Monday, June 16, 2008

I'm in Utah!

On purpose!

You're thinking: John, you land in Las Vegas and turn up next in Utah? That must have been some bender.

It was actually the plan. Saturday, once we finally got out of bed, we went to the Hoover Dam. My blog buddy Gwen went with us. She's a professor at a college in Vegas whose Super Happy Fun Time Blog I stumbled across more than a year ago. She warned us about the insanely hot days and was a good enough sport to go with us even though we ended up going at midday when the sun shines directly overhead from a distance of approximately 46 inches.

Dry heat is still hot. I don't care where you are -- 103 degrees is 103 degrees.

Sunday we trekked to Red Rocks Canyon about 15 miles west of Vegas. We climbed a lot of red rocks and took a lot of pictures.


That night we decided to see a Vegas show. George Carlin was playing that night but we decided that 70 bucks was going to give us anything we hadn't seen in one of his HBO specials. A little Googling (I think the term was "Vegas Showgirls") led us to a show at Bally's called Jubilee. The show's web site featured the following picture:


We were in.

I found myself wondering as I watched: How does a woman dance differently when she's topless? The dancing didn't look all that arduous but they were trying to match steps to the music and to each other while parts of their bodies that usually stay under wraps were swaying loose. Doesn't that affect their balance?

I questioned only briefly the nudity's necessity. The numbers they did fully clothed looked no better than high-grade community theater. Bor-ring. But it wasn't a sex show. Most of the audience were couples. Just good, clean, wholesome fun for people 18-and-over with photo ID.

Today we drove to Zion National Park in southwestern Utah, passing through a town called Hurricane on the way. I'm not sure which is odder: the town of Hurricane in Utah or the one in West Virginia?

2 comments:

Steve Awesome said...

Disappointed you didn't get to see that Carlin show now that he's dead?

John said...

No. The thought crossed my mind when I read that he had passed away but I'd probably be more unsettled if I had seen his final show.