty hilarious. Rocket launchers, machine guns and missiles lined the walls and serious looking men with pistols served the giggling masses.

Eli picked a very nice 9mm while I opted for the Iraq Paq which is the three guns that are commonly used to shoot the dissidents in the Gulf. Next we had to select our targets. We could choose from a number of Asian looking chaps, an Irish man or a black man wielding a gun. I selected an IRA terrorist and, public enemy number one, Osama Bin Laden.

With ear protectors and goggles on we went into the range and prepared to take out our targets. My first gun was like a huge gattling thing with it's own stand. Holding it close to my chest the guy told be to not to squeeze the trigger but rather pull it back in one quick motion and let off around twenty rounds. The kick back wasn't too had but the spent shells flew everywhere and were as hot as molten rock. Next up was some weird machine gun thing that I couldn't handle and didn't like too much. The thing threw bullets all around the place and had some serious recoil.

Finally, the handgun. Of course I though I was doing not bad until Eli presented her score card and had nine clean shots to the head and nine to the heart. She was awesome. I even got a fun T shirt with a picture of a pistol on and the slogan 'I don't call 911'. Very silly fun.


Meditating on Angel's Landing in Zion.



Making our way to the Hidden Canyon.




The Hidden Canyon.




Getting a little soggy in the narrows.




Catching a squirrel!




Spots and stripes.




Meditating in monument valley.




Valley Skies.




My favourite pin-up.

Today we opened our live-journal account so all you lovely people can follow the adventure.

With less than three weeks to go, we're getting rather itchy feet. So far we've bought one pair of sunglasses, tried on some sun tan lotion and generally read suitably cool books about California.

Graeme bought a book on Andy Warhol to read when we were there, but he read it already.

The list of things to do is pretty extensive before we go...including apply for a new drivers license, cause eejit lost his wallet last weekend in St Andrews, and it's vital to rent the car.

We've also got a bit of tidying up to do, cause, well... who likes to come back to a messy house?

So over the next wee while we'll update this fairly irregularly while we try out HTML linking, inserting pictures and maybe even a video or two.

Anyway.. if anyone has any hints or tips for LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas or some fancy web jibberish, do let us know... in the meantime, enjoy this wonderful video, guess what Graeme's excited about?