California is still here despite all the hype giving us expectations of doom. Maybe still being here is the biggest doomsday scenario.
On the day of my most recent Battle of the Bands posting, I embarked upon four days of a whirlwind trip that covered over 1000 miles and three states. It was somewhat unexpected for me, but I took on the role of chief driver and tour planner. It was hot, but that's Las Vegas in the summer. I hadn't been to Vegas in several years--November 2015 it had been.
With the coming of COVID went the departure of the famous Vegas buffets. I suspected this was the case but my party still had expectations of dining at the buffet at the Mandalay Bay, where we had eaten often in the past. The buffet was gone so we settled for some bad over-priced Mexican food.
That was basically the story of the trip. Restaurants there are way high-priced and often not that great of quality. But that seems to be the case everywhere these days. Since we hadn't made any reservations like I normally would have (that's another story that I won't go into here), I got a room at Harrah's for the same low price I had paid last time I was there. Oh, except for the $45 resort fee and $18 parking. Vegas nickels and dimes the visitor every chance it gets and that's not even mentioning the gambling. At least my wife came out ahead $135 on the slot machines. She's usually pretty lucky like that.
The next morning we were anxious to get back home to Los Angeles (which seems strange, but it's home and not Las Vegas). This was a long desert journey with a side trip to Hoover Dam. We didn't take any tours but we walked across the dam in the 112 degree heat. Then it was homeward. I filled up before I left Arizona and paid $2 less per gallon than I would the next day in Los Angeles.
Friday as I was looking up an address where I was going to drop off my wife's cousin who had come to visit us from Ecuador, hence our road trip of the previous days, I received an alarm message about an impending hurricane. What? California doesn't get hurricanes, or at least I thought, but there it was all over the news. This past weekend the hurricane came and went. It was what we used to call back East a "rain storm". I guess there were some problematic areas with flooding and such, but where I live it just rained and that was good news for my lawn.
Oh, then there was the earthquake in the middle of the hurricane. You might have heard about it. It was a 5 or so on the Richter scale with no real significant damage. We are always expecting earthquakes out here in Southern California, but never hurricanes. Guess we're trying to keep up with Florida.
And now....
Battle of the Bands Results
This Battle had a small turnout with a very decisive outcome. And really, this one did not turn out like I anticipated. I figured The Band probably had more of a fan base and Crazy Horse would be too nasally or country or whatever. For me, Crazy Horse being a particular longtime favorite my vote goes to their song, but listening to this Band cut after many years gave me a new appreciation for it.
Final Vote Tally
The Band 1 vote
Crazy Horse 9 votes
Next Battle on Friday September 1
I'll be continuing with my series of "Songs from Lee's Basement" and hopefully will have some pictures I took back in those days.
That was lopsided.
ReplyDeleteI saw video of one town with its streets nothing but rivers, but there certainly wasn't the damage they were calling for. California overreacted to the hurricane the same way the South overreacts to snow. But it's a good thing it wasn't worse. Our last hurricane shut down two major freeways for days due to flooding.
Good Morning. Always interesting to hear about people's adventures to Las Vegas. It's such a shame that all their buffets closed but I think there's one in Caesar's Palace.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in Arizona about 10 minutes from Cali and 2 minutes from Nevada, probably pretty close to where you gassed up, and I would go to Vegas every month or so, sometimes for vacation sometimes for work events. I miss that area, I wrote about it in my blog a lot, but even I got tired of writing about how much I miss Arizona so I stopped.
That hurricane was wild, I was concerned because my grandma is babysitting my dog in Palm Springs. They did get some road flooding but doesn't seem too bad. Some areas, like in San Bernardino forest, had some extensive rock slides.
LEE ~
ReplyDeleteI used to like Las Vegas a great deal and went there often in the 1970s through the early '90s. But 'Classic Vegas' probably disappeared in the mid-'90s and I have no desire to ever visit there again. The last few times I was driving in the area, I went right through Vegas without ever even considering getting off the highway. No thanks. Like everything else, it ain't what it used to be.
Well, at least your Battle (barely) managed to avoid being a shutout. Although, like I said, there's a lot of The Band's music that I enjoy a great deal, this BOTB outcome doesn't surprise me any.
~ D-FensDogG
My sister lives in Calimesa CA. She seemed to fair well also. Been a while bro. Glad you're still blogging. I just uploaded a song on Bandcamp. My son's release an album under the band name Dead Allies. Go check it out. I am now in a cover band at this time with him and some friends.
ReplyDeleteHope all is well.
Love Jesus, listen to Floyd, eat cheesecake
Glen