The South Side of the Strip

OK, I'll have to make this relatively short because these late nights are catching up with me. Plus, I find myself trying to exist in both time zones... which is not the best way to do things...

News for today... we are under a High Winds Advisory, and let me tell you... this is some wind we've got here. I can hear it crashing against and whistling through the window of my hotel room. At one point, a gust blasted us so hard from behind that it almost knocked us off our feet. I was actually slightly lifted off the ground. I would say 40 - 60 mph gusts easy. Here's the advisory. I took some video of it, but the server is so slow attm that I don't want to deal with that right now... maybe, after I'm home. Unfortunately, the wind was so bad that they cancelled the Sirens of TI show. The little anemometer atop that set was just spinning like crazy. Dinner at Emeril's restaurant was way over-priced. I spent $80 on my meal, which is way above per diem, and the food wasn't as good as the reasonably priced Italian we had last night. After the show was cancelled, a couple of us decided to hit the south side of the strip. We hopped on the Deuce (the bus) and rode to MGM and New York, New York. The flags were at half staff to honor those who lost their lives in the Virginia Tech University shootings (what a terrible tragedy). I shot the picture of one of the flags with the Statue, and those particles in the air are dust particles and sand flying in the high winds. After that, we went to Excalibur, the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. So much walking... I now have a blister on the back of my heel. Ouch! Then, we hopped back on the bus and headed back.

Looking like a windy day tomorrow for our trip to the dam... I'll need to wear my hat... but temps should be ideal. I'm looking forward to all the photo ops there. Hopefully some good sunset pics too... I am leaning more and more toward doing the skydiving thing. If I can get someone to accompany me... (I wonder if Jim E. would want to join me and video tape my experience... what you think, Jeff? I don't guess that's as appealing as lingerie...) Everyone in my group has plans on Thursday that I'm not involved in... Hey, we might have time tomorrow after the dam though... that would be cool. This connection is so slow... I am trying to load pictures, but I am getting very impatient. Oh, while I was sitting here waiting, I saw video footage on TWC of a funnel cloud spotted in Lubbock, TX today. Nice little ribbon trying to get its act together. Cool.

That's it for me tonight.

Good night, y'all!!
~Dewdrop