Traveling to Las Vegas (Tuesday, 8 May 2007)
I’m flying to Las Vegas and the view is everything I’d thought and more. Oh, what an amazing leap forward geography and geology must have taken when we became airbourne and could see everything from this incredible view!
It is nothing like I’d thought, and how much have I read on geology? Countless books although my main focus tends toward the more specific world of volcanology. But I love it all – plate techtonics, the basics of land mass changes. But looking out a window from 65000 feet, the world takes on a different look completely.
Passing over land much closer to New Jersey (if not New Jersey), there were straight hills – not merely hills, but tall enough to create shadow much earlier in the day for them than for those higher on the hills. The lines were what got me. Very long, very straight, as though one had drawn them with a ruler, shaped them to the height desired. Quite amazing. I have no idea where we were in relationship to home or our elevation… but I really should look at maps and find out. And then not long ago, the sun was displaying gorgeous colours and the chiaroscuro grey of the land struck me. The sun was setting for us (and still is) but had set some time ago for those that are land bound! Not that I didn’t know that this is a feature of flying, but I had not realized how pronounced it would be!
The other thing I was looking at was a river, twisting and turning as it wends its way along the surface. Not only the beauty of it, but also remember with astonishing clarity a book I’d read years ago that wrote about how rivers change over time, and form oxbows and then straighten out. People do not realize from their land bound day-to-day living how much of a living, breathing thing the land itself is. How time may move much more slowly in geographical changes (except for the more sudden and violent upheavals) but time brings change nonetheless. People love to complain about floods and rains and the various geological and meteorological things that shape other changes, but this is the world and how it operates. It is a good thing, overall.
Not that it is ever good to the homeowner who loses his or her home. How can anyone make that sound good? But overall, in the full sense of things, this is a positive thing. Rivers that flood refurbish the land. So do forest fires – betcha didn’t know that! Absolutely. In many places fires that occur naturally – brush fires and lightning strikes – are allowed to burn unfettered until they threaten human inhabitations. I suppose I can’t begrudge them saving human inhabitations, although again, there is the consideration that one is messing with the natural order of things just to save us… and we are the ones likely creating more problems than we solve.
This is an ongoing point of contention and lively discussion between my husband and I… I really hate all the building and overcrowding and atrocious acts committed on behalf of furthering the human race. He loves it. We are meant to bulldoze and build housing and run rampant with macadam and blacktop and this is okay… I happen to agree that to a point it is okay… but as usual, we have over done it.
It is nothing like I’d thought, and how much have I read on geology? Countless books although my main focus tends toward the more specific world of volcanology. But I love it all – plate techtonics, the basics of land mass changes. But looking out a window from 65000 feet, the world takes on a different look completely.
Passing over land much closer to New Jersey (if not New Jersey), there were straight hills – not merely hills, but tall enough to create shadow much earlier in the day for them than for those higher on the hills. The lines were what got me. Very long, very straight, as though one had drawn them with a ruler, shaped them to the height desired. Quite amazing. I have no idea where we were in relationship to home or our elevation… but I really should look at maps and find out. And then not long ago, the sun was displaying gorgeous colours and the chiaroscuro grey of the land struck me. The sun was setting for us (and still is) but had set some time ago for those that are land bound! Not that I didn’t know that this is a feature of flying, but I had not realized how pronounced it would be!The other thing I was looking at was a river, twisting and turning as it wends its way along the surface. Not only the beauty of it, but also remember with astonishing clarity a book I’d read years ago that wrote about how rivers change over time, and form oxbows and then straighten out. People do not realize from their land bound day-to-day living how much of a living, breathing thing the land itself is. How time may move much more slowly in geographical changes (except for the more sudden and violent upheavals) but time brings change nonetheless. People love to complain about floods and rains and the various geological and meteorological things that shape other changes, but this is the world and how it operates. It is a good thing, overall.
Not that it is ever good to the homeowner who loses his or her home. How can anyone make that sound good? But overall, in the full sense of things, this is a positive thing. Rivers that flood refurbish the land. So do forest fires – betcha didn’t know that! Absolutely. In many places fires that occur naturally – brush fires and lightning strikes – are allowed to burn unfettered until they threaten human inhabitations. I suppose I can’t begrudge them saving human inhabitations, although again, there is the consideration that one is messing with the natural order of things just to save us… and we are the ones likely creating more problems than we solve.
This is an ongoing point of contention and lively discussion between my husband and I… I really hate all the building and overcrowding and atrocious acts committed on behalf of furthering the human race. He loves it. We are meant to bulldoze and build housing and run rampant with macadam and blacktop and this is okay… I happen to agree that to a point it is okay… but as usual, we have over done it.
One of Luis’ coworkers was whining about welfare needing to be upped. I find that ironic, since he is a big contributor to the welfare need and problems with overpopulation. (This person is just indiscriminately procreating with everyone he meets. I guess I should be grateful that he is not a total man-whore or there’s be no end to the children he’d be leaving about! Isn’t that a warm and fuzzy thought. But you can thank all the people of this unthinking ilk who put into the need for these stupid programs.
I’m sure you are wondering how this fits into topography, but it does. The more we grow and spread out over the land, the more the topography changes and not in ways it should. Not all change is good, I know that. But our depredations are definitely having more and more long-term deleterious effects and still only some see the issue. And since we are not the movers-and-shakers (i.e., the ones with the money) this just goes on and on.
How did I go from poetry about the land to this? Well, you know me – diarrhea of the brain! Once I start writing I just let my thoughts go along and flow. It’s pretty good today – I’m keeping up with my brain, which is usually light years ahead of my fingers. I’m liking this at the moment… but it is also 2139 my time (I haven’t the faintest idea where I am so I am wholly unaware of the local time) and my brain is running out of steam… quickly. I am definitely straining it (and my laptop’s dwindling battery power between this and last night’s monthly
squad meeting). This is past my normal bedtime and yet, there is still some fading sunlight, so I’m off already. Fortuitously moving west is not a problem and we will be landing at 2115 local time (PDT) unless I’m wrong (or we have gotten slower)… We can go to the hotel – Ceasar’s – and go to bed. I’m okay with that. Go to bed at 2200, get up bright and early and start making the most of my vacation! I can SO do that!
I wonder if I should have taken something prior to leaving, but the flight is not long enough to justify it – 4 hours and 40 minutes – and I’ll have to take it when I get to our final destination. One thing about traveling that is not good for me is the bed. I suffer greatly when it comes to that – it seems that most people like to sleep on boards! I need a soft surface and I’m happy – but find a hotel bed that is soft! It is not possible.
Well, I suppose I’d better call it quits for now. My battery is painfully low and I should eat up more time by reading, which will definitely make time move along a little faster. (At the moment, however, there is a welcome lull from the turbulence which has plagued a good portion of our trip…)
More later!
Well, we had quite the flight and many events to go with it, at least for me. Not long after shutting this down due to battery constraints, we flew over a river in Nebraska (a big river – I just don’t know which one – and it had all the hallmarks of what I’d mentioned before: oxbows that connect and leave little lakes that dry up and the course of the river being a living, breathing thing. This was the living, wet proof of what I was saying. But it was too dark to photograph it.
At one point I needed to get up and stretch – the whole five hour flight thing is really long. I went up to the front to see Luis for about five minutes, and then finally, somewhat reluctantly returned to my seat… I hadn’t been happy. At some point into the journey, a woman just appeared and plunked down in the middle seat, which had been unoccupied. When I returned the somewhat saturnine older man was gone (maybe torturing himself by using the bathroom) and she was there. She let me in to my window seat and I said to her, “Have you been standing for the last two and a half hours of the flight?”
She realized what I meant and explained that the seats around her were occupied with four men who were drinking heavily and making her nuts, so she found this (one) empty seat. I sympathized with her – I hate drunks, too – and we began chatting. She’s a financial advisor that works on Wall Street and she’s flying to Vegas for a conference. She hates weddings, wearing make-up, doing things because others feel that they are “obligatory” and hates showers – wedding and baby. She does not have or want children and has been living with her boyfriend for seven years and doesn’t want to get married. How much do I like her? She is wonderful! Totally practical and completely sane. Not like most people I know. We chatted right up until we finally came in on our descent… which was so strange!
Clearly once outside of Las Vegas environs, there is nothing there. I mean nothing in every sense of the word. Nada. It was dark. I don’t mean, gee, it must be night time, I mean not a
single thing out there, no street lights, no house lights, nothing. Nothing! I had no idea. I was here fourteen years ago, but I certainly don’t remember the flight in! It was staggering. I loved it but it was a strange thing to see. It was as though someone cut out this brightly lit patchwork of bright colours and stuck it on a totally black field!
We landed, got off the plane – no easy task when I was in row 24 (as opposed to Luis’ row eight). We finally got to the baggage claim, waited a long time for the bags to appear, and then grabbed a cab to Caesar’s Palace. It is beyond imagining how built up it has gotten here. I do remember Luxor standing out – and not just because of that gazillion candle watt thing on the apex! It was out in the open desert with just a handful of other casino resorts and now it is lost among Mandalay Bay and a host of other establishments which have sprung up around it.
And what happens when we get to the hotel? Luis finds out what rooms we are in – and gets us upgraded! The newest tower, the best view ever! And only for an extra $40 per night on top of the $195 a night it costs (as part of a convention, the rate is really good to begin with!). So instead of the 7th floor in one of the two original towers, we are on the 42nd floor – with the Bellagio’s gorgeous fountains right below us! I love those fountains! They are gorgeous and huge – the biggest of the sprays shoot up to our window height! The pattern of fountains under the teal colour water is quite visible and seem to
need a lot of maintenance – worth it, yes, but still – twice today I saw crews out there working on the smaller circle to the right (if you are facing the Bellagio – it is to our left from the hotel room).
This room is gorgeous – not quite a suite (that is what Celeste, our very helpful check in person said it was – but not just a room. There are two queen size beds, a small loveseat, a chair, a table in front of the loveseat, a round table with three chairs, and a beautiful cabinet and a small desk. The bathroom has a huge tub, a big three foot by four foot shower, and a separate little room with the toilet (I never understand that…
). The vanity is long with two sinks.
There are pictures on the walls, big padded but nice-looking panels behind each bed (I’m guessing to prevent banging of the bed against the wall in case of vigorous love-making), nice soft-ish beds (coming from me that is high praise, indeed!) and extra pillows and such.
I’m sure you are wondering how this fits into topography, but it does. The more we grow and spread out over the land, the more the topography changes and not in ways it should. Not all change is good, I know that. But our depredations are definitely having more and more long-term deleterious effects and still only some see the issue. And since we are not the movers-and-shakers (i.e., the ones with the money) this just goes on and on.
How did I go from poetry about the land to this? Well, you know me – diarrhea of the brain! Once I start writing I just let my thoughts go along and flow. It’s pretty good today – I’m keeping up with my brain, which is usually light years ahead of my fingers. I’m liking this at the moment… but it is also 2139 my time (I haven’t the faintest idea where I am so I am wholly unaware of the local time) and my brain is running out of steam… quickly. I am definitely straining it (and my laptop’s dwindling battery power between this and last night’s monthly
squad meeting). This is past my normal bedtime and yet, there is still some fading sunlight, so I’m off already. Fortuitously moving west is not a problem and we will be landing at 2115 local time (PDT) unless I’m wrong (or we have gotten slower)… We can go to the hotel – Ceasar’s – and go to bed. I’m okay with that. Go to bed at 2200, get up bright and early and start making the most of my vacation! I can SO do that!I wonder if I should have taken something prior to leaving, but the flight is not long enough to justify it – 4 hours and 40 minutes – and I’ll have to take it when I get to our final destination. One thing about traveling that is not good for me is the bed. I suffer greatly when it comes to that – it seems that most people like to sleep on boards! I need a soft surface and I’m happy – but find a hotel bed that is soft! It is not possible.
Well, I suppose I’d better call it quits for now. My battery is painfully low and I should eat up more time by reading, which will definitely make time move along a little faster. (At the moment, however, there is a welcome lull from the turbulence which has plagued a good portion of our trip…)
More later!
Well, we had quite the flight and many events to go with it, at least for me. Not long after shutting this down due to battery constraints, we flew over a river in Nebraska (a big river – I just don’t know which one – and it had all the hallmarks of what I’d mentioned before: oxbows that connect and leave little lakes that dry up and the course of the river being a living, breathing thing. This was the living, wet proof of what I was saying. But it was too dark to photograph it.
At one point I needed to get up and stretch – the whole five hour flight thing is really long. I went up to the front to see Luis for about five minutes, and then finally, somewhat reluctantly returned to my seat… I hadn’t been happy. At some point into the journey, a woman just appeared and plunked down in the middle seat, which had been unoccupied. When I returned the somewhat saturnine older man was gone (maybe torturing himself by using the bathroom) and she was there. She let me in to my window seat and I said to her, “Have you been standing for the last two and a half hours of the flight?”
She realized what I meant and explained that the seats around her were occupied with four men who were drinking heavily and making her nuts, so she found this (one) empty seat. I sympathized with her – I hate drunks, too – and we began chatting. She’s a financial advisor that works on Wall Street and she’s flying to Vegas for a conference. She hates weddings, wearing make-up, doing things because others feel that they are “obligatory” and hates showers – wedding and baby. She does not have or want children and has been living with her boyfriend for seven years and doesn’t want to get married. How much do I like her? She is wonderful! Totally practical and completely sane. Not like most people I know. We chatted right up until we finally came in on our descent… which was so strange!
Clearly once outside of Las Vegas environs, there is nothing there. I mean nothing in every sense of the word. Nada. It was dark. I don’t mean, gee, it must be night time, I mean not a
single thing out there, no street lights, no house lights, nothing. Nothing! I had no idea. I was here fourteen years ago, but I certainly don’t remember the flight in! It was staggering. I loved it but it was a strange thing to see. It was as though someone cut out this brightly lit patchwork of bright colours and stuck it on a totally black field!We landed, got off the plane – no easy task when I was in row 24 (as opposed to Luis’ row eight). We finally got to the baggage claim, waited a long time for the bags to appear, and then grabbed a cab to Caesar’s Palace. It is beyond imagining how built up it has gotten here. I do remember Luxor standing out – and not just because of that gazillion candle watt thing on the apex! It was out in the open desert with just a handful of other casino resorts and now it is lost among Mandalay Bay and a host of other establishments which have sprung up around it.
And what happens when we get to the hotel? Luis finds out what rooms we are in – and gets us upgraded! The newest tower, the best view ever! And only for an extra $40 per night on top of the $195 a night it costs (as part of a convention, the rate is really good to begin with!). So instead of the 7th floor in one of the two original towers, we are on the 42nd floor – with the Bellagio’s gorgeous fountains right below us! I love those fountains! They are gorgeous and huge – the biggest of the sprays shoot up to our window height! The pattern of fountains under the teal colour water is quite visible and seem to
need a lot of maintenance – worth it, yes, but still – twice today I saw crews out there working on the smaller circle to the right (if you are facing the Bellagio – it is to our left from the hotel room).This room is gorgeous – not quite a suite (that is what Celeste, our very helpful check in person said it was – but not just a room. There are two queen size beds, a small loveseat, a chair, a table in front of the loveseat, a round table with three chairs, and a beautiful cabinet and a small desk. The bathroom has a huge tub, a big three foot by four foot shower, and a separate little room with the toilet (I never understand that…
). The vanity is long with two sinks.There are pictures on the walls, big padded but nice-looking panels behind each bed (I’m guessing to prevent banging of the bed against the wall in case of vigorous love-making), nice soft-ish beds (coming from me that is high praise, indeed!) and extra pillows and such.
This is certainly off to a lovely start!
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