17
03
Jul 08

11: New Orleans pt. 1 - Where I Got My Shoes (New Orleans, LA)

Published by keating on Jul 3rd, 2007 in Log with 4 Comments

Louisiana had some of the most torrential rain that I’ve ever seen. We must have driven through about 5 heavy heavy rainstorms within the first hour of crossing the border… it was really bizarre. Also, the lightning displays were magnificent and really fun to watch while driving. Andrew and I had looked in our guidebook for a good cajun restaurant and found a place called Prejaun’s which was described as “touristy but damn good”. Being tourists and liking damn good food, it seemed like the perfect match.


I had never tried cajun food before… ever. I had no idea what to expect when I opened up the menu at Prejean’s but, and I kid you not, every single meal description literally made my mouth water. Oh, it all sounded so good. I ordered a catfish fillet (stuffed with crab, shrimp, and crawfish, then lightly fried in a tasso cream sauce) and a cup of duck gumbo. It was fantastic, maybe the best food on the trip to that point. Andrew also gave multiple rave reviews of his crawfish enchiladas. Figuring nothing could top the meal, we found a nearby motel and checked in for the night. A nice old southern lady had Andrew hold the office door open for her as she released a bug from the building.


The next day we began our final drive to New Orleans. On the way, we stopped by Houma, LA, which was a town at the meeting point of 6 or 7 bayous. The town was kind of neat with a lot of dilapidated houses and buildings. The guidebook told us that it was “common” to see Alligators (or Crocodiles?) walking around on the sidewalk. I was definitely ready to see an Alligator taking a stroll, but, in the end, was sorely disappointed.


Finally, we were in New Orleans. We checked into our hotel, a Holiday Inn which we had booked for 50 bucks a night (for a room!) in the French Quarter. The location was awesome; we could walk just about anywhere from the hotel! We grabbed some amazing fried chicken for lunch at Coop’s Place and watched some Olympic trials. On the way out we ran across a woman with a cart who kept shouting “PIE LADY!”. Her pies looked pretty darn good, but we were a little too full to eat anything else.


We stopped in a Voodoo Store, which seem like the New Orleans equivalent of souvenir shops, where Andrew purchased a magic spell. Directly outside, an awesome little street band with a banjo, a guitar, and a violin was playing. The French Quarter was really cool. It really did remind me of Europe: Lots of houses packed close together, narrow streets, sidewalks pulsing with people. It was interesting to just walk around and see all the vibrancy of the area.


After a while, it was time for dinner. We headed across the French Quarter to Verti Marte, a little market that sold sandwiches. For about eight bucks, I got a fried shrimp poboy which was bigger than my face. It was so delicious, but it made me kind of sick to eat the whole thing. Side note: Cajun food was the best food of the entire road trip.


If the French Quarter wasn’t interesting enough during the day, it really came alive at night. It was loud, smelly, and colorful… so amazing. Andrew and I grabbed some daiquiris down by the pier (which came with free shots). Andrew’s drink was called a 190 antifreeze which, unfortunately, he didn’t realize meant that it was 190 proof. He described the act of drinking it as painful to his heart, which was kind of bizarre.


Just a few things we saw that night in the French Quater:

  • Not one, but TWO miniature horses
  • A leather clad man in assless chaps with pierced nipples and an adorable kitten
  • strippers tossing out mardi gras beads to old women
  • little children on Bourbon street??


On our way back to the hotel, we ran across an old man peeing in the street. He introduced himself and told us that he wanted to show us a trick. “I can tell you, down to the state and city, where you got your shoes at!”. ::Long Pause:: “You got your shoes….” ::He crowds in close:: “In New Orleans, Louisiana! That’s where you get ‘em!”. He was pretty awesome. He also told us how to spell “your last name”. har har. After 15 minutes or so, our new friend demanded money. We gave him a buck but he wanted more and began to get belligerent. He said that he had kids at home that he needed to feed. Andrew offered to buy him a can of “old english” and he happily accepted.



01
Jul 08

10: Texas pt. 2 - Machine Girl and the Cupcake Van (Austin, TX)

Published by keating on Jul 1st, 2007 in Log with 1 Comment

DIdn’t end up getting much sleep at the hostel. I couldn’t remember when exactly I fell asleep. I did remember the comedy sketch that was the last night where every time I thought the snoring guy was about to stop snoring he would just start snoring louder. Either way, I needed coffee pretty bad in the morning. Said coffee ended up coming from Magnolia Cafe and was accompanied by a mediocre breakfast.


Andrew and I didn’t know where to go from here, so we took a shot in the dark and decided to head for the Inner Space Caverns just outside of Austin. The Inner Space Caverns were a big mess of underground caves underneath a prominent Texas interstate. We signed up for a tour, which ended up consisting of parents, six year olds, and us. We were assigned a wacky guide that made corny jokes and told silly stories throughout the tour: “So, even though I don’t have long hair, this IS a rock tour”. It was pretty great, actually. There was even a hidden surprise in the form of the dramatic prairie dog as a cave painting (see pictures below).


Headed back to Austin and checked into our next hotel. Got some amazing barbeque dinner at Mann’s: brisket, sausage, mashed potatoes, fried okra, mac & cheese, and a brownie. We had some time to kill before the concert that I wanted to see that night, so we hit Sixth Street again. This time, we found a Table Shuffle Board table open at Buffalo Billiards, so we snatched it up. Learned what we could about the rules of the game, and played for a while. It was actually pretty fun. If I remember right, Andrew wiped the floor with me every game.


10 p.m. rolled around and we headed for Emo’s to see the concert. Wye Oak was headlining (see my muisc blog: http://music.17points.com), one of my favorite new bands this year. I had heard a lot about Emo’s, and I was really excited to see the venue. When we arrived, however, we were literally the only people there other than the staff. We watched the bartender play a wrestling video game for a while and then the first opener took the stage.


The first band was a single dude who played music under the name, The Cockerspaniels. He was actually pretty good for a one man band; he had a lot of spirit. In the middle of his set, the bartender put a dvd on in the background:Machine Girl. I had kind of always wanted to see Machine Girl, which was a Japanese movie about a girl who gets a machine gun attached to her arm. Between sets, Andrew and I caught a bit of it and it was totally amazing.


The next band was Pontiak who Andrew and I agreed was completely forgettable. Finally, Wye Oak took the stage. I was a little sad to see that only 6 more people had entered the venue since the first opener and that the band was playing for a crowd of 8. Anyways, the band was really good. After the show, I talked to the lead singer for a little bit. She was really nice. I also bought one of their CDs.


On our way back to the car a lady-voiced man inquired if we cared to help a man “just out of prison”.


Woke up the next day with no clean laundry. Ate at Hut’s Burgers for lunch. Hut’s had awards posted up all over the walls, and rightly so; the burgers there were amazing.


After lunch, headed to SoCo (South Congress Ave), which Andrew and I heard was a young and hip area. It was pretty amazing… there were colorful antique shops and restaurants everywhere. We first stopped at Big Top Candy which sold every type of now and later. Impressive. Next we hit Uncommon Things, which was the coolest antique store that I’ve ever seen. They sold so many unique old items. They even had a wicker basket FILLED with family circus comics that had been colored in my a toddler. Amazing.


Afterwards, saw some art galleries that were selling really bold and cheesy tex-mex art. Headed to what looked to be a taco-bus, only to find a CUPCAKE VAN, which safely secured Austin’s place as one of the coolest cities in the country. Knowing this couldn’t be topped, we left for Louisiana.


Stopped in Winnie, TX for the night and sampled Whataburger, which was not very good. The next morning, ate at Cheddar’s, where I was served WAY too many onion straws.



25
Jun 08

09: Texas pt. 1 - Chico’s Tacos (El Paso and Austin, TX)

Published by keating on Jun 25th, 2007 in Log with 2 Comments

Rolled into texas just in time to hit a major traffic jam. First city was El Paso, which we knew nothing about, so we checked the guide book for things to do. El Paso turned out to be a border city, only a few miles from the Mexican border. Andrew and I decided to go check out some old Spanish missions. There were three, only one of which was open. Nevertheless, they were all pretty interesting. The second mission had a big graveyard that was stuffed with heavily decorated crosses… by far the most colorful graveyard that I had ever seen.


Being so close to Mexico, the obvious answer for dinner was Mexican food. We found out about an amazing sounding burrito place called Rafa’s Burritos from the guidebook but unfortunately it was closed. Instead, we headed to our second pick, Chico’s Tacos. When we got there, it was packed. I had never been to a restaurant that had vendors selling snacks INSIDE the restaurant before. We ordered what every other person in line was ordering: rolled tacos and french fries. The tacos were frozen, then deep fried, doused in a mild red soup-sauce, and then topped with about a half pound of cheese… they were absolutely disgusting. In the end, Andrew and I decided that Chico’s was more an experience than a meal. I was just glad that I didn’t end up throwing up that night.


The next morning, Andrew and I went to K-Mart to pick up some trip supplies. We got the supplies in 10 minutes and spent almost an hour looking at the fridges. Andrew pointed out that the stainless steel fridges are “not practical”, because they pick up fingerprints too easily. I countered that this was simply an aesthetic concern and had little to do with practicality. Male bonding at its best.


It was time to give Rafa’s another try. We found Rafa’s near the intersection of two major highways. It was a tiny shack with heavy iron bars over every opening… it looked condemned… and tasty. Burritos were only about 4 dollars at Rafa’s and were seriously about 2 feet long. The menu listed “Burros” for a dollar more. I didn’t know what “Burro” meant (I seem to remember it meaning “donkey”?) so I asked the woman at the counter, but she just looked at me funny. I ended up getting a carnitas burrito and it was probably the best burrito that I’ve ever eaten. I also got to watch Mexican soap opera on a large TV near the back of the restaurant which only made the experience more pleasurable.


Next came serious driving. Texas is a big state… if you don’t believe me, look at a map; It’s huge. We drove about six hours and only made it across about a quarter of the state. We stopped in the tiny town of Ozona, whose motto is “Biggest Little Town in the World”. By this time it was dinner again, so we pulled into a little truck stop steakhouse, The Hitchin’ Post. It would be the most Texasy experience I would have in the state.


We were the only sedan in the parking lot; every other car was either a ford x50 or an SUV. Inside, we picked up our menus and began the process of choosing a meal. The description for the British Burger was so good, I had to order it: “Their second best idea after becoming Americans”. When I ordered the burger, the waitress asked me if I wanted it “all the way”. I asked what that meant and she looked at me funny before rephrasing it as “all the fixin’s”. Andrew ordered the appropriately titled “dinner steak”. In the back of the restaurant, there was an old cowboy, hat and all. The table next to us all ordered salads which, when they arrived, could only loosely be defined as salads and far more accurately labeled as fried shells with a few lettuce leaves resting on top. The food was actually pretty damn good, but the experience was worth far more. We drove until we hit the small town of Fredericksburg, where everything was German. We found a cheap motel, and called it a night.


The next morning, we found a tiny place called Hill Country Donuts and Kolaches for breakfast. I had never heard of a Kolach, so I ordered one. It turned out to be a sausage encased in a fried pastry, and it was pretty good. On our way out of the town, we drove by a gas station with dozens of big wooden bears that were for sale. We stopped for a quick shark and bear picture for Andrew’s shark blog (http://sharkacrossamerica.wordpress.com). Soon after, we arrived in Austin and it was time to check into our hostel.


I was really excited about checking Austin out… It was my number one choice for my next city to experience living in. We went to Cafe Medici for coffee and to use their internet to find a good restaurant. We found a good barbeque place, but it wasn’t quite dinner yet. Outside, it was blazing hot, so we decided to check out Barton Springs at the recommendation of my friend Rachel.


Barton Springs was amazing. The city had taken a river, dammed off a quarter mile of it, lined both sides with concrete, and opened it to the public as a giant swimming pool. We hung out there for almost 2 hours. On the way out, I saw a girl sun bathing who had a giant David Bowie from Labyrinth tattoo covering her entire back. I knew we were in a cool city.


We decided to check out Ruby’s BBQ for dinner. The girl working the counter there was super nice and talked to us about Austin throughout the meal. She recommended a few things that we should check out and her friend told us about an amazing movie theatre where he had seen his favorite movie, “Wherewolves on Wheels”. The food was excellent. I had never liked barbeque before, but the brisket was tender, the chicken was flavorful, and our sides were super tasty. We left satisfied.


Next stop was the Congress Avenue Bridge to see the city’s bat population take flight for the night. Apparently there are 1.5 million bats living under this single bridge. It was kind of bizarre watching them take off… At first one bat flew out, then maybe 5, then whole swarms of bats. The girl at Ruby’s had described the scene as full of “bat tornadoes” and she wasn’t too far off. For about 40 minutes, bats were swarming out from under the bridge. It was really bizarre. Also, for some reason there were a lot of street vendors selling light-up swords at the event. It seemed like a good idea to get one, but unfortunately, I didn’t.


We walked to 6th street next. 6th street was plastered with bars. Every other business on the street was a bar and every one of those bars had live music with no cover. Andrew and I found a bar, Buffalo Billiards where people were tossing a puck across a long, slick, board. We learned that this was table shuffleboard… we had never seen it before. Unfortunately, there were no free tables, so we moved on. We stopped at a bar called Dizzy Rooster to sample some Texas’s finest beer: Lonestar. A rockabilly cover band was playing that was actually pretty fun to listen to.


Back at Buffalo Billiard’s, Andrew and I got a few pints of Shiner Bock, which ended up being my favorite beer in Texas. We still wanted to try out table shuffleboard, but instead found a Big Buck Hunter Championship Edition machine. Andrew and I decided that it was time to hunt moose, and so we went on a countrywide expedition. He edged me out slightly by 5 moose… dammit.


Finally, it came time to visit the Alamo Drafthouse, which was almost by far the coolest thing in Austin. The Alamo Drafthouse was a movie theatre that showed both current releases and old cult classics. Even cooler, every seat in the theatre had a space to put beer and food in front of it. During the movie, you could order from a fully stocked menu and it would be delivered to you by a waiter or waitress. The food was not at all over priced, it was excellent, and it was just pretty damn awesome. We happened to catch weird wednesday, which was free. The theatre was showing 99 women, which was described as a classic 60’s sexploitation movie and the first movie in the genre of “women in prison”. A very serious film buff gave the movie a 15 minute introduction in front of the crowd. Before the movie played, a trailer for the movie “Wanted” was shown (a matrixesque movie) and the film buff actually took the stage to apologize: “I don’t know what asshole just played that shit, but I promise you that you will never see it before one of my movies again”. Amazing. The movie was hilarious (especially with a crowd), the pizza was fantastic, and the experience was almost surreal.


Back at the hostel, there were a bunch of ducks in the driveway that would NOT move for my car. Our room had 8 bunk beds one of them was snoring loudly all night long.



22
Jun 08

08: Too Much Sonic (Gallup and Las Cruces, NM)

Published by keating on Jun 22nd, 2007 in Log with 5 Comments

Andrew and I got to New Mexico long after the sun had already set and we were starting to get tired. We saw in our atlas that the city of Gallup was only a half hour away, so we decided to stay there. Our guidebook told us about two “nice” motels on the main Gallup strip, both of which were really cheap.


When we got to Gallup, we headed for the first motel in the book. The motel’s sign listed vacancies, but when we tried to ring the office bell to reserve a room, no one came to the door. We headed further down the main road and found the second motel, the Roadrunner Inn which was described in the guidebook as “basic, but nice”. I had a hard time understanding the man behind the office counter (he had a thick accent), but I was able to book a cheap double room. On my way out of the office, the man stopped me and showed me that I had to jiggle the room’s door handle to unlock it. Awesome :D.


I guess door jiggling didn’t seem too crazy to me… especially at an old motel. After about 30 seconds of jiggling, I was able to unlock the door. Upon opening the door, I was instantly struck by a strong odor of cat pee. Andrew and I tossed our bags on the two beds and turned on the TV, which we later discovered would always set the volume to maximum on startup. After watching a little Home Improvement (remember Home Improvement?), I had to go to the bathroom. I quickly and surprisingly discovered that the toilet in our bathroom was not bolted to the floor or the wall. Sitting on it was like riding one of those spring mounted animal rides at the playground. Later on at night, when Andrew and I took showers, we discovered that the bathroom pipes were a little busted and that they were leaking water all over the floor. At around 10 PM, Andrew and I got hungry and decided to try out the Sonic across the street (we had never been) and as a final treat, we discovered that the motel room door would NOT lock. We tried to lock the door for at least 10 minutes, but ultimately just decided to put our bags back in the car and leave the door open.


Sonic had an intimidating number of drink choices. Andrew ended up getting a limeade, and I chose an Ocean Water (a mix of sprite and blue coconut). My drink was actually pretty good, but the food I ordered (popcorn chicken) was pretty terrible, even for fast food. The best part of sonic was the drive-thru cashier. While we were ordering at the speaker, the sound cut out so we had to drive up to the window. When we got there, the cashier told us that his headset’s battery had died… but a minute later, he was taking more orders from it. The guy talked to us really slowly and took maybe 5 or 10 minutes to get us our food and drinks. He gave us the drinks, but no straws, and then went to get our change. “fifteen twelve”, the guy said as he gave me 5 dollars and 24 cents worth of change. Gallup was amazing :).


Grabbed more drinks at Sonic on the way out of gallup. The next stop was Albuquerque, the capitol of New Mexico and a city that I was excited to see. Unfortunately, we didn’t really get to see the city… We did eat at a big family new mex-mex restaurant called Sadie’s. Pretty much everything was spicy, but it was al pretty good. We got fresh sopapillas at the end of the meal, which were amazing, and definitely made me overstuff myself.


While driving south through the state, we saw a sign for a town called Truth or Consequences. We had to turn off the highway to check that out. Seriously, Truth or Consequences? That is the coolest name for a town ever. Later, we read in the travel guide that a game show had named the town on its anniversary. I wasn’t aware game shows had the power to name towns, but maybe things like that happen in New Mexico?


On the way to Truth or Consequences, there was a sign for another small town called Elephant Butte. Andrew made me pull over so he could block out the final e in Butte and take a picture. Oh, Andrew. Truth or Consequences ended up being a pretty neat town. The main drag looked like a modernized version an old wild west town. The buildings were all painted bright colors, and the whole town seemed a little artsy. Also, it was called Truth or Consequences.


We looked at our Atlas, and decided to head to Las Cruces before finding a motel. On our way, we passed a traffic accident with a man holding a “slow” sign. I slowed from 70 to 30 before passing him, but he started flailing his hands and yelling at me. You know, I never know how slow these guys want me to go. I more than halved my speed and yet still seemed to personally offend him. I could just imagine him going home later that night and telling his wife about me at dinner. “Jesus Honey, what a day. I was holding the slow sign, but this little punk sped by me like a bat out of hell. He must have at least been going 30…. maybe 35! Damn it… I barely escaped with my life”.


In Las Cruces, we found our motel pretty quickly and settled down. It was really late, so we ate at Sonic AGAIN. Again, the drinks were good and the food was terrible. To offset the bad food, Andrew and I watched Banditas, which was amazing. A true masterwork that combined a harrowing and insightful look at Mexican poverty with breasts. Mexploitation at its best.


The next morning, we checked out of our hotel, ate some trashy breakfast food, and headed for Texas. We made a slight detour to see the White Sands Monument. When we arrived, it was 112 degrees outside. There were actually signs on the side of the road that said “No shade for the next 10 miles”. It was hot! In the gift shop of the monument, we saw that you could rent sand sleds. We waxed the sleds and took them to some sand dunes in the back of the park. The sand dunes were beautiful; imagine a bleached sahara desert and you’ll have a good idea of what the scene looked like. I thought that a waxed sand sled could probably get going pretty fast on a steep sand dune, but unfortunately Andrew and I were probably only pushing 4 mph. It was a little bit of a let down, but it was still fun. We hiked around the dunes afterwards and returned our sleds for a fat 3 dollar reward. On our way out of the sands monument, Andrew and I practiced our freestyle rapping.


17
Jun 08

07: So Grand (Flagstaff, Arizona)

Published by keating on Jun 17th, 2007 in Log with 1 Comment

Shortly after passing the Hoover Dam, we started to see signs pointing us to the Grand Canyon. Andrew had already been, but I had never seen it… We decided to take a detour and to try and make it there for sunset. The road to the Grand Canyon was about 50 miles long, and halfway through signs began to inform us that entrance would cost 25 dollars per car. This made Andrew pretty angry and we sang Disney sing-along songs to calm him down.


The Grand Canyon is big. Really big. You could probably open packets of instant oatmeal into it for your entire life and still not fill it up. Unfortunately, I kind of expected it to be bigger. I think this disappointed Andrew a bit, but it had been built up for my entire life. Either way, it was still amazing. We parked the car at one of the outcroppings and took in the view for a while. After that, we hiked around the rim trail for a bit. We ran into multiple adults telling their children not to jump into the canyon… I wasn’t aware that was such a problem. After an hour or two, sunset was arriving so we headed back to the outcropping. We sat around for a while and listened to some old southern guys talk about getting drunk. During the sunset, I took a lot of pictures… of the sun, which probably wasn’t a great idea. Not only did the pictures not come out well, but my eyes burned after 10 minutes. The old guys had a huge bottle of wine that they were taking long drags from during the whole event. Andrew and I were kinda jealous. They ended up giving the rest of the wine to a freckly red headed kid, whom also happened to have a slice of pizza. Andrew and I had neither, and left the Grand Canyon in a partial defeat.


It was starting to get dark, and Andrew and I were getting really hungry, so we began the drive to Flagstaff. I had never heard of Flagstaff before, and fully expected it to be a podunk little town. However, when we arrived, I was really surprised. Apparently, Flagstaff is a college town… There were towns of students walking around at 10 PM. Andrew and I were really hungry by this point, so we parked the car and tried to find a restaurant that was still serving food. After a few failed attempts, we ended up running across Alpine Pizza. We ordered a 14″ pizza and ate the entire thing. Oh, it was delicious.


All the motels in Flagstaff seemed kind of expensive (well… 60 dollars expensive), but we managed to find one that was cheap. We pulled into the Roadway Inn and got a room. The room was barely bigger than the single full bed (which was slanted). It was awesome. It was also right behind the town’s train tracks. My guidebook later informed me that 70-75 trains run through Flagstaff each day and, by state law, are required to sound their horns at each of the town’s many intersections. Awesome. This fact would have been handy when choosing a motel. Oh well. We had an exciting night, to say the least.


The Roadway Inn’s saving grace was the fact that it aired Bible Man in the morning. I had bought Andrew a Bible Girl action figure from a Christian super outlet back in WA, but I never expected to see the show on TV. In the episode that I caught, Bible Man, Bible Girl, and Cypher (??) had to face off against the evil Jerry Lewis-esque Primordial Drool. I could never figure out why Primordial Drool was bad, but he made a lot of annoying sounds. His weakness was his diamond tooth, which could focus his own power against him. Amazing. I have never watched better Sunday morning TV.


At this point in the trip, Andrew and I had been wearing the same 3 sets of clothes for about a week… which meant it was time to find a laundromat. Luckily, breakfast and laundry came hand in hand; there was a coin-op laundry station right next to La Bellavia cafe. The girl in La Bellavia made fun of me when I tried to order “eggs bellavia” instead of “eggs bella via”… It was the first razz I had been given on the road trip, and it cut deep. The eggs were good and the coin-op station had a Marvel Superheroes arcade game, which was great. After putting on a clean pair of shorts, we left Flagstaff.


Again, Andrew and I had no destination, so we decided to visit the Wupatki National Park. Upon entering the park, we got gatorade. God damn it was good. The weather was getting pretty hot by this point in the road trip (about 100 degrees in AZ) and it was starting to get uncomfortable to stay outside for too long. Our first stop at the park was at the Sunset Crater Lava Fields. Kinda neat… the hills in the area were jet black with streaks of red. Next we headed to see the numerous pueblo ruins which were scattered around the park. They were all pretty cool… big chunks of ancient native american structures. To commemorate the visit, Andrew and I took pictures of each other jumping. Excellent.


On our way out of Arizona, Andrew and I stopped at a mall and got deodorant and a McDonald’s cheeseburger. Some would call it the perfect sendoff… Goodbye Arizona!



16
Jun 08

06: Deal or No Deal (Las Vegas, NV)

Published by keating on Jun 16th, 2007 in Log with 1 Comment

While still in Utah, Andrew and I had decided to call in for reservations at a place called Terrible’s. Supposedly it’s the last name of the guy who owns the establishment…. “Ed Terrible”, but his last name is probably something more mundane like “Smith” or “Jones”. Either way, he’s plastered his name on all sorts of random things in Nevada: casinos, hotels, gas stations, grease and lube stations. We figured a place called Terrible’s must be pretty good. Plus, it was only 45 bucks for a double room.


Checked into Terrible’s around six at night. Our room was pretty classy… lots of space and a huge flat-screen TV. Not bad. After putting our stuff down, headed for The Strip.


After a 20 minute walk, we were there. I had forgotten how bright the strip was at night. Our first goal was to find free drinks, which I think we thought would be easy.
Started off by walking through the Paris Casino. It was pretty awesome. The ceilings were lit up bright and painted like a clear sky. Afterwards, we ventured through the Planet Hollywood casino, which was neony and glitzy. Finally, we reached our first destination: The MGM Grand Casino.


So, last time I was in Vegas, my friends and I found this plastic racing horse game in the MGM Grand. You would sit around a little diorama of a horse racing arena and bet on tiny horses. It was really fun, and you could sit there for hours on 10 dollars worth of quarters. Even better, we got tons of free drinks because it took so long to lose your money. Andrew and I found the same game again, but it was packed for the entire night. We spent a little bit of time playing slots and the “wheel game”. I actually won 50 bucks at one point and we did finally get a free round of drinks. We hadn’t eaten anything for maybe 10 hours at that point, so the alcohol hit me pretty hard.


All in all, we were pretty stingy with our cash and maybe only gambled 10 dollars or so total. We moved on after a while to New York, New York, which Andrew immediately declared to be the “worst casino”. I went upstairs and got one of those novelty sized daiquiris from Coyote Ugly. That’s honestly all I remember clearly for that night. Think we just walked around some more and headed back to the room around 2.


Woke up and watched some awesome sitcoms, including one where Flava Flav played an ex-criminal. It was pretty awesome. Walked a few blocks away from the casino and found a Bavarian restaurant called Hofbrauhaus. It had been crazy hot outside (high 90’s) and a hefeweizen and German food hit the spot.


Back at the hotel, headed down to the pool. Met a nice texan lady in the hot tub, who told us that she had won a few thousand dollars on the Deal or No Deal machines. I was determined to do the same. I had seen the show once or twice… I knew I could do it!


For dinner, we ate at The Buffet at Bellagio. We ate a ton of amazing food. Oh wow. It was really good. One dish in particular, Chicken Wellington… I don’t know how it’s made, but damn it was good. While leaving, I remember thinking that stuffing ourselves at a buffet was probably a bad prelude to a night of drinking in the blazing heat.


Passed through Caesar’s Palace, which was a little underwhelming, on our way to The Mirage. One of the first things we saw was a trendy bar called Revolution. The facade of the bar consisted of the word “REVOLUTION” in giant sculpture letters. The O had a dancing go-go dancer in it and Andrew fell in love with her immediately. He took a picture of her and she posed for him. Unfortunately, the tryst was short lived and we left the bar to gamble a little bit. We found a bunch of screaming people over at a set of Wheel of Fortune slots. We couldn’t figure out why they were screaming, until we realized that one girl kept landing on the “bonus” tile and was getting to spin the wheel. It looked kind of exciting, so we sat down and actually ended up winning a bit of money. We got some free drinks out of it too! We later found some Deal or No Deal machines. I put in 10 dollars and never got to play the Deal or No Deal bonus game. I only had needed one chance to prove my worth…


A whirlwind of casinos followed: Treasure Island, The Wynn, The Venetian, Harrah’s, and The Flamingo. That last casino, The Flamingo, was SO bright and SO loud that I actually began to get light-headed and dizzy. Had to get out of that place. It was about 3 AM by this point, so we headed back to Terrible’s. On our way back a nice woman yelled out her car window to “get home safely” and Andrew commented on how nice Las Vegans were.


The next morning, we took off around noon and grabbed some quick In & Out for lunch. Didn’t really have a plan as to where to go… We more or less tossed a dart at the map and decided that Flagstaff, AZ would be the next destination.


Last big sight in Nevada was Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. We had to pass through a security checkpoint to even drive past the dam. Andrew and I look like a pretty suspicious pair, but for some reason the guard just let us pass. Took a few pictures of the dam, and wondered what kind of stuff gets stuck in its filters.



« Older Entries

Archives

Tags

acute mountain sickness arizona austin bible man brigham young buffet california casnios crappy motel desert fast food flagstaff free drinks friends gallup go-go dancer grand canyon hike hoover dam jumping pictures las cruces las vegas mass transit mormons national park nevada new mexico News oregon photos pictures pie popeye portland prologue railroads salt lake city san fransisco seattle slot machines terrible's texan texas the strip utah

© 2009 Yerevan * WordPress * CleanMinimal * Feed