Sin City … Dirty Vegas … I’ll first go on the record by saying that Las Vegas, Nevada is not a town that was built specifically for me. I am not a gambler by nature, and I don’t do a lot of ecstasy. Okay saying that Vegas is an ecstasy-driven town is maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but it does seem that most of the people walking around this city are on some kind of hallucinogen. The only thing I was smoking was a bunch of dried-up banana peel. (Of course I’m joking, but I’ve heard this actually works).

Our first destination – the rental car return at the airport! We picked up our 4th, and as it would turn out, final car. If you are thinking about doing a cross-country road trip, switching cars along the way can save you some money. Any money that we saved we likely blew by splurging on a mint Chrysler Sebring Convertible to roll around in. I’m not sure how the song goes, but I believe it describes our situation, something like: “Big Pimping”. And you should have seen us in this car. We were styling! We wanted to be profiling also, but there wasn’t enough time.

So here we are, rolling with the top down, and I got to thinking that I will never be able to go back to riding in a car with a roof ever again, like the slave that I once was.

We shacked up in Vegas at Treasure Island, which is a fun little place in a great location. We did all the regular tourist things, checking out all the famous hotels and cruising the strip. We also went to UNLV, which I wasn’t that impressed with. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was about 75 degrees the day before at the Grand Canyon, and about 120 in Vegas. And it is a dry, parching heat – sucks the moisture right out of your face basically.

The highlight of Vegas was undoubtedly our trip to the Blue Man Group. Austin had been told in a dream by a Native American that he must one day go to the Blue Man Group show and sit in the first row, so we ponied up the 120 bucks and were about 3 feet from the stage. We were sitting in an area known as the “Poncho Zone” – so that gives you an idea about what goes down. I don’t want to give away too many details about the performance, because you really should experience it for yourself, but needless to say I stumbled out of that place covered in a variety of dried substances, not unlike the last time I took a day trip to the Bunny Ranch. I kid of course, because I love.

We also managed to go to the weird old street whose name currently escapes me, and see the show that lights up the roof that covers the whole length of the street. It’s basically dancing whores, flashing light, and bad rock music. Vegas to a tee. The street is also the home of the Golden Nugget Casino, and largest golden nugget in the world, which I was finally able to see after all these years of hoping and dreaming.

On a sad note, it was in Vegas that we said goodbye to the third member of our trip, as Mr. Van Loon flew back to New York City. Cue the montage and crank the Sarah McLachlan.

With all that said, I feel guilty even talking about our trip to Vegas, because of the town’s slogan and all. However this blog entry was probably more adult-themed than the nature of our visit there. Oh and I forgot to mention the “Sirens of TI” show that featured lip-syncing pirate-hookers traipsing around a pirate ship 4 times a night at Treasure Island. It’s extremely cheesy, but pretty funny, so if you’re staying at TI I would check it out.

Next stop, Hollywood, and the last stop on our journey: the Pacific Ocean!