Day 21: Vegas with Don & Ilse - by the time i get to Arizona
March 26, 2000
4:00A - Don & I gambled small change - i won $225 on Craps, lost $110 on Roulette (stupid stupid - i know this game is statistically garbage), then we stood at the dollar wheel for a $100 round of Heinekens. Then back up to the room for some sleep.
Ilse woke up, we laughed for a few minutes about late night gambling. Like 3 monkeys - see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, have no fun.
7:00A - I set the alarm for 7:00A (a whopping 3 hours) to play with the front desk - attempt a 2 hour delay on the noon check out time and they agree. Cost of the room just went from $12.13 an hour to $11.16.
9:15A - Up for good this time. 5 hours of sleep did me well. We prepare for the day by watching a bit of news on CNN. They are going to blow up the Kingdome today in Seattle. 12 second sustained explosion. nice!
11:00A - Out by the pool - Don & Ilse catching sun, sipping a Bloody Mary, me on the laptop - i got some decent sun in Hawai'i.....i have much web work to do.
High Noon - Just called 411 and picked up the number of an old high school friend who is attending culinary school in Scottsdale. She offered the futon for tonight if i can make it to Phoenix and so the next leg of the journey is cemented...with very little time to spare.
With that settled and my virgin Pineapple Daiquiri melting by the beach chair, i sat down to post a few hundred postcards for the days ahead. I think i may scatter a few on the beach chairs just for S&G's.
Don even found today's sports page
2:00P - It's settled then, Ilse & Don are packed and ready to head out to McCarran Field, then back to Jersey and I have a 7 hour leisurely route planned southwest with a quick stop in between. Should arrive Phoenix by 9:30P tonight.
Some guys in a Harris' Special asked to be on the web...done. and it's bye bye Vegas - you only took $200 from us combined!
Take Cover Arizona!
Detour over the Hoover Dam and i can't manage a decent shot. traffic is inching at 5 mph and the only positive side is the serious crowd of walkers that i see mouthing "www.smartbeetle.com" and committing it to memory. Surf the web
The power coming out of this man-made behemoth is almost sensible. Giant towers and cables and transformers everywhere in the hills. I wonder what percentage of Hoover's capacity the SmartBeetle has. I should look this up.
6:15P MST - For some reason, being back in SmartBeetle (it's now a proper name in my mind) sliding southeast across barren Arizona starts me thinking again of fireworks...blasted pyrotechnics. show me a sign. The sun is heading down for the night and Arizona is basking in it. if i ever find a place to sell me some, you'd better believe the whole vest-stowage area will be filled to the brim with explosives by the time i get home to Vermont.
Flew by a 2001-looking space ship house. weird? the windows on the other side looked like a high-placed windshield. I didn't think i was that close to Roswell yet.
7:01P - Sunset over Lake Havasu. And i can't take a clear picture to save my life. Tomorrow i am definitely on the horn with Toshiba! Someone from here actually bought the original London Bridge, had it taken apart and reassembled in Arizona. Looks cool, and is functional, but it's surrounded by malls, so i can't get a decent look.
Driving out of Havasu, i scan the frequencies and stop at 101.1FM, Queen: Another One Bites the Dust. Perfect timing. I watch another "One" shrink back into the desert in the rearview mirror.
7:34P - it's 85 degrees and bone dry. water consumption is on the rise. i stop to wet the desert and end up spending 20 minutes just watching the sunset turn into dusk over the hills of Havasu. 2 hours to Phoenix! I have got to get the port headlight fixed
NASCAR'd out of the "pit" by screaming through the gears and the darn GPS is down! - the antenna got sucked out the open window and it was banging on the car. Whipped over on the shoulder and thankfully it was simple to screw it back together. that would've been a catastrophe for the trip map and my travel planning from here on in.
Day turned into night and i am getting sleepy - way to early. i just figured in my head 7 hours solid sleep in the last two and one half days....i need to correct my schedule tonight or i am going to be in serious trouble crossing Texas. It'll take me 3 days at this rate.
9:22P - glow of city interferes with my window-down-82mph stargazing...even at this speed, everyone and their sister is blowing by me on the Port side. and they all have glaring eyes. i should have a loudspeaker stating "Log In. Surf the web. Check up!"
10:48P - PHOENIX. TEMPE. Finally. Beat as all hell. Molly wakes up and greets me hello. I get the futon tonight and may stay tomorrow night to hang out. She's back in bed and her roommate takes me aside to explain the story of my bedding. Apparently a few years back, her first cousin murdered his wife and children with an axe and then fled to Hawai'i. [begin Twighlight Zone theme]
Well, he saw himself on America's Most Wanted and promptly turned himself in to the FBI. He is currently serving life in prison and has taken up knitting. So, he sent his cousin a blanket - and now i am about to be unconscious under it. I wonder what i will dream about. Goodnight world.