My Nomad Journey – Las Vegas, Nevada

[Week of February 15] The drive to Las Vegas was nice. Good weather and it is literally a straight shot across the north of New Mexico and Arizona, through beautiful rolling desert terrain and periodic mountain ranges covered in snow. I love this part of the country. The views are amazing and it is not cluttered with all the crap that comes from high population density. Once I reached Kingman, Arizona, I turned to the northwest toward Las Vegas. That was one of the roughest stretches of highway I have ever driven! I was worried for my new car/tires and spent the majority of the 50 miles riding halfway in the median, to avoid the tracks of potholes and cracks. Horrible!

Here’s what I did:

On my way into Las Vegas, the signs reminded me that I would be crossing near Hoover Dam! I have been to Las Vegas many times over the years, but I have never visited the dam. So, since this is about nomad life and adventures, I decided to stop at the dam and check it out! I was NOT disappointed! The whole thing is amazing and historical. I know there are dark sides to the story, as well. The construction was awesome and it really makes me thing about how many people are dependent on that dam. I think they say around 40 million people depend on the Colorado River for water!!! The water levels at Lake Mead were low, as well. I parked, walked around, took pictures and just spent some time feeling the wind and listening to the tourists from all over the world, speaking in so many different languages. Yet, if you didn’t hear them talking, you would assume they all just lived right here in Las Vegas.

After spending some time checking out this wonder, I continued on into Las Vegas. I was arriving a day before I was to check in and set up for my training, so I had booked a less expensive hotel elsewhere in town. I checked in and unloaded the car for the night, then headed out to get dinner. Fortunately, I was able to find a chain that does fresh food and has lots of vegetarian (and tofu) options. I enjoyed the meal and settled in at the hotel to do some work preparing my notes and checklists for the week’s training session.

Sunday, I checked out of my hotel and took care of some errands. I went to the gym, got a car wash and took care of lunch. Then I went to the motel venue where I would be working for the first half of the week. I met with my work colleagues and we set up for the week’s training session and then met over dinner to talk business, logistics and details for the week. The next 3 days were 100% work. I go on “do not disturb” on my phone. I am unable to check messages. I don’t do other work. I am “on stage” the entire time. When I teach these in-person sessions for my client, they are long and action-packed days. Afterward, we would debrief the session, then meet for dinner and discuss future projects. Usually, I would be back in my room by 10pm, where I would then respond to all the messages that I was unable to reply to during the day. So my nights would run late and then I would be back “on stage” again the next day. Although it is hard work, I find it rewarding and fulfilling. I’m good at it, too. Most importantly, it is one of many ways that I am able to live and fund this lifestyle I’m enjoying! Hard work. Good work.

On Tuesday evening after our session, my client (who was also attending the session), treated my colleague and I with tickets to go see “The Wizard of Oz” at the Sphere off the strip. I had never been and many friends raved about seeing any kind of show there. This was an amazing experience. If you ever find yourself in Las Vegas, or any of the other cities that are now building these Sphere theaters, I highly recommend. Not only are you seeing the movie again, it has been edited and modified to project onto a giant dome that ascends high overhead! This is what an Imax movie would look like it if was in “Imax for Imax”. LOL! Also, they create environmental effects to match the movie. So when the tornado blows on screen, they have large fans blowing into the theatre at high speeds. There are paper debris blowing around. The seats rock, vibrate and shake. The temperature changes. And when they are in the forest of apple trees, foam apples fall from the ceiling. Apparently, it’s “a thing” to grab one of those apples. Of course, they didn’t fall over our row – none of us got any. And there were NONE on the floor as we were exiting. I am so grateful to Mary Beth for this generous treat. I can honestly say that I might not have ever made the effort to pay or go on my own, so this was a gift!!!

After my work assignment was complete, I had planned to remain in Las Vegas in order to have a stationary place to do other work for a few days. I moved to a less expensive hotel in the downtown/Fremont part of the city, since I had never spent time there before. This is also the older part and the “downtown” part. I don’t gamble, I don’t drink and I don’t really like drunken crowds, so the Strip is not a destination for me. No need to be near the casinos. Although you can’t escape that in Las Vegas. I settled into my new motel and was pleasantly surprised by all the vintage elements, including a miniature golf course that filled the courtyard area outside all of our rooms. Cute! I was also pleased that this was a black-owned business – glad to be supporting them! This area of town was not what I was hoping to see, but I could tell that the city was investing in the area and trying to help it improve from abandoned properties to occupied ones. I was just a few blocks away from the old Fremont Street Experience. This is the covered stretch of a few blocks that has light shows, attractions, casinos, stores, bars, restaurants and street entertainers. It was busy, but not my thing. Mostly drunkenness or people smoking/vaping everything that could be inhaled. I had to walk through on an errand one day (more later) and that was more than enough for me. I found a Thai restaurant a block away and ate dinner there 2 nights in a row, since it was tasty and convenient.

Also while in Las Vegas, I had to take care of some administrative things with the car registration paperwork. There is a MUCH longer story to this. The car registration was being handled by the dealership in Florida. They were registering the car in California, because that is home. My temporary license plate was only good until February 18th (1 month), but I wasn’t going to be in California until March. I thought I would have the official license plates by then and could have them mailed to me. But… the dealership in Florida found out from California that I needed a VIN Inspection form. For a few weeks, I thought I would only be able to get that in California, so we had agreed that they would renew my temporary license plate for another 30 days. Two things: 1) I was able to get the Vin Inspection done at the DMV in Las Vegas – so that would keep the registration process moving forward. I did that. 2) I had arranged for the dealership to overnight me the new temporary plate in Las Vegas. So all of this was also timed carefully. (In case you’re wondering, they couldn’t print the new plate until the day the current one expired. That’s why we had to overnight it to me in Las Vegas, to arrive on the 19th. Pay attention, this is important.

On the 18th, I checked into my new motel downtown and parked my car in the city parking lot that the hotel used. I had my permit displayed and was not planning to drive the car, with an expired license plate, until I picked up the new one that was being shipped. On the morning of the 19th, I went to my car to get something and THERE WAS A TICKET! At first I thought it was for not having a parking permit or something. But NO… these f**kers had given me a ticket for expired registration. They literally gave me a ticket just 7 hours after my temporary plate had expired! While parked! In a parking lot! So that I would not be driving it illegally!!! Can you fucking believe it? And my new one was arriving that same day. I put the ticket on the dash and a copy of the email with the tracking number, so it would deter these assholes from giving me more tickets. Anyway, I’ll skip ahead. My new plate arrived, I appealed the ticket with copies of all the forms, new plates, and such. The ticket was dismissed. Only me, right??? LOL! Did I mention it was cold while I was in Las Vegas?

Here’s what I learned:

After all that narrative, I think you can probably infer a little about what I learned about myself this week. I think the theme of it all, though, is endurance and patience. This was a busy work week. The teaching gig was a big one with an active audience. I worked late hours for days in a row. I was juggling the mental work of keeping up with the car details and coordinating with the dealership in Florida. I was researching options for getting the special inspection done for the car (although that ended up being the easiest part, after all). Given all the moving parts and the literal “performance” required of me throughout the week, I will acknowledge myself for getting through it all. And for being patient – mostly.

Here’s what’s next:

About a day before I was due to leave to visit my cousins, I started feeling under the weather. I had started sniffling and sneezing and all that. I reached out to my cousin – we had agreed that if anyone was sick, we would consider rescheduling. That’s the verdict we decided on, for a variety of reasons. So with that, I changed my plans and decided to book some quiet time back in Flagstaff Arizona, before heading on to Shelly’s in Phoenix. I could use that time to catch up on sleep, recover if my cold got worse, and see a little bit of what Flagstaff has to offer. This also gave my cousin some peace of mind for her own health.

So Flagstaff is my next destination and then Phoenix for a few weeks. After that, I will spend some time in Southern California for a couple of work engagements and some downtime for my birthday. April will bring me back home to Sacramento for a few weeks.

As always, please interact with this post. I love getting your questions, your thoughts, and your comments. I’ll reply when I’m able.

Please enjoy yourselves in this week ahead and look for another update from me about the adventures of the journey. Be well my friends!

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