Note
A few random notes from the week --
1. I've never flown on Southwest before. No particular reason, it just never happened. But they have non-stop service from Hartford to Las Vegas, so the choice was obvious. And it was a pleasurable experience from start to finish, which is not usually said about airline travel. A sense of humor goes a long way.
2. I read an article in the Sept. 17th New Yorker that, given the author, I would have never thought I would have enjoyed, or even finished. It was by Salman Rushdie, about how The Satanic Verses affected his life. I tried reading TSV once, made it just a few pages, tried another of his books sometime later, made it maybe 50 or 100 pages. This article was wonderful. I think it is an extract from his new memoir, Joseph Anton, supposed to be 600 pages. I am tempted to have a go at it.
3. Las Vegas. Never been there before. I had business to take care of that would take Monday evening and Tuesday, but that left Monday afternoon, Tuesday evening, and Wednesday morning available for other activities.
I'd though about a couple of run/hikes, maybe Red Rocks Canyon or Mt. Charleston, but at the last minute decided to take my clubs, so that filled up Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning. Enjoyed both rounds immensely, excellent company just by chance, same two guys both times as after Monday's round we made arrangements to meet at a different course on Wednesday. Couldn't have worked out better.
I still wanted to go for a run, and not on the streets, and I'd read about a place with a bunch of bike trails near Boulder City, so when I was done Tuesday afternoon I headed off that way to see what I could find. Had to ask for directions a couple of times, didn't have a map, but found the place, Bootleg Canyon. Lots of bike trails, made for wonderful running. A few bikers out, no runners to be seen. Would have also been excellent for orienteering. Still would like to make it up Mt. Charleston....
Hard to know what to make of the city, though I really didn't see much of it. I drove down the strip at the end on my way to the airport. It was big and gaudy, though I couldn't really appreciate it as I mainly didn't want to be stupid and have a fender-bender. So that too will have to wait for another time. The place I was staying was a few miles away, another casino, this one definitely not upscale, paid for my plane ticket and this and the car were free. Slept there, lost $5 in the slots as a contribution to their bottom line, used the WiFi, served its purpose.
I think if I traveled much I'd get a smart phone, just to be able to call up maps. I spent a while memorizing where I was heading and managed OK, but a smart phone would have been nice. Sometime I'll have to get with the program.
Couldn't tell much about how the economy was doing. It got hit by the housing crash as bad as anyplace. But there seemed t be some construction going on, not too many office buildings advertising vacancies. And the paper had news that Zappos was moving its operations downtown, the 200 or so young folks involved expected to further a trend of downtown coming back to life. Easy to forget that places that seem to exist only online still have a bunch of employees that have to work someplace.
LV mainly is pretty dreary looking. Hard to imagine living there. The traffic lights would drive me nuts.