should give you some idea what I'm
talking about. Mammoth piles of rock, looming right up in your
face. What good is a mountain if it doesn't make you
question your own (in)significance? And they're now available in red 
, too!The last thousand miles...
Got up around midnight or so, and we were shortly back on the road. Little to be said about the rest of Wyoming - it was dark, fast, and straight. (Travel Tip: Wyoming is the state with the 2nd lowest state-trooper/highway-mile ratio, behind only Montana. Draw your own conclusions.)
Got to Cheyenne, and then kept right on moving, south on I-25. Still dark.
Denver: the cover of darkness begins to dissipate, threatening to leave us vulnerable to the Big Ball of Fire. Turned right onto I-70, and headed west (away from the Deadly Sun).
By the time we were into the Rocky Mountains, morning had come. I took this as a Personal Affront, and handed the driving off to Hagan. Took some photos, instead.
Let me start of by saying, for those of you who haven't seen
them, that the Rocky Mountains are the only mountains we
have in this country. Those things in the middle of Pennsylvania
are but mere hills in comparison. This
should give you some idea what I'm
talking about. Mammoth piles of rock, looming right up in your
face. What good is a mountain if it doesn't make you
question your own (in)significance? And they're now available in red , too!
Colorado, a land so wild and free that their rest areas 
haven't even been named yet. (the
"John Denver Plaza"?)
No, those aren't big matte
paintings 
, they just look that way. Neither are
these 
.
Somewhere in western Colorado, the mountains break. They stop
being lovely, fertile, and tree-covered, and begin hinting at the horror that is
Utah 
.
Utah: Still the right place
? Yes, to die a slow miserable death,
should your car break down. You'll note how there's nothing at
all inviting about these mountains
. Or these
. And these rocks appear to have been italicized 
.
A few words about Utah: hot, desert, rocks. Really all you need to know. The Welcome Center is some 40 miles into the state, and virtually every exit has a sign reading "No Services". Not that there were very many exits - where would you go?
The Mormons - what were they thinking? They had to cross the Rocky Mountains to come to this god-forsaken desert, and then they kept going for hundreds of miles (until they lucked out, and found a big salty lake). Most folks would've hit the desert and said "Y'know, them there Rocky Mountains seem like a fine place to live, compared to this stinking desert!"
Interesting 
, but I'm just going to assume that
Utah's Department of Tourism has a pretty tough sell. "Come to Utah - You might survive!"
, their brochures could cheerfully
exclaim.
Certain sexual practices
of the Mormons were too disturbing to
investigate.
Another weird thing about Utah, they label their mountains. Near the town of 'Beaver' there was a mountain with a huge 'B' painted/carved/whatever on its side. Likewise, near the town of 'Parowan', there was a mountain with a huge 'P' on it. Saw about 5 or 6 of these mountain-labelings before deciding that they weren't just a strange coincidence. Could Ancient Astronauts have carved these letters into the sides of these mountains? Perhaps the letters were already there, and the towns were named after the letter, as a handy mnemonic device. Puzzlin' Evidence. (You'll note that I don't have a photo of this phenomenon - didn't want to risk a visit from the Men-in-Black.)
(Editor's Note: If, for some unknown reason you want to see more of Utah and its rocks, you'll want to look at rolls 05 and 06.)
We eventually made it to Nevada (yay!), though initially it
wasn't a huge improvement over Utah. Saw a sign for the
aptly-named "Valley of Fire" (115°F). Well, with a
name like "Valley of Fire", how couldn't you
stop? Exactly - here's the photos: facing
west 
and facing
east 
.
Civilization 
(well, Vegas...) approaches!
Finally... 
After an excruciatingly long time in check-in (during which
time Mr. Hagan developed a keen dislike for the word
"voucher"), we did eventually get to our rooms. The view out my window (300k) 
wasn't so hot, (facing away from the
strip), but it seemed impressive enough at the time.
Safe in my room, I embarked upon a minor quest to become All-Knowing Vegas Guy in a matter of hours. Basically, this involved reading the "what's up in Vegas this week" magazine that was in the hotel room and making up the short list of things that needed doing. Whether or not any of the things on this list would actually get done was not clear, as the Wedding threatened to consume nearly all of the available time.
While John waited for Leslie & his parents (who were flying in) to arrive, I went out, camera in hand for a quick recon of the strip. Here's some of the better shots:
Treasure Island
. It looks a lot better at night.
"Arr, Mateys!" 
, indeed.
The Mirage
. Probably my favorite hotel, just for
the sheer audacity of putting that much water in the
middle of a desert.
Probably the World's Spiffiest Denny's
.
Caesar's Palace
entry .
The Imperial Palace
, Voted #1 Bluest Place on the Strip!
The Mirage
again. Such a simple message:
"Hi - you're in a desert, and we have water."
Oddly, The Mirage never uses the
phrase "Come See The Giant
Poofter Sculpture!" 
in their advertising.
"Arr, it be a fine taxi
stand." 
(Editor's Note: More of these photos can be found on roll 07.)
Around 11pm, several of us (Ed & Sharon, John, Mike, Hallie, Barbara, Dave & Patty, and probably some folks I'm rudely forgetting) met in the Treasure Island lobby. After much milling-about, a plan was devised - dinner at the Stardust, for $9.95 surf'n'turf. The food was better than you'd normally expect Discount Food to be, though still nothing to write home (or a web page) about.
After dinner, we returned to Treasure Island, hung out in Captain Morgan's Lounge ("Avast, ye scurvy dogs!") and generally Talked the Talk. (Though I don't recall any of us Walking the Walk.) After many a Corona, it was decided that Ed, Dave, and myself would be on Van Duty for the Bachelor Party side-trip. Hagan would be too busy doing marriage-related things (like getting a license 'n' stuff) to assist on this mission, and would basically be along for the ride.
