6.14.2003
At 08:44 Thea Gilien writes:
Many new photos are online!
Wednesday June 12
Why does it take so long to leave Las Vegas? Why couldn't we just turn off that AM episode of Law &
Order, pack up and git?
Finding the car in the labyrinths of the IP parking garage included Thea leaving Catherine on level three ("okay bye! good luck!") and trekking off to level four and playing "marco polo" with mobile phones. Thankfully, check-out was a breeze, but meandering through downtown to find I-15 and a gas station seemed to take a lot out of us.
Finally, finally on the road and searching for a big store to take care of a large shopping list:
Clipboard
Cotton socks (6-pack)
Toothbrush
Extra deep conditioning hair repair
Water
Reading materials
Not on the list but found to be neccessary:
Cookies with bright green frosting
And that took a long time. And while searching out the perfect roadside diner is, in a way, what it is all about, it too was taking a long time. And we had crossed into the Mountain time zone. Where were we? What time was it? And so to Denny's and a reliable menu. Something soothing in that. Collected and rehydrated, we headed on towards Grand Junction, CO. Beautiful scenery marred by a very bad book we could not stop reading.
Thursday, June 13
The plan: Depart Grand Junction early, arrive in The Heartland by sundown. But fate intervened!
- A tanker truck overturned on I-70 and closed it for nine friggin hours
- A cattle drive (with cowboys!) across the highway we took as a detour was fun to watch ... for the first 15 minutes
- The Toyota Corolla in front of us was a scairdy cat when we came to the unpaved portion of the highway
- The road paralleling the freeway after Silt was clearly an access road, only it wasn't
Stopped at Rosie's in Cameo for a little brunch before detouring around the crash ... along with every other stranded motorist west of the Rockies. "How you doin'?" asked the waitress.
"How you doin'?" says Thea.
"I tell you what -- I'm gettin' too old fer this."
Yup. Good grilled cheeses, decent fries, "truckers lounge" and telephones by each table.
Hit the Rockies at 4ish and promptly got elevation sickness: nosebleeds, headaches, slurred speech. "One of the symptoms to watch out for is the person who's affected thinks everything's fine." Hail and lots of swerving trucks at the 10,000-foot summit.
Tried to spot the buffalo at Genessee Park above Denver before swooping on down, through the city and into The Heartland! The wrath of God pursued us across the prairie -- vicious thunder and lightning, sleet, hailstones, and a honking trucker. Was he warning us about a cop up ahead? Apparently not.
Rolled into majestic Colby, Kansas, at 11 p.m. The Welk-Um Inn receptionist told us the diner was closed -- but she was lyin'. Grappling with SBC Yahoo! in a vain attempt to get an Internet connection: "I'm not seeing any local numbers for your area, mmmkay? How close are you to Wichita?"
6.12.2003
At 09:24 Thea Gilien writes:
Tuesday 6/10 -Las Vegas, NV
Catherine makes a few calls to the office and after finishing her bidness opens the doors to the terrace overlooking the Shangri-la pool "I should conduct business here all the time!"
Down to the casino for some Quartermania Slots to
whet our appetites for the fabulous "Imperial Champagne Brunch Buffet" (and that's available every day - not just Sundays, people!). Apparently, we chanced upon the casino's most eager, most wanton machines , for they indeed had the "loosest slots"! And lo! in a matter minutes, we were up $210! So with the haughty airs of ladies of wealth and standing befitting an Imperial Palace, we glided up the escalator to our awaiting buffet.
We were very pleased. No heads would roll this day. Excellent salad bar, where the iceberg lettuce was truly icy.
Beautiful mini-doughnuts and fresh melon. We do not think we shall find again on this trip champagne that pours forth from a spigot. Oh, it was frightening, throat burning "champagne", in the flat bowl goblets no less (these California wine-country gals have decreed that "not right"), but the concept, that is brilliant.
And down to the floor again for some Roulette and a little blackjack WWED? What Would Ed Do? We would ask ourselves. Ed Matovcik was our tutor in the ways of 21 - we adhere, to this day, strictly to his teachings. Unfortunately, this day Lady Luck showed us no favors -- let's just say we have done better. ... And so on to Caesars for a little roaming around (ha!) and a refreshing dessert. The Forum Shops boggle the mind. We were boggled. We wanted to go home to the comforts of our slightly worn ("not the newest property on the Strip", someone commented later in the evening, upon hearing where we had chosen to stay), wholly comfortable Imperial Palace.
We returned to our room, therefore to loll on our beds watching strangely addictive back-to-back episodes of "Law & Order." We tore ourselves away round about 7 to drive to the outskirts of town for our dinner date with Elena, a former coworker of Catherine's, and her family. A spacious home, ceiling fans humming overhead, dogs panting and nosing . ("Oh, I like dogs -- I just don't like them sniffin' around.")
All portents were favorable for a perfectly harmless evening. But then life began to imitate art in a most disconcerting way ... was it real, or was it a certain show in syndication on TNT?
[Interior -- night -- a dining table with supper plates ready to be cleared. The table is in a large open-plan home, with kitchen, dining area and living room grouped together under a high ceiling. ELENA, KAREN, WILLIAM, THEA, CATHERINE and DAWN are chatting. CATHERINE looks at her watch.]
WILLIAM: Let me get this straight -- you're on vacation and you're looking at your watch??
CT: Well yes, actually, we've got tickets to a show at 10:30.
ALL: Really? Which one?!
CT: Mystère!
ALL: Oooh! Great! [ad libbing excitement]
TG: Yes, I happened to see Dralion in San Francisco -- I must confess what when my cousin got us tickets I was a little skeptical -- I don't like circuses --
ELENA: Oh, but it's not like that --
TG: Yes -- I was amazed and impressed! I loved the way they played off the audience and there was a thread -- a plot ---
[LONG SHOT from between CT and TG of TOM, who's lying on the couch in post-supper relaxation in the nearby living area. He suddenly begins to resemble SAM WATERSON.}
TOM: But isn't Mystère dark tonight?
CT: ??
TG: ??
TOM: We walked right by it, and it said it was dark until the 12th.
CT: No, I thought --
TG: Well, did we -- ?
ELENA: That's right, there was a sign.
DAWN (concerned): Did you have tickets?
CT: We made reservations online --
TG: Yeah, what did I --?
WILLIAM: Why don't you call and see if it's dark tonight?
[DAWN hands CT a cordless phone, a high-tech model. She has already dialed the number, knowing it from her years of experience helping open major hotel/casino properties -- Bellagio, Mirage ... .]
CT (talking with Treasure Island ticket personnel): Hello, yes, I was under the impression that I had tickets to Mystère for tonight, but now I'm being told it's dark, is that right? ... Ah, I see ... No ... No, I don't have a reservation number on me, I'll have to go find it ... No ... I'll call you back. [Hangs up phone.] Well ... it must be some other show -- I --
TG: I obviously didn't know what I was doing, there was an online reservation service --
TOM: Maybe it's O, not Mystère -- or there's the new one, Zumanity?
WILLIAM: That isn't open yet.
TG: Yeah, maybe it's O.
TOM: If it is you're lucky -- those tickets are hard to come by.
WILLIAM: Yeah, really expensive.
TG: Wow, that'd be great if that's the case --
DAWN: Do you want to call Bellagio and see if they've got your reservation? [She moves toward the phone.]
CT: No!!! No -- I -- we should just scrabble around in the car and look for the paper --
TG: Yeah, we should look it up --
CT: We'll look for it later.
TG: Yeah, we don't want to rush away from your table -- we can sit and visit for a while, it's early yet.
At the end of the evening, Catherine is in the passenger seat, "scrabbling" in the satchel for the "show reservation", as Thea guns the engine and the Rodeo swerves out of the cul de sac. Good times!!!
Aladdin, Paris, Venetian, where we enjoyed $9 cocktails at the ueber-trendy V Bar -- then back to the humble comfort of the Imperial Palace. Our salacious slots have gotten cold feet, inexplicably the bucket of quarters is empty, our hands are begrimed and the evening's trials have left us utterly fatigued ... and so to bed.
6.10.2003
At 17:37 Thea Gilien writes:
Roadjag Heartland Photo Album can be viewed here.
Check often for updates! There is no charge for this service...yet.
At 10:34 Thea Gilien writes:
The beauty of this trip is that everything is "on the way"
10:11
Things Catherine forgot:
* Forgot to pay husband for wine
* Forgot Oklahoma Broadway cast CD
(what else are we going to belt out as we float o'er the prairie - hellllo?)
* Forgot beanbag lapboard
* Forgot "The Bad Girl's Phone Directory"
11:20
Predictions of total milege for this jag
CMT: 4437 miles
TG : 5100 miles
T: Any other predictions you'd like to make?
C: I'd like to say that we are not going to have any (automotive) collisions or breakdowns.
T: So it's going to be good?
C: Yeah.
12:04 PM
Act of God
Rock impacts and cracks windshield
1:30 PM
Reno - Sundowner Hotel and Casino for a quick cruise along the salad bar. The atmosphere of this ghost was a real sun-downer. Sad patrons and sombulant staff. We had all, apparently, partaken of a vicodan cocktail and were all moving under a thick, viscous water. It was too much and suddenly - there was our first non-automotive breakdown. Speedy exit stage left and back on the road - I-80 to the deserted desert of I-95. Sand mesas and more than enough stoppages for road construction "expect delays up to 30 minutes".
And we drove and drove, through Fernley, through Hawthorne, through Tonopah, Mina, and Goldfield (where there was another closed and decaying hotel we want to buy and to restore to our former glory. Make it a sister to the Carson City Lucky Spur. We saw a few brothels out there on I-95. They were all large mobile homes, or the prefab houses - two halves surrounded by a deck. The Cottontail Ranch, offered free parking for truckers.
Our entrance into Las Vegas was perfect, really. Behind us, the sun had set and the sky was orange into dark blue and in front of us, the sky was, you know, glowing with that unearthly light. We were tired, a little loopy and were concerned that check-in and the fabulous Imperial Palace might be...somewhat problematic. We managed. And finally arrived at the room. High on the 17th floor, we have a fabulous view of the Shangri-la pool several floors down below and of the fabulous Flamingo Hotel and it's own fabulous pool across the way.
Refreshing showers and a little veg time before going down to the Tea House Coffee Shop. It was all so right! for a dinner salad and steak fries "not mealy" (Catherine) and an excellent Cobb salad (Thea) that was still cold 45 minutes later, two glasses of ice water and diet pepsi per gal - it is the desert after all. We slithered down to the Mai Tai lounge for a night cap - large, potently refreshing gin and tonics. And so to bed.
6.9.2003
At 07:26 Thea Gilien writes:
Packed: check. Rental car: check. House obsessively cleaned 47 times: check.
Picking up Catherine in the Isuzu Roddy-O and then, yes, jagging to my mother's
for breakfast and a care package and then heading out to Las Vegas... by way of Reno. It makes perfect sense somewhere. Nevada Interstate 95 all the way, baby.
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Want more?
Read the Heartland 2003(TM) archives
"Itinerary"
Ha ha ha -- riiiiiiight
June 9-10 at the fabulous Imperial Palace Hotel/Casino, Las Vegas
Note: Itinerary after this point subject to change when we win ... $4 MILLION!
June 11 at the Best Western Horizon in Grand Junction
Rationale: We must schedule to leave Vegas or we won't.
June 12-18 in the Heartland
June 18: Chicago! Cha!!!
Coolio
Here are some related sites:
Avoiding speed traps
Virtual roadtrips
Roadfood
The fun begins at the exit ramp
U.S. Highways
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