Thursday, July 21, 2005
Toe Knows Gambling
Current Location: Bally's Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
On Monday, I drove all day across Arizona on the I-40, passing landmarks that I really wanted to stop for, Petrified Forest National Park, the Grand Canyon, etc. When I reached the town of Kingman, AZ, at about 2:30 Pacific time, I turned N on US 93, which takes you all the way to Las Vegas, passing over the Hoover Dam. The area surrounding the dam is very interesting landscape; you are surrounded by craggy, rocky bald mountains, there isn't much vegetation. Suddenly, you pull over a ridge, and all you can see is green and blue, the effects of Lake Mead, the lake formed by the dam. Lake Mead National Recreation Area was the first place in the US to receive that designation.
I was extremely excited to drive over the Hoover Dam, though I wasn't sure what to expect. I felt for sure there would be huge security in place, considering the dam provides power and fresh water to seven states. No trucks are allowed on that section of US 93. About two miles from the dam, there was a large security turnout, so cars could go through a checkpoint. However, the guards were just waving people through, without even asking questions. It seemed to me as though they were just sort of taking a peek at people, and perhaps their skin color, not really looking in their cars. To the guards' credit, it was an extremely hot hot day, it was over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, possibly the hottest weather I have experienced. I saw signs that stated there were more checkpoints at the dam itself, but these turned out to merely be stop lights, and weren't in operation that day. Coming up to the dam, there is a lot of evidence that they are building a dam bypass down river a bit, probably to ease the flow of traffic towards Las Vegas, and limit the travel over the dam. I stopped at the dam only briefly on monday, just took a few quick photos from the vista areas on the Arizona side of the dam, before proceeding on over the dam. It took about 5 minutes to cross, as traffic was slow but steadily moving. There were tons of people walking around on the dam, and on the Nevada side, I saw there was a huge visitor center offering tours and such. I wanted to stop, but I was in a little bit of a rush to get to Vegas, so I decided I would come back on Tuesday, since the dam is only about 30 miles from Las Vegas. The temperature was over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, just ridiculous temperatures, and because I had my AC on, and the path to Vegas was uphill, my car started to overheat, before I realized what was happening. I thought I was in trouble but the engine cooled off pretty readily as soon as I turned the AC off.
I have been to Las Vegas twice before, but never driven into the city. In fact, I've only arrived in the city at night. During the day, you can see the monstrous hotels from 15 to 20 miles out, and definitely from the nearby city of Henderson, NV. Las Vegas is a city of contrasts. It is very easy to find the poshest of places, and walk right next door and find the sleaziest of places. You might find the richest of people, having some fun, blowing off a little steam in the casino, gambling next to someone who's hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, hoping for extreme luck. You'll find young, old, beautiful and ugly, the extremes and everything in the middle. This is the true crossroads of the United States. There is something for everyone and everyone can share a piece of the action. Driving in, I saw a sign for Felecia's Fun Club, home of the $5 lap dance, which is a bit cringe-inducing.
I met up with Jim and Andrea, two of my friends and former co-workers, who were in town for a conference. I love going to Vegas with Jim, because he is really into fine dining and goes to a different gourmet restaurant every night. Monday night we went to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grille at Caesar's Palace, and I had gotten us tickets to see the Amazing Johnathan, a favorite comedian of mine, who's show I had wanted to see the previous two times in Vegas. Everyone agreed that the show was hilarious, definitely a good see, particularly if you have a bit of a sick sense of humor. The show was an hour and a half!, and the lower priced tickets were $45 (and most were probably better than the high priced tickets). Definitely highly recommended.
Jim was staying at Caesar's Palace, so I stayed with him on monday and tuesday night. On tuesday, while Jim and Andrea went to their conference, I went back to Hoover Dam, Bill Simmons be damned. The dam is very very impressive, and well worth the $5 to park and $15 for the tour ticket. The first part of the tour was a brief slideshow where they tell you historical facts about the building of the dam, as well as neat statistics such as: there is enough concrete in the dam to build a two lane highway from San Francisco to New York, the water in Lake Mead would cover an area the size of Connecticut with 10 feet of water, and that Lake Mead stores 2 years worth of electricity in water, behind the dam.
Next stop on the tour was the Nevada generator room, where there are 8 generators (another 9 on the Arizona side).
The last part of the tour included a model of the dam bypass down the river a ways, and then a mention of the memorial across the street. The memorial was set up in memory of the workers who died building the dam (94 I believe). The memorial includes two winged statues, and the tour guide mentioned that if you touch all 20 toes on the statues, you are guaranteed 24 hours of good luck.
I wandered around the top of the dam some more, and took a lot more photos before heading back to my car. On the way to the car, I did happen to walk up to the statues for a look, and figured "what the heck", and touched all 20 toes individually. Just as I was getting back to the garage, I heard this loud boom, a huge huge noise, that echoed throughout the whole canyon and dam area, it was very scary! Turns out, it was just blasting as part of the construction down river, but it was very very scary.
I got back to Vegas, and met up with Jim and Andrea. We went to Spago's at Caesar's for dinner. By this time, I was definitely getting anxious, because I had been in Vegas 24 hours already, and not gambled a bit, not even shoving a quarter into a slot machine. Andrea and Jim had tickets to see another show that night, Danny Gans at the Mirage. I didn't really want to see Danny Gans (the performer who replaced Siegfried and Roy) for $100, so I planned to gamble at the Mirage and wait for them and we would all gamble afterwards. I took $400 out of the bank (the gambling budget for the entire trip) and quickly found a game called Crazy-4-Poker, a 4 card poker game I had never heard of before. The game looked intriguing and included a lot of bonus bets where you could get paid out 4-1 on a flush, 7-1 on a three of a kind, in addition to your regular bets. Because of all the bonuses, if you played say $25 on your bonus, and $10 on your regular bet, you could get paid as much as $300 on a three of a kind. I played several hands and quickly got down to $180, and almost got up and left the table, but something kept me there. By varying my bets and getting extremely lucky, I just went on this amazing winning streak. I kept getting flushes and three of a kinds, like really huge hands, every few hands. I've never had a gambling night like this in my life, I jut couldn't lose. I did have a few breaks, for instance when Jim and Andrea came out of their show and we met back up, but I pretty much played this game for about 8 hours, and won so much money over the course of the night that it covered my new tires and all the gas I had bought up to that point on the trip. It was unbelievable, I just couldn't lose... and I attribute it to touching the toes at Hoover Dam :). The title of this article was suggested by Jim.
I didn't want to leave the Mirage, but I finally did at about 3:15, because I was so tired, despite having had about 20 cokes. Vegas at 3 am is very interesting, something I have surprisingly never seen. At 3 AM, the casinos start to clean, which is really something to observe. They start cleaning out the slot machines, vacuuming, wiping down surfaces, all while people are still up and about playing their games. I stepped outside on the way back to Caesar's next door, and was almost knocked over, the temperature was still in the high 90's. It was amazing. I needed a shower when I got back to the room, and quickly conked out for the night.
Wednesday I slept until about noon, and met up with Jim and Andrea for dinner. I checked into my own room at Bally's, because Jim's girlfriend Rachel was flying in that night. We went to dinner at P.F. Chang's (a favorite of mine) at the Aladdin, then dropped Andrea off at the airport and picked up Rachel. At this point everyone was tired, so we all went back to our rooms.
I can't believe I'm in Vegas, home to several of the biggest and best hotels in the world, and it is impossible to get a wireless internet connection. I would say 95% of the podunk little motels out there, 60% of truck stops and 40% of campgrounds that I have been through offer free wireless internet, and yet Vegas hotels want to you to pay $10 a day. Tomorrow at some point, I am heading to southern California to meet up with my friend Becky.
On Monday, I drove all day across Arizona on the I-40, passing landmarks that I really wanted to stop for, Petrified Forest National Park, the Grand Canyon, etc. When I reached the town of Kingman, AZ, at about 2:30 Pacific time, I turned N on US 93, which takes you all the way to Las Vegas, passing over the Hoover Dam. The area surrounding the dam is very interesting landscape; you are surrounded by craggy, rocky bald mountains, there isn't much vegetation. Suddenly, you pull over a ridge, and all you can see is green and blue, the effects of Lake Mead, the lake formed by the dam. Lake Mead National Recreation Area was the first place in the US to receive that designation.
I was extremely excited to drive over the Hoover Dam, though I wasn't sure what to expect. I felt for sure there would be huge security in place, considering the dam provides power and fresh water to seven states. No trucks are allowed on that section of US 93. About two miles from the dam, there was a large security turnout, so cars could go through a checkpoint. However, the guards were just waving people through, without even asking questions. It seemed to me as though they were just sort of taking a peek at people, and perhaps their skin color, not really looking in their cars. To the guards' credit, it was an extremely hot hot day, it was over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, possibly the hottest weather I have experienced. I saw signs that stated there were more checkpoints at the dam itself, but these turned out to merely be stop lights, and weren't in operation that day. Coming up to the dam, there is a lot of evidence that they are building a dam bypass down river a bit, probably to ease the flow of traffic towards Las Vegas, and limit the travel over the dam. I stopped at the dam only briefly on monday, just took a few quick photos from the vista areas on the Arizona side of the dam, before proceeding on over the dam. It took about 5 minutes to cross, as traffic was slow but steadily moving. There were tons of people walking around on the dam, and on the Nevada side, I saw there was a huge visitor center offering tours and such. I wanted to stop, but I was in a little bit of a rush to get to Vegas, so I decided I would come back on Tuesday, since the dam is only about 30 miles from Las Vegas. The temperature was over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, just ridiculous temperatures, and because I had my AC on, and the path to Vegas was uphill, my car started to overheat, before I realized what was happening. I thought I was in trouble but the engine cooled off pretty readily as soon as I turned the AC off.
I have been to Las Vegas twice before, but never driven into the city. In fact, I've only arrived in the city at night. During the day, you can see the monstrous hotels from 15 to 20 miles out, and definitely from the nearby city of Henderson, NV. Las Vegas is a city of contrasts. It is very easy to find the poshest of places, and walk right next door and find the sleaziest of places. You might find the richest of people, having some fun, blowing off a little steam in the casino, gambling next to someone who's hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, hoping for extreme luck. You'll find young, old, beautiful and ugly, the extremes and everything in the middle. This is the true crossroads of the United States. There is something for everyone and everyone can share a piece of the action. Driving in, I saw a sign for Felecia's Fun Club, home of the $5 lap dance, which is a bit cringe-inducing.
I met up with Jim and Andrea, two of my friends and former co-workers, who were in town for a conference. I love going to Vegas with Jim, because he is really into fine dining and goes to a different gourmet restaurant every night. Monday night we went to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grille at Caesar's Palace, and I had gotten us tickets to see the Amazing Johnathan, a favorite comedian of mine, who's show I had wanted to see the previous two times in Vegas. Everyone agreed that the show was hilarious, definitely a good see, particularly if you have a bit of a sick sense of humor. The show was an hour and a half!, and the lower priced tickets were $45 (and most were probably better than the high priced tickets). Definitely highly recommended.
Jim was staying at Caesar's Palace, so I stayed with him on monday and tuesday night. On tuesday, while Jim and Andrea went to their conference, I went back to Hoover Dam, Bill Simmons be damned. The dam is very very impressive, and well worth the $5 to park and $15 for the tour ticket. The first part of the tour was a brief slideshow where they tell you historical facts about the building of the dam, as well as neat statistics such as: there is enough concrete in the dam to build a two lane highway from San Francisco to New York, the water in Lake Mead would cover an area the size of Connecticut with 10 feet of water, and that Lake Mead stores 2 years worth of electricity in water, behind the dam.
Next stop on the tour was the Nevada generator room, where there are 8 generators (another 9 on the Arizona side).
The last part of the tour included a model of the dam bypass down the river a ways, and then a mention of the memorial across the street. The memorial was set up in memory of the workers who died building the dam (94 I believe). The memorial includes two winged statues, and the tour guide mentioned that if you touch all 20 toes on the statues, you are guaranteed 24 hours of good luck.
I wandered around the top of the dam some more, and took a lot more photos before heading back to my car. On the way to the car, I did happen to walk up to the statues for a look, and figured "what the heck", and touched all 20 toes individually. Just as I was getting back to the garage, I heard this loud boom, a huge huge noise, that echoed throughout the whole canyon and dam area, it was very scary! Turns out, it was just blasting as part of the construction down river, but it was very very scary.
I got back to Vegas, and met up with Jim and Andrea. We went to Spago's at Caesar's for dinner. By this time, I was definitely getting anxious, because I had been in Vegas 24 hours already, and not gambled a bit, not even shoving a quarter into a slot machine. Andrea and Jim had tickets to see another show that night, Danny Gans at the Mirage. I didn't really want to see Danny Gans (the performer who replaced Siegfried and Roy) for $100, so I planned to gamble at the Mirage and wait for them and we would all gamble afterwards. I took $400 out of the bank (the gambling budget for the entire trip) and quickly found a game called Crazy-4-Poker, a 4 card poker game I had never heard of before. The game looked intriguing and included a lot of bonus bets where you could get paid out 4-1 on a flush, 7-1 on a three of a kind, in addition to your regular bets. Because of all the bonuses, if you played say $25 on your bonus, and $10 on your regular bet, you could get paid as much as $300 on a three of a kind. I played several hands and quickly got down to $180, and almost got up and left the table, but something kept me there. By varying my bets and getting extremely lucky, I just went on this amazing winning streak. I kept getting flushes and three of a kinds, like really huge hands, every few hands. I've never had a gambling night like this in my life, I jut couldn't lose. I did have a few breaks, for instance when Jim and Andrea came out of their show and we met back up, but I pretty much played this game for about 8 hours, and won so much money over the course of the night that it covered my new tires and all the gas I had bought up to that point on the trip. It was unbelievable, I just couldn't lose... and I attribute it to touching the toes at Hoover Dam :). The title of this article was suggested by Jim.
I didn't want to leave the Mirage, but I finally did at about 3:15, because I was so tired, despite having had about 20 cokes. Vegas at 3 am is very interesting, something I have surprisingly never seen. At 3 AM, the casinos start to clean, which is really something to observe. They start cleaning out the slot machines, vacuuming, wiping down surfaces, all while people are still up and about playing their games. I stepped outside on the way back to Caesar's next door, and was almost knocked over, the temperature was still in the high 90's. It was amazing. I needed a shower when I got back to the room, and quickly conked out for the night.
Wednesday I slept until about noon, and met up with Jim and Andrea for dinner. I checked into my own room at Bally's, because Jim's girlfriend Rachel was flying in that night. We went to dinner at P.F. Chang's (a favorite of mine) at the Aladdin, then dropped Andrea off at the airport and picked up Rachel. At this point everyone was tired, so we all went back to our rooms.
I can't believe I'm in Vegas, home to several of the biggest and best hotels in the world, and it is impossible to get a wireless internet connection. I would say 95% of the podunk little motels out there, 60% of truck stops and 40% of campgrounds that I have been through offer free wireless internet, and yet Vegas hotels want to you to pay $10 a day. Tomorrow at some point, I am heading to southern California to meet up with my friend Becky.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Valley of Fires
posted by Jonathan at 12:13 AM
Current Location: Gallup, NM, N 35 30.421', W 108 49.482', elev. 6494 ft.
Let me start by saying that New Mexico is a geologist's wet dream. Between Carlsbad and White Sands, Valley of Fire, volcanic activity and huge differences in elevation, climate, ecology and geology, a geologist could spend a lifetime here and not see everything. The best part is that you can go between all these diverse locales very quickly.
I got up early and headed north and east on the I-25 towards Santa Fe. My ultimate destination for the day was Bandelier National Monument, but everything in northern New Mexico is so close I didn't think I'd have a problem cramming a lot in. Santa Fe, like Albuquerque 60 miles south west, is a very beautiful city, very nice to drive around, and dominated and dwarfed by a huge mountain peak. It is also the oldest city among all the state capitols (founded in 1610, 20 years before Boston).
From Santa Fe, I headed northwest along US 285 / US 84, until I reached New Mexico 502, which I took west towards Los Alamos. Bandelier was a little difficult to find, as I discovered on the map, it is actually broken up into several parts. Before reaching Bandelier, I came across a town called White Rock Canyon, which oddly enough, was on the top of a canyon plateau. There was a magnificent overlook spot, which I decided to drive out to, and I took some photos.
The photos can't convey that this breathtaking view is actually from the top of at least a 600 foot precipice over the canyon below. Astounding.
After leaving White Rock Canyon, I did eventually find myself at Bandelier National Monument, parts of which contain the Lincoln National Forest, and various Los Alamos Nuclear Research installations. The main attractions within Bandelier are ruins of Pueblo and archeological cliff dwelling sites built into the sides of volcanic rock. I took a hike through the monument and got some good photos of the pueblos and cliff dwellings.
I spent about an hour hiking through here. Bandelier was definitely a neat place to stop, something I'd recommend if you are ever in the Albuquerque / Santa Fe area. I saw several squirrels that looked very hardy, they reminded me of grizzled, unkempt pirates for some reason. Arrrrr! Bandelier had a very pleasant aroma to it, like sweet spices (cinnamon, vanilla, etc.), and there were tons of trees and lots of shade, but no bugs buzzing around to annoy me, and very few people to get in my way. The rest of the day's photos can be found here.
Leaving Bandelier, I did sort of a roundabout (unintentional) loop out near Los Alamos, heading northeast on the New Mexico 4, to west on the New Mexico 502, then south west on New Mexico 501, until reaching the New Mexico 4 again. I was in Los Alamos for most of that, though I did not stop for any museums, as the day was already getting long and I intended to get to Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque. Plus I had had my fill of nuclear history the day before at Trinity Site. I figured the New Mexico 4 would take me southwest to New Mexico 44 back do the I-25 to Albuquerque. It looked real short on my atlas! However, the New Mexico 4 is a very long, very windy road with many switchbacks not shown on the atlas. I'm not complaining, it was a very beautiful drive through much of the Lincoln National Forest and the Jemez Mountains. Remember when I mentioned earlier about the rapidly changing elevation, geology and ecology? I saw a lot of those fast changes on this two hour drive. The Jemez mountains and the drive were immensely pleasurable and beautiful, and they very much reminded me of the drive through the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. I figured I wouldn't ever see such beautiful trees in New Mexico. And the temperature in the mountains and forest was very nice, I had my windows down for most of the drive. At one point I came upon a huge valley, it must have been 15 miles across, so the photos do not do it justice. The valley is named Valley of the Fires, like 3 or 4 other valleys I have seen in New Mexico and Texas.
Looking out over one of the many Valley of Fires
Some of the most colorful mountain rocks I have ever seen were near the end of the NM 4, in the Jemez Mountains pass.
Once I got back to I-25, I quickly rode over to Sandia Peak again so I could get some daytime photos of the peak, which are the last few photos of the Bandelier set. Because the drive through Bandelier, Lincoln Forest and the Jemez Mountains took a lot longer than I expected, I really didn't have enough time to go to Petroglyph National Monument, even though it was only about 2 miles from the motel I stayed in saturday night. I wanted to stay one more night in Albuquerque, but I really couldn't, because I have to be in Vegas at around 5 PM on monday. I am meeting up with some former co-workers and we have plans to see a show. Las Vegas is a ten hour drive from Albuquerque, so I cut down on some of that time by driving two hours west on I-40 to Gallup, New Mexico, before putting in for the night. On monday I plan on driving clear across Arizona on the I-40, stopping only for gas. I expect the drive will be about 8 hours, plus I get a free hour crossing into Arizona, which is usually part of Mountain Standard Time, but does not observe Daylight Saving Time.
Let me start by saying that New Mexico is a geologist's wet dream. Between Carlsbad and White Sands, Valley of Fire, volcanic activity and huge differences in elevation, climate, ecology and geology, a geologist could spend a lifetime here and not see everything. The best part is that you can go between all these diverse locales very quickly.
I got up early and headed north and east on the I-25 towards Santa Fe. My ultimate destination for the day was Bandelier National Monument, but everything in northern New Mexico is so close I didn't think I'd have a problem cramming a lot in. Santa Fe, like Albuquerque 60 miles south west, is a very beautiful city, very nice to drive around, and dominated and dwarfed by a huge mountain peak. It is also the oldest city among all the state capitols (founded in 1610, 20 years before Boston).
From Santa Fe, I headed northwest along US 285 / US 84, until I reached New Mexico 502, which I took west towards Los Alamos. Bandelier was a little difficult to find, as I discovered on the map, it is actually broken up into several parts. Before reaching Bandelier, I came across a town called White Rock Canyon, which oddly enough, was on the top of a canyon plateau. There was a magnificent overlook spot, which I decided to drive out to, and I took some photos.
The photos can't convey that this breathtaking view is actually from the top of at least a 600 foot precipice over the canyon below. Astounding.
After leaving White Rock Canyon, I did eventually find myself at Bandelier National Monument, parts of which contain the Lincoln National Forest, and various Los Alamos Nuclear Research installations. The main attractions within Bandelier are ruins of Pueblo and archeological cliff dwelling sites built into the sides of volcanic rock. I took a hike through the monument and got some good photos of the pueblos and cliff dwellings.
I spent about an hour hiking through here. Bandelier was definitely a neat place to stop, something I'd recommend if you are ever in the Albuquerque / Santa Fe area. I saw several squirrels that looked very hardy, they reminded me of grizzled, unkempt pirates for some reason. Arrrrr! Bandelier had a very pleasant aroma to it, like sweet spices (cinnamon, vanilla, etc.), and there were tons of trees and lots of shade, but no bugs buzzing around to annoy me, and very few people to get in my way. The rest of the day's photos can be found here.
Leaving Bandelier, I did sort of a roundabout (unintentional) loop out near Los Alamos, heading northeast on the New Mexico 4, to west on the New Mexico 502, then south west on New Mexico 501, until reaching the New Mexico 4 again. I was in Los Alamos for most of that, though I did not stop for any museums, as the day was already getting long and I intended to get to Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque. Plus I had had my fill of nuclear history the day before at Trinity Site. I figured the New Mexico 4 would take me southwest to New Mexico 44 back do the I-25 to Albuquerque. It looked real short on my atlas! However, the New Mexico 4 is a very long, very windy road with many switchbacks not shown on the atlas. I'm not complaining, it was a very beautiful drive through much of the Lincoln National Forest and the Jemez Mountains. Remember when I mentioned earlier about the rapidly changing elevation, geology and ecology? I saw a lot of those fast changes on this two hour drive. The Jemez mountains and the drive were immensely pleasurable and beautiful, and they very much reminded me of the drive through the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. I figured I wouldn't ever see such beautiful trees in New Mexico. And the temperature in the mountains and forest was very nice, I had my windows down for most of the drive. At one point I came upon a huge valley, it must have been 15 miles across, so the photos do not do it justice. The valley is named Valley of the Fires, like 3 or 4 other valleys I have seen in New Mexico and Texas.
Looking out over one of the many Valley of Fires
Some of the most colorful mountain rocks I have ever seen were near the end of the NM 4, in the Jemez Mountains pass.
Once I got back to I-25, I quickly rode over to Sandia Peak again so I could get some daytime photos of the peak, which are the last few photos of the Bandelier set. Because the drive through Bandelier, Lincoln Forest and the Jemez Mountains took a lot longer than I expected, I really didn't have enough time to go to Petroglyph National Monument, even though it was only about 2 miles from the motel I stayed in saturday night. I wanted to stay one more night in Albuquerque, but I really couldn't, because I have to be in Vegas at around 5 PM on monday. I am meeting up with some former co-workers and we have plans to see a show. Las Vegas is a ten hour drive from Albuquerque, so I cut down on some of that time by driving two hours west on I-40 to Gallup, New Mexico, before putting in for the night. On monday I plan on driving clear across Arizona on the I-40, stopping only for gas. I expect the drive will be about 8 hours, plus I get a free hour crossing into Arizona, which is usually part of Mountain Standard Time, but does not observe Daylight Saving Time.