more photos of Surrealville

It’s another installment of BizarroWorld! Being the ADD Gemini that I am, after getting all these photos scanned and being all gungho about posting my Vegas pictures, naturally my attention has wandered on to the next shiny thing. Well, I do have the excuse of going to see my parents this weekend, which meant no internet access till last night and I was WAY too tired last night. Last week was insanely busy here at the Asylum, too, what with the dreaded Student Teaching Seminar and all.

I’m also about to make up my mind about a digital, and may actually get one Wednesday. I’m going to Greensboro with Baker B – he’s attending a meeting and I’m going to save him from having to ride down with his boss. I just WENT to Greensboro for a licensure meeting last Monday, but whatever. It occurred to me that I can go to a Best Buy or Circut City there and get a camera. I did considerable research at both this weekend while I was in Asheville, but didn’t feel quite ready to take the plunge. By Wednesday, I think I’ll be ready. And of course I can’t take the plunge here, because despite the ridiculous growth in our once-teeny-and-quaint town, the only place you can get a camera here is WalMart. I can hardly bring myself to buy a pair of socks at WalMart and would never in a zillion years buy a camera there. We have 10,000 Mexican restaurants and 5,000 Chinese restaurants and two Japanese restaurants and every fast food outlet on earth and all the eatery chains like Outback and Applebees and Ruby Tuesdays and… ummmm… a bunch others I can’t think of, and hotels everywhere and more dentists than I’d imagine New York City has – but nowhere to buy something like a camera or a vacuum cleaner or a stereo. Except WalMart. SO we have to go to Asheville or Hickory. Or Greensboro.

But my point, which I did at one time have, is that I better post these things now, because when I do get a digital I imagine I’m going to be going photo-mad.

SO, here’s some Strip Scenes! THE Strip, not stripping of clothing, although obviously there was quite a lot of that going on in Vegas as well:

A surprisingly normal picture. Although the traffic was very light. It’s kind of off-season there, apparently. For some reason I was shocked to see palm trees – I guess I associate them with being at the ocean, but I was all, “OH MY GOD, LOOK!!! PALM TREES!!!! Palm trees and cactus together just seems very strange to me.

Outside the Venetian, with the singing gondoliers. Well, I don’t actually SEE a gondolier in this picture, but there were some. This is a real sky!

This is near the Venetian. I loved the bridges.

The actual Venetian hotel. It’s monstrous. They are ALL monstrous!

Stacks of Caesar’s Palace.

Angels outside Caesar’s Palace. Heralding financial ruin, I’m sure.

Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention all the gambling I did- I lost $2 of my own, lost $10 the hotel gave us as a freebie, and tried to play a penny slot machine by jamming a penny into what I finally figured out was the slot your ticket comes out of. The penny slot machines don’t actually take pennies – you get 100 tries for a dollar. I’m not much of a gambler, obviously. A couple of my traveling companions spent considerable time sitting at the slot machines and playing blackjack, but I wanted to see stuff.

To Be Continued For Everyone Like Me With Evil Dialup