vegas baby, vegas! - road trip for the ages

October 22th, 2000
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

We rolled into Milwaukee around midnight last night. From 9am untill 12am we were on the road. What a long long drive. Over 1000 miles from Dallas to Milwaukee. From Texas to Arkansas to Missouri to Illinois and back home to Wisconsin. Let me state for the record that Illinois is one long state. We easily spent 8 hours in that god forsaken state. And the coppers in Texas were out trying to get us. But we were to smart for them.

Basically it feels pretty good to be back in Wisconsin. I missed the state somewhat. It's like you get tired of driving and traveling. It's not really homesickness as much as being tired of the road. We had pretty good weather the entire trip. Minus a few hours of showers we got lucky. We saw some accidents and jack-knifed semi's, but weren't involved in any accidents ourselves :) I miss vegas the most. Once I get some picture developed I will get the up too. Until the next road trip, thats it!

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October 20th, 2000
Location: Dallas, Texas

Dallas. Wow, its pretty nice at night. All the buildings are lit up and decorated. I guess they are trying to be flashy. They need to worry about getting more hotel signs up. Because we ended up staying a little outside the city because we never saw an exit for a hotel in time to get off. We saw some dirt motels, but screw that. We wanted a pool and hot tub. We ended up in a Holiday Inn Express, with a hot tub. It was nice to chill for a bit before I big drive home.

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October 19th, 2000
Location: Near El Paso, Texas

I slept as soon as I hit the room. Todd went to grab some beers and check out the bar. I was to damn tired to stay awake anymore. I slept until 10am or so and we got ready to hit the road again. This time we are aiming for Dallas.

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October 18th, 2000
Location: San Diego, California

Went down to Sunset to hit some bars. We went to one called "Red Rock", it was pretty ok, but considering it was during the week as oppossed to a Friday or Saturday we didn't see much. We saw the "Viper Room" and some other places but cut back to the crib early. Amazingly my camcorder was still on top of the car. Stupid ass me took it out and placed it on top of the car so I could take it to the room. Instead I took my bag and forgot it. We got back to the hotel late, and apparently Santa Monica is somewhat safe, even with a bunch of bums around because it was still there. How lucky can a guy get.

Stayed with Todd's cousin in San Diego for the night. We hit the malls around the house. I christened a Best Buy bathroom and we killed 3 hours at Borders, a bookstore. From there we stopped at his cousin's and ate some pizza. Her husband was awesome, and I got some software from him, since geeks think alike and like to talk shop. We got up early the next day and hit the road for El Paso. We got within 100 miles or so of El Paso but the rain was real heavy and we ended up in bumfuck New Mexico at a reasonable Holiday Inn where they had a pool outside we couldn't use.

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October 17th, 2000
Location: Los Angeles, California

Wow, Vegas was a blast. I miss it already. We left early and stopped for some breakfeast at Burger King on the outskirts of Las Vegas. It was near some steamboat looking hotel in the desert. We made good time through the mountains and California. We saw some studios up in Burbank, as well as walking down Hollywood Blvd. It was pretty cool seeing all the stars on the sidewalk. We saw that little chinese theater, it looks so much bigger on TV. Everything outside of Milwaukee seems different, but yet disappointing at times. Anyways - we hit the junk shops selling souviners and what not. We went from Hollywood to Beverly Hills which was very Posh. From there we drove down Santa Monica to guess where, yep - Santa Monica. More palm trees and wow - the Pacific Ocean. We are staying across the street from the beach. We plan to go out tonight and party some a well as enjoying L.A. tomorrow before we hit San Diego. I got tons of pictures of the trip so far, I can't wait to develop them. I also can't wait to go to the beach and check out the ocean. It's weird to see the sun set over the water, I am so used to it rising over the lake. Which I kinda miss seeing. I liked my old house.

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October 16th, 2000
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Vegas Baby, VEGAS! Early Sunday we called in our bets for the NFL games, as well as checking out downtown Denver. I didn't get any pictures - but I should have. As soon as you get downtown you can see Coor's Field and the Pepsi Center. The downtown is a bit ghetto on the outskirts, but otherwise it wa really nice. I caught my first glimpse of the Rockies as we left the hotel in the morning. We had a 10 hour drive ahead of us on I-70 into Vegas. We stopped at a sports bar to catch lunch and watch the games. We saw the first half and then some of the games and had a pizza. It wasn't bad, but the cheese didn't seem as good as that in Wisconsin. It was located at some mall area outside of Denver, it was te only place we could find that actually was showing the games. We left early from there to get on the road to Vegas. Todd took most of the drive through the Rockies. I had the next drive which consisted of Utah which was boring as hell. But there was some very nice scenery near the end of the drive. We got pictures. We made a stop at a "observation area" to get most of them. We carved are names into the soft sandstone, a well as "Tech Love - 94". From there we had a drive through a bit of Arizona and then Nevada. Todd drove us into the city. Some of the mountains in Arizona and Nevada were a bitch at night, but it could have been worse. I drove into Denver in the dark and light rain. With no lights it's a bitch.

How perfect was it to listen to the "Swingers" soundtrack as we rolled into Sin City. And how about this, we were there by Midnight. Midnight Milwaukee time, but it allowed us to pull out all the Swingers quotes. It was quite amazing seeing Las Vegas all lit up from afar. You could see the Stratosphere and the light coming from the Luxor Temple easily. We crusied down the Bouelvard and chose a place to park. We left the car at Alladin's, and walked down the strip. We stopped at all the interesting hotel like; Circus Circus, The Mirage, The Sahara, Caesar's Palace, The Bellagio, etc. It was awesome seeing all the sites, the palm trees, and all the lights. We made our move at the Mirage. I would have been up some phat cash, but lost after I was up for awhile. We were sitting at the $5 tables, with a big breasted girl and her boyfriend. She was fine as hell. Their partner was drunk as hell. It made it fun to gamble and talk with other people. Todd payed $4 for a bud. Next we lost at the Pirate of the Carribean place. We hit the Riveria and lost there too. We continued to walk down the strip, which was hopping. I wa surprised to see so many people out on the strip at Midnight and the wee hours of the morning. We stopped at the Sahara. We figured it out now. You could get free drinks at the tables and slots. So we were getting coffee for awhile, then Budweiser and Bottled Waters. We were finally winning some. The trick is to quit while ahead. Just walk away. But at this point we were up for almost 24, 25 hours.

We were playing at a table with a bunch of younger folks. There was a guy from Wisconsin, a woman from Iran, a mexican from L.A., and a blonde guy that kept getting 2's and 3's dealt his way. We had some cool dealers like Sam the chinese guy, Johnson who was fun to talk to, and at least one chinese chick that dealt well. (There were tons of chinese dealers, go figure) We were getting juiced up and having a blast talking to everyone. L.A. called us Milwaukee, and only knew of the Brewers and Bucks - nothing else in Milwaukee. Everyone had a blast. About 8am we walked back to the car. 10 hours of drinking and gambling.Check this - check in time for the hotels is 3 or 4pm. BITCH! So what can we do. We slept in the car. I didn't get much sleep in, but it was better then paying for a room for a few hours. We got up around noon and tried to find a place to stay. We got lucky at the Sahara and got a room for cheap. It was the only place we actually won money so we stayed there. I got some arby's and we went back to gambling. I won money and enjoyed the $1 dollar blackjack tables. Overall I lost $30 bucks, but thats not bad at all. I could have been up $200 plus if I stopped when I was up instead of playing more. We came back to sleep for awhile and plan to leave early in the morning to beat the L.A. traffic.

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October 14th, 2000
Location: Denver, Colorado

Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado. 5 states in 14 hours. It was a pretty long trip. My ass was way tired from sitting that long. I owned Iowa, and Todd now owns Nebraska. Not only were those two states long as hell, but there was nothing to look at but flat lands and corn fields. And more corn fields with the occasional cow smell that everyone loves. Thank God for the air freshener we bought before we left Milwaukee. So at least we could wave it around and get a good fresh breath of Strawberry.

We got into Colorado late, so I didn't see the horizon yet. But the next morning I saw my very first mountain filled skyline. It' very different seeing that in the backdrop. Milwaukee seems so much smaller now. We made a stop in Omaha, Nebraska which is very Milwaukee like. The rest of the stops were jut for gas. We had an interesting stop in Iowa at a Sinclair gas station. The bathroom in the gas station was ghetto, with a non-flushing toilet, a shower, and some giggling girls working the front desk. I guess they never saw any boys from Wisconsin before. The hotel we stayed at in Denver was kinda small, with a gay-ass check-in clerk. We aked about some clubs and happening spots. His only response was that he didn't go out to clubs. Probably because he was gay, with some high-water bellbottom, and his french hat on. What a rod. And the pool there was even more ghetto. I got a picture of it. We saw a "Kum and Go" on our way. As well as the Budweiser plant in Omaha, Nebraska. We pretty much took I-80 all the way to Denver. What a long fucking road.

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October 13th, 2000
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

On October 13th, 2000 we prepare for our trip. Not any trip. But a road trip. Where will we go? Vegas baby, VEGAS! We leave Saturday October 14th and head west from Milwaukee. Daily updates will come, hopefully with pictures too.

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