Cody’s blog

So, yes, I am home. We left Las Vegas around 8 am this morning, and arrived Tehachapi at 12:30 pm, with one stop along the way at the Alien Fresh Jerky store in Baker, CA. It was a great little roadside attraction in the tiny town of the World’s Tallest Thermometer, with a UFO and an alien in a car out front, and tee-shirts, cups, jerky and other snacks inside. I had to buy a tee-shirt with aliens on the front and the legend: “Area 51 Hotel and Casino: It doesn’t exist and I wasn’t there.” Also bought some trail mix and a bottle of Gatorade to fortify me along the way, as it had been too early to eat breakfast before we left the hotel.

Bittermint and Lycanthrophile stopped at my place for a short lemonade break before heading on their way. They’ve probably reached Bittermint’s place by now, or should be there soon, but Lycanthrophile has another hour and a half to go before she’s home. I’m glad my drive home wasn’t as long!

Yesterday was another great day in Las Vegas. We started out again with breakfast in the lounge and a panel, which was “He is the Chosen One.” It was about the similarities between various media heroes who’d had destinies thrust upon them, like Anakin and Luke in Star Wars, Sam in Supernatural, Frodo in Lord of the Rings, and Harry in Harry Potter. It was quite interesting and came up with lots of parallels for the character type, tracing some of them back to classic archetypes like the Arthurian legends and even as far back as Gilgamesh. Some, though were modern tropes, like the floopy hair and emo hoodies. Heh.

After that, or at some point, Bittermint and I went to try out the slot machines in the lounge. I managed to lose all but seven quarters of my Mom’s money, while Bitter made back what she’d lost the previous night on her machine. I did get a couple of the Idaho quarters for Mom and me, so at least that was more than she’d started out with!

The only other panel we went to was “Villains Over Princes,” a discussion of the bad guys we love, and why we love them.

Later, we headed out for the Wynn Hotel for dinner and a show: Spamalot! We had a delicious dinner in one of the many hotel restaurants—I had a seared ahi tuna salad that was just yummy, with carrot cake for dessert. Mmm! And the show was hilarious. It’s the musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and included lots of scenes straight from the movie, as well as lots of singing and dancing and new bits. Afterwards, we went shopping and the others bought tee-shirts and such, but I didn’t see anything I wanted badly enough to pay the prices they were asking for them.

We caught a cab home after the show, then went down to the pool for a late swim. Ahh! It was still in the 90s when we got back to our hotel at 11 pm, so the cool water was very inviting. It was a little too cool for me, actually. I swum a bunch of laps to keep warm, then gave up and went to the hot tub. I went back in the big pool once for a few more laps, then warmed up again in the hot tub, then we were done. A luxurious end to a great weekend!

I took some pictures from the car along the way home, and finally managed to get a decent shot of the SS Minnow, a rusty old boat sitting in the middle of a field along Hwy 58 just east of Tehachapi.