Elepent

Preparing the Crimson Haybaler for front-line duty was simple; part of the reason we chose the Ranger was its simplicity.  It was inexpensive because TLC was needed, however.  I installed a new starter and fuel pump and the little truck runs just fine now, albeit a bit loudly and not quite so prettily, thanks to a missing exhaust and the guerilla modifications we had to make in order to tow it (see below).  We’ll set about turning it into the Ultimate Toad in the coming months. Continue reading

So what’s there to do in Las Vegas, if you aren’t a gambler (which we aren’t)?  Well, fans of the weird and wonderful owe it to themselves to take a walk through the surreal landscape that is Vegas.  Wander up and down the Strip, in and out of the big casinos, and marvel (or roll your eyes) at the sheer madness of it all.  Taken in the proper spirit (that is, not seriously), Las Vegas is quite the architectural fantasyland.  In the evening, of course, many of the casinos have free light, fountain and pyrotechnic shows as you walk up and down Las Vegas Boulevard.  This is not a secret, of course, so we don’t have to tell you to watch for the fountains at Bellagio or the Mirage’s volcano.

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Venturing outside of Las Vegas’ environs, you’ll find a lot of boring suburbs and a lot of desert.  The glamorous inner city seems to have pushed all of the normal working parts of the city–fast-food restaurants, real-world retail, industrial complexes and housing–out into a wide halo of sprawl, and beyond that there’s naught but desert.

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