We stopped at a McDonalds on our way home from Vegas this past weekend. The self-serve kiosks were malfunctioning, no one was at the traditional registers, and their seemed to be a sense of panic from the back.
Plus, folks didn’t care if paper was strewn all over the lobby as they picked up their food.
We are not in what I would call “the golden era of American society”.
I was up at 5:15 AM and immediately headed to the airport to fly a 1969 Piper Cherokee 140 for an hour with the instructor that’s checking me out on their airplanes.
The desert is beautiful at this time of day. Unfortunately, I did not take any photos but it turns out I am capable of flying an airplane first thing in the morning. I had never done that before.
After seven hours of driving across the desert, we arrived at home just in time for dinner with the family. And, another spectacular sunset.
It was a very good long weekend in Las Vegas. I feel relaxed. I intend to hold on to that feeling.
Tomorrow we head home to Tucson and I can say it’s been a very nice time in Vegas but I’ve had my fill. We’ve been staying at the Downtown Grand near “The Fremont Experience”. There’s plenty of LED screens, loud music, and people flying by on zip lines. It’s a lot of fun, but I feel like we’ve done it for this trip and that’s all good.
It’s been too long since I’ve done so much people watching. It’s different now than what it used to be. The pandemic changed us all. Politics are everywhere. I passed a Vietnam Vet in a wheelchair who appeared to have Parkinson’s Disease. He was carrying a big poster of President Biden dressed up as a member of the Taliban. Many folks around him were offering to buy the Vietnam Vet a beer. I don’t know if it was for his service or his political beliefs.
And a quick aside, on this trip I noticed gas prices have gone up quite a bit in the past couple of weeks. Someone put stickers all over the fuel pump. The stickers had picture of Biden saying “I did this”. For those that are stupid, the President of the United States does not set the price of gasoline. It’s called capitalism, and gas prices are going up it’s because of supply and demand, not some edict from the Oval Office. Grow up.
I’m going home with a little more money than I brought and we are well under our gambling budget for this trip. We walked “the Strip” this afternoon and had a nice time. The Fremont Street and the Strip are like two completely different Vegas experiences. I like them both, in moderation. Two and a half days have been enough.
Jamie snapped a photo of Truman giving us his opinion on the new furniture arrangement in our Great Room.
So I’m not sure how I feel about this restaurant. It’s called the “Heart Attack” and you can weigh yourself on the way in. The scale is huge with a large LED readout for everyone with an interest to gaze upon. If you weigh more than 350 lbs., you eat for free. There are signs talking about lobster and steak. I don’t know what the prices are for folks that weigh less than 350 lbs.
I’ve known plenty of folks weighing more than 350 lbs. over the years. I wonder how they would feel about the theming around this restaurant. I know that being that heavy increases health concerns, in many cases dramatically, but most folks of any size seem happy with their weight.
Honestly, the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw this restaurant was, “only in the good ol’ U.S. of A.”. We live in odd times.
We were married in a legal ceremony 10 years ago this past Wednesday. We would have done it sooner but the government, and too many in the populace, felt the gays shouldn’t be legally married so while we’ve been together for over 25 years, as of this week we’ve been legally married for a decade.
We were married in a casino so it’s only fitting that we are celebrating a decade of legally wedded bliss in Las Vegas. My husband arranged this entire trip. We drove across the desert today and arrived in plenty of time for dinner. As of this writing, we have both doubled our daily allowance for gambling purposes. We are having fun and our inhibitions are loose. Make of that what you will.
I just know that I’m blissfully happy, both before this trip to Vegas and during this trip to Vegas. The rest of the family is home with Truman, and send their well wishes.
10 years ago today, my husband I were legally married at Turning Stone Casino and Resort in Verona, New York. The ceremony was attended by 75 of our family and friends. I still choke up when I think of the day, and I can’t believe we legally tied the knot 10 years ago.
25 years ago today, I got down on one knee on a mountain in The Adirondacks south of Inlet, New York and I proposed to Earl, in front of a group of spectators that happened to be hiking that day. We celebrated our commitment ceremony on December 26, 1996. It wouldn’t be until 2011 that New York State deemed us worthy of a legal marriage and we put the celebration together as quickly as possible.
It was wonderful.
Here’s a photo from our one year legal anniversary celebration back at Turning Stone Casino and Resort. We were seated at a table next to one of the Queer Eye guys from the original series. I don’t know what he does now.
I just know that I’m still blissfully in love and quite happy to be gay, because we get to celebrate lots of anniversaries.
Our web host is still restoring servers across their platform, but our service (on server #1!) has been stable for the past 24 hours. Fingers crossed.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!
