Vegas, Sequoia & Yosemite NP

Well, I rolled into Vegas last Thursday morning about 1:30 a.m. and settled in at the Super 8 at about 2:30. Travis promptly called and woke me up at 9 a.m. Seems like everyone came in on separate flights but by 11pm everyone was in. Thursday night most of us headed down to the little outdoor bar/stage area outside Harrah’s where we were staying. We closed that down at 3, put T-Bag in a cab for Mandalay and went to bed about 3:30. I couldn’t fall asleep and ended up only sleeping from about 5 to 9, which I knew was going to bode well for that evening. On Friday night the group decided to hit the Voodoo Lounge at the top of the Rio just off the strip. I usually wouldn’t waste $20 on cover at a club but it was all for Travis and I wanted to see the view from the 50th floor. Turned out that I really liked the club. It had glass elevators up the side of the building, two huge balconies on the 50th and 51st floor with an outdoor staircase connecting them, and girls (pros not the amateur drunk patrons) dancing on platforms overhanging the 50th floor. I thought it was strange when as soon as I walked in some chick told me that she thought she saw me in her dreams. She later groped my ass when she walked by. As the night wore on and I wore out either I got more attractive or the beer goggles were in effect because some chick (actually pretty good looking) that was talking to Luke said she thought I was hot (but she also said that about 12 other guys) and wanted me to go with her and her friends to another club. It was clear what she wanted after the other club. I don’t know if it was old age or being tired or dorky or what but I basically blew her off because I didn’t feel like chasing her around at another club for a couple more hours just for the easy score. T-Bag later explained to me very tactfully why I did it, “YOU ARE F@%^ING GAY!!!” Well, we all have our opinions but I can produce eyewitness testimony to refute his position. That was my first experience in a real $20 cover club. I think I may have to go more often after that experience. I think I’ve concluded that if I drank I would score a lot more tail (pardon the terminology) but I don’t know that I would be any happier for it. I’ll likely never know. I left Vegas on Saturday and headed for Sequoia NP.

I made it a little more than halfway on Saturday night. I spent all day at Sequoia checking out the giant trees and trying to keep my car on the crazy winding roads. I’m more than a little impressed with the trees. They are freakin’ huge. Sunday night I ended up scraping yet another campsite that I already paid for in favor of an overpriced hotel outside Yosemite because it was getting dark and I was still more than 2 hours from my campground on the other side of the park. Yosemite was also very impressive with its granite cliffs and waterfalls. I had a lot of fun climbing on the granite boulders from the paved path to the based of Lower Yosemite Falls. I would highly recommend both parks. Like the Grand Canyon I’m definitely looking to come back to do some real hiking and biking around the parks. Enough for now. I’ll write about my time in San Fran and Redwoods NP next.