Summary of the 2016 Western Trip - Part Ten - Hoover Dam & Las Vegas: "Paris" & Bellagio Fountains, Funny Elvis Impersonator

Wednesday, August 24 - This day was basically reserved for driving from Phoenix to Las Vegas. The main thrust of the trip was now over, although there were still some things to see (if we were lucky enough). The hotel in Phoenix was spacious, and the swimming pool was very nice, and provided a lot of fun in the morning. The one problem with the hotel was the lack of any real breakfast, as it only offered coffee and some juice, as well as some small snacks. That was about it. Still, we felt good as we pulled out of the parking lot in the morning, and then went to get gas and made last ditch efforts to find the surprisingly elusive Sonora dogs. Never found them, which still kind of annoys me a bit, when I think about it. Nonetheless, it was time to go, and so we drove through yet another desert, stopping on occasion to take more pictures, mostly of the wonderful Saguaro cactus trees, as well as some Joshua trees, when we climbed in altitude as we approached the Nevada border. We made a stop in Kingman, Arizona, where I half-heartedly checked some Mexican restaurants for the Sonora dogs, with no more success than before. The town really does not have all that much to offer, other than a bunch of restaurants and gas stations to serve as a kind of break between long drives from other destinations. We continued the drive, and eventually reached the Nevada border, as I tried to race a little to get to the Hoover Dam before it closed. Was not sure when it closed, but wanted to get there as early as possible, to make sure that we got a chance to see it. Fortunately, we made it, and we were both glad that we did! It was extremely hot there, although at least it was starting to be evening, and thus, the sun was not as piercing. Of course, we took the obligatory photos, and the really cool thing about the timing of our visit, albeit completely accidental, was that we got to see the Hoover Dam during both daylight and evening, as it started to get dark fairly quickly. It is an impressive feat of engineering, to be sure. One thing that I also noticed was that the lettering and artwork invoked the 1920's, pre-Great Depression style, which of course makes sense, given that was the time frame that this Hoover Dam was built. What was surprising to me was just how barren it all looked, as there was hardly a blade of grass to be seen there. Just mountains and brown everywhere you looked, except for the water and the man-made structures, of course. One cool thing that I snapped a quick picture of was a sign warning of mountain goats. We walked across, and as we were walking back, just as we reached the Arizona side where we had parked, there was an announcement that started repeating frequently, informing everyone that the dam was about to close, and no pedestrians would be allowed atop the dam any longer. Snapped a few more pictures, and then we headed back to the car and started our drive to Las Vegas, for our final night fully out west. It was closer than expected, as we saw the city lights fairly soon after leaving the Hoover Dam. Still, Las Vegas is deceptively small looking, and so it took quite a bit longer to actually reach the city. We headed straight for the downtown, to "Las Vegas Paris," because it seemed like a good idea to get some pictures by the Eiffel Tower, which is half the actual size of the real one in Paris. They also had a miniature Arc de Triomphe, as well as some buildings done in the style of the Opera of Paris, as well as the Louvre. It was okay, but felt a bit cheap, compared to the real thing. Across the street was the Bellagio, with the famous Dancing Fountains. This my son absolutely loved, and we watched them for quite some time. It was nighttime by then, which is when they seem to be especially spectacular. I was struck by how much they actually reminded me of fireworks, and how loud the water fountains could be. After a while, it was time to call it a night, although we did stop to watch an Elvis impersonator along the way. I had noticed him before, and there was something strange about the way that he looked. Maybe he had put some wax on his face or something, because he actually did not look real. Also, he would hold perfectly still (almost impossibly still) and would sing without moving his lips, appearing like some kind of a statue or something, so that passersby would think nothing of it. Then, he would approach them, usually startling them. Naturally, he was particularly fond of startling women, and a few of them really got scared for a moment  (one actually screamed!). This also, we both enjoyed, and my son was reluctant to leave. 

Las Vegas

Summary of the 2016 Western Trip - Part Nine - Gallup, New Mexico, Nogales, Mexico, & A Return to Tombstone

Monday, August 22 - We drove out of Colorado the night before, and again, it was later than I had really wanted or expected it to be. Still, we had really made the most out of a long day (especially for me!) in the Rockies and visiting Mesa Verde. It was beautiful, and felt satisfying to have finally at least gotten a taste of the famous Rockies - the spine of North America! We drove mostly in the dark to Gallup, New Mexico, only stopping for a bite to eat along the way, although we stopped once or twice for gas. The first stop had been an urgent one for gas, as the gas light went on while we were still high up on Ute Mountain as we were leaving Mesa Verde. We reached Cortes, which had the cheapest gas I had yet seen on the trip. After a blessedly uneventful and relatively stress-free drive to Gallup, we reached our hotel, which was on the old historic Route 66. The room was magnificent, and the hotel staff was very friendly! There was a computer, and so I got to actually write a bit more than the normal notebook thing, which was refreshing! We had a decent night's sleep, and the next day, we had a very decent and filling breakfast at the hotel, after which I did a bit more writing. The weather outside had been intermittently rainy since the prior evening, although the sun was out now, and there was an amazing rainbow! Took some pictures, and after finishing my writing for the day, we were all set to begin another long day of driving, although I assured my son that this was the last monster day of driving. In fact, he had been excellent in terms of his patience and behavior throughout this trip! We reached the end of New Mexico surprisingly quickly, and I had not realized how close to the border of Arizona we were. After that, we drove and drove through some beautiful scenery. We reached Holbrook, which we had visited the prior year, and is famous for being the entrance to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert  National Park. We parked in one area and looked for some small pieces of petrified wood, and both found some relatively easily and with little effort or strain. We continued driving (I stopped just as we were leaving Holbrook to take a sign showing that this was the old route of the famed Pony Express. But then, it was a long drive through some strange sounding towns (who knew there was a Snowflake, Arizona?), before we got to a very green area dominated by pines. Before long, the altitude started to get serious, and we were in what seemed almost like a miniature of the Grand Canyon, as my son put it. It was really spectacular and, for us, also pretty much unexpected! Once again, we were driving up extremely curvy mountain roads, although once we climbed back down, we were back in the southwest desert, complete with cactus on the side of the road. Maybe half an hours after this, we saw our first Saguaro cactus tree, and knew then that we were fully back in the same famous southwestern desert that we had been in the year before! Of course, we were trying to make it to the Mexican border while there was still daylight, so we just kept driving and driving, until we finally reached it. There was Route 19, which is done up in Kilometers, the only American highway that I know of which is measured in the metric system, which I love! We arrived at Nogales in the late afternoon/early evening, quite a bit later than we had last summer. Still, we were here, and it was time for a visit! I exchanged some dollars for pesos (not much), and then realized after crossing that, as far as Mexican sellers were concerned, this was not a good move. They preferred American dollars! We did not have all that much time, and so we walked around, going perhaps a bit deeper into Nogales than we had last summer. We got to see the inside of the church this time, as the bell rang our for services. We walked around, much like we had last summer. At one point, I looked at a souvenir shop, and eyed a wooden carved statue of a Saguaro cactus plant, which seemed like a nice gift to get for my parents. We haggled a bit, and eventually found a price agreeable to both sides. Of course, I snapped a bunch of pictures while there, and my son told me that he really loved these trips to Mexico that we had taken (only the two of them, and just across the border, although still, they felt like something special). Before long, however, it was getting late, and so it was time to get back stateside and drive over to our hotel in Sierra Vista. There had been an incredibly long line to get into the States when we had crossed into Mexico (again, with no checks this time), and so I was worried. But I need not have been, because the line was almost totally gone, and we walked right up to the American border, and waited maybe a minute or two, tops, before the border guard took us. She joked a bit with my son, who showed off the small souvenir that he had purchased in Nogales, Mexico, and then we were on our way, another pleasant trip to a border town south of the border behind us. After that, I drove to Sierra Vista while my son slept in the back, just like last year. We checked into the hotel, and shortly thereafter, our night was over, and we slept.

Tuesday, August 23 - We woke up in Sierra Vista, and had ourselves a decent breakfast. My son had the do-it-yourself waffles, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Afterward, we were both pretty filled up, and then it was time to make our way for our own "Return to Tombstone." This town is the old western town where the most famous showdown of all in the days of the wild, wild west had taken place at the OK Corral. These days, Tombstone essentially thrives off of this reputation, and so my son really enjoyed this last year. This time, if anything, he had even more fun! We arrived in plenty of time for the 12:00 show, which would show the reenactment of the infamous showdown at the OK Corral. My son really, really got into it, which was great. If you watch the videos below, you will get an idea of just how much he enjoyed it, and it warmed my heart to see that he was not growing up too fast, after all. Afterwards, we visited the museum, then walked the dusty streets of Tombstone. He had wanted desperately to go to the shooting range, and for the first time in his life, to handle a "real gun." And so he did, and he had a blast! I myself am not particularly knowledgeable of guns, not being such a big fan, although I certainly did not want to stand in the way of his having fun on this day especially. After all, he had loved Tombstone last year, and spoke of that day with such reverence, that there was a feeling that this visit had been truly one of the happiest days of his life. I felt very happy, even privileged really, to have been able to set things up to provide him with that, and hoped that this, his second visit, might prove to be even better. Money was tight by the time we reached Tombstone, so we could not spend as freely as I had hoped, and had to curtail some of the things that we had wanted to visit. I had especially wanted to visit the famed Boot Hill, and also hoped to go on a coach ride around town, and perhaps visit the Birdcage Theater, which is the only actual period building still standing. We did go into the lobby of the Birdcage Theater, and indeed, saw some knife slashes and bullet holes dating back to those days when this was the pinnacle of the wild, wild west, so that was satisfactory. In last year's equally brief visit, we had not been told all of that. This time, we were, and we got to see it free of charge, although I did not pay the entrance fee to catch a glimpse of the inside of the theater itself. Again, everywhere you go in Tombstone, everyone wants money, money, money. I was almost overjoyed to see him lose himself in the spirit of the town, and just have fun and be a kid. But for me, as an adult needing to keep an eye on my wallet, there was more than a little source of stress to it not entirely different than the feeling that I had gotten when the California tourist agent had casually told me that a trip to Alcatraz would be about $160 or so per person, and did we want to pay by cash or credit? Of course, at least in Tombstone, you can lose your money in drips, rather than in a flood like with what that agent (who looked surprised and dismissive when I reacted in a shocked manner to how expensive a visit to the famed prison island would be). After our visit, we headed towards Phoenix, although I wanted to find a place in Tuscon that would have the Sonora dogs that, by now, both my son and I wanted to try. Also, I wanted to find a good spot to take an awesome desert picture or two, with at least one or two Saguaro cactus trees, and the mountains in the background, during a colorful (hopefully) desert sunset. We came close in both regards, although no cigars quite in either case, unfortunately. We were late by about ten or so minutes for a truck stand that did serve this elusive local specialty, and having wasted so much time looking for the damn Sonora dogs, we were now running a bit late for the sunset, as well. Got some decent sunset shots, but nothing quite like what I had imagined. Sigh.

Happy Yom Kippur!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Yom Kippur!

Also, it seemed like an opportunity to learn more about this most sacred of Jewish holidays which, admittedly, I am not all that familiar with. 

I looked it up, and Yom Kippur means "Day of Atonement." It is the day that Jews feel closest to God. Many Jews who do not celebrate or recognize other holidays or customs will recognize this one, and will avoid any work. This is considered the "Sabbath of Sabbaths."

According to Wikipedia, Yom Kippur is "the tenth day of [the] seventh month" (Tishrei), with Rosh Hashanah being the first day of that month, and this holiday falls after the 10 Days of Awe.

Weak Arguments About Hillary's Qualifications

It looks like this election is just about decided now. We are headed towards the outcome that looked inevitable all along: a Hillary Clinton landslide so that finally, Donald Trump can crawl back from under the rock where he came from to begin with.

However, all of this brouhaha over the behavior of the idiotic King of Orange very conveniently allowed Hillary Clinton and the Democrats to avoid some very unsavory headlines of their own, had they been forced to confront a more serious political opponent. When you have a clown drawing all of the attention to himself, it really was up to Hillary to just point out to people how bad of an idea it would be to elect that guy as president. The problem with this line of argument is that it does not justify voting for Hillary. 

One thing that has absolutely irritated me during this most obnoxious election season in recent memory is the notion that because Donald Trump is such a damn horrendous candidate - and loudly draws attention to his own pathetic behavior, to boot - that this makes Hillary the "good guy."

Frankly, that could not be farther from the truth. 

The scandals surrounding Hillary Clinton are well known, and I am not referring to Benghazi, which was a ridiculous, largely fabricated assertion that she was somehow responsible for the tragic events that took the lives of American diplomats in a destabilized and volatile country that was going through a revolution. 

No, that was overblown, but many of the other scandals involving Hillary and/or the rest of the Clintons are not at all overblown. First of all, the Republicans have a point as far as Bill Clinton's own indiscretions and deplorable behavior when it comes to his marital infidelities. I did not feel that this was a big deal back when he was president, and felt that it was actually meant as a distraction issue, more than anything. Yet, the way that the Clintons and their supporters now talk about Trump's own lewd behavior makes the hypocrisy glaringly obvious. Would you feel comfortable leaving your own teenage daughter in the presence of Donald Trump or Bill Clinton? 

Next, we go to the email scandal, which got bigger and bigger as it got along. What stuck out for me, more than the behavior that got reprimanded as extremely careless and detrimental to the nation, was Bill Clinton's meeting with Loretta Lynch on the tarmac of a Phoenix airport, which was quickly followed by all potential charges against Hillary Clinton being dropped. That was extremely fishy, and makes the Clintons look like they are above the law. The rules that apply to the rest of us do not apply to them. 

There are the shady connection with defense contractors, the missing sums of money from the Clinton Foundation, the Whitewater deal, the hundreds of thousands that she received from Wall Street firms as speaking fees, the millions that she received from Wall Street banks for her campaign, And let us not even get into her judgment, which has allowed her to completely reverse her beliefs on healthcare, where she once advocated for a single-payer, universal healthcare system, but now wants much slower change (and let's not forget the millions that she gets from the healthcare industry, not coincidentally). Or the vote for war in Iraq. Or the vote for the PATRIOT Act. Or the vote for the bailout. Or how she had a hand in drawing up the unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and held it up as the "gold standard" of trade deals, even though she mysteriously stood opposed to it once it became a political liability.

Now, I should mention that got me on this particular topic today was a Facebook post from a friend who mentioned that she (my friend, that is) is "officially" done with the "she's so flawed but she's the lesser of two evils" argument. This post goes on to suggest that she holds Hillary as a virtual rock star.

The problem with this argument is that she is more than "flawed,"and that holding her up as some kind of savior or rock star is letting her off the hook for a great many wrongs. In short, this attitude is what is eroding democracy. Hillary Clinton is much more than merely "flawed," she is downright corrupt. After all, she "won" the Democratic nomination by asking for, and receiving, help from the Democratic party establishment. The problem is that these practices are illegal. Debbie Wasserman-Shultz is only the most famous name and face of this absurd interference with the Democratic process, as there were plenty of others. She fell on her sword, yet was generously rewarded for her work by none other than Hillary Clinton herself, who quickly made her an honorary member of her campaign before the dust had settled on the allegations against Wasserman-Schultz. That's pretty transparent. Of course, there were numerous cases of voters being taken off the voting lists and/or being turned away on election day, as well as numerous voting places that were closed for the Democratic primaries. Also, numerous state primaries were closed to Democrats only, despite being funded by the general public, which seems pretty damn anti-democratic. All of this added up to an illegitimate win, marking Hillary in the same class as another notorious election "winner" in 2000, George W. Bush, who lost the general election and had the right people in the right places to nonetheless assure his "victory." Yes, George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton both benefited from being political insiders with the right connections to assure that the democratic process could be thwarted if it happened to be an inconvenient obstacle to higher office. 

It frustrates me that her fans seem to think of her as truly the best person out there for the job of president. Not only do they not acknowledge any of these serious "flaws," which seem to me to be better classified as not just major character flaws, but as downright conflicts of interest that should disqualify her from her relentless pursuit of the highest office in the land. Frankly, I am still not convinced that Donald Trump ever seriously wanted to be president in the first place, and his absurd and over-the-top campaign could not have been better suited to make Hillary appear as the "safe" and "stable" choice.

The Clintons are, essentially, what Republicans should be, in terms of their political stance. It truly is a statement of where we are as a country that the corporate agenda has pushed the country so far to the right that any insinuations that someone is "liberal" is seen as a stain, and that the word itself is viewed almost like a bad word. Donald Trump might have represented the closest that this country has flirted with outright fascism, and surely it is the closest such instance in recent history, but the Clintons represent the far more subtle, and perhaps far more dangerous, slow strangulation of democracy, and the triumph of corporate supremacy and the oligarchy. That is why the scandals involving the Clintons (other than the sex scandals, that is) matter. Because these scandals serve as evidence of just how easily powerful and highly influential politicians can be swayed, and can be made to do the bidding of their corporate masters. Unfortunately, the Clintons have managed to be particularly effective and influential in how they manage to twist facts around, and to package the harsh reality of a corporate agenda in more pleasant packaging for the American consumer. 

Honestly, I cannot even see what it is that people like about her. Decades ago, it was more understandable. But in this day and age, with a very long track record to go on, how is it that people can overlook the numerous times that Hill and Bill bent the rules to make sure that they would come out on top? After all, they are supposed to be public servants, but they really do not know the meaning of that. How do you get as rich as they have gotten when you supposedly devote your life to public service? How do her supporters not ask more questions about all of the scandals, the investigations and the shady deals that seem to follow the Clintons around like dark shadows everywhere that they go?

Here is the link to the post that got me on this topic today:

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