Visiting Las Vegas: Rolling Vice

“A true shrine to debauchery is difficult to erect, for in the act of building it, effort makes it a parody of itself.” – Old Sean

Past the Long Storms

After finally emerging from the mountains of Utah and Colorado following a raging snowstorm, I drove westward in a state of relief. After fending off fender-benders in narrow mountain passes, I was perfectly content to simply laze around, visiting Las Vegas for a couple of days.

For my first day in town, I lapsed into a deep sleep and didn’t awaken again for fourteen hours. When I finally arose, I was just outside the Vegas Strip, blinking with fresh eyes.

However, first impressions of Vegas aren’t the best. Bluntly put, Vegas is tacky. Sure, it’s iconic and people flock to gamble money. And the performances and shows are ever-increasing. And the nicest of the gambling dens are smelted with enough fine glass and artistic crystals to provide a bit of an illusion.  But overall, it’s still tacky.

But to some extent, Vegas was designed to be tacky. It’s a land of upsells and desert-dreams. Once visitors accept that, Vegas is a lot of fun.

Vegas Visits

Once I began moving around Vegas, my first stop was to find the lovely and endearing Jane, a friend I’ve known since my freshman year in University. We wandered around the city and reminisced about distant days.

Though we briefly tottered around the strip, most of our time was spent in interesting, off-shoot locations. We spent some truly cool hours at the Downtown Container Park which boast a giant, fire-breathing praying mantis sculpture.

Also nearby, there’s a urban zip line rocketing down a tunnel of patriotic light and a stunning array of restaurants, mini-casinos and outdoor shopping pads.

For dinner, we managed to lose money at a sushi restaurant, where I couldn’t manage to gorge down the final roll of Shrek-sushi before retiring.

To round off my first day in Vegas, we returned to Jane’s house with her family to play a swift round of video games (which I lost) and watch some TV (which I assume I won).

Day Two of Vegas

The following morning I enjoyed an easy breakfast with Jane’s family at the Omelet House (where I ate the appropriate amount of the Cowboy Special meal). I also inhaled dessert at Black Tap’s, which serves insanely large cake-shakes.

Visit properly fulfilling, I prepared to continue heading West.

But not alone.

No, because for this glorious road trip towards LA, I would have the illustrious Mr. World by my side.

Mr. World was a stellar roommate of mine during University, and a distinctly good man to have in any situation. He was currently stateside from Turkey for conference purposes.  We managed to meet at his hotel in Vegas and begin the long trek to America’s Western shores.

We drove through the day, passing beacon-like solar panel fields, sighing dramatically over my terrible taste in music and waving wildly at the Mojave National Preserve.

Eventually, we pulled into the eternal sludge of Los Angeles traffic, inching our way to our Airbnb.

For the time being, Mr. World is looking up places to eat while I swiftly type this out.

So until we can properly explore LA together,

Best regards and excellent trails,

Old Sean

Witten January 25th 2019

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