Revenge of the Elvii
Trip Start
Unknown
1
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Las Vegas, Nevada
Thursday, August 1, 2002
It turned out to be a good thing I had a lot of time. LAX is a nightmare. Thankfully the staff are nice. I'm really glad I only had carry on luggage. I don't want to think about how long it would have taken me to find the baggage claim.
It was 105 when my plane landed in Las Vegas in the early afternoon. I was travelling on a Thursday to beat the weekend crush (I'd be travelling back on Monday) but the airport was crowded anyway. I had to phone my hotel to get them to send the shuttle for me. Then I had to ask two different people how to get to the shuttle load in area. The shuttle took a long time. It turns out that my roomie for the weekend had just been delivered to the hotel. I missed her shuttle by two minute.
After getting settled and freshening up we took the shuttle to the Convention Center. The rest of the people we were in Vegas to meet were staying at the Hilton because that's where the convention was being held. My roomie and I had to find cheaper accommodations but I think our room was nicer than the ones I saw in the Hilton.
My roomie and I spent the next day doing the tourist thing. We went from hotel to hotel seeing what there was to see. Then we met the rest of our gang (all 10 of them) for a late lunch at Todai. After that we took a look around Paris Las Vegas. (shudder)
By the time we got back to our room in the late afternoon I had a case of sun stroke. I really wasn't expecting it because we'd only been outside when we had to in order to get to the next hotel. So my roomie went back to the Hilton and I went to the jacuzzi.
Saturday was spent at the Hilton but we still didn't go to the convention. We did the Star Trek Experience (now closed) which took 3 hours, most of it in line. Then we had lunch at Quark's followed by shopping on the promenade. That evening we piled into two limos and did the tour of the strip and Freemont.
Sunday was the charity brunch. A bunch of Star Trek Actors. Dominic Keating, Nana Visitor, Philip Anglim, Aron Eisenberg and George Takei moved around from table to table stopping to talk to fans.
After the brunch I went into the dealers room because I had promised a friend that I would get her Judson Spence's autograph. He wasn't at his table so I had to wander around and checking back every few minutes to see if he had come back. While I was waiting I had an interesting talk with Rod Roddenberry (Gene's son) about how much he disliked Enterpise.
I also had another encounter with Philip Anglim who came up to me and said, "Hi again." He was selling autographs and giving the money to charity so I bought one. I also got to talking to Manu Intiraymi who was on his first trip to Las Vegas. We had the same feeling. The first day it's like "Oh Wow!" The second day is like "Neat." The third day is "Get me out of here".
After the dealer's room I joined the others for lunch at the Paradise Cafe. I'm glad to report that they make excellent strawberry margaritas.
The rest of Sunday afternoon was spent at the convention. I listened to actors talk and then got in line to get pictures signed just like everyone else. I made Anthony Montgomery laugh by asking when we were going to get a Travis Decon scene. Good times. By the time I was finished I was exhausted and there was nothing left to do but join my friends for the Dead Dog Party. We all chipped in for pizza and watched episodes of The Immortal.
Monday morning we decided to get an early start and we both took the shuttle to the airport. I was scheduled to fly from Vegas to Denver and then to Vancouver. There was a storm in Denver so we ended up sitting in the plane for an hour and a half before they told us we could go back to the terminal. I arrived in Denver so late that I was lucky to just get the last plane to Vancouver. We had to sit in that play too because the flight crew was on another plane waiting to get in to the terminal. In the end it was after 2 am before I got home. I'd been "travelling" for 14 hours.
A recipe for a drink I had at Quark's
Tamarian Frost: 1 oz Smirnoff Vanilla Twist Vodka (you don’t have to use Smirnoff, but I would recommend it or Stoli Vanilla, since they have the best vanilla taste of the flavored vodkas I’ve tried)1 oz Godiva Chocolate Liquer1 oz butterscotch schnappsabout 2 oz half and half
Mix everthing together and pour over ice, though you’ll want to be carefull not to aggitate it too much or the half and half gets pretty frothy, just like the Chocolate Obsession.
I guess you're wonder where the Elvii fit into this story. On the last day of the Con (Sunday) the Hilton was host to an Elvis Impersonator's convention. Young Elvii, old Elvii and everything in between were walking the same halls as Klingons, Vulcans and Bajorans. As if my experience couldn't get more surreal.
