It has been said that the Mountain West conference is “At the Peak,” and to me, nothing illustrates that more, than the fact that there are 12 teams competing in the only NCAA Division 1 conference that sponsors e-sports. Of course, since the matches are played head-to-head, Boise State has an advantage because they tint the monitors blue, and play with all blue avatars; an advantage that is confirmed in their winning of League of Legends and Overwatch, but with the Spring season being cut, next year the Mountain West has announced that they will be playing Mario Kart 8, for the Nintendo Switch. Due to the large amounts of people in the Mountain West cities suddenly having $1200 burning a hole in their pocket, every store that sells Nintendo Switch has sold out of their allotment; yes, even, Amazon. So, thus the conundrum becomes: How can these players, prospects, and ordinary people practice in order to “git gud” as the gamers would say? Well, that’s where I come in. For, you see, since I am allowed out on the streets again, finally, due to both my prison sentence being cut short, and my work being determined to be “essential,” I had the time to scope out some places. Alas, while my cough and fever are not improving as much as I had hoped since I last got back from Italy, I did manage to find some time to visit all of the Mountain West cities in order to find the easiest place to get a Switch and Mario Kart 8 location. For simplicity’s sake, I am going by the football stadium since it’s a well-defined point in most locations – San José State fans, the football stadium is that big ovoid building at the corner of E Alma Ave, and S 7th St… It’s the place where the people aren’t on Saturday’s is September. Should you get hungry during your travels, I have also managed to find a some breakfast locations in the same vicinity

Mountain

Air Force

Okay, so I lied a little; I tried to get into the university, but, unfortunately the men with guns wouldn’t actually let me get beyond the gate on S Gate Rd, and I was still a little jet-lagged having just gotten in from Frankfurt after having woken up for my 0610 flight for the Linate to Frankfurt leg (stupid weather prevented the flight from Denver to ABQ, but my loss is your gain). So, while this may not be the closest, it certainly will fit the bill. Tyler-Jay Rowland who lives at 3075 Navigation Drive, in Colorado Springs was more than willing to help out, especially since his son, Jeremiah, was grounded for a month for staying out after curfew two weekends in a row. As the falcon flies, this location is 5.2 miles away; in a car, it’s not too much further than that.

Boise State

Now, I don’t, technically, hate the way that Boise is laid out with the river running right through the center of town, but even though Maci Drew lives in the Clearwater Apartments, unit 323, which is in a straight line, only a quarter of a mile from the stadium, you will have to go the Exxtramile, to get to her apartment. Also, she would like me to point out, that times for a waitress like herself are a little rough, so please, if you’re hungry, skip Taco Bell, and eat at the Bar Gernika in downtown Boise, right next to the Central Plaza and Century Link Arena. “We have wifi” she said.

Colorado State

This is, by far, the most remarkable location; I had completely forgotten that they moved to an on-campus stadium, so I initially went to the Hughes Stadium location, and found a big pile of dirt. And not much else – well, if you exclude the trees that formed a nice line, that brought me back to my college days. Having corrected my too old Garmin in-car GPS, I found Tim Thatcher on 604 Balsam Ln; he’s a little deaf, so you might need to knock like you are ram-ing down the door. He bought the Switch after his wife of 35 years died to help him grieve and spend his retirement, “but it’s just making me too sad lately, and I’ve never been very good at vid’ya [sic] games. I still don’t know how I’m supposed to save the princess when she’s trying to beat me… That reminds me of my princess, who I lost last year. She was so kind, we met in high school, I had an onion on my belt as was the style in those days. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.” I’ll be honest, at this point I started zoning out because, again, fever. He honestly looked really sad as I was talking to him, so you might want to try to cheer him up, since he’s just a lonely guy bein’ a dude. In a straight line distance, you’re only going .3 miles, and it’s not too much further by car.

New Mexico

This is by far the closest location to the stadium. The UNM Lobo Club is a non-essential business in the state of New Mexico, and UNM and the Athletics Department realized that funding would need to be cut dramatically throughout the state, and with the sweetheart deal they got from the legislature this year, they decided to close all athletic facilities, including the Maloof building, home of both Eddie Nuñez’s office, and the Lobo Club. I suggest using the side door closest to the field level entrance of the stadium. That’ll take you to the weight room; an alarm will go off, the code is “1892” the year the football team first played (interesting tidbit: the marching band was founded in 1889, the same year as the university); from there enter the main hallway, and go to the first door on the left after you pass the restrooms. The last time I was there, they had a vending machine that dispensed free Mountain Dew; I was howl-ing with laughter after I found that. Also, if you see Señor Manta, say “Hola!” he’s been down on his luck since his family were killed in the accident, and now he wanders the street like a lone Lobo.

Utah State

It was like a bomb went off. No one was around; maybe they were busy playing Farmer, or having a bonfire out in the dirt behind the stadium, wit their brown-eyed girls, but Jeff Field’s dorm room, Aggie Village Community building 17, first floor, third window from the right (he leaves it unlocked, so don’t worry about access) has a Switch just sitting there on the bed, as though he borrowed it from someone, but never managed to return it before he left. Go on, take it, just say that it was yours and he left it, no one will check.

Wyoming

Cowboys and Cowgirls are just different, I guess; I could not find a Nintendo Switch in town for the life of me. I found many Switchblades, Light switches, and many wooden rods, so I took my horse down to Cheyenne, and found a recently laid-off Subway Sandwich Artist called Dom, who knew just where to look. He directed me to 803 West 21st St, Suite B. He told me, “yeah, the guy who runs this storefront, has a little son, about 6 years old. He keeps a Switch in his desk’s keyboard tray for when he picks his son up from school.” Because of the ordeal in Laramie, I asked him to clarify, and he did, “yeah… Nintendo switch.” He said as he looked around shiftily. If that doesn’t work you can always try Suite C, I heard they stock Switches… oh wait, not that kind.” I was going to ask him for more information, but he entered what looked like an abandoned brick building just passed the railroad tracks, “You didn’t see me,” he said. And I also didn’t hear the gunshots that went off as I walked back to my car.

Table View

School	Distance Driving (mi)	Straight Line Distance (mi)	Drive/Drone Difference	Variance (from all schools)A
Air Force	8.44	5.22	3.22	0.047
Boise State	1.00	0.282	0.718	1.069
Colorado State	0.420	0.312	0.108	1.792
New Mexico	0.206	0.191	0.015	1.920
Utah State	0.444	0.305	0.139	1.751
Wyoming	47.90	40.69	7.21	4.894

A: Variance is calculated based upon DDD’s distance from the standard deviation of DDD… Why DDD? Because, DDD is King.

West

Note: SDSU currently does not field an Esports team; I am including them because it seems likely that they will in the near future

Hawai’i

Hawai’i is interesting because the Honolulu airport has a much better open air location than the El Paso airport; there’s a water path, it’s weird man, it reminds me a lot of the Tiki Room at Disn… oh, yeah, Hawai’i, Polynesia, that makes sense. Anyway, the stadium is home to the largest swap meet’s I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, I did not find any Switches, but I did find a guy swapping Macadamia Nut cookies for a few dollars, so naturally, I bought some. It started to rain, so even though many people are Rainbow Warriors or Wahine, as the women prefer to be called, I am not. I stopped in at the ‘Aeia Public Library for a spell, and my phone was dead, so I needed a place to charge for a bit. The nice librarian, Akela (“it means graceful,” I was told. After I asked, “like the wolf-spirit in Hindi myths?”), pointed out, that, “We loan out all sorts of stuff here; pots, pans, sewing machines. Believe it or not, we even rent out video game systems. Our most popular is probably the Nintendo Switch, but we also have a couple of Xbox’s and PS4’s.” I guess I looked very shocked because Akela continued, “with the military surrounding us, we, the library system, get a lot of goods from contractors who don’t want to have a lot of their goods shipped back to the mainland.” Seeing how much it cost to ship out, I completely understood, and bid ¬¬Akela aloha, and failed the Hawai’I test by passing out at the nearest Embassy Suites, in Kapolei, if I remember correctly (I probably don’t, I was tired).

Fresno State

A nice cow brought me to Clovis. Much like what happened in Las Vegas, it was not the cool one, but instead the one in California. She (I saw udders), brought me specifically to 264 Clovis Ave, and said, “what you seek, from my master, is in there.” I’m not sure if it was my fever, jet-lag, a combination of them, or something else entirely, but then the cow vanished as though she was just a thing on the internet. A stray puppy passed by me in downtown, so that was probably the highlight of the trip.

Nevada (Reno)

Look, I’ll be honest, Reno to me always makes me feel like I’m going to be leaving the city without one or both of my kidneys. I don’t know why I expect Renoirs to chew my body like a Pack of Wolves, but there you are. Diedre Thomas of 128 Keystone Ave, fell on hard times. She poured herself a glass of vodka, neat, and said, “you can have anything you want,” she paused briefly to wink at me, “for the right price.” I specifically enquired about the Switch, “Anything,” she replied. She pulled out what appeared to be a small glass bowl that looked like an incense holder, and a baggie of chalk dust, and… Oh my god, she was going to smoke cocaine. Anyway, as she pulled out the pulled out the baggie, I hastily took my leave. I then went to the airport and went to my next stop….

Nevada – Las Vegas

Can you believe parents still bring their children, like elementary school aged children to Las Vegas. And it’s not the cool Las Vegas, in New Mexico, it’s the one in Nevada; well, I guess, technically they bring their kids to Paradise, and not Las Vegas, but c’mon man, there isn’t that much difference. Anyway, head to the Excalibur hotels because Carla, the housekeeper said that on average 3 Switches get left by guests every day. I then felt really depressed while walking around the hotel, so I left to check out the Mirage, where I normally stay on these Mountain West trips. I also learned that if there’s one thing that freaks me out more than the throngs of people walking the Strip, it’s when there’s nobody around. Once the new stadium gets completed it will be vastly easier to get to the casino than at the current location.

San Diego State

I stayed with Dominic, at his house of Friars Road. I was starting to feel sick to my stomach with the lack of green chile, so it was so enjoyable to spend time with a fellow New Mexican (and my roommate junior year). He took me on a little tour: Balboa Park’s stadium (home of the former Harbor Bowl, and the first tie in UNM Football history), the USS Midway, and Ocean Beach. I had forgotten about the assignment until I looked down at my feet and found a working Switch. When it was still there after an hour, I borrowed a small boat, realised, I need a bigger boat and headed out to the Ocean. Having claimed rights, I then put it back, so you might also find it.

San José State

Look, there are a lot of people who depart from the San Jose Airport. The kids who travel on these flights are slightly scatter-brained because of the adrenaline of taking a plane ride (and passing through the checkpoint), and leave some of their electronics, and I found a shoe! A shoe! Who only puts one shoe on and then walks-off? It was an adult shoe, so it’s not like a child/toddleparent left it, no, someone made a conscious decision to leave their shoe… Maybe it was a protest? Anyway, just tell the guy that you left your Switch at the checkpoint, if he asks you what color it was say, it had yellow grips that slide off, but the screen was bounded by black.

Table View

School	Distance Driving (mi)	Straight Line Distance (mi)	Drive/Drone Difference	Standard Deviation (all schools)A
Fresno State	4.46	3.28	1.18	0.644
Hawai’i	1.420	0.696	0.784	1.001
Nevada (Reno)	2.410	1.69	0.720	1.067
Nevada – Las Vegas (SBS)b	18.426	8.93	11.258
Nevada – Las Vegas (NVS)c	2.125	0.590	1.535	0.391
San Diego State	9.861	8.08	1.78	0.252
San José State	6.575	4.60	1.975	0.164

A: Variance is calculated based upon DDD’s distance from the standard deviation of DDD… Why DDD? Because, DDD is King.
b: Sam Boyd Stadium
c: New Vegas Stadium (Allegiant Field)

Conclusion

Even if the stores are sold out of Switches, there are always places you can go to get them, some are definitely within walking distance of your house, maybe even right next door. If you do choose to do that, there are a few things to keep in mind: 1. Milk 2. Eggs, specifically from Natural Grocers, if they still have member pricing. 3. Chicken thighs
Wait, that was my grocery list for last week.

1. Basque food is amazing.
2. The addresses are real, any businesses mention are real; the people mentioned or alluded to (with exception to the person who has an office in Clovis, CA; and Dominic in SD) are fake.
3. No, I do not know who lives at the addresses, and unless you can look it up in the phone book, I recommend that you don’t either. Please don’t bother them.
4. No, I am not sick… I have a lingering cough from allergies to junipemesquite pollen.
5. I have not visited Colorado Springs/Fort Collins/Laramie/Reno/San José/Honolulu, yet.
6. Information for the other cities comes from my memory
7. I remember when Park MGM was the Monte Carlo
8. Is Secret Pizza still at the Cosmo? I don’t remember seeing it the last time I was there, but that might have been because I was on the wrong floor.
9. Toss a coin to your witcher.
10. Normal people stop listing things at 10, but
11. This list goes up to 11.

We'll be visiting Las Vegas next week and I just wanted to get some feedback from locals/regulars. We already looked up everything online, but some of the best locations/attractions are the ones that don't show up on TripAdvisor.
I will try and organize this somewhat.
Food

• Bruxie Fried Chicken and Waffles

This is the only suggestion we've gotten so far. Any other local spots? We don't like chains. Any late night pizza by the slice?
Brewery
Able Baker Brewing
Attractions

• Hoover Dam (We heard the tours have been vastly reduced since 9/11. How much time should we allocate for this?)
  
• Spring Mountain Visitor Center Gateway (We aren't sure about this one yet. I just noticed there could be potential for some drone pics. Has anyone been here? Any info? Is it worth the drive? Is this drone-friendly?)
  

Drone Spots

• Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (Again, any details on this? Any specific trails we should hit? We aren't the most avid hikers, but always like to absorb some nature when we can. Is it worth the drive?)
  
• Seven Magic Mountains
  
• Fox Hill Park (If we go to Red Rock, I would assume we'll hit this on the way. It seems like it would be a safe spot to get some panoramas of the mountains and the park looks really cool with all the colors and surfaces.
  

Are there any other really cool spaces to get a couple decent drone shots?
Strip Attractions
So, for this last section, I was in Las Vegas when I was 18 (what a blast), but this will be my wife's first time (32). I really want to show her all the cool "strip" stuff.

• Lake of Dreams/Waterfall @ Wynn (Is this free? Do we have to be staying there? What time is the show scheduled?)
  
• Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. (What is this?)
  
• Gondola Rides @ Venetian
  
• Volcano and Tigers @ Mirage
  
• Flamingo/Penguin Habitat @ Flamingo
  
• Statue of David/Moving Statues @ Caesar's Palace
  
• Fountains @ Bellagio (When are these scheduled during day/night?)
  
• Eiffel Tower Experience/Arc de Triomphe @ Paris (Is there anything special about this or just a photo op?)
  
• Lion @ MGM
  
• Statue of Liberty/Rides @ New York New York
  
• Valley of the Falls & Shark Reef Aquarium @ Mandalay Bay (Is this cool? Is it worth walking through?)
  
• Sphinx @ Luxor
  

Are there any other "strip" things that are cool/free/photo ops? I know the pirate show and Treasure Island has been discontinued, which is a major bummer. Is there anything else I missed? Anything at Excalibur or Aria, etc.?
Thanks for all the help.

We'll be visiting Las Vegas next week and I just wanted to get some feedback from locals/regulars. We already looked up everything online, but some of the best locations/attractions are the ones that don't show up on TripAdvisor.
I will try and organize this somewhat.
Food

• Bruxie Fried Chicken and Waffles
  
• This is the only suggestion we've gotten so far. Any other local spots? We don't like chains. Any late night pizza by the slice?
  

Brewery

• Able Baker Brewing

Attractions

• Hoover Dam (We heard the tours have been vastly reduced since 9/11. How much time should we allocate for this?)
  
• Spring Mountain Visitor Center Gateway (We aren't sure about this one yet. I just noticed there could be potential for some drone pics. Has anyone been here? Any info? Is it worth the drive? Is this drone-friendly?)
  

Drone Spots

• Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (Again, any details on this? Any specific trails we should hit? We aren't the most avid hikers, but always like to absorb some nature when we can. Is it worth the drive?)
  
• Seven Magic Mountains
  
• Fox Hill Park (If we go to Red Rock, I would assume we'll hit this on the way. It seems like it would be a safe spot to get some panoramas of the mountains and the park looks really cool with all the colors and surfaces.
  
• Are there any other really cool spaces to get a couple decent drone shots?
  

Strip Attractions
So, for this last section, I was in Las Vegas when I was 18 (what a blast), but this will be my wife's first time (32). I really want to show her all the cool "strip" stuff.

• Lake of Dreams/Waterfall @ Wynn (Is this free? Do we have to be staying there? What time is the show scheduled?)
  
• Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. (What is this?)
  
• Gondola Rides @ Venetian
  
• Volcano and Tigers @ Mirage
  
• Flamingo/Penguin Habitat @ Flamingo
  
• Statue of David/Moving Statues @ Caesar's Palace
  
• Fountains @ Bellagio (When are these scheduled during day/night?)
  
• Eiffel Tower Experience/Arc de Triomphe @ Paris (Is there anything special about this or just a photo op?)
  
• Lion @ MGM
  
• Statue of Liberty/Rides @ New York New York
  
• Valley of the Falls & Shark Reef Aquarium @ Mandalay Bay (Is this cool? Is it worth walking through?)
  
• Sphinx @ Luxor
  
• Are there any other "strip" things that are cool/free/photo ops? I know the pirate show and Treasure Island has been discontinued, which is a major bummer. Is there anything else I missed? Anything at Excalibur or Aria, etc.?
  

Thanks for all the help.

I've only been playing craps for a few months. I wanted to learn before I went to Las Vegas. It was my first time in Vegas and my wife hasn't been for 10 or so years.
This report is from 5/4/2019-5/18/2019.
We play in Michigan and Indiana for the most part. There is a Boyd property out here we have been going to for a few years. We were able to get free rooms at the Fremont for 2 nights and Gold Coast for 2 nights. We went to MGM in Detroit once with her mom and they send us offers all the time to go to Vegas. We decided to take them up on it and were able to get 4 nights at the Luxor.
I had a budget of $200/day. My goal was to play $5 craps where I could.
The first weekend we spent mostly at the Fremont. I enjoyed playing at the tables with the older guys and a more relaxed crowd. Always had a $5 table open and the dealers were really nice. I tried to make some 2 way hard ways and yo's and the dealers really seemed to appreciate that. They remembered my name and were always very kind to me. One dealer even flipped the dice to 3-3 for me when he sent them my way to save me time. I really enjoyed playing there.
I saw that they had a shooters club at Fremont and found it curious. I was able to roll 20 and 23 times while I was there, but that's not even close to getting on the wall. I was playing mostly the pass and 6-8 occasionally taking a 5/9 with my winnings. I didn't make much, but people around the table did.
We found our way down to the D and Golden Gate on Sunday afternoon. My wife really enjoyed the Golden Gate and I did as well. Always found 5 dollar tables and at night they have the dancing dealers, which is always a nice thing to look at. Dealers were great any my wife was able to earn comps there quickly. Paid for our dinner at Pizza Rock on just her comps. The D was pretty nice too, but was very loud at night and more crowded.
We had a nice room at the Luxor and spent our first day there (Thursday) walking around the hotels. I was trying to collect a dollar chip from any casino that we went into as a souvenir. Luxor was $10 everytime I was there. 2 tables open in the morning with no one playing. I asked if they would lower it to play, but they declined. We walked to Excalibur and I was able to play for $5 anytime except for Saturday night after 8. They did have a $5 crapless table, but it was crowded and I don't like it. The house edge is high.
I had some coupons for match play at Planet Hollywood so I did play $10 there for about 3 shooters but I lost my money quickly. We had to make some bets for my brother at Caesars so we used his card to park there for free. I did bet one shooter there just to say I played at Caesars.
As you can imagine, the nicer hotels were all $10 and up. I was able to find $5 briefly during the day at Treasure Island and played there for a little while.
We went back downtown the Saturday and Sunday where we could afford to play. My wife found her home at Four Queens. She loved sitting in the Keno room and playing the live Keno and a Keno machine at the same time. She also enjoyed playing High Card Flush and Texas Holdem there. I played craps there for quite a long time, but the dealers for that shift weren't as friendly.
For the most part I would win $100 somewhere and loss $100 somewhere. But I kept most of my money throughout the trip.
Our last weekend we stayed at Gold Coast and played there on Thursday night. We went back downtown Friday night to play at the Golden Gate and Binions. My wife hit a jackpot in slots at Golden Gate before we left that won back all of the money we lost. We left Las Vegas even on money after paying for dinners and such.
It was a really fun trip. I know with my bankroll Vegas can be tough. But we aren't fancy people so downtown was perfect for us. We earned some comps and plan to stay at a Boyd property or the D when we go back in February (we had Disneyland tickets for one day. I've never been and she hasn't been since 1998. But my wife got sick so it's an excuse to go back.). Hoping we can put the money we came back with away to use as a bankroll next time.

"Odd how even in the face of tragedy, there are often such wonders -- such miracles -- to be found."

-- Nightcrawler

Table of Contents

I.    Introduction
II.   Teleportation
III.   Physicals
IV.  Combat, Equipment, and Other Skills

I. Introduction

A. Bio
Nightcrawler is Kurt Wagner, a mutant and long-time member of the X-Men. He was born in Germany to Mystique and the demonic mutant Azazel but abandoned shortly afterwards. Luckily (or not), Kurt was rescued and raised by the powerful gypsy sorceress, Margali, to become a circus performer. He had a relatively happy childhood and was close with his adopted brother and sister, but his appearance and powers increasingly brought him negative attention. He found refuge in the Catholic Church and has been a devout Catholic ever since, (even becoming a priest later in life).
As a young man, he had to confront his brother over a series of murders, and it resulted in his brother's death. The locals then blamed Kurt for the murders and mobbed and attacked him. Luckily, Professor Charles Xavier arrived to save Kurt and recruit him as a new student and X-Men team member, Nightcrawler.
Nightcrawler has gone on countless adventures with the X-Men to protect mutants and humans alike, and has helped save the planet and even the universe. Later when the world believed the X-Men had died, Nightcrawler joined and eventually led Excalibur. Nightcrawler has since returned to the X-family and continues to pursue the X-Men's mission in his uniquely dashing and adventurous way.
 
B. Powers
Nightcrawler's powers and abilities include:

• Teleportation: Nightcrawler can teleport across distances almost instantly, and multiple times in a second. Teleportation strains both him and passengers and can disorient, weaken, or even KO people. It can also bypass or sever physical boundaries; so, he can intersect objects or fuse them into each other.
  
• Mutant Physiology: Nightcrawler has non-human physical features: fur, fangs, a tail, and large, three digit hands and feet. His physical mutations give him enhanced physical abilities, particularly agility. He can also disappear in darkness and climb vertical surfaces.
  

 

II. Teleportation

A. Speed

• Teleports after a soldier fires a point blank rifle round at his head (Note: the gun was likely an AK-47)
  
• Avoids Dracula's lightning multiple times
  
• Teleports "800 miles in under a minute" while using short jumps
  
• Often teleports to avoid projectile attacks, sometimes after the attack has been fired
  
• Frequently uses rapid teleportation to attack from multiple angles, seemingly at once
  
• Colossus sets off a land mine and Nightcrawler teleports Cyclops to safety
  
• Described as and appears to be instantaneous
  
• Plays baseball with himself and his Bamfs
  
• Colossus moves to punch Iron Man, but Nightcrawler ports Iron Man away
  
• Quickly catches up to the speedster, Aurora
  
• Casually evades X-23's attack
  
• Dodges Cannonball's close range attack
  
• X-23 surprise attacks Bishop, and Nightcrawler intercepts her in mid-leap
  
• Wolverine surprises Colossus by throwing a beer at him, but Nightcrawler intercepts
  
• Limits
  
  • Despite his speed, enemies can eventually tag him as they figure out his patterns, or as he tires
  • Pixie out-ports him two times in a row
  • A car gets hit with a missile, but Nightcrawler can't save all the passengers

 
B. Distance and Location

• Teleports from Las Vegas to Utopia, off the coast of San Francisco (~670 miles) (Note: this was his dying act, and likely one of supreme effort)
  
• Jumps from a volcano to a distant city then to low orbit with two passengers
  
• Has teleported across dimensions on more than one occasion
  
• Teleports four miles into the Blackbird in mid-flight
  
• With geo-coordinates, he can port to the exact location
  
• Grabs Psylocke and Kitty Prdye and ports 50 miles to the Grey's family house
  
• Takes Jean across "a country" to the X-Mansion in New York
  
• Teleports a group of people an unknown, but considerable distance
  
• Ports from his flying ship into the cockpit of an attack helicopter
  
• Ports to a castle a distance aways in perfect position to KO two guards
  
• Ports onto a tree in Central Park from a distance away
  
• Thrown a huge distance, and then wind-blown further away, and still ports back to his original location
  
• Limits
  
  • Reluctant to port to unknown locations for fear of materializing in an object; doing so can be lethal
  • Occasionally, his ports can be blocked, altered, or tracked through various energy manipulation
  • Vertical jumps are more difficult/strenuous

 
C. Strain

• A single jump can make make passengers feel sick/weak or even KO them; multiple ports increase the effect
  
• His teleportation is like taking "a series of punches from Wolverine's adamantium-laced fists"
  
• The shock of the jumps snaps Rogue out of her loss of control of powers
  
• Limits
  
  • Porting strains him as well--the more ports he does, the greater the distance, or the more mass he carries, the greater his strain; it can even incapacitate him (Note: the strain was much more pronounced in early comics before he built up stamina, but it is still an issue when he's tired, injured, etc.)
  • Needs to concentrate--if he is tired, injured, stunned, or otherwise distracted, he can struggle to initiate a port
  • Stronger passengers can endure multiple ports and respond
  • Passenger strain is inconsistent in comics. Many writers ignore it when NC transports allies. It's possible, if not likely, that people develop a tolerance to his jumps; he himself is susceptible to the strain (see above) and has increased his stamina with practice. However, even taking tolerances into account, it can still be inconsistent.

 
D. Disruption

• Severs Machine Man's arm
  
• Teleports off a chunk of Magus's body, causing him considerable pain
  
• Severs a sentinel's midsection from its limbs
  
• Teleports an enemy's head off
  
• Teleports a car engine into a robot-Thing's chest
  
• In House of M, he ports an enemy into a wall (Note: HoM was an alt-reality where 616 heroes had lived different lives)
  
• Ports off pieces of Sabretooth's body (Note: NC's personality was inverted)
  
• Limits
  
  • Disruption can be more strenuous
  • Nightcrawler pretty much only uses this power against non-humans (e.g. robots), or when he's out-of-character (e.g. House of M or Axis), and even then it's rare. For example, in a series of encounters with robots, he doesn't tele-frag at all, and instead relies on weapons

 
E. Standard Tactics

• As noted, often blitzes his opponents with quick teleporting attacks
  
• Uses teleportation for general combat purposes--positions himself for strikes, moves important items, etc
  
• Often moves his allies around the battlefield--can save them from danger or put them in advantageous positions
  
• Sometimes removes enemies from the battlefield ("BFRs"); may even drop them in a dangerous position
  

 

III. Physicals

A. Physiology

• His mutations grant him a minor degree of superhuman physical ability, especially in terms of agility
  
• Can stick to vertical surfaces
  
• His tail is strong enough to hold the weight of an adult human and agile enough to wield a sword; he often uses it as a fifth limb in combat situations
  
• Turns virtually invisible in darkness and shadows
  
• Can see in the dark to some degree
  
• His fur is sensitive enough to feel a laser if he's paying attention
  
• Limits
  
  • Can't adhere to oil slicked walls or frictionless walls
  • Not invisible to infra-red

 
B. Strength

• Striking
  
  • Pulls free a metal pole and bashes a sentinel's head
  • Smashes a creature into a tree with a stick
  • Crushes the head of a warwolf with the help of Captain Britain (Note: warwolves are super strong and tough)
  • Staggers Piledriver
  • KOs Beast with a kick
  • Lands hard strikes on wendigos
  • Wears down, and eventually KOs a troll (Note: the trolls are tough and strong)
  • KO's Frog-Man with one punch
  • Stuns Magneto by hitting him in the back of the head with a metal rod
  • Stuns Spider-Man with a sneak attack
  • Kicks a man hard enough to knock over two other people
  • KO's a stunned Gorilla-Man with Wolverine (Note: Gorilla-Man is fairly strong)
  • KOs a member of the Serpent Society
  • Knocks out men in body armor
• Lifting, Pushing, Pulling
  
  • Swings Spider-Man into a wall
  • Throws a big alien into a wall (Note: the wall was already damaged)
  • Pushes Captain Britain into a wall, cracking it
  • Smashes an alternate-universe Beast's head into a wall
  • Throws a creature on his back into a tree
  • Breaks a chain
  • Plows through people
  • Catches Wolverine after he falls from several stories up (Note: Wolverine weighs 300 lbs)
  • Kicks Beast off of him
  • Runs up the side a vertical surfaces while carrying Banshee
  • Holds a man aloft with one arm
• Limits
  
  • Needs time to tear a steel door from its hinges
  • Can't break Captain Britain's grip
  • His strikes do very little, if any, harm to Arkon and the Wendigo
  • Hellfire Club members keep him restrained with manacles and chains

 
B. Speed

• Movement, Agility, and Acrobatics
  
  • Easily evades automatic gunfire
  • Avoids a helicopter's heavy gunfire and explosives
  • Evades Sage's gunfire and quickly disarms her (Note: Sage was possessed by a Fury android)
  • Runs along and leaps on falling rubble to save a woman
  • Races around the Danger Room to avoid training missiles
  • Spider-Man says Nightcrawler is as agile as he is
  • Leaps around an alt-universe Captain Britain's attacks on more than one occasion
  • Was potentially one of the best acrobats/aerialists in the world
  • Escapes a horde or demons by leaping off the ESB and bouncing between flying demons to break his fall
  • Throws Meggan and then moves through a jungle gym in time to catch her
  • Flips around buildings
  • Easily evades Juggernaut's attacks and Black Tom's attacks
  • Pinballs off a sentinel
  • Bounds across the backs of flying creatures
  • Bounds through a crowd while carrying a passenger
• Reactions/Combat Speed
  
  • Avoids simultaneous attacks from Skrulls with Wolverine's and Cyclops's powers
  • Deflects Deadpool's gunfire right after porting; deflects more gunfire in another comic
  • In a training session, hits Wolverine too fast for Beast to count
  • As soon as Nightcrawler and Bishop are freed from captivity they blitz their guards
  • Saves Rachel Grey from gunfire
  • Dodges Juggernaut's punch despite him not seeing it until it was inches from his head
  • Saves someone from an approaching missile
  • Intercepts Bastion's energy attack meant for Hope
  • Avoids attacks from snake monsters that "[are] fast as lightning"
  • Dodges projectile attacks from Mandroid battle armor
  • Dodges a warwolf's strikes
• Limits
  
  • Flips around a wendigo but ultimately gets tagged
  • Fails to react to Wolverine's attack
  • Fails to reach a special agent and gets shot
  • Colossus tags him with a dodgeball

 
C. Durability and Endurance

• Impact and Piercing
  
  • While vulnerable, takes a punch from a war skrull and manages to stay conscious
  • Takes a punch from possessed-Colossus and stays conscious
  • Punched by Dracula and a page later is on his feet (Note: Dracula had strength to catch Colossus's punch)
  • Takes a punch that "could flatten a dozen men"
  • Withstands a punch from Spider-Man that sends him into the wall
  • Hit by a demon and sent flying but seems fine
  • Stays conscious after a punch from a man who can cause small earthquakes)
  • Slashed by mutates, but keeps fighting
  • Gets bodyslammed by two strong mutates and punched (Note: he was playing possum)
  • Seems fine after getting kicked by Sabretooth
  • A warwolf punch sends Nightcrawler into the air, but he seems okay (Note: warwolves are super strong)
  • Gets shot but manages to find his feat shortly after
  • Ports into a statue and survives with injuries (Note: his immortality allowed him to survive, below)
• Energy and Other
  
  • Hit with flames from Belasco's daughter but is quickly on his feet
  • Withstands a punch from a giant mutate and shakes off the effects of another's vertigo power
  • Hit with psionic backlash from Rachel and Storm but is quickly on his feet
  • Can survive exposure in space for a few minutes
  • Withstands a whip empowered with energy
  • Gets hit with 10,000 volts and stays conscious
  • Unharmed when the vehicle he's in explodes
• Limits
  
  • ~Street-tier opponents can sometimes KO NC with one shot
  • KOd by Vulcan's energy blast
  • Withstands a few hits from a transformed Meggan, but is goes down (Note: Meggan usually has super strength, especially in her bigger forms)
  • Gets shot in the chest with a 9mm hollow point and is in bad shape
  • Stopped by a taser (Note: this was an agent of an advanced military group that dealt with meta-humans)
  • Perception concussors put him on the ground
  • Stabbed several times and is in critical condition
  • KOd by a drugged dart
• Note
  
  • Currently, Nightcrawler may be unable to die because of his earlier decision to leave heaven, but the full implications of this are still a little unclear. He can still sustain injuries and needs treatment, but he still seems to endure fatal injuries somehow and eventually heal
  • Nightcrawler has a bit of discrepancy between his higher and lower durability feats, especially regarding impact damage. His better showings against impact damage could be a result of him rolling with the blow to lessen the effects. It sometimes seems that when he's caught flat-footed (like when he's surprised or outmaneuvered) that he can go down much easier. This is also supported somewhat by his lower durability against energy and piercing attacks; these are attacks he can't really roll with.

 

IV. Combat, Equipment, and Other Skills

A. Knowledge, Skill, and Experience in Combat

• Has spent countless hours training in the Danger Room; has done further H2H training with Wolverine and on his own
  
• Uses a nerve pinch on a SHIELD agent
  
• Targets an enemy's neural centers with "pinpoint accuracy"
  
• Recruited to improve Spider-Man's skills against a super agile enemy that negates his spider-sense
  
• His "hallmark" is uncanny accuracy
  
• Faces three acolytes and briefly holds them off
  
• Uses his environment to entangle warwolves in chains
  
• Fights a group of prisoners, deftly causing them to hit each other
  
• Launches a tandem attack with Beast against Colossus and Pyslocke
  
• Uses teamwork with Wolverine and Storm to take down a Danger Room full of sentinels
  
• On Wolverine's cue, catches an Acolyte during a sneak attack and puts him in a hold
  
• Breaks a warwolf's pin by throwing it into Captain Britain's waiting punch
  
• Uses his opponent's momentum to throw him into another enemy
  
• Trained a new student to be a decent fighter in a relatively short period
  
• Swordsmanship
  
  • Makes it to the finals of an interstellar blade-fighting tournament
  • Beats a group of pirate-like beings and easily disarms their leader
  • Faces Bloody Bess, a skilled swordsman, and defeats her
  • Disarms Azazel
  • Often incorporates swordplay in his training regimens
  • Targets robots' vulnerable spots and weapons
  • Has practiced with Colossus and turned him into a decent swordsman
• Tactics, Leadership, Etc
  
  • Was the leader of Excalibur for a considerable period of time
  • Has had various command positions within the X-Men
  • Sneaks into Arcade's base and rewires his security system and later after saving a woman from Arcade's traps, he turns Arcade's on robots against him
  • Figures out how to beat Mimic and informs his team and executes
  • Figures out the targets of a rogue sentinel
• Limits
  
  • His combat instincts "leave a little to be desired"
  • Has owed Wolverine a lot of beer over the years from losing skills challenges
  • Gets cocky and allows Sebastian Shaw to get the upper hand
  • At a time when he could barely port, his instinctive teleport puts him in grave danger in a training exercise
  • Sometimes announces his presence to his enemies after porting with expected results
  • Cyclops is unimpressed with how Kurt decided to run his team

 
B. Battles

• Wins and Draws
  
  • Fights Shadow King-possessed X-Men (Note: SK may have caused the X-Men to under-perform, otherwise this may be an outlier)
  • Has a teleporting sword fight with his father Azazel
  • Scraps with Karnak
  • Fights a large group of warwolves and uses the environment to win
  • Has a two part fight with Spider-Man that ends when Punisher interrupts (Note: Spider-Man from this period of comics often struggled with peak humans)
  • Beats a troll (Note: these trolls were strong and tough)
  • Holds off a large number of mutates without being able to port
  • Fights an alternate universe Beast
  • Often beats on groups of mook-tier opponents
• Losses
  
  • Fights Captain Britain; it's a losing battle, but Nightcrawler holds his own
  • Fights a Fury-possessed Sage with no teleportation (Note: Sage is highly skilled, but affected by possession)
  • A personality-inverted Nightcrawler fights Sabretooth and brutally abuses his powers before losing
  • Shortly after being seriously injured he fights a skilled meta-human and loses

 
C. Equipment

• Sometimes carries swords (especially in the latter quarter of Excalibur (1988); he might also pick them up mid-fight if they are available
  
• Often carries an image inducer that disguises his appearance; he occasionally uses it to his advantage in combat
  
• Bamfs
  
  • In a few modern comics, small creatures called Bamfs accompany Nightcrawler. They look like miniature versions of Nightcrawler himself, but are sort of childlike and mischievous
  • Help Nightcrawler in fights on multiple occasions and with various tasks
  • Allow Nightcrawler to port to places he can't see or can amp his jumps for more distance
  • Several of them together can port large objects

 
D. Other Skills, General Intelligence

• Directs Wolverine and helps repair a Tony Stark device on the fly in a high pressure situation
  
• Rewires Arcade's security surveillance and alarms to ignore his presence
  
• One of the X-Men's go-to pilots and served as the Blackbird's mechanic
  
• Recognizes alien portal tech and knows how to get it started
  
• Has some medical training and briefly served as the team's medic
  
• A good baseball pitcher
  

Las Vegas Travel Wizards - @LVTWs
Uber and Lyft Pick Up Locations
​​Uber and Lyft are changing the game in Las Vegas. Taxis that charge almost criminally exorbitant prices are on their way out! Uber and Lyft are two apps that give you the ability to pick out your driver, see their reviews, and track your entire ride. They put you, the rider, in control. The deals in Las Vegas (especially for gambling!!!) are often found at off strip properties. Uber and Lyft allow you to access parts of Las Vegas where you can find the best deals and the rides are very affordable. It's usually about a $10 UbeLyft ride from the airport to the strip, versus Taxi Rides that have been known to cost upwards of $30.
MCCARRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT LAS VEGAS Terminal 1 Pick-up point: After you collect your baggage or take the train towards baggage claim. Go ahead and request a ride with Uber or Lyft. The pick up spot is in the Parking Garage, on Level 2M of McCarran International Airport Las Vegas to get a pick-up from their driver. Please follow the Rideshare signs.
Terminal 3 Pick-up point:
After you collect your baggage or take the train towards baggage claim. Go ahead and request a ride with Uber or Lyft. The pick up spot to catch your ride is the Parking Garage on the valet level of McCarran International Airport. Please follow the Rideshare signs.
ARIA Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the north entrance of the ARIA Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver. It is not allowed to get a pick-up from the main entrance.
BALLY’S Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the side of the Bally’s Hotel closest to Flamingo Road where the Tour Bus Pick-up Area is to get a pick-up from their driver. It is not allowed to get a pick-up from the main entrance.
BELLAGIO Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to South Tour Lobby, which is at the right side of the main entrance of the Bellagio Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
CAESARS PALACE This hotel has a designated area for Rideshare services like Uber and Lyft which is directly across from the main entrance on the other side of their fountain.
CIRCUS CIRCUS This hotel has a designated area for Rideshare services like Uber and Lyft at their Main Entrance.
COSMOPOLITAN This hotel has a designated area for Rideshare services like Uber and Lyft at their Main Entrance.
​CROMWELL Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the side entrance, then past the roundabout at the Flamingo hotel entrance to get a pick-up from their driver (there is a sign for the pick-up spot).
Elara Pickup is by the valet. Just walk a bit west past it and turn right for the pick up area.
ENCORE Customers using Uber or Lyft can go to the main entrance of the Encore Hotel, the main entrance of the Encore Tower Suites or the Wynn self-parking garage on floor one (for Encore Beach Club).
EXCALIBUR Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to Tower 1 Drive at the corner of the hotel, past the main entrance toward self parking.
​FLAMINGO Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the main entrance of the Flamingo Hotel, past the roundabout to get a pick-up from their driver.
Hard Rock Hotel Pick-up is in the Paradise Tower parking garage (Rehab entrance).
HARRAH’S Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the north side entrance and then go to the parking garage, just before the valet of the Harrah’s Hotel.
THE LINQ Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the Bus and Tour Lobby of the LINQ Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
LUXOR Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the north entrance of the Luxor Hotel at the right side to get a pick-up from their driver.
MANDALAY BAY Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the lower level at guest pickup of the Mandalay Bay Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
MANDARIN ORIENTAL Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the main entrance of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
MGM GRAND Customers using Uber or Lyft must follow the signs near the main entrance to the pick up spot in the garage of the MGM Grand Hotel.
THE MIRAGE Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the north entrance close to the valet at The Mirage Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
MONTE CARLO Customers using Uber or Lyft must go pas the main entrance of the Monte Carlo Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
NEW YORK NEW YORK Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to past the main entrance of the New York New York Hotel at the right side.
PALAZZO Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the north end, in front of the shuttle area of the Palazzo Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
PARIS Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the north entrance of the Paris Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
PLANET HOLLYWOOD Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the hotel lobby, then go outside and walk left to the Tour Bus Pick-up at the Planet Hollywood Hotel.
SLS Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the main entrance of the SLS Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
STRATOSPHERE Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the back entrance of the Stratosphere Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
TREASURE ISLAND Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the main entrance of the Treasure Island Hotel and then go to Siren’s Cove Boulevard across the street.
TROPICANA Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the north entrance of the Tropicana Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
THE VENETIAN Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the 3rd level valet of the The Venetian Hotel parking garage to get a pick-up from their driver.
VDARA Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the main entrance of the Vdara Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
WYNN Customers using Uber or Lyft must go to the South Entrance or Tower Suites of the Wynn Hotel to get a pick-up from their driver.
We have a tip for using Uber or Lyft from the airport in Las Vegas that will save you money and help you better enjoy your trip! Simply ask the driver to stop at the CVS on Paradise Rd (4490 Paradise Rd) on route to your hotel so that you can load up on supplies for your hotel room. UbeLyft only charge about $0.20/minute to wait in the parking lot while you go in to the store. What has worked best for us is a folded up green grocery bag (our best option is an IKEA bag) and a thin flat cooler bag in our luggage to use on these runs. Some of our essentials supplies include:

• A Case of Waters
• Snacks like fruit, yogurt, and granola bars
• Orange Juice
• Cheap Champagne
• Energy Drinks

These items would truly cost a small fortune at your hotel or anywhere on the strip and we have found that they really are the essentials (especially the case of water!) when you are in Sin City. When you arrive at your hotel in your UbeLyft, just put your cooler bag with your other luggage and request a bell person. They'll transport your supplies to your room for free with your luggage. Just remember to tip the bell person a few dollars when you drop off the bags and again when the bell person arrives with your luggage in your room!
@LVTWs

6 Nights in Vegas - On a Budget

A little background on us. I’m 35 my wife is 28. We aren’t major gamblers by any stretch, but we usually hit up a local casino maybe once a month, twice if we do good, and usually gambling about $100 a piece each time. We are both huge sports fans, especially college sports (Notre Dame). I’m a bit of a tightwad most of the time.
The morning of April 2, 2016 I asked her if she wanted to marry me (both of us have been married once before), she said yes. I bought tickets that morning, didn’t tell anyone our plans and drove from South Bend Indiana area to Chicago O’Hare, and arrived in Vegas right around dark.
The first couple of Hotels I tried for were booked, but we ended up finding a room at Planet Hollywood (which we spent all of about 4 hours in). We then flew out the next morning, spending a total of about 12 hours in Vegas.
This time around, after finding out my kids would be with their mom over Spring Break, I decided to save up and actually plan a trip this time. We debated Florida, Canada, the Smokies, and ended up deciding on Vegas.
Tuesday – March 27 We stayed the night at Blue Chip Casino (BOYD Gaming) in Michigan City Indiana (halfway to O’Hare). Both of us had comps for a free room and Buffet’s as well and about $75 worth of food credit that we had been saving for our Vegas trip. They also gave me a $25 gas card. We decided to gamble $100, and lost pretty quickly. After eating our “free buffets” we decided to go to bed, anticipating an early morning.
Wednesday – March 28 Once we got to O’Hare, we went and checked our 1 bag in at the Spirit Airlines desk. Everything at Spirit is A la Carte, and I had paid for 1 checked bag, however the lady in front of me discovered that their checked bags cost even more if over 40lbs. I had gone with Spirit to save a buck, and overall the experience wasn’t terrible, but I’ve had much better experiences with other non-discount airlines. After arriving in Vegas, we rode the bus from the airport to the Rental Car facility, and in short time had our new car for the week. The nice lady at Payless tried selling me several extras, and I politely declined each of them. I’ve come to expect the sales pitch no matter what rental company I use, and overall my experience with these guys was very good. We ended up changing reservations last minute for our Hotel due to additional offers I received while at Blue Chip. After checking in at the Fremont (all 6 nights) we unpacked, stopped at IN & OUT Burger, and made a run to Wal-Mart for snacks and drinks. We then decided to go check out the Nuwu Dispensary, we were both very impressed with the selection, cleanliness, and friendliness of everyone we talked to there (we are novices at this lol). After making a “small” purchase, we decided to drive out to Mount Charleston for the evening and ended up catching the sunset before driving back into town. We spent the rest of the evening walking around Fremont Street mostly just people watching, before we grabbed a snack from the Café inside the Fremont and went back to our room for the night. The food was average at best, but the price was right, even if I hadn’t used my points.
Thursday – March 29 We slept in until about 9:30, and slowly made our way over to the Hoover Dam. On our way to the Dam, we stopped at Sunset Station for their Brunch Buffet, and were really impressed, especially for the $7 price. After gambling a little and not winning we continued to the Dam. Waze had me going some crazy roads that I’d never taken before to get there, and took us about 3 times longer than I had ever remembered. After getting closer and seeing all of the traffic/road construction I now knew why. All of the lower parking lots were full, so we drove to the little gift shop on the Arizona side (I was surprised to see the road now ends here), got a couple of little souvenirs for our boys, and walked around a little bit before exploring Lake Meade a little and driving back to Fremont. After relaxing for a little bit we again decided to walk around Fremont Street and ended up getting Margaritas and Enchilada Nacho’s at Nachodaddy’s. I would highly recommend this place if you want a good drink and great nachos, we both loved it, and our bartenders were great. After walking back to the Fremont and going back and forth on winning/losing at the slot machines, my wife got a bonus feature on the machine she was playing, when I noticed a guy standing behind her watching. He looked really familiar, and after seeing “Deez Nuts” on the back of his jacket, I realized he was the youtube star from the Deez Nuts video. He posed for a picture with my wife and then went on his way. We gambled for a few hours and went to bed about even on the day.
Friday – March 30 After grabbing coffee from Dunkin Donuts inside the Fremont, we decided to drive down to Primm, because my wife had never been to California. We stopped at the truck stop and decided against topping off on gas, due to the price being over $4/gallon. We walked around the shop, found some more souvenirs for the kids, and ate lunch at Qdoba. After driving around behind the outlet mall, I realized there wasn’t a sign saying welcome to California, so I hopped on I15 and continued South/West until she got to see her sign. We went a few exits and decided a trip all the way to Baker wasn’t worth the drive, so we turned around just past the giant solar farm on the right. In the stretch from about a mile outside of Primm to where we turned around, we passed probably a dozen of each Nevada State Police and California Highway Patrol, many of which were on motorcycles and all of which had at least 1 car pulled over. About the time we made it back into Vegas, my buddy’s flight from Washington DC had arrived (he’s getting ready to leave for Japan for the next 3 years) so we went and picked him up at his hotel (Hooters). My wife won some money on the “Vacation” machine in Hooters and we decided to go walk the strip, which wasn’t a bad walk at all. We ended up going through the MGM, across to the Aria/Monte Carlo area and decided all the bars were a bit too busy due to a Golden Knights game getting ready to start. We walked over to Excalibur and rode the monorail to Mandalay Bay. We spent the rest of the evening here, and I decided to bet on Notre Dame Women, which turned out to be a good bet. My buddy, being born in Connecticut bet on UConn and that pretty much set the tone for his luck the rest of his trip. My wife and I ended up getting a giant hot dog/pepsi combo for $3.99 at the Café inside the Fremont after returning, and it was a better bet than the Chinese food we had tried earlier in the week.
Saturday – March 31 Another buddy of ours had moved to Vegas about 6 weeks ago, while his wife and kids are moving out there today. He called me late Saturday morning, and had us meet him out at the RV Dealership he works for. After getting a tour of their half million dollar Motorhomes (built here in Indiana), we hopped in his convertible and rode out to Red Rock Canyon. The line to get in was about 100 cars long, and it looked like they were only letting a few in every 15 minutes, so we drove out along that area and headed back a different way to the south side of town. The company he works for sponsors the Horse Arena at the South Point Casino, so we rode over, watched some of the show, and got the behind the scenes tour of the stalls, practice arena, and got to meet the horses/cowboys. We ended up spending most of the day at South Point, and we really enjoyed it, probably our favorite one on the “strip” so to speak. We ate dinner at Baja Miguel’s and all enjoyed our food. Later on Saturday night we rode back to downtown. My buddy that now lives in Vegas, took us to Container Park, which was really cool. After that we walked back down Fremont Street and I had bet earlier on Michigan beating Loyola in Men’s basketball. Another good choice, however I had to find a casino with a sports book that could cash me out. We ended up going to “The D” and really enjoyed the atmosphere/older machines. My wife ended up playing the old school Horse Racing Quarter Machine upstairs and stayed on it for quite a while. We ended up heading back to the Fremont, where we gambled the rest of our “$200 limit” for the day, and did pretty good. After several hours of gambling, we decided we were hungry, so we walked over to the Café at Binions, and were really impressed with what we had.
Sunday – April 1 We ate the Breakfast Buffet at the Fremont (comped), took an Uber back to our rental car on the other side of town, picked our buddy up at Hooters and headed north to Zion National Park. A couple hours later we arrived and were somewhat surprised that it wasn’t completely packed. My buddy has a free pass (Military) so we saved $30 on the gate fee. We spent most of the day at Zion, climbing, hiking, and exploring, it was my 4th time there, but the first time for my wife and buddy, and while my wife isn’t a hiker like me, she really enjoyed it and mentioned that it was one of her top 3 things we did on our trip. On our way back to town we stopped at Casa Blanca in Mesquite for a few hours, we didn’t do any good, but enjoyed the change of pace from the Vegas casinos.
Monday – April 2 We walked the strip again, and ate the brunch buffet at the Bellagio. It was really good, but if I hadn’t used the buy 1 get 1 free coupon I had, I wouldn’t have been quite as impressed. We walked around the strip some more, and ended up buying tickets to X-Country for my wife and I for the 10pm show at Harrah’s. The lady at the Box Office didn’t offer any discount, but when I asked about using my players card, she gave me a $10/ticket discount on the tickets. After that we drove across town to Sams Town (Boyd Gaming) and gambled for a few hours, I remembered a Steak House from several years back that I really enjoyed here, but we ended deciding against it for our anniversary meal. After going back to our hotel to change and shower, we ended up going to Viva Zapata’s (based on Reddit reviews). We weren’t disappointed! The food was amazing, the atmosphere even better, and the wait staff was the best! Our waiter asked what brought us out there, I told him it was our 2 year anniversary and we had flown in from Indiana to celebrate. We were enjoying the live Mariachi music, but started getting a little anxious as we were waiting on our bill (we wanted to get to Harrah’s by 9:30). A few minutes later here came the wait staff/musician to our table, put giant sombrero’s on us, gave us a couple of churros and each of us a shot of Tequila (no charge) while they sang us a song. I tipped them well and we were on our way to the show. My wife is a huge country music fan, and while I enjoy some of the older stuff, I’m more of a metalhead. I was pleasantly surprised at the price of our tickets, and for the money, the show wasn’t bad. 1 of the dancers really stood out from the rest though, but all in all it was a good experience. I wanted to go see Absinthe but found out they weren’t playing on Monday night. After our show we walked down to the Bellagio Fountains to see a show before heading back to the hotel.
Tuesday – April 3 We spent most of the morning packing up from our 6 nights at the Fremont, I checked with the Casino host to see about possibly comping more than 2 of our nights, but she showed me where my score in their algorithm was only a 65, and needed to be 100 to qualify for more. I still only paid $165 for the 4 nights I had to pay for, which was more than fair in my opinion, considering how little time we actually spent in the room. We went to Hooters and gambled for about 20 minutes, winning a couple hundred dollars, then took my buddy to the airport. Our flight wasn’t until 6:30pm, so we drove back North and had to try another Reddit suggestion for our last meal in town. We ended up at Hamburger Hut as we love to eat wings, and although the location and building were a bit sketchy, we ordered hot wings, a hot dog, and chili fries, this was our favorite food of the trip. We also really enjoyed hanging with some of the locals while we ate lunch. After eating lunch we hit up Walmart by the airport to find some last minute souvenirs to take back home, and then returned our rental car and waited a few hours for our flight back home.
What I would recommend
Sight Seeing - Zion National Park, Red Rock Canyon, Lake Mead, Container Park (especially if you have kids)
Food - Hamburger Hut, Viva Zapata’s, In & Out Burger, Nachodaddy, Hotdogs at South Point, Breakfast Buffet at Sunset Station, also saved a bunch of money by getting snacks and drinks for our room at the grocery store on day 1.
Casinos – As a gambler, the ones off the Strip seemed to pay better, but the ones on the strip were much classier and had newer slots you can’t find elsewhere. My 3 favorite were the Fremont, The D, and South Point. My wife really enjoyed seeing the sights at the Bellagio, the Flamingo, and others on the Strip. No matter what, if you’re going to gamble, get a players card, it saved me a bunch of money.
Transportation – If you like to do more than just stay in town and walk all week, I’d highly recommend getting a rental car like we did (about $200 for the week for a nice sized car), but if you don’t plan on going on long day trips like we did, UbeLyft would be great.
Entertainment – XCountry at Harrahs wasn’t the top show I’ve ever seen, but 2 tickets for $80 something and a happy wife, I can’t complain at all. Watching all the entrepreneurs on Fremont Street as well as the stage shows for free was hard to beat, and any trip to Vegas should include the Bellagio Fountains, the Flamingo Habitat, and any other free entertainment you can find along the strip.
What I wouldn’t recommend
Airlines – don’t go with the budget airlines expecting to save a bunch of money if you plan on taking a bag with you, checked or carry on, prefer to pick your seats out in advance, or want to get a snack while flying.
Food – While we didn’t really have any “bad” experiences, the café and Buffet at the Fremont were probably my least favorite, but I can’t complain because I didn’t have to pay for anything at either of them. Also I was looking forward to checking out Heart Attack Grill (based on Ducktales review), but they were packed and took Cash Only fyi.
Sight Seeing – Fremont Street after dark really isn’t the place to take your small kids but be sure to take them to Container Park during the day, Hoover Dam (unless you go early), Red Rock Canyon scenic trail on a holiday weekend. Pawn Stars was packed and if you’ve seen it once, the excitement kind of wore off, and they apparently charge for parking now. I parked up the street for free and only had a short walk, but the people trying to push you to buy extras outside of the store really kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

Just returned from the most epic week in Las Vegas with my husband! We budgeted about $1000 per person for the week, all expenses included. We went over by a couple hundred in the end. We planned a lot of activities and sightseeing in advance to avoid gambling too much out of boredom. We weren't very lucky at anything except blackjack, but we were able to leave Vegas at only $40 in the hole between the two us, which I consider a moderate success! And we weren't bored for a minute!
Day 1 (Wed 10/19)

• I flew from NC to Vegas on Frontier at $191 roundtrip after taxes and fees. It wasn't a luxurious experience, but I wasn't expecting it to be. I packed a medium-sized backpack within the "personal item" dimensions so I wouldn't have to pay a $35 carry-on fee. No employee measured (or even glanced at) my bag either way. My husband had a work conference in Vegas the following week and was allowed to bump his flight up a week, so his flight (Southwest) was already covered.
  
• Rented a car from Enterprise via a third-party site called carrentals.com. We got a new Toyota Corolla for the week at $151 after tax (just under $22/day). Used a Lyft credit to pick the car up at the location off Las Vegas Blvd, since it was about 5 times more expensive to rent from the airport location. All totally worth it! We used the car a lot each day. I would definitely rent a car again if I returned to Vegas. Next time I would probably take more advantage of free valet parking on the strip.
  
• Stopped by In-N-Out Burger for lunch. So good.
  
• Grabbed a some shelf-stable groceries to keep in our room. We made sandwiches here and there for odd meals and when we were driving or doing outdoorsy things. Saved us some money on drinks, snacks, and breakfast as well.
  
• Took a lap around Miracle Mile Shops to kill some time before check-in at 3. Pretty nice mall. Wanted to see the indoor rainstorm on the hour but never did locate it.
  
• I had booked a room at Mandalay Bay for 2 nights at $77/night with a $75 dining credit on the hotel's website using a promo code I found on smartervegas.com. At check-in I asked if there were any upgrades available, and we were offered to upgrade to the Delano for an additional $30 a night. We went ahead and did it, because why not?
  
• Before dinner, we grabbed drinks at Skyfall Lounge at the top of the Delano. We went during their happy hour, called "Sunset Hour," and watched a beautiful sunset over Vegas. Even the toilets had a view. I would recommend reservations--we had reservations and were allowed to sit at much better tables (on the balcony) than those without.
  
• For dinner, we went to Wolfgang Puck's LUPO Restaurant to use the rest of our dining credit. I also had a credit for a free bottle of wine from the MyVegas app. This meal wasn't bad, but I didn't think it was delicious enough to justify how much it cost. I had a steak that I didn't think was a great cut, and my vegetables were over-seasoned and over-salted. The atmosphere was nice but somewhat boring. I probably wouldn't bother dining here again, personally. We had a reservation but didn't need it. The place was mostly empty.
  
• After dinner, we saw Penn and Teller at the Rio. We got discounted tickets through Travelzoo at $46/person. Very good show. Penn and Teller came out front for pictures afterward. Teller talked to us!
  

Day 2 (Thurs 10/20)

• Woke up to a window washer hanging outside the window.
  
• Had a late brunch/early lunch at Ellis Island. No frills, good value and large portions.
  
• Went on a free tour of a light art installation called Akhob by James Turrell hidden in a secret floor in the Louis Vuitton Store at the Shops at Crystals. This was such an awesomely strange experience! We had fun feeling like we were "in" on a secret, and the installation itself was also very cool. Reservations are definitely required for this one. They said they were booked out about a month.
  
• Walked around CityCenter. The Shops at Crystals and Aria were beautiful and had many sights to see (water features, art exhibits, etc.). We wandered into Vdara as well, which looked very nice, but was not much to look at in terms of sightseeing.
  
• Visited Bellagio. A definite must-see in Vegas. We watched our first fountain show (our first dose of "Uptown Funk"), walked through the garden conservatory, admired the Chihuly glass in the lobby, took a look at the chocolate fountain, and shared a cup of gelato.
  
• Took a 30-minute ride on the High Roller Observation Wheel. I was lucky enough to nab a voucher for $25 for 2 for a daytime ride with open bar a couple months ago on Travelzoo (prices have gone way up since). We went right as the sun was setting and it was wonderful. The bartender was great and churned out drinks like a boss. She gave us shots to do together as a group at the top, and even made everyone drinks "to go" at the end. If you go, be sure to grab a spot on the side facing the strip (the close side when you walk in).
  
• Had dinner at Gyu Kaku using a Livingsocial voucher I had gotten with a promo code. We had never been to a grill-your-own-meat place before. We got some kind of meat sampler. Everything was delicious. My husband was obsessed. Weirdly, the place was nearly empty, even around 7pm.
  
• Wandered around Caesar's Palace and the Forum Shops. Worth a visit. Watched the fish in the big tank for a few minutes, then caught the 8pm Fall of Atlantis animatronic show. We had a good laugh at the plot of the show and lost it at the king's broken hand dangling and flopping around during his grand gestures. There must have been a screw loose. We thought it was totally hilarious, and it became a running joke of our trip.
  
• Caught the 9pm Fire show at the Mirage. Very cool free attraction to see up close...you can hear the fire whirring and feel the heat whack you in the face.
  
• Saw Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage at 9:30. Yeah, okay, we overdid it. We were really tired at this point. I had gotten one free ticket through MyVegas so it was basically half price. We were too tired to really enjoy the show. It looked really cool, the costumes and props were spectacular, and the performers were talented, but we just never really got "into" it. We were jet-lagged and had trouble staying awake after our long day. We were in the back row of section 201, and while we could see pretty well, I think being just 3 or 4 rows closer (with a cup of coffee in my hand) would have been an improvement.
  

Day 3 (Fri 10/21)

• Decided to head out of town for Fri-Sat to see Zion and Grand Canyon, to avoid the crowds and higher weekend hotel prices.
  
• Stopped by Donut Bar in downtown on our way out toward Zion. These donuts in there were completely bonkers and we had trouble deciding which ones to get. They were very good. We got a couple extra for the next morning, but they were no good by the second day.
  
• Drove to Zion National Park, parked on the side of the road in a stretch where there were some other cars already parked, and rode the bus to the last stop to hike the Narrows. We both felt this was one of the major highlights of the trip. The hike was exhilarating and a bit challenging without being too frustrating. We had the. best. time. We didn't bother renting any gear and we were totally fine. We wore $8 neoprene fin socks for scuba diving I bought on Amazon with some old beat-up sneakers. This worked great because our feet were warm, and we didn't get blisters because our shoes were already comfortably molded to our feet. A lot of other hikers seemed to be stopping for breaks because they were having trouble with blisters and/or cold feet. We scavenged for walking sticks down at the entrance to the narrows. I had read there were usually some left there from previous hikers. My husband found a scrap of 1x2 and I found a pool cue. They looked a bit silly, but you really just need them for feeling around in the water. I doubt the sticks they had for rent would really be a vast improvement.
  
• Waited on a long line to get a bus back to the front of the park. A lady mentioned something about some kind of school holiday in the area, so maybe that's why there were so many people there.
  
• Went back to our car to find a $50 parking ticket. Damn!
  
• Drove up the scenic drive overlooking the park on the way out. It was a bit too dark to see very well at that point, but we got a bit of the view.
  
• Drove to Page, AZ for the night. Stayed at Best Western - View of Lake Powell at $94/night. I don't stay at Best Western a lot, so I don't know what they are usually like, but this was much nicer than I expected for the price! It was situated atop a hill overlooking Lake Powell.
  

Day 4 (10/22)

• Stopped by Wahweap Marina on Lake Powell to check out the views of the lake. It was very beautiful and serene here. Not too many people, either. Would be great if you have a boat.
  
• Stopped for pictures of Glen Canyon Dam, the dam that forms the lake. Cool dam.
  
• Drove to Horseshoe bend and hiked the short hike to the edge. Definitely worth a stop. Lots of photo ops. There were more people here than I expected, but plenty of rocks to climb on for everyone.
  
• Had reserved a spot on a tour of Antelope Canyon, but skipped it because we had decided to sleep in somewhat late that morning. Maybe next time. Heard good things from other travelers.
  
• Drove to Grand Canyon National Park and followed the route along the south rim, stopping at the various viewpoints (Desert View Watchtower, Navajo Point, Lipan Point, Grandview Point). It was a beautiful day to see the Grand Canyon. Ate a bag lunch at one of the overlooks. I was a bit sick with a cold and unable to hike long, but enjoyed some light walking along the Rim Trail starting at South Kaibab. If I come back in the future and I'm not sick, I'd like to do some more rigorous hiking. For our purposes on this trip, one day at the Grand Canyon was sufficient.
  
• Rode a bus to one last viewpoint for sunset. I believe it was called Hopi Point. It was a bit crowded, but a very nice view.
  
• Had some mediocre pizza at a place called We Cook Pizza and Pasta. I can't say I recommend it. It tasted a lot like frozen pizza. There really wasn't any restaurant in town we could find with decent reviews online except RP's Stage Stop, but that one closed at 5pm, so we had to settle.
  
• Stayed at Best Western again-- Best Western Primier Grand Canyon Squire Inn, in Tusayan, at $106/night. We were able to upgrade to the newest building for free by signing up for Best Western Rewards. This was another pleasant surprise! Our room was very nice, and everything was brand new. The main building had a little bowling alley and arcade, where we ran into a couple from Ireland we had encountered already at Penn and Teller and Caesar's Palace in Vegas. What are the chances of that?
  

Day 5 (Sun 10/23)

• Drove from Tusayan toward the Hoover Dam and pulled off at Williams, AZ for breakfast. This was an unplanned stop that we really enjoyed. Williams really plays up the Route 66 and "small town USA" nostalgia. We ate at Pine Country Restaurant simply because it looked popular. Our meal was very good. We enjoyed strolling down the main street for a little bit and popped in a few kitschy little gift shops.
  
• Visited the Hoover Dam. We looked at the dam from the bridge, then looked at the bridge from the dam. It is a very impressive sight, and definitely worth pulling off the highway to see it. We impulsively decided to go on the dam tour after we chatted with some people finishing up the tour who gave it glowing reviews. It was a decent dam tour, but we probably could have done without the dam tour. It was interesting, but crowded and a bit anticlimactic, in my opinion.
  
• Drove back to Las Vegas and checked into Excalibur. Definitely a step down from where we were, but not too terrible. The location was good, and the price was right. I booked two nights at $44/night with a $30 dining credit using a promo code from smartervegas.com, and the third night was free via MyVegas points. My research had indicated that the "Royal Tower" was newly renovated, so we requested a room in that tower at check-in. The lobby and hallways looked like they needed an update, but our room was pretty nice once we were in there. I had no major complaints, except that the TV gave us some trouble and Robert Irvine from "Restaurant Impossible" was peering into our window at all hours. We didn't hang out in the casino much because the service wasn't great. There were a lot of glasses and ashtrays laying around, and the machines had trouble reading vouchers. We did enjoy the $5 blackjack tables, which were a little bit harder to find elsewhere.
  
• Went on a club crawl. This was unnecessary. I booked it through Groupon in advance, thinking it would save money on cover, but we were handed a lot of "free entry" passes from club promoters on the street to get into decent clubs, so we didn't really need it. It would be good to go this route if you had a group of all males, or if you were going out on a busy weekend night, or if you just wanted to meet a group of random people. In the end, we just ended up spending half the night trying to track down our group (of about 12 male accountants who already knew each other), which wasn't really worth it.
  

Day 6 (Mon 10/24)

• Went to check out the older casinos downtown this day. Downtown was a bit more rough around the edges than the strip (as expected), but still worth the visit.
  
• My schedule had an option have breakfast at The Beat, but we decided to sleep in instead.
  
• Went to lunch at Carson Kitchen. It was raining, and everyone was kind of freaking out about how it was raining. The place was mostly empty, so we got a great seat at the counter where we could watch the chef working and see all of the food coming out. Everything we had was delicious. Everything we saw coming out looked like it would be delicious, too. Our waiter was good. He insisted we get the bread pudding, because it would change our lives. It did.
  
• Walked to Fremont Street and played the vintage slots at The D. We enjoyed a bay of penny slot machines with some sort of Inferno/Devil theme and won a bit of money. We also played the vintage horse derby machine, which ate up a bunch of our money but was a fun time. There was a lot of screaming and cheering going on.
  
• Popped into Golden Nugget and watched the shark tank for a bit. We were surprised at the number of sharks they fit in there. Very interesting to watch. Also looked at the giant gold nugget on our way out (it's just a giant gold nugget).
  
• Ate dinner at Itsy Bitsy Ramen and Whiskey. We had a Groupon again. This place was virtually empty as well (maybe it was the rain?) but was also very good. My bowl of Ramen was big enough to swim in, and the broth was perfect.
  
• Walked back to Fremont Street to watch the Fremont Experience light show at 7. It was some kind of weird alien show and the graphics weren't great, but the scale was impressive. The Slotzilla zipliners were fun to watch and added to the festiveness.
  
• Went to Banger Brewing Company because I had a Groupon to use on a flight of beers and a couple pints. We had a reservation to go on their free tour earlier in the day, but missed it because we completely forgot about it. Oops. Either way, sitting at a table in the bar to drink our beer was a good little break from the sensory overload. We sat and played a couple board games while people-watching through the window.
  
• Grabbed a couple of cocktails at The Golden Tiki. Groupon again. Just a fun little tiki bar. I had something with Dole Whip which was pretty good. It was the most busy place we had seen all day, but we were still able to find an empty table.
  
• Went back to the strip to see the Cosmopolitan. This is a very impressive, glitzy hotel. If I were to describe it in one word, it would be "sparkly." We had fun looking for the Secret Pizza restaurant. We tried to not cheat too much in looking for hints online. We were on the guest list to go to Marquee, but were too tired to get dressed up and go to a club at this point.
  
• Walked the middle part of the strip on foot. Walked farther north than we planned. Stopped in the Piano Bar at Harrah's and sang along with a few oldies. The pianist was entertaining and worked his own funny/dirty lyrics into the songs. Even more fun to watch was the crowd getting really into it. People from all walks of life belting out songs in unison. We didn't stay very long because there was nowhere for us to sit.
  

Day 7 (Tues 10/25)

• Had lunch at Capo's Speakeasy. I got a voucher on Travelzoo for $30 worth of food for $15 with a sign up discount of $10 off. I figured for $5, I'd be happy with anything. You need a password to get in. Well, kind of. It's silly and fun. They were playing some hilariously over-the-top old mob movies on the TVs. The food was pretty good and portions were generous. I really, really liked the fries drizzled with sauce.
  
• Visited the Wynn. It is a very pleasant place. Saw the flower sculptures, parasols, lake, and water features. We weren't here too long. Just wanted to check it out.
  
• Visited the Grand Canal Shoppes. Watched the gondolas and some performers milling about. Got a piece of chocolate from a guy on stilts.
  
• Visited the Palazzo. Admired the waterfall in the atrium. Visited the casino and won some money on a Britney Spears slot machine. Thus began our addiction to Britney Spears slot machines.
  
• Showed up at to the Flamingo to see a show by a guy called Jeff Civillico. Turns out, his show is cancelled through the end of the year. No biggie. The tickets were cheap on Travelzoo. They said they had already sent refunds out. I must have missed the memo. Went to look at the live flamingos for a few minutes instead. This wasn't bad, but nothing spectacular. A bit smelly.
  
• Went to Paris, walked around, and did a bit of gambling. Britney was good to us again. There was a live band playing on one side of the casino and some random exotic dancers on a bar in the middle.
  
• Had dinner at Hexx with a Groupon (of course). We had a reservation and were sat out on the deck with a good view for people watching. Our food and service were very good. We had some fries that had a bunch of gravy and stuff on top that looked like a total mess but tasted really good.
  
• Went to the top of the Eiffel Tower with a Groupon (duh) for $30 for 2. There was no line. We just had to wait for the elevator to come down. We got to the top a bit before 9pm. Of all the views of the strip we saw, this was probably my favorite. You're high enough to see everything, but low enough to hear the hustle and bustle and street performers below. The view of the Bellagio fountains from above is spectacular. We caught 2 full shows. We were even able to see the Mirage fire show again at 9.
  
• Went back downstairs to the bar at Hexx for cocktails. I had a voucher for BOGO specialty cocktails from MyVegas. They were decent. We didn't really need them, though.
  
• Went into Omnia at Caesar's Palace for a little while, mostly just to see it. Very cool atmosphere. Very crowded, even early in the night. Male to female ratio was off, if that's important to you, but that didn't matter to us.
  

Day 8 (Wed 10/26)

• Had lunch at Tacos El Gordo. We had no idea how to order, but whatever tacos we ended up with were very good and authentic. The line wasn't too bad when we got there around 11:30. We ordered 6 tacos, but probably would have liked a couple more because they were small. The line was too long by the time we finished to bother getting more, though.
  
• Popped into Peppermill Fireside Lounge nearby, just for a few minutes, out of curiosity. Very cozy, retro-looking little place with little fires at the booths in the lounge. The restaurant seemed to be popular at lunchtime.
  
• Last stop was Treasure Island. There wasn't much to see here in terms of sightseeing except a pirate ship out front and few artsy pieces here and there, but we read it was one of the better casinos on the strip for low rollers like ourselves. We found a $5 blackjack table with a 3 to 2 payout. I hadn't seen many of those on the strip. I started with $20 and walked away with a little over $80. You know we hit those Britney slots one more time before we left, too.
  
• I headed back to the airport to fly back home while my husband stayed for work the next day.
  

Thanks for reading! I might try to come back and add some pictures and links here as I get the chance. Feel free to ask me about anything we did!

Hey there, here's a recap from someone who spent about 10 minutes total at Kinetic Field and Circuit Grounds. Not bashing those stages or anything - just want to give a different perspective. Long post incoming!!! I will edit as I remember random things/find typos.
The first time I went to EDC, I was 24. It was in LA, and I carpooled with a few random ravers that I'd met from the internet, on a rave forum. The driver was 30 and spunky, the other passengers were early 20s. Even though I didn't say it at the time, I thought that was pretty old to be going to a "kiddie rave" like EDC. Still, she was a sober driver the whole way (#1 quality for a driver) and we shared lots of stories and laughs along the way.
Fast forward 6 years!
I was planning on driving to Vegas in my own car but a couple months before, my girlfriend says she wants it to go camping with a friend coming in from out-of-town. OK, no problem. I get on reddit and ask if anyone wants to carpool. Finally lock down 3 other people about a week before we leave. Felt kinda "old school" - meeting randoms on the internet to hop in a car and drive hours to some rave in another state.
I have a mission too - I'm running an electronic music calendar and I want to hand out cards to people who might be interested. So I come with ~500 business cards that I think will become a pretty easy talking point as I meet people.
After leaving on Wednesday around 4pm from the Bay Area, we finally get into Vegas around 2:40am. I drop off one of the riders, while the three of us hang out in the hotel room, since the other two guys don't have check in until ~9 hours later. These peeps decide to stay up REALLY late and party, but I'm pooped from driving the whole way and pass out around 5:30
Thursday begins with the sun waking me up around 11. Other guys are sleeping so I decide to do a little bit of work and get in a couple games of Starcraft/League. Around 1:30pm I'm off to will call (I haven't gotten my box in yet, was one of those lucky guys that's still stuck at "Shipment informatino received").
Talked to guy from Australia in that will call line for ~90 minutes before finally getting to the front. Learned about bush doofs and Rainbow Serpent, methheads in Australia, balancing work and life, and a lot of other things I've forgotten about by now. This started a theme for the weekend - friendly conversations for long periods of time with strangers, while waiting/passing the time.
Chill out for most of the day - head up to the reddit meetup which is pretty close-by anyways. I'm there for a while it seems, just gabbing with people about the calendar and rave life and where are you from and have you been out here before and whatnot. Much love to everyone who comes across the country for this - Carolinas, Philadelphia, Ohio, Omaha. I hear lots of chatter about pool parties but I get sleepy just thinking about them. I fall asleep with the rooms around me blasting dubstep/trap and big room house through the walls
10 minutes away walking. Or at least I think it's 10 minutes - turns out that there's some construction or elevator failure on the south side of Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd. which means in order to get from Excalibur to Tropicana you have to walk north over the skybridge (or whatever it's called) to NY NY, then east to MGM Grand, then south back to Tropicana, which adds like an extra 5-7 minutes for me. Someone else commented that it seems like the escalators are always broken when in Vegas. What's up with that, maybe we just have bad timing.
I get to the new hotel a little bit early (that whole thing where you check out of one place at noon and get to your other place at 1 and they're like - sorry check-in starts at 3) but the lounge is nearly empty so I'm just chilling in the AC. Tried to strike up conversation with a couple who were talking in German - turns out they're from Berlin. I'm thinking to myself, "Berlin? Maybe they have some cool techno stories for me" and I ask them "Are you here for EDC? The music festival?"
They give me a blank look and ask "No, what is that?" and I'm like "It's like techno!" and they're like "Nooooo that's not really our kind of scene" and I'm like "oh" and basically go back to playing on my phone.
The room itself was not bad for being cheap (~$70/night) plus I just love having my own place. I setup shop and get ready. I dress relatively plainly, just a colorful t-shirt, khakis, and sneakers. No kandi (although I support the kandi culture quite a bit), no backpack/bags, essentially gear-less. Two phones, a wallet, chapstick, and an altoid tin in my pockets. Party favors ready and I make sure my phones are charged. Then I turn one of them off and the other on airplane mode.
I head over to Excalibur, get a sandwich from the food court and go up to hang out with some of the peeps I had exchanged a wristband with on the way there; turns out they live in Houston (where I'd spent ~4 years), small-world type stuff. Although I am years older than them and I'm just smirking at the group of 8 gathering for youthful toasts, big room house playing out of tiny iphone speakers in this cramped hotel room. People are definitely getting hyped in here. But I can't stay for long, I want to get to the shuttles.
Get down to the shuttle line around 5:30 and people are pumped. Personally, I end up napping on the shuttle, which is probably good, since I needed it. I wake up, chat with the guy next to me who explains the difference between death metal, stoner metal, and speed metal. I'd still probably google that stuff though
Get off the shuttle around 8pm (barely a security check, the quickest pat down I've ever had) and hopped down that hill into the speedway, feeling a bit of excitement. It's Day 1.
The kalliope art car is the first thing I run into and I always get the fattest shit-eating grin at the first moment when I can recognize music instead of hearing thumping bass and unintelligible sounds otherwise. I bounce around the entire perimeter and in and out of every stage/nook/cranny I can find for a few hours. Figured out where the smoothie stands were, (frozen) lemonades, free water. Exits, stage layout, booths. There's already too much to gather for one night AND have time to dance.
I have a sense of what kind of sounds are happening where, and as I dancer I know my ears are going to lead me towards Neon Garden the most, but I'm going where the wind blows most of the time, while trying to say "Hi" people with Cali gear to promote the calendar, looking out for peeps who might not have happy expressions (maybe someone by him/herself with a sad face), trying to remember to not get TOO caught up in dancing and take the time to smile.
I remember vividly the first time I went into the Oasis tent, saw the harm reduction info, dancesafe card, project zendo... mind was blown. That was a great moment, and the only time I pulled out my phone to post something online - to know that they'd finally made their way back into EDC, wow.
I made at least 5 full trips around the whole place then I decided to start grooving. The wideAwake art car was jamming some jungle so I got down to that for a while - definitely not the easiest way to start off since the music is so fast - and went between those guys, Wasteland, and Neon Garden. I got into my routine. Dance for 30-50 min, get hot, walk over to get an icey drink, wander the Speedway for 30-50 min, start dancing again. Dusky caught my ear with some classic house jams. Wiggled to some bassline at the 7-Up stage. I usually do a better job at making a note about when I'm at what stage at least, but this day 1 slipped my mind. A lot of wandering, a lot of talking to people, marching around to the music that was nearby
At one point I wandered up to the 2nd floor of Carnival Square, and then walked right by a security guard on the 3rd floor, then went all the way up to the top where it turns out the media and press people hung out. Open bar, nice catered food, AC'd bathrooms, separate wi-fi connection. Lots of people there to do work though, for sure.
It was oddly quiet up there, you could hear the rumbling of 5 or 6 stages throughout the night, and the view from the balcony was (from left-to-right) kinetic, wasteland, basspod, circuit, the landscape of lights and sounds. When the fireworks went off the view was spectacular. Honestly reminded me of the view from deep playa at night at Burning Man, when you turn around and see all the sound systems lined up from end-to-end. EDC wasn't quite as visually stimulating in the sense that there wasn't as much "moving activity" (e.g. art cars), but still an amazing picture. I started talking to some of those guys/gals up there, writers for different papers and websites. A very unique experience for sure. Made some lovely connections up there, talking about music, rave/EDM culture, life in California. Security eventually came around to check for the specific press wristbands but my new friends supported me - turns out media/press people can have guests up there. Purely luck that I managed to get up there, that's all I can think about looking back.
I chilled up for there a while but the dancing spark started hitting me again. I went down and I think Hot Since 82 was just starting up. I was bouncing around for a while, then wandered off towards Wasteland to catch some hardcore (Darren Styles) before exiting out to the shuttle around 4:30. There's nothing quite like happy hardcore on a giant sound system, honestly. Turns out the Excalibur line had like 20 people in it - super short wait - my fears of an incredibly long shuttle line swept away by reality. A nap and 15 min walk later and I'm passed out in my hotel.
Sirloin steak for breakfast after getting up, then a Dogfish Head and a nap to follow. Try to sort through some of the contacts from the night before but I'm feeling especially lazy. A shower helps, but then it's time to go. Back to the shuttle line, more smiling youth all around me. I get there so early this time we actually sit in the line b/c the shuttle's not even there yet.
Day 2 I was there so early it seemed like they weren't even letting people in. I got searched a bit more hard and told to throw my altoid tin away. So I put it into the trash can behind the guard. Then walked by the guard, waited a few seconds while he started searching the guy after me, then picked up that tin and put it back in my pocket. That one's still working for me after all these years.
I spent a lot of the first few hours hanging around the "grass village" - all the little pop-up buildings and chill spaces on the grass area. Grooved to this wonky guy for a little bit. I love the contrast between the chill areas/structures in the grass, relatively dimly lit, up against the futuristic LED carnival world. During this time I think I tried to meetup with a couple people and not surprisingly phone coverage failed miserably. So I decided to dance
I was near Cosmic Meadow but the thumping from Neon Garden took me that way. Lane 8 was finishing, and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED)/Jonas Rathsman came on. I parked myself to the left of the stage, where there was a lot of room to dance, still inside the "tent" though. I don't really care at looking at visuals while dancing, so I gigged there for a while - music was super weird techno and I loved it. Pretty much my favorite set of the weekend. I ended up at Wasteland for Caspa/Rusko after, then back to Neon Garden during Nicole Moudaber's set.
Took a breather to circle the festival again. I did walk over to Kinetic although I must have been like 500 ft away. I started talking to an older looking guy, who told me he was here b/c his son had turned 18 and had really wanted to go, so he decided to check it out with him. That was pretty awesome. Another nugget - I saw a group of maybe late 30s/early 40s near upsidedown House during this time. I started chatting with them and it turns out they used to help Pasquale throw warehouse raves in the mid-late 90s. Apparently he had found a bunch of them on facebook and invited them to come for the 20th anniversary. They all had VIP passes with a picture from their old raves days on one side, plus a recent picture on the other. That was some cool shit.
I ended up at cosmic Meadow during Shiba San finishing up and stayed for most of Tycho's set. When he cranked out this monster tune I went bonkers. Someone out there has a video of me spinning with a couple random ladies who came by to dance, hope y'all enjoyed it x_x
As his set progressed and the crowd thinned, I kinda felt bad looking around at all the trash on the grass, so I started kicking the bottles and cans into little piles while dancing along to the music, maybe did this for half an hour. I probably could have done it for more, but I left around 5:10am so I could beat out the shuttle lines. Instead of napping I had a nice conversation with a young raver from San Luis Obispo the whole way down.
Day 3 I decided to have an omelette instead of steak for my morning meal? My stomach wasn't a huge fan, but it all pushed through my system before I got to the shuttle line : )
Ended up sitting next to someone I had met the previous day in line, that was fun. Early birds flock together I guess. Security line was short, and I had no issues at all.
Musically I had a feeling Sunday was gonna be my favorite. It was, no doubt. I danced my way to Mercer at Kinetic - waltzed right up to the front and grooved for ~10 minutes while the sun was still up - then over to drum and bass/jungle at Basspod (Kasra/Mefjus), then got a drink and ended up at upsideDown House to hear Ron D Core channel the fuck out of Spiral Tribe with hardcore techno - I was stomping around and telling anyone I talked to "you are not gonna hear anything like this at EDC any time soon again!" - my inner techno viking reveling. After that set I was pooped and took a while to catch my breath. Next set I remember was Richie Hawtin, who I'd never actually heard do a live set before. Pretty sure I ended up around the perimeter of Neon Garden dancing, smiling, freaking out the passerbys. There's something I enjoy about having a huge grin and airdrumming to very raw, rhythmic techno sounds, marching to the beat of the 808s and 909s.
I hung out up at the media/press center again (after being let in by a friend) and caught a couple hours of view/chill before heading back downstairs, checking out Mark Farina. One of his early tunes had a 3/4 bar in it; I love hearing that kinda stuff in dance music. The jazz grooves and funky bass and soulful samples, what a way to bring the sun up. ~5:15 and I'm out. Had another nice conversation the entire way down with a Socal raver.
3 hours of sleep later, have myself another diner breakfast, then go off to pick up my friends for the drive back. A few hours from home, it dawns on me that I'm the 30 year old driving the 24 year olds now.
I feel like I gave a lot of advice throughout the weekend, more than I could have ever seen myself doing back in 2009/2010. I think for the most part, people seemed receptive and interested to hear my "old man" rave stories. But... I guess I need to download snapchat, because I definitely was looking around a lil funny when everyone was like "oh snap me"
Thoughts on the setup:

• That walkway with the old footage/music from past EDCs was cool but. For some reason I never saw anything before 2008? I did like how they played the big songs from those respective years though. It was usually incredibly bright in there, that's for sure. Always big smiles going through that tunnel.
• Maybe I just got lucky and the conversation was really good this year, but I never felt like the lines for the shuttles and even to get into the speedway were very long. I actually spent more time at will call than anywhere else (turns out I should have just gone at like 4am). Then again I always got there early and left a little bit before close.
• basspod highs sounded really off on day 3. Maybe post-fire problems? I was joking that of course it's the drum and bass stage that gets shafted on sound. Didn't really go back there that day so maybe they fixed it later.
• For some reason the trash at cosmic meadow bugs me the most. Seeing trash on grass is sadface. The recycling booth was a lot further away this year too. I got a tote bag and a keychain but if I had more enthusiasm I'm sure I could have picked up way more swag. Most of the time I was just pushing trash into piles instead of bagging them up and taking them all the way to the recycling station
• smirnoff House looked cool but way too crowded every time I walked by
• I can't say this enough but Oasis was fucking awesome. High five to everyone that worked the booth and a pleasure to meet Paul in person.
• Not a fan of carnival rides I always wonder what the most popular ones are.
• VR Live, whoa. Didn't expect that
• I don't vape, but I loved the AC in that building
• When the stink from the bathrooms floats into Neon Garden.
• Wasteland needs more happy hardcore.
• Basspod needs more jungle/drum and bass.
• Trance (Dreamstate) should have its own stage. And one of the days should be purely psy/goa
• 7-UP stage I wish I had more time for you. You were playing some great music on day 3
• Carnival square smoothie line was giant. The one between basspod and wasteland had like 2 people though.
• DAE 2nd floor carnival square?!? Seemed like most people didn't even know you could go up there. Let alone the whole media center thing on the 3rd/4th floors.
• Never went up the bleachers this year. I noticed they had carved out a little VIP section there though, haha

People:

• So many stories to share with people. I really good being able to talk about my experiences in the underground rave world in the Bay Area, connect that with the history of EDC and just rave tradition in general that is decades old now (DJs into their 50s!). I met an 18 year old who told me his biology teacher had gone to the first EDC and was stoked for him.
• Got a chance to meet the dudes driving the Pac Man! They're based in Seattle ~_~
• I was walking through the VR hallway and totally locked gazes with a lady sitting on a bean bag. Totally doing the rolling thing where you start staring at someone without even knowing. She trailed me for like 15 seconds while I kept looking away occasionally and then looking back and smiling
• I was telling so many people - this music culture doesn't end when you leave here. You won't find the crowd size or the crazy production, but a lot of good people keep throwing events with positive vibes all over the country - we're out here!
• Dancing like a fool is fun. Everyone who comes up to me and smiles, or does a little fist bump, or yells out "get it get it" - it makes me smile, I hope I make you smile. Stay positive everyone.
• Early 20s the average age. Probably undergrads/kids in school. A few older heads in their 20s though, more than last year I think. So many beautiful people.
• Cannabis shop guy who came up to me. I am glad I inspire you. Inspire others - smile, make contact, say "hi"
• Earlier that night while I was spinning around during Tycho's set, something told me something like - you are definitely are on the lowest end of amount of fucks being given right now. My response was "this is a rave right? shouldn't we all be dancing like this"
• Only found a few people who were in any negative position as I wandered between sets. All of them were just waiting for their friends in some fashion.
• People in wheelchairs/crutches, y'all are amazing

Decent weather this year, so many contacts and friendly faces to work on staying in touch with, music lovely as ever, no lingering injuries! Heh, hella PLUR right now. I can't really see myself not coming back now that I live back in the Bay Area. Already booked a hotel for $50/night heheh hurray for free cancellation
Cheers everyone

THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD
Before I get started on this trip report, I want to say that this will be a very long report that I will most likely have to break up in chapters. I have so much to say and so much more to attempt to describe. This is currently known as the most impactful night I have ever lived through.
This entire trip was for my roommate Guyver, it was his birthday week and he is one of the biggest Star Wars fans that I personally know. I booked us a room in Vegas, and bought us two Star Wars IMAX 3D premiere tickets for his birthday. Excited cannot even begin to describe the hype leading up to this trip.
Chapter 1. "Preparation"
I wake up before my alarm clock goes off. I was unable to get much sleep the night before, despite the blunts and multiple dabs to assist me in my journey to an 8 hour slumber. I open my eyes, roll over as usual to pet my dog, check my phone, and see a text from (we will call her Ashley) Ashley wishing me and my roommate "Guyver" a safe and fun trip. She is such a sweetheart.
This girl Ashley is relatively new in my life. I am not usually the one to not only make new friends, but to actually care about them or want to spend time with them. Only about 2 or 3 weeks ago, we tripped together for the first time and I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing it was. I have never felt connected to someone like that before, this was also my first time tripping with a girl with only myself so I was a little scared about how it would go. But man was that trip amazing. She did not accompany me and Guyver on this trip, but knowing who Ashley is will matter I promise lol
I get out of bed, shower, feed Bishop (my dog) and smoke a little herb. The time now is about 6:45am and our plan is to hit the road at 7:00am. We go over our checklist before we head out. Weed, LSD, half a Xanax just in case shit goes south, wraps, a rolling tray and some other stoner "must have's" including plenty of Kendama's and Doritos.
Our bags are packed and we are good, I give Bishop some extra love, turn off all the lights, lock the door, take a deep breath and smiled. As I turned to Guyver, he was smiling just as big. At this moment I knew that we were down for whatever the night wanted to throw at us.
We take the short walk to my car and load everything in except the bad with the "goodies" in it. That bag stayed up front with us. We knew that if at any point in time if we get pulled over, all of the drugs would have to be ingested. Not interested in taking that chance. I turn the car on along with the seat heaters, turn on some music and off we go.
Chapter 2: "The Road"
Traveling with Guyver is extremely easy. He is by no means high maintenance, we like the same music and are interested in the same things for the most part. I never have to second guess traveling with this dude. He is one of my best friends for a reason.
2 hours of driving and a blunt later, we decide to make a stop at a cafe/diner in the middle of fucking nowhere. The only people that were in this cafe, were people who very obviously live in this town as well. Typical "middle of nowhere" staff there also. Our waiter was approximately 50-60 years old with pink and blue eye shadow on, complimenting her foundation that was definitely a few shades away from her actual skin color. Small coffee stains covered her apron and I immediately noticed that she had about 1/3 of her teeth missing as well.
This all felt like I was in an episode of Twilight. If you are familiar with anxiety, you know how easily these factors can build up into something unwanted. So I was slowly but surely starting to feel anxious.
To make matters worse, there was a gentleman that had to at least be 90 years old was sitting down alone talking to a waitress across the room about a guy being frozen in Texas. This obviously added to the list of shit that gives me anxiety. Guyver gets up to go wash his hands and to use the restroom. While he is away, the worst thing that could have happened.... happened. The old man got up from his booth and stood right next to me asking if I had heard about the guy who froze in Texas.
At this point I was on the brink of total freakout. So as politely as I could, I walked away without saying a word to collect myself. When I turned around, the old man had started to talk to another couple. I went back to our seats at the "bar" to wait for our food.
Guyver and I had both ordered the club sandwich with a side of fries (breakfast of champions). Let me tell you, that was by far the best club I have ever had. After we had finished eating, we decided that if we ever pass this place again, we will stop and eat. We paid our 50 year old, sad attempt at sexually appealing waitress and tip well.
Back in the car we go, we pull out our "oil pens" and have awesome conversations until we get to the hoover dam.
As we are approaching the Hoover Dam, I ask Guyver if he has ever been? "Na man, only in transformers" Guyver replies. I get excited, as every tourist should. We pull off to start heading to the Hoover Dam, we get about 3/4 of the way there when we both notice a sign that reads "Any and All vehicles are subject to search."
The look on Guyver's face was indescribable lmaooo he looked so frightened and I am sure I looked the same. We had quite a few years of prison in my backpack and I am NOT trying to go down at the fucking Hoover Dam. So we did the obvious, flip a U-turn and continue on to Las Vegas.
Chapter 3: "Arrival"
"Dude look you can fucking see the strip!" I exclaim as we round the last blind corner passing through the mountains. "Fuck dude there it is" replies Guyver. We approach our hotel and I cannot stop thinking about all of the awesome stuff that we are about to do that night.
We park at the New York New York parking garage, grab only our backpacks (just incase we weren't able to check in yet) and head into the hallway leading from the parking lot to the casino. We make our way to the front desk and fail to notice the HUGE line for check-in or check-out. I mean completely oblivious to the giant crowd. So I walk up to one of the idle concierges and ask for assistance, she looks over at the extensive line out of the corner of her eye, then back at me. She giggles and decides to boot up a computer to help us. Lets call her "Lilly".
During the time of checking in, Guyver is off to the side playing kendama and I have my kendama around my neck. Lilly immediately notices and say to me "Check-in is not til 3pm but if I can do that first try, I will let you guys check in now (1:12pm).
I hand her my kendama and to my surprise she almost gets the ball onto the spike first try. "My son is very good at this and we play together sometimes" Liiy states. "CLACK" I turn my eyes up to look from the form I was filling out and sure enough, Lilly got the spike! So being the wonderful and honorable lady that Lilly was, she let us check in early. We waved goodbye at the adorable asian woman and never see her again.
On our way up to the hotel room, we start noticing how amazing the fake architecture is inside of the building. The attention to detail Las Vegas puts into their casino's and resorts are just insane. I knew that at least visually... this will be a very pleasing trip. Little did I know... it would be far more "pleasing" than I ever had thought.
Chapter 4: "The Room" (part one)
As we are approaching our room door in the long, curvy hallway, I can't stop thinking about how crazy this night is going to be. We made it to the hotel in one piece and now the reality of it all is starting to set in, I couldn't be more excited.
I put the key card into the door and wait for the indicator that it's now unlocked. "Bleep Blee Bleep" rings the door after about 4 attempts to get it open. We walk into the room and the first thing I notice is the view overlooking a couple of other hotels and also the roller coaster.
Me and Guyver had already agreed that since we are staying at the New York New York, and they have buy one get one free passes for people who are staying at the hotel, we are DEFINITELY riding this thing at some point.
Anyways, we get all of our stuff in our backpacks off loaded, appreciate the view, turn the AC on full blast, and head back out to get the remaining items from the car.
We get back to the car, take a few hit off our oil pens and walk back to the room. The time is now approx 2:45pm and we have decided that since the movie starts at 11pm, we should ingest the tabs at 7pm. That way, we can trip for a solid 3 and a half hours before the movie started. Our plan was so prime, nothing could go wrong ;)
So in preparation for the night, we bust out the small bottle of Bacardi Limon and take a couple shots right off the bat. We unpack our bags and pull out the herb and blunt wraps. I also brought about a half gram of concentrate to put in the blunt. I broke down the tree, put it into the Garcia Vega wrap, placed the work of wax inside the blunt, and sealed it in.
Guyver and I pulled up two chairs and placed them right in front of the window overlooking the city while I sparked the blunt. We were sitting there smoking, talking plans and about how awesome the night is about to be.
I was genuinely confident that we would just have a super fun, easily navigable trip. It was my first time taking 2 tabs (230mg) and it was Guyver's first time taking 3 with no tolerance. But we figured it would be crazy, but mellow enough to just cruise and have an awesome time.
As we were smoking this blunt, Guyver had the idea to make a little music video for one of the songs off his unreleased EP. I agree and we set up the camera's and have a blast filming it. After the blunt, we gather our kendamas and camera's to head out to the strip while it's still day out.
We make our way out of the hotel on to the strip, not much was mentionable about this portion of the trip except the planning. After filming some super prime kendama "tricks" we devised a plan.
"The Plan"
The plan was simple... Take the tabs, come up, go on the rollercoaster, take the tram to madalay bay to see the aquarium, then the the Wyatt to watch the LED ceiling light show. Head back to the hotel, order out Uber, and get to the movie theatre. LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
So we decide to get back to the hotel room to try and get maybe about an hour or so to nap. I am laying down pretty tired still from the drive and Guyver and I fall asleep for about 40 min.
My alarm goes off... it's 6:45
Chapter 5 "Ingestion"
I take the small pieces of tin foil out of the bad and open them up. In the tin foil, was two Adventure Time tabs with Finn and Jake on them, and the other was 3 tabs with an odd, DMT visual patterned tabs. I place my two doses on the table along with Guyver's.
"Okay man... whatever happens we will be good dude. We just have to make sure we get to the theatre, that's really the only goal now."
"I know man, lets fucking do this." replied Guyver with an overload of nervousness and excitement in his voice.
I gave Guyver a huge, brotherly hug and we placed the small paper tabs with 115ug each of some of the purest LSD I can obtain into our mouthes. Shit eating grins smack us in our faces almost immediately. There is no going back now and we both knew that, but we thought we were 100% prepared.
Before we exit the hotel room, we make sure we have everything that we are going to need in our hands for the next 12 hours. This list included: Headphones, phones, sunglasses, a headphone splitter, oil pens, wallets, 3 cameras, and some other necessities. I was dressed in black dickies, brand new Airmax shoes, a fresh "Hundreds" hoodie with a puffy jacket/vest over the hoodie. I also had a black RVCA trucker hat on.
Guyver had on a pair of sunglasses, a windbreaker style trench coat with red and black plaid lining. An old star wars shirt, his huge 2 inch plugs for his ears, and sweatpants.
Chapter 6: "Come-Up"
I walk out of the hotel room of the New York New York in Las Vegas, I immediately start noticing subtle changes in my vision. I feel the awkward "warm" feeling in my jaw as we make out way to the elevator. We stop in the elevator lobby and as we are waiting I notice how awesome the floor patterns were. "No fucking way". I say as I cannot believe I am already starting to trip not even 20 min after the tabs had dissolved.
By the time we got out of the elevator, it was like someone turned the knob up to 8 on the trip meter. It was really strange how much harder I started to trip when the short ride down from the 24th floor to the lobby had ended.
I walk outside of the elevator and I am instantly hit with a plethora of lights, vibrating and glowing like something out of a trippy movie. At this point I am still 100% cognitive and aware of my surroundings. Guyer and myself made our way out to the main entrance of the casino out to the strip. We waddled our way over to a red metal table that was looked over by the insanely bright glowing lights of the New York New York and the Hershey's factory. The lights at this point were already significantly brighter than usual and starting to have a "palpable" glow to them. I had my headphones on listening to Cashmere Cat's "Paws" at that moment. I was just looking all around taking in how incredible everything looked. I look at Guyver and he has his Balaclava on to keep his face warm and his eyes were closed. I knew now that he was feeling it too.
As we were sitting outside in the 55 degree weather at about 8:15 we decide that we are definitely tripping hard enough to ride the rollercoaster. I have never taken a ride of any sort on psychedelics and I was actually very excited for this to happen.
We are bobbing and weaving our way through the traffic of miserable melting faces and the light so bright I almost had to squint. All the while me and Guyver are listening to our headphones separately with the biggest smiles you have ever seen on our faces.
We finally make it to the arcade... which is also the entrance to the roller coaster. This was my first time having to interact with a human.
"Umm... hi... how do we get on the rollercoaster please?" I say with my voice trembling, it is so difficult to formulate actual words at this point.
"Right around the corner of the neon coaster sign, you can pay there."
"t-thank you" I snicker trying my hardest not to burst out laughing.
I turn to Guyver with the new directions and relay them to him. I can tell the directions did not register properly, but it was okay.
"Dude that was so fucking hard to do" I whisper to Guyver.
This also didn't register with him correctly, I was met back with a blank stare and a laugh. Which then of course caused me to laugh back. Life is fucking great.
We are wading through this insane dome full of bright arcade games, kids smiling and running around, etc. We arrive at the paying point for the roller coaster and I can see that there are only about 8 other people that are getting on it as well. This was a comforting sight.
Chapter 7 "Let Go"
We take our seats at the back of the roller coaster to avoid any kind of unwanted attention. I then suddenly realize a bit too late that I still have my hat on and literally everything I had in my pockets of my pants and jackets. A slight panic set in as I had my phone, wallet, headphones, etc in my pockets and I knew this coaster had a loop. "Dude hold the fuck up I have everything in my pockets still!" Guyver whispers aggressively. I turn to the skinny miserable man working the coaster and ask if it's okay to put our stuff on the side? "Na man just hold on to it you will be good".
CLICK
The coaster starts to move forward instantly after that skinny fuck gave me the opposite answer I was searching for.
I feel this insane rush of adrenaline coarsing through my body, very euphoric but I was so fucking scared I was going to lose my things. I could not focus on what I should do about my items, this thought turned into panic again and at this point we began the climb to the top of the coaster.
I look over at Guyver and he is NOT having a good time at this point, which did not help my case either. Then all of a sudden, that insane rush of adrenaline faded away. As we were climbing up the coaster, I was comforted by a sense of "not being in control".
My personal outlook on roller coasters, even before psychedelics has always been: "One of two things can happen on a roller coaster... you wither die, or you don't. When you do live through that experience, it's usually just a fun story to tell afterwards."
I have never felt that feeling be so literal in my life. This entire rollercoaster is just a huge metaphor for life. Sometimes you aren't in control and sometimes, that is OKAY. Sometimes you just have to stop worrying and let go. Enjoy the wind in your face and the fact that you're on top of this roller coaster overlooking this beautiful city rather than worrying about my hat the whole time. This was the first beautiful moment that I experienced.
This was all in the matter of time it took the roller coaster to get to the top of the first drop.
When I got to the top of the coaster, my body was FORCING screams out of it. I was so fucking excited to finally be on this rollercoaster while on these amazing substances. The drop was insane, the next 45 seconds were quite possible the most intensely exciting moments of my life. Pure adventure, the kind of adventure that is so innocent. Guiltless entertainment if you would. I honestly cannot find the words to accurately describe how good it felt to just let go and enjoy that damn roller coaster.
After the coaster came to a stop, I was still audibly projecting "Oh my fucking god man, that was so nuts... I was NOT ready for that shit hahahahahah" probably about 3 times in a row. It was so hard to process what just happened.
I get out of my seat and decide it may be a good idea just to check and see if anything fell out on the seat. Wouldn't you know it... my phone was there lol
I pick my phone up, Guyver and myself headed out of the arcade to make our way outside to see the aquarium at Mandalay Bay.
Chapter 8: Feel Trip
Guyver and I walk out of the casino through a different exit than the first time that led us to the red tables. We took the side exit and started to make our way towards excalibur. During our walk there, I started to have a hard time knowing where I was. It would eventually come back to me, but I felt like I was losing track of where I was geographically.
We made it to the tram, we took the tram to Excalibur, which was close to Mandalay Bay. VERY exciting thought for me at the time. I was still feeling a little off because I didn't really remember where we were. But we took the tram to Excalibur and exited. I am so unsure if we are in the right place but Guyver just assured me that we were good and we continued our journey to the aquarium.
We make our way past the hotel valet section and now I am tripping extremely hard. I have surpassed the "level" of tripping I am used to b by about 2 fold at this point.
"Sundara" by ODESZA comes on in my headphones, the melodic house beat is slowly making it's way into my ears and I do not hate it because I know how awesome the rest of the song is. At one point in the song about 45 seconds in, the house beat stops and is followed by a very ambient, slow, beautiful melody and carries out that way for the rest of the song.
When this part of the song came on, I was 100% overwhelmed by visual beauty and appreciation. I was looking straight at the Pyramid hotel, only it was as night so there were hundreds of lights worming around the pyramid all the way to the top. At the top, there is an opening that shoots out a spotlight that is so bright, you can literally see it from space. This was the single most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed. I wish I would let you all borrow my eyes so you could witness this indescribable beauty. Not only how beautiful it was, but the FEELINGS that came along with it.
I was feeling so fucking grateful to be alive. I started thinking about how far I have come mentally in the past year, about the people I have lost and met along the way. Which brought me to thinking about that girl I told you about, Ashley.
For the longest time I have been emotionally unavailable to females as far as attraction, trust, and relationship goes. I have become a very self centered person and love the company of my own mind. What I am describing is in no way negative, it's just the way I like it to be. I don't waste my time with people I don't connect with, or who annoy me, etc. Which ends up being almost everyone.
This girl though, it is strange. In the midst of this positive emotional breakdown, I found myself thinking about her. Thinking about how I shouldn't be so scared to let her in. About how amazing my time spent with her thus far has been, nothing but good vibes, beautiful smiles and laughter. She is one of VERY few people in my life that do not judge me. "Your way of thinking is beautiful" she said to me once. That crossed my mind like a track on repeat. No one has ever been so kind and accepting of me, no matter how nerdy or weird I am. Not to mention she is absolutely gorgeous, way prettier than I deserve 100%.
I was just absolutely overwhelmed with all of these thoughts about Ashley, and how appreciative of life I had become and how I am no longer a depressed young man on the brink of ceasing to exist. I told myself not to be so scared, to let life happen.
So this realization was an immense one, and it continued on for about 20 minutes straight. I could not stop thinking about life and its wonders. I couldn't stop thinking about Ashley and how she doesn't even have to acknowledge me as a person, and yet she is the sweetest woman in the world to me. The list goes on and on about all of the thought process's I was having about everything.
Unfortunately, this also completely negated my ability to think outside of my own mind. I was completely lost, crying on the ramp leading down to the Pyramid. We were both lost, not knowing where the fuck the aquarium is anymore.
"Yo are you alright?" Guyver asks. "Yea man, this is just so fucking beautiful dude, I can't think right now."
"What do you mean you can't think?" Replied Guyver.
"I just don't know where I am or anything right now dude, I am lost."
"Follow me" Guyver says.
I can tell that his demeanor changed almost instantaneously, much more confident. Well at least one of us was. "Let's just get back to the room man and regroup." I nod my head in approval, and off we go.
Chapter 9 "Long Trek"
Guyver is leading me through a river of lights, peoples faces are continuously twisting and morphing. Slot machine characters became 3D and looked like I could high five them, shit was getting super intense.
Guyver and I had to stop numerous times to try and get our bearing on where the fuck we were. I was sure that we were never going to get back to the hotel room.
We get back on the Tram to take us back to Excalibur, so that we can walk straight across the bridge to New York New York, at least that's what he was telling me. We get on the tram, I am sweating my fucking dick off and we are sharing the cart with 3 other people. Extremely awkward by the way.
We get off and start walking towards the strip, this time there isn't even the slightest of knowing where we were. I was so turned around and tripping so fucking hard I literally couldn't even for a thought other than "OH MY GOD".
Guyver thankfully realized that we got off on the wrong stop and guided us back to the tram with surprising ease. After the third and final tram ride, we get off and make our way through the casino trying to find our elevators to our hotel.
When I was walking through this sea of people I was looking at everyone and time seemed to slow down. I felt like I could analyze their exact feelings at the moment, and in these moments everyone just looked disgusting. I saw greed and frustration written over every sloppy drunk bitches face. Every drunk meat head that lost his last $40 on a game of blackjack, now pissed off and walking around like a human bowling ball because he can't but a Red Bull for the broke drive home. I saw, sadness... immense sadness. Only this time I did not feel bad for these people, I said fuck these people. I never ever want to look like any of these miserable humans. Let this be the motivation to maintain happiness is what I was thinking.
"DUDE FUCK YES!!" screamed Guyver as we finally found our elevators to take us up to our floor. I can barely stand it feels like and I cannot wait to get into our room to recoup.
Chapter 10: "The Room" (Part 2)
I weasel through the twisted hallway, bumping into the sides of the walls to keep my balance. I finally reach the door, and I get out the keycard. When I look up at the door to insert the key card, I was smacked with constantly changing patterns on this door. I couldn't look away, yet I was still trying to get the card into the door. The pattern on the door was morphing and melting right in front of me.
I finally got the card to go in, and boom, we are back in the room.
The minute we open the door we smell the weed and start laughing hysterically, good weed. Before I could even take my jacket off, I looked in the mirror. The only way I could possibly describe what my face was doing, and what it looked like, is to compare it to the dreamscope app. My face had moving patterns forming on it in the shape of like old ass weird symbolic mini hieroglyphics. It was so bizarre, especially since I have never tripped this damn hard.
So I take my jacket off and go into the restroom, pull my pants all the way down and sit. I do NOT trust myself to try and piss standing up at this point lol
I get my phone out and I record myself saying literally nothing hahaha and so I turned my phone off and was stuck on that toilet for about 5 min. I couldn't stop looking at all of the marble designs on the walls of the bathroom, and the lighting was so crazy I just couldn't understand how it was all looking like this.
Eventually I get out of that bathroom and go lay down. Every single thing I look at is again, morphing and shifting. I was having my first TRUE psychedelic experience with LSD. It was INTENSE.
There is not a whole lot of detail to discuss about the room other than we were just getting lost over and over again in that room trying to get the fuck out so we can order our Lyft to see Star Wars. I eventually have to take the reins and lead us out of that room.
I gave what I thought to be a pretty fucking inspirational speech so to say. That brought us back into the reality of us being late to the movie. But before I did, I snapchat Ashley... I still have no idea what I sent to her or what have you, but she sent back nothing short of the sweetest thing ever. She is awesome.
Anyways, we get all of our shit together, double check our belongings, and we are finally good to go.
Chapter 11: "Uber"
We have an incredibly hard time finding an exit door to our hotel room now. I know that they have designated pickup areas for Uber and Lyft, I coulnd't find one to save my life. So we found our way out into the valte parking lot again and tried to request the Lyft. Only now, I had to put my credit card info in... this was so fucking difficult. I was shaking from the cold, couldn't see the numbers on the card cause they wouldn't stop moving. Life was in fucking shambles right now lol. So I eventually give up on trying to order a Lyft, I wanted to use Lyft since I have $50 free credits. But all in all... fuck Lyft so hard.
I got extremely irritated and just opened the Uber app and ordered one. I then saw a cop staring straight at me and Guyver. I did one of the most ridiculously stupid thing ever. I walked straight up to the cop and asked him, with my pupils as big as a fucking saucer "Hey where do the Uber drivers pick up?"
He replied with some crazy fucked up directions that I didn't respond to because I was so thrown off by the way this cop talked. Idk if he was deaf and use hearing aids, or if he had a stroke or what the deal was. He looked at me and knew I was lost in his words.
"I'm just trying to get out of this hotel, I am nowhere near sober enough to follow those directions."
"Tell you what, just tell em to come up here and pick you up, you guys have a safe night." The cop replies surprisingly.
I call the Uber driver right away and let him know we are in the Valet. We get into the Uber and shut the door.
I knew right away this is going to be awkward because I pretty much told the driver right away. "hey man, thank you so much for coming to get us. I literally have no idea what is going on but we need to get to AMC. Do you have the directions?" "Yes sir we are good" he replies. During the ride he is asking the typical small talk questions. Where are you guys from? How was our night? Any luck with the ladies etc etc. needless to say it was a pleasant ride that got us to our ultimate destination... STAR WARS!
We exit the Uber, I express my gratitude again and off we go.
Chapter 12: "Concessions"
Guyver and I walk up to the ticket counter, sweaty as all hell. Barely able to comprehend what it is i'm supposed to be doing. I take about 2 minutes to pull up our online ticket confirmation and I show it to the ticket dude.
The scanner isn't working and it is now 11:05 on an 11:00 showing. I start to get super nervous thinking something went wrong with the tickets, but eventually, all is well and we enter the movie theatre.
We get our spot in line for a couple of Coca-Cola's. At this time, there was this man with his buddy in front of us in line. This is one of those dudes that is not handsome, has spiky hair (OBVIOUSLY DYED), most likely about 32-35 years old, probably talks about how good he used to be at motocross when he was 18 kind of guy. The kind of guy I hate, and he was being so fucking disgustingly obnoxious and attention seeking.
I usually don't feel anger or rage when I trip but this time it was absolutely unavoidable. I started to think about how bad I wanted to fuck this dude up and shove his straw down his throat for acting like a douche bag. But I regressed, they got their orders and left. All was good.
It was my turn to order, I casually order two cokes, not stumbling too too hard anymore over my words but I cannot bring myself to look at the young lady taking my order. I am way too self conscious about how gone I look at the moment. Guyver and I take our sodas and go over to the soda machine.
This is one of the new machines that let you pick pretty much whatever soda your heart ever desired. This will go down as the hardest decision I have ever made on LSD.
I eventually went with Vanilla Coke just in case you were wondering.
After we had our drinks filled, tickets in hand, everything we needed to go into the theatre. Now I was lost again, I had no idea what we were supposed to be doing. I had forgot that we came here to see a movie. Guyver guided us into the movie and found our seats.
Chapter 13: "The Movie"
This AMC was one of those prime ass ones that had leather seats that recline and all that cool shit. I was so impressed by how comfy they were. I was sitting at the end of the aisle and Guyver was to my left sitting next to a couple.
At this point I have never felt like this before. The movie was playing but I had no idea what was going on. The movie never made sense to me, Guyver was laughing but I was getting worried that we were gonna get kicked out of the movie cause he was laughing so loud. I started to feel like I wasn't even supposed to be there in that movie. I didn't know what was happening around me, if the Coca Cola tasted good or not, I was freaking out.
I whispered to Guyver that I don't know what's happening and he offers to go outside with me. We walk outside and I start to get emotional. There is no other way to describe how I was feeling other than "I just didn't know anything".
For the first time in my life I felt completely vulnerable, tp the point that if someone wanted to come take everything I had there wasn't a single thing I could do about it. I was so lost in my own head. "Dude I just want to make sure you're having a good time, cause I am so lost brother."
" I am man for sure, are YOU okay though?" replied Guyver.
"Idk man, I literally don't know what is happening right now, are we supposed to be in that theatre? I bought these tickets right? Is this a funny movie or not? Etc." These are some of the questions I kept thinking to myself and I was losing it.
Then I just screamed "FUCK IT!" "Lets just go inside the theatre and I am just going to sit down until the lights come on dude, I am losing it okay? This whole thing is for you man, this is your birthday present and i just want to make sure you're having a good time man." I said with eyes full of tears.
"Okay brother let's do this" Guyver replies as he guides me inside and we both take out seats in the handicap chairs since no one is sitting in them. This made me significantly more comfortable knowing that there wasn't anyone behind us.
I am still feeling so lost and confused but I am gritting my teeth through it all. Eventually, a undeniably funny part of the movie came on and I was able to hear everyone in the theatre laughing. I felt like I could laugh too since everyone was doing it obviously so I laughed along. That is the point where I was able to calm down and enjoy the rest of the movie.
By the way, the new Star Wars is so fucking epic it's insane lol. The cinematography was so amazing and not to mention the Imax 3D that we were watching it in. Truly an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget.
After several moments of crying, being scared shitless of the new Star Wars villain, the movie came to an end.
Chapter 14: "Lets Get Back"
After the movie, me and Guyver were standing outside. I was trying to get this stupid fucking Lyft app to work but I was still tripping a little too hard to try bothering with it. So I just ordered another Uber.
While we are waiting for the Uber, me and Guyver are discussing all of the crazy events that have led up to this moment. How I was still definitely tripping and I just wanted to get back to the hotel now. Guyver agree'd and we waited on the Uber.
We finally get into the Uber and have a comfy, warm ride home back to NY NY. The ride was very humbling as the driver was speaking about how he has 3 kids and that Uber is such a blessing allowing him to work his own hours to get that extra couple hundred dollars a check to provide for his family. I began to tear up and had to look away. People's lives are so different from one another and I can always tell when someone is sincere. This man was exactly what I needed to witness to feel that overwhelming sense of appreciation again. It was wonderful. I said my goodbyes to the Uber driver and I started the walk back to the hotel.
If didn't take us nearly as long as it did previously to get back to the room, but it was still no easy feat.
Chapter 13: "Blunts and the Comedown"
We get back to our room, hotel door still moving slightly and making me giggle. I walk into that hotel room and have never felt so relieved in my life. I immediately take my clothes off and lay down in the bed. CEV's are still pretty present but I don't mind at all.
"Dude do we have any blunt wraps?" Guyver asks. "No dude we don't but we should."
"Ughhhhhh fuckkkkkk okay i'll go get one"
"We will go fucking get one" I say hesitantly.
We both get dressed AGAIN, plug in our headphones and start back out to find a blunt. We walked WAYYYYY too far in search of a blunt and the only thing we could find was these nasty ass chocolate Zig Zags. ( I fucking hate swishers and zig zags, white owls, etc.) But I said fuck it, we bought the wraps and headed back to the room.
We get back to the room, I break down the weed and start to try and roll up. Now I am not trying to toot my own horn... but I can roll the shit out of a blunt. But at the end of this trip in Las Vegas... I was defeated. I wasted both of the blunt wraps trying to roll up and we just ended up smoking out of my pipe till our throats hurt.
We smoked til we got tired and I had layed down again. I was just laying there, thinking about my life, about home, my dog, Ashley and all the wonderful things in my life that attribute to this happy state of mind I have finally reached.
Me and Guyver watch some of the videos we took throughout the trip and cannot stop laughing at how hard we were tripping on video. We eventually got tired at about 4:30 but didn't end up falling asleep til about 6 or so.
We woke up, went down to the buy one get one free breaksfast, which turned out to have a whole bunch of special rules and shit that was far too confusing for me to deal with still.
We ditch the buffet, check out and hit the road. We survived the night and lost not ONE item.
Mission Complete.
This was not revised in any way, I don't plan on going back and proof reading. This is my recollection of my night in Vegas with my best friend. I hope you enjoyed the read! Safe Travels!
-Yeee