Part of the movie 'The Hangover' was filmed out here. It is exciting
when one of your field areas makes the big time in Hollywood. What is
more exciting (to me, at least) is envisioning the runoff events that
deliver the cobbles to the flat playa surface.
Ah! The business trip! Traveling on these excursions across the country have really become part of one of the cores to the working individual in the US. I recently got to experience Reno, NV and my excursion was a life changing adventure.
Wonderful Phoenix decided to be 100 degrees the night that I left and of course I'm too damn cheap and too damn stubborn to turn my AC on in October so I spent the entire night as if my bedroom were a sweat lodge leaving me to travel in less than comfortable style and also smelling like an armpit. Luckily I was going to Reno, NV so I in my current state I would fit right in with the locals. Arrival at Sky Harbor, packed bus from economy parking to the Southwest terminal. If there is one thing I know its that Southwest Airlines really has the flying thing figured out, smiles, friendliness no swine flu and certainly no H1N1, barely enough time to hide my iPhone and pretend like i turned it off when in actuality I'm listening to Dylan wail about social change while smirking slying at our flight crew the whole time and BLAMMO, touchdown Reno Nevada. After scuttling off the plane I hopped into a Hepatis C filled taxi with a man who told me his name was George in the thickest Indian accent I've ever heard in my life to take me to my place of employment. A full day of work later and a car ride from a friendly co-worker to the wonderful Atlantis Hotel Casino and Spa. As I entered my loding for the night I was greated by an outwardly friendly asian man on crystal meth who promptly asked "What the fuck Bigfoot? Why you do that? I do that once...but...shiiit" and then he hurried on his way to argue with the concierge about timely world events. After check in I made my way to my room to unwind and relax before heading down the wonderful resturants available to get some grub. The hotel room itself was standard, one king bed, one TV circa 1998 and a wonderful view of the fat midwestern people in the pool. I started to settle in when I realized that I had forgotten all of my luggage at my place of employment. Downstairs I returned to hop in a taxi and head back to my companies building to pick up my luggage. This time my cab driver was the happily optimistic Czech cabbie / economist named Gustov. Gustov's cab smelled exactly the way the inside a pack of cigarettes would smell and Gustov himself had the ever so slight odor of vodka cologne emanating from him. The cab ride round trip may have taken 20 minutes and Gustov spent the entire time trying to convince me that the American system as we know it was going to collapse if people don't start going and frequenting Reno's fine brothels and strip clubs. Fast forward two hours. While enjoying in my delicious 21 dollar room service pizza when I receive a phone call on my hotel room phone. "Hey! Keith man what's happening?"Got ready for 2 days of intense driving! We're on a sprint now to get to Carlsbad Caverns by Sunday! I forgot we have a deadline for next weekend... we're at the Texas Renaissance Fair next Saturday.
We’re spending the weekend in Las Vegas, courtesy of Jamey Jasta and Hatebreed. Jamey is not here yet, but should be here within the next couple of hours. Here’s some pictures so far of our trip. I’m having so much fun, it’s really nice to get away from Texas and all of the work. I know I will have hell to return to but that’s life…
I hope everyone else in the world is having a great weekend too, be thankful for everyone in your life and never take anything for granted.
Things got more interesting. We split from the Interstate for the scenic route heading Southeast towards Reno. I put in a few pictures for some of the sights (and a GREAT shot of Aba at the In-N-Out Burger – hah. Admit it you love it too…).
Lunch: In-N-Out in Carson City. Apparently all restaurants serving anything besides fast food are closed on Sundays in Carson City, so we decided to cross an In-N-Out stop off the road trip to-do list early in the game. The burger was better than I remember but after Burgerville milkshakes all other milkshakes taste like poo. (For the non USAers: Burgerville is a local fast food chain in the northwest and their milkshakes are AMAZING! And In-N-Out is another local fast food chain, but in the southwest and their milkshakes taste like they’ve never seen ice cream or strawberries.)
From Carson City we kept going south and then cut back into California heading southwest on 89/4 towards Annie’s cabin, to spend an evening there before heading on to Yosemite the next day. After about half an hour that drive got really beautiful, especially once we split from 89 and were on Hwy 4 which winds around, is super narrow, and just climbs and climbs until you’ve suddenly got incredible views all around you. And lakes! Just out of nowhere! Really, really pretty drive.
Stayed the night at my friend Annie’s cabin in Stanislauw Forest area. (Annie: you made my night! And totally and completely hooked us up with your cabin. Definitely the nicest place we’ll be staying on our own on this trip… aside from Motel 6….) Super nice place and a gorgeous area! I am 100% bummed we didn’t think about staying here earlier, and actually spending a whole day to do some hiking etc. Next time!
Tried to make some chicken curry for dinner which totally failed (we forgot a key ingredient…), but managed to get a tasty chicken dinner on the table anyways!
I have been busting my ass this year working for Hatebreed and with all of the hard work I have done in the past couple of months they decided to fly me out to Las Vegas for the October 3rd show with Trivium. Working with them has been a blessing in my life and it's not even just the band, it's everyone at E1 Music / KOCH, Roadrunner Records, No Name Worldwide, Stillborn Records, etc.... This is going to be a weekend of a bunch of firsts for me.
1. First time flying on a plane further than one state away from Texas.
"We didn't think too much of Obscura Digital's multi-touch hologram when we spotted it last August, but evidently the company has been working overtime in order to outfit Hard Rock's newest cafe with a monstrous interactive video wall. Hard Rock Cafe Vegas Strip is the chain's second venue in Sin City, but it's far and away the one to hit if you're a self-proclaimed nerd. Aside from having access to a number of Microsoft Surface-based installations, you'll also spend a good bit of time navigating the Rock Wall. The 18- x 4-foot touch wall (video after the break) enables up to six guests to simultaneously surf through the outfit's expansive memorabilia collection, with options to zoom and flick through oodles of images. Obscura claims that it just might be the world's highest resolution interactive display available to the public." ... info and video at link
