So in my last post, I used this little platform here to dish out an illustrious assortment of assumptions, impressions, and other rather vague ideas about what might reasonably have been New Orleanian geography (jury's still out). Of course, being somewhat acquainted with teaching methods of higher education (geographical proximity to actual teachers counts, right?), I didn't put you through this mess just for the fun of it. In this post, we're going to use all the information that we've gathered about various aspects of local Louisiana geography and talk about ...
Vegas! What did you think?
Right after I finished the last post, I hopped on a plane to Las Vegas to visit Sebbl, former leader of the great band Beyond Repair (nomen est omen) and gravitational center of my home town's circle of friends. Sebbl works for a company that is famous for having suicidal athletes advertise their magical energy drink that allegedly makes you fly. So it was only natural that his job would take him into Las Vegas. Said company staged two major events in the States in October and Sebbl and Paul, a friend and co-worker of his, decided to spend the time in between visiting the natural treasures known as Grand-, Zion-, Bryce- and Antelope Canyon. They only had to beg a little bit before I agreed to accompany them. The three of us joined forces in a Vegas hotel room, lit a few bucks on fire twenty stories below in the hotel's casino, tried to take in some of the glittering insanity that is the Strip and went to bed early like the responsible adults that we apparently turned out to be. I'm not even kidding, we were in bed by midnight. It's downright scary what growing up does to you.
But there's only so much fun you can have with responsibility, so the next day we went to Cruise America's headquarters and rented a 30x14x10 feet RV (10x4x3 m) for the three of us, because we're in America now and this is how America rolls.
We called it Bigly.
There is no way my words could convey the beauty that we saw on our trip. Neither could pictures, but Sebbl and Paul tried so adorably hard anyway, it would be a shame not to give you a small selection:
Woke up like this!
Somewhere in Arizona we turned into a boy band, apparently.
Based on an actual picture.
We're standing on four different states! Four States! You had to be there.
I see a cigarette!
Also out west people are getting ready for Halloween.
A few additional observations from the road:
- it's good to feel the cold again after months of humid Louisiana heat, but freezing at night gets old rather quickly
- a night sky in the desert is beautiful, and so is waking up to breathtaking landscapes when you parked your car in the dark the previous night
- I don't have a comparison, but it sure felt as if we passed the African savanna, endless Canadian forests and the red Australian deserts in the four hours it took us to get from Utah to Colorado
- Colorado actually smells like weed
- the roof of an RV supports two people at a time
- climbing on that roof to log onto a neighboring hotel's WiFi from 200 yards away across half a Walmart parking lot to watch the second debate in 144p did not quite pay off
- I didn't recognize the Grand Canyon. I mean, I knew what I was staring at, but I didn't recognize it from any pictures I'm sure I must have seen somewhere. Which is odd, as it's such a well-known landmark
- we met our trip's nicest waitresses at a diner on Route 66 that proudly encourages customers to "openly carry." World, we talked about this!
Needless to say, it was an amazing trip. Only thing was, it ended to soon (amazing trips tend to do that, don't they). After eight days on the road, we arrived back in Las Vegas. That gave me five days to explore the city on my own (Sebbl and Paul had to work), which resulted in me running out of ideas about forty minutes into day two. I don't gamble, didn't have enough spare cash to watch any of the surely incredible shows and with two guys who have to get up at six in the morning, partying wasn't really an option. I took a bus downtown to see what Las Vegas had to offer besides the Strip and the main attraction there turned out to be a slightly run down and cheap looking copy of the Strip (which I'm sure must make sense to someone). On my way back to the hotel I stopped in Chinatown (kind of cool, actually) ...
They found the West, alright.
... and then decided to get on a different bus and kept going until the neighborhood stopped blinking. I think I just don't get Vegas.
Anyway, never one to brood (haha), I decided to take this opportunity and do what any sane person would do in a situation like that: I bought a 24h ticket to San Francisco. One of my oldest Friends, Flo, was there, visiting his girlfriend Christina. In what essentially was a touristic equivalent to a theatrical teaser trailer I got just the right mix of familiar faces, new and exciting images and a quick glimpse at the money shot to absolutely make me want to come back to get the full experience. What a first impression!
I'm getting Vertigo just looking at it. Get it?
I hugged Flo and Christina goodbye, did a quick detour by getting on the wrong streetcar, miraculously made it to the airport, caught my plane and yet arrived at my hotel in Vegas just in time to see the staff lock up the pool area. That city really has issues.
Mr. Cave, take it away:
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