The Innocents Do Vegas

 On the Road -- Again

And so we begin another lengthy road trip.  This time to Los Angeles to see our sons, onward to four National Parks in Utah and a visit to our niece and her family in Colorado.  While this seems straight forward enough we will manage to complicate it in numerous ways -- as usual.  We begin our trip in high spirtis having decided to take our time and just saunter through Mexico and up to Phoenix to see our cousin and then onward to Los Angeles.  Our first stop is Mazatlan (scene of our recent Eclipse event) which is an "easy" six hour drive.  Then we can relax at the beach -- sort of.  The stretch between Ajijic and Mazatlan is arguably the toughest of our drives in that large sections are on a two lane road which necessitates passing a zillion trucks by threading the needle between the trucks in the right lane and the oncoming trucks on the other lane while climbing through the Sierra Madre mountains. 

 I am distracted from Michael's death defying passing strategies by the seemingly endless procession of military vehicles each carrying about 10 very heavily armored and armed soldiers.  I am not exaggerating when I say that we easily passed 500+ soldiers (I was counting) between our home and the border.  We conjectured on what this could mean while being heartened in that they all seem to be going in the opposite direction to us.  "So,' says Michael, " it could be because the presidential election is June 2nd and the current ruling party wants to demonstrate their readiness to confront evil."  "Or, " I offer, "it could be a huge military exercise that is coming together at some central point".   "Or, says Michael, "they could be heading for a really big slap down of some cartel or another."  As with all things in Mexico there are three (or more) possible theories for anything and we will never know the actual answer.  We proceed.  There will be no pictures of this because they really don't like that.

We arrive in Mazatlan ready to relax and have a nice seaside dinner.  Only to discover that it is motorcycle weekend in Mazatlan.  Each crew is trying to outdo the other with roaring motorcycles, suicidal traffic maneuvers and drunken revelry.  We are particularly taken by the Soldiers for Jesus contingent who seem to be everywhere staunchly defending Christ while imbibing vast numbers of Margaritas and beer.  It is time to move on.  Everything continues apace and we cross the border after a significant wait and are once more in the good old USA.  We have failed to do something at the border  that will reverberate later.

We reach Phoenix and meet up with Michael's cousin John who lives on the outskirts in Surprise Arizona.  There is something about Arizona where they felt the compunction to name towns things like Truth or Consequences (really) or Surprise (surprise!) or any number of other confounding monikers.  We find John surrounded by his son,  spouse, daughter, her fiance and a another cousin's daughter as well as his dog Daisy and a five month old Siberian Husky puppy who is very spunky.  They have all landed at his place for the Rolling Stones Concert the next night.  Clearly John has his hands full but we have a great dinner with the mob and head off to LA to see the guys.  The Rolling Stones are a unifying theme of the trip since most people we visit with are going to see them at one time or another on their tour.  Got to get a final concert in before .... well, you know.

From the left is Martina, Deirdre, John and Joe. Starting in the back right is Ann, Stephanie, Jenna, Matt and Ewa.

Ewa took this photo so I could join the group photo.

It Always seems so Simple

So, a major part of our mission on this tour is to do a car handoff.  Our younger son Alex's Subaru has bitten the dust so we decided to give him our Subaru at the ned of our road trip and fly back to Ajijic to pick up our new Subaru.  Part of this is due to the fact that we are amazingly wonderful parents and another part is that we keep backing into things without a back up camera and the  big, old Outback is hard to park on narrow cobblestoned streets.  So, how hard can a car transfer be?  We'll tell you.  

A trip to the DMV reveals that we need a million forms to effect the handoff.  We have a factura (a title in Mexico) that doesn't work in the US even though the car was manufactured in the US and there is a NAFTA agreement that we thought should cover it.  So, this means that we: a) should have stopped at the border to do "something" that would have made it easier and b) now have to fill out more forms and go to the Customs and Border Patrol office in some obscure area near LAX.  Once that has been accomplished (after a scolding from Immigration about a Customs Broker) we then have to return to the DMV who will send the papers to Sacramento so they can do "something" to it and then, when the papers return, Michael will be able to have the US title which he can transfer to Alex. Due to the pace of bureaucracy, the final transfer will occur in late August when we return to LA.  Told you it would be simple....

It's Time to Rock OUT

Astoundingly, Michael and I have never seen The Stones in Concert.  In fact, probably the last concert we went to involved sitting on a lawn with a picnic and a couple of thousand people listening to folk music.  We are very old. We were in for a very different experience.  The Concert was held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas which holds a mere 65,000 people, has 44 escalators and at least 100 stands selling, well, everything.  Our seats were somewhere near Mars.  We had promised Alex a Stones T shirt since I had inadvertently given his prior concert T shirt to Good Will not understanding its tremendous value.  We stood in the "merch" line of many, many people all of whom were seriously psyched to spend $50 on a T shirt.  As we stood there we looked around and noticed a banner which read: "Sponsored by AARP". I think that tells you what you need to know.

Well actually, the audience spanned the ages.  There were children there who were 6 or 7 (who DOES that) to geezers like us.  We were seated next to two 30 somethings who were restrained at first.  I think the gummies or whatever kicked in around the fifth or sixth song.  At that point the guy next to me leapt to his feet, started punching the air frantically and screaming the lyrics to Jumpin Jack Flash.  I cowered next to Michael trying to avoid the flailing.  It was a really good show though.  I can report that Mick is no longer leaping or doing splits but he still can really strut.  Keith Richards defies medical science.  He gives me hope.

This gives you an idea of the size of the stadium,...

particularly when you see (or don't see the size of the performers on the stage).

The big screens allowed us to see Keith Richards...

and Mick Jagger more clearly,...

as well as the other performers.

After the concert (and after our bedtime) we moved as a herd to the RideShare area to pick up our Uber which we had arranged with the driver who brought us.  Upon reflection, we should have thought twice since the guy was from Ethiopia and had only been in Las Vegas for two weeks.  The RideShare area outside of the Stadium is like a labyrinth of endlessly snaking vehicles.  It is very unclear how one gets into or out of it if one is inexperienced.  He was inexperienced.  We tried to talk him in as much as you would a plane on an emergency approach but all efforts failed.  It was 1 AM and we were exhausted.  Our defenses were down.  A guy approached and said he was free so we took him up on his offer for a ride.  I began to have some misgivings as I sized him up as a swarthy, vaguely unfriendly Russian type who was leading us across a dark parking lot.  By the time we got in the Escalade we both were looking at each other.  It was too late.  We were in the car in a dark parking lot with an unpleasant looking fellow.  Onward.  After a circuitous route to our hotel he pulled up an demanded $200.  We snorted, handed him $40  (the inbound ride was $25) and departed to his outrage and screaming lunges.  Luckily, it being Vegas, there was a security guy at the door so we retreated intact.  Honestly, living in Mexico we have let our guard down -- that's ironic. 

Onward Towards Nature -- Lots of Nature.......