19 march 2001, 11pm

Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking... "He went again? and I'm gonna have to hear all about it now, won't I!" Well so what. I went again. Yes I did. Once again, I stayed at the Hotel de Leanne's Parents, where the accomodations are excellent, and the service is beyond top notch. The drive out there on friday night was just plain gnarly. Getting out of San Diego and into the desert was fine, but about 10 miles before we got to Baker, CA we hit a solid wall of traffic.

How solid? Well, the CHP closed down all of the northbound lanes of I-15, and they required three helicoptors to airlift the victims out of there. So we spent a good hour in the same spot, without moving a single inch. At first, people were just being impatient and wondering when we were gonna be moving, but when it became apparent that no one would be going anywhere any time soon, people started shutting down their engines, and getting out of their cars, stranded in the middle of the night, in the middle of the desert, with nothing to do.

It was sort of like that one episode of Malcolm in the Middle, except it was at night time and I didn't almost get some hot chick's phone number that I dropped as she tried to pass it to me while passing me by in her car. People were just milling about, hopelessly wondering what to do. In most traffic situations, people will do anything they can to make themselves feel like they are in control and know what they are doing. Cutting lanes, driving on the shoulder, whatever the feel they need to do. But in this situation, there really wasn't much you could do. No cars were moving. There was nowhere to go.

Finally we got moving, but before that happened I got out of the car and got a picture of myself sitting down, right in the middle of the 15 freeway. And now every time I go by that spot, I can point to it and say "I sat right there" as I'm whizzing by at 90 miles per hour. It was a very cool experience that I'm glad I had, but it was definitely one that I only need to have once and I'll be perfectly content never doing it ever again.

We finally got in after 1am (which was only, oh, 7 hours after we left), and headed toward Sunset Station, one of the "locals" casinos for a midnight breakfast special snack. But exhausted, we pretty much just retired for the night.

saturday
We went to that dim sum place in the late afternoon. It's in "Chinatown". The Chinatown in Vegas is really just a really big strip mall, with "chinese style" red tile roofing. But it has the dim sum place, and that place is pretty good for the price, that's for sure. Then everyone kinda split up. I went to play some blackjack, and stuff, and when I was done with that, we met back up and had dinner at Sushi on Tropicana, the same all-you-can-eat place we went last time. It's a few miles off the strip, east down Tropicana at Topaz, if you ever want to go to.

After that we headed downtown because Jeff had never been there before. WTF? How can you have ever been to Vegas multiple times and never have been downtown? It's one of the coolest places there is! And after that...

The Beach
A large part of the motivation for going on this trip was The Beach. As you may remember, on the 14th of October, I met the girl of my dreams at The Beach, and I started a quest to find her again. But I didn't know when in March she'd be coming back, so I just guessed. I figure, with the odds so much against me, if by some miracle I ran into her again, then, heck, it was meant to be, right? So I set out, on the same night of the week, showing up at the same time, wearing the same clothes. I figured, I might as well try to make myself as easily recognizable to her as possible.

She wasn't there. No, it's not her loss (as someone tried to tell me), it's my loss. Why is it my loss? Because I could have gotten contact information from her, but I didn't. That's not her loss, that's my loss. My friends, opportunities in life come few and far between, and when one of them finds you... you've got to seize it when you have the chance! Because rarely will they ever find their way back to you once you have sent them off!

So I spent some time just having a good time, dancing by myself. I didn't even drink anything! Anyway, I got my freak on with some skank-ass ho for about 5 minutes but that got old. Also, there was this very not-attractive middle-aged woman who was getting her grove on with some guy, but as she was doing that, her hands were flying around everywhere grabbing asses and balls everywhere she could reach. She was like a sea anemone with so many arms reaching out hoping to grab some juicy morsel. Shortly after being accosted by her, I left. After all... I didn't find what I came for.

Sunday

sapporo ichiban still owns you.

As seen in the menu at a Harrah's coffee shop Sunday afternoon in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. Next time I'm out there, I'm gonna have to order this. Complete with scallions, mushrooms, peas, chicken, pork and shrimp? They must have followed the serving suggestion on the package! Woohoo! While we were there, I played a round of Keno. I drew a big "26" on the slip. I didn't win anything.