Page 2 of 2
Las Vegas, Nevada
You’ve been running away from what you don’t understand
I may have come to Las Vegas specifically to see the Sphere, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of other things to see. Although in this specific case, there was less to see than normal. Las Vegas was gearing up to host a Formula One race, and the whole city was a total mess to drive through and to walk through. They built stands blocking the Bellagio fountains, which still went off on schedule, even though you couldn’t actually tell.
In an attempt to see something I hadn’t yet seen in Las Vegas, I finally got out to Area 15 and Omega Mart. Omega Mart starts as a parody of a supermarket (they sell things like dehydrated water and nut free salted nuts) and then it starts to get weird.
There are multiple secret passageways that lead from the supermarket parody side of Omega Mart into a whole world of secret rooms created by different artists that work together to tell a somewhat paranoid story that gets pretty deep, depending on how deep you want to get into it. But even if you’re just there for the visuals and not there to hunt down clues, its still a great experience.
After seeing the fake MSG Sphere desert where the streets have no name, it’s time to go out to the real desert and the Valley of Fire, a Nevada State Park where the streets actually have names like Mouse’s Tank Road and Fire Tank Road. If Valley of Fire looks familiar, it could be that it’s been featured as alien planets in films like Star Trek Generations (it’s where they killed Captain Kirk) and as Mars in Total Recall.
We’re back in Las Vegas and now at the terrific Neon Museum, where they now let you wander without a tour through the boneyard. Free ranging tourists can now take pictures, chat with docents, and just take their time seeing what they want to see instead of patiently learning about all the museum has to offer.
And just like that we’re leaving Las Vegas, although unlike Sheryl Crow in 1994, we’re smart enough to know that we’re not leaving for good. There will be some reason that comes up, maybe a new show or attraction or restaurant or casino that draws us back again. Or maybe we’ll just decide that we don’t need a reason and just want to go back. Either way, it’s only a matter of time before we’re here again.
Until then, enjoy these pictures of the Flamingo and the fountain display at the Bellagio (which you can’t even see because of F1).
