Adios Vegas
Just got the word that a big conference I was supposed to attend in Vegas in March has been cancelled. Just more crappy news on top of no company Christmas party this year and various other cutbacks that have been implemented. Could be worse, I suppose. At least I still have a job. Assuming I think that having this particular job is a good thing which depends on my mood.
Maybe the global economic collapse is my fault. I put the jinx on this conference the minute I decided to attend. I'm one of about three or four Americans who have never set foot in the state of Nevada. Gambling's not my thing. Neither is unironic tourist kitsch save for things that have a sentimental attachment to from my childhood like Weeki Wachee. Somewhere in some box that some family member has are a couple of wax mermaids my father and I bought from a machine that poured the liquid wax into a mold and formed the statues before your very eyes. How those machines didn't make it and the squish-a-penny-into-a-souvenir ones did is beyond me. Not that I'm opposed to those either; I have several elongated and stamped coins on my night table that are precious reminders of beloved trips.
Huh. I guess that proves that I am, at heart, a true American slob traveler despite aspiring to a more sophisticated level of tourist-hood (is that a word?)
I have been to Atlantic City once post-casino-arrival. I seem to remember going there as a little kid a few times as well. AC was fun mainly because of the company I was traveling in and the hockey game in historic Boardwalk Hall, one of the most interesting places I've ever seen a hockey game. Unfortunately that team is now defunct so I have no winter motivation to return to AC and no desire to fight the summer traffic.
Another fine slob stop that I remember from childhood is South Of The Border. We made two car trips to Florida when I was a kid, once for my 8th birthday and once for my 10th if memory serves. South Of The Border had a giant statue of a sombreroed Mexican gent. My dad took me over and pointed at the rust marks on the statue's, uh, area, and said "Look, he wet himself." There's nothing funnier that that to a ten year old boy, I tell you. My only regret is that we never actually stayed there. We had a pop-up trailer back then and I thought hotels were only for the super-rich. I didn't set foot in one until my teens and to this day I feel out of place on the rare occasions that I stay at a fancier sort of hotel.
But don't get the idea it was all slobby campy kitsch. More often than not trips involved museums, natural/scenic wonders, and historic sites. There was a healthy dose of kitsch involved but it was definitely in the minority of the vacation content I experienced as a kid. (Wow, that's a 21st century way of describing a 20th century happening, isn't it?) And we never, to my recollection had a whole vacation where we just went to the beach or to the mountains or wherever and just hung out and did nothing. We were always off to see one of those museums or battlefields or whatever. Sometimes we'd have a "do nothing" weekend, pack up on Friday and head somewhere as close as Jellystone Park in New Jersey or head upstate somewhere to "blow the stink off" as dad liked to say and I would spend the weekend in the campground pool or pumping quarters into pinball machines.
So I was looking forward to my little Vegas junket as a worthy addition to my collection of junk-tourism experiences. Guess it's not to be, because it's not someplace I would go on my own dime. There's a lot more world out there to see while I'm physically able. Then again, maybe I should go to Vegas - they have everyplace replicated right there so I can get it all in in a week, right? Hmmm...maybe if they have those wax statue machines it'd be worth a trip.
Maybe the global economic collapse is my fault. I put the jinx on this conference the minute I decided to attend. I'm one of about three or four Americans who have never set foot in the state of Nevada. Gambling's not my thing. Neither is unironic tourist kitsch save for things that have a sentimental attachment to from my childhood like Weeki Wachee. Somewhere in some box that some family member has are a couple of wax mermaids my father and I bought from a machine that poured the liquid wax into a mold and formed the statues before your very eyes. How those machines didn't make it and the squish-a-penny-into-a-souvenir ones did is beyond me. Not that I'm opposed to those either; I have several elongated and stamped coins on my night table that are precious reminders of beloved trips.
Huh. I guess that proves that I am, at heart, a true American slob traveler despite aspiring to a more sophisticated level of tourist-hood (is that a word?)
I have been to Atlantic City once post-casino-arrival. I seem to remember going there as a little kid a few times as well. AC was fun mainly because of the company I was traveling in and the hockey game in historic Boardwalk Hall, one of the most interesting places I've ever seen a hockey game. Unfortunately that team is now defunct so I have no winter motivation to return to AC and no desire to fight the summer traffic.
Another fine slob stop that I remember from childhood is South Of The Border. We made two car trips to Florida when I was a kid, once for my 8th birthday and once for my 10th if memory serves. South Of The Border had a giant statue of a sombreroed Mexican gent. My dad took me over and pointed at the rust marks on the statue's, uh, area, and said "Look, he wet himself." There's nothing funnier that that to a ten year old boy, I tell you. My only regret is that we never actually stayed there. We had a pop-up trailer back then and I thought hotels were only for the super-rich. I didn't set foot in one until my teens and to this day I feel out of place on the rare occasions that I stay at a fancier sort of hotel.
But don't get the idea it was all slobby campy kitsch. More often than not trips involved museums, natural/scenic wonders, and historic sites. There was a healthy dose of kitsch involved but it was definitely in the minority of the vacation content I experienced as a kid. (Wow, that's a 21st century way of describing a 20th century happening, isn't it?) And we never, to my recollection had a whole vacation where we just went to the beach or to the mountains or wherever and just hung out and did nothing. We were always off to see one of those museums or battlefields or whatever. Sometimes we'd have a "do nothing" weekend, pack up on Friday and head somewhere as close as Jellystone Park in New Jersey or head upstate somewhere to "blow the stink off" as dad liked to say and I would spend the weekend in the campground pool or pumping quarters into pinball machines.
So I was looking forward to my little Vegas junket as a worthy addition to my collection of junk-tourism experiences. Guess it's not to be, because it's not someplace I would go on my own dime. There's a lot more world out there to see while I'm physically able. Then again, maybe I should go to Vegas - they have everyplace replicated right there so I can get it all in in a week, right? Hmmm...maybe if they have those wax statue machines it'd be worth a trip.
Comments
Actually Vegas is a lot of fun just for people watching. Also, at a lot of the smaller casinos, you can sit at the bar, put $10 in the video poker machine imbedded in the bar and drink beer for "free". Did that a few years ago, 5 or 6 pints of Guiness for $10.