Phoenix
The best part of visiting Phoenix was meeting with my nephew Josh, Nicole, and Sydney. There’s a wealth of refreshing intellect in that household, which gives me a lot of hope for the future. Josh is a naturopathic healer, Nicole helps navigate our AI spaces, and little Sydney wants to know everything about everything around her. If the family ends up back East, I can guarantee that the child will get spoiled.
After a massive Mexican late lunch and a great conversation with Nicole, we decided to call it an early night. The following day, Josh and I hit the road for the 4 1/2-hour trip to Las Vegas. There were some more very cool desert scenes, this time including hundreds of Joshua trees, so, of course, I had to take the meta picture of Joshua in front of the Joshua tree.
We arrived in Vegas right around the same time as Michael’s flight from Reno, so we connected after a couple of accidental drives around the airport. God, it was good to see him, and I felt he was kind of glad to see us, too.
Las Vegas
So why Vegas? It was Michael’s original idea to meet up there to see the Boston Bruins play because, as a fan living in Lake Tahoe, it’s difficult, to say the least, to get to see a live game. We did get to see the game against the Vegas Golden Knights, but the B’s lost anyway, and that’s all I have to say about that.
After the game, we headed to the Venetian to walk around. Vegas is perhaps the most excellent place I’ve ever been to for people-watching. It succeeds in generating overwhelming excitement all around you, and it’s great to watch how different folks react to it. Simultaneously, there’s a sense that everyone is just passing through and nothing is permanent. It seems like the closest you’ll come to permanence is the performers who play their last gig over and over, or the crusted individuals sitting at the slots for days, hoping for the big payoff. On the other hand, Josh did win some money, but that resulted from his skills as a poker player.
I don’t know how to describe Meow Wolf in a few words. It’s an experience that begins with a visit to a retail store offering a variety of “whimsical” merchandise for purchase. Then, in the store, there are several hidden doors or entrances behind coolers, inside tents, and around the back of some shelves that lead to what seems like a different dimension. In this dimly lit, otherworldly realm, colored lights, peculiar sounds, meandering walkways, and stairs inside tree trunks lead to rooms with different experiences. There was a strobe room where your shadow would persist on the wall for a few seconds every time the strobe went off. There was a room of mirrors with giant heads surrounded by mirrors, creating the illusion that they, and you, reflected off to infinity. Another room had walls that made you feel like you were undersea, with living white coral and plant life all around you. There are entire plots that you can try to figure out with clues scattered throughout the whole installation. We didn’t get that far into the story, but we may be back sometime.
The day after the Meow Wolf experience, we wanted to start with an Eggslut (it’s a Vegas thing), so we drove down the strip to find the storied sandwich. The number of people and traffic on the strip was absurd, and the line at Eggslut was at least an hour long, so we decided to head to the Arts District and Fremont Street for something a little calmer.
Fremont Street is the original Vegas strip. They’ve immortalized it by building a colossal five-block arch canopy that spans from one side of the street to the other, and it claims to be the world’s largest video screen. This area used to be called “Glitter Gulch” because of the extensive use of neon in the original hotels and casinos, which were incidentally powered by the Hoover Dam. On the way to Glitter Gulch, you pass dozens of drive-up or instant wedding chapels and the world-famous Pawn Stars pawn shop. After a slice at the Evel Knievel pizza shop, we made our way back to the van through alleys that held some of the most amazing graffiti art I’ve ever seen.
The next day, Josh had to head home while Michael and I found some reasonably priced tickets to The Grateful Dead show at the Vegas Sphere. The show was spectacular! It was by far the best concert Michael and I had ever seen. I’ve been involved with digital video from an engineering perspective for over 20 years, and I couldn’t even figure out how they pulled off the whole experience. Sitting high up in the stadium seating, we were able to immerse ourselves in the entire show overhead and all around us. I tried to capture it with a couple of images, but don’t take my word for it. You can either see it for yourself or at least take a look at some of the videos captured by folks across YouTube. It was worth it.
On to Lake Tahoe
It was time to move on from Vegas, so the first thing we did was stock up on White Castle sliders for the trip. From Vegas to Reno, where Michael’s van was parked, it’s about 7 hours with lots of desert, including Death Valley, in between. It was yet another area where I had to wonder what could have been a strong enough inspiration to drive early pioneers through this territory.
Along with the remoteness of the area came a lot of weirdness. The USAF Area 51 is nearby, with all its stories of experimental aircraft (UFOs?). There are a lot of single-wide trailers housing brothels and situated in the middle of nowhere. For this stretch, it’s essential to make sure you have enough fuel as you travel through. I couldn’t help thinking how bad a situation it would be to run out of gas. After traveling through miles and miles of that desert nothingness, we decided to take a break and got what has to be the best-tasting root beer float I think I’ve ever had.
Down the road from the A&W was the “world-famous” Clown Motel. It’s famous for its supposed scare factor. I’m not really scared of clowns, but our visit to this place was very strange. We went into the lobby to check it out and couldn’t find anyone there, but just beyond was a door to the gift shop, which appeared to be closed. We tried the handle anyway and found it opened, so of course we went in. All the lights were off, but a man sitting behind a desk, just off to our right, informed us in a low voice that the power was out, but we were free to come in and look around. Okay, creepy enough, but after looking around at the collection of hundreds of clowns in the dim light, I’m not so sure I’m comfortable around them anymore.
Next stop, Reno, Nevada, to pick up Michael’s van at the airport and then head to Tahoe City, where he currently lives.
No responses yet