The Magic In The Mountains

 

I went to Vegas, Baby!!!! No, I didn't go to the Strip. I didn't see any shows. I went to the Fremont Street Experience. The Experience is a six block long pedestrian mall in downtown Las Vegas, but it is so much more. The street is lined with casinos, there are many different types of street performers and little kiosks where you can buy trinkets or get your picture taken with perhaps the Chippendales. The coolest thing though is that they have put a arched roof over the whole six blocks. This roof is actually a giant video screen with absolutely luscious graphics. You can stand at one end of the street and there will be a dragon flying over head on the screen. You can watch it fly all the way down the whole six blocks to the other end. Check out some of the videos on YouTube of the roof.

I had heard about the Seven Magic Mountains which are located about 10 miles south of Vegas. To quote their website “Seven Magic Mountains punctuates the Mojave with a poetic burst of form and color”. It was originally produced by the Nevada Museum of Art and opened in 2016. It was only supposed to be on view for two years but it has turned out to be rather popular. The installation is now scheduled to be on view through the end of 2021. I bet that they will keep it there longer though. The artist is Ugo Rondinone.

This was my favorite.  Don't know why.  Don't care why.  I just specially liked it.

I know it looks sort of silly but I actually thought it was rather cool, actually almost spiritual – these colorful pyramids out in the middle of the brown, brown desert.

While I was here I looked down and found a woman's billfold.  I picked it up, it had her driver's licence and some credit cards in it.  She was from Florida.  I couldn't leave it there for some nefarious soul to find it.  I wandered around looking for somebody that looked like the person on her license.  No luck.  So, I called the police department's non-emergency number.  Since it was Sunday, the only station that was open was downtown Las Vegas.  That was lucky because I was going to be passing by that way.  I hope that the wallet finds it way to the owner.  How she must have been fretting over losing her Costco card plus all the other pieces of her life.

The campground I stayed at was the Clark County Shooting Park. It was just north of Vegas, in fact I could see the Vegas lights out my window at night.  The park was fairly cheap, very clean and during the day would have people shooting trap.  They would stand in the middle here and call Pull.  The pigeons would come from the left, from the right and also straight ahead.  I finally talked to an employee and he said that it is all done electronically.  Person says Pull, the computer hears it and sends a clay pigeon into the air.  He said that back in the day, this was all done manully.  These shooters spend a lot of money on their gear and expect perfection.  If you were working and fired too soon or too late, there was hell to pay.  He said he would never ever never do that job again.  He likes it much better now that technology has caught up.