So What's Up With Las Vegas? The Las Vegas Walking Edition, part 1

So, I got into Las Vegas and lugged my two over-packed cases to the bus stop and, using Google Maps I saw that I would have to walk 11 minutes to get to Circus-Circus from the Las Vegas Hotel/Convention Center 108 bus stop.  Eleven minutes?  I can do that!  Only, it was 11 minutes in blinding, mid-afternoon, 102-degrees, Las Vegas sunshine.  Houston was right - there is something about Las Vegas that makes everything seem closer than it is.  Eleven minutes became a death-march past empty loading docks and construction along Circus-Circus Boulevard.

About halfway I found a patch of shade next to a gated entry and stopped to put down my 50 lbs of luggage.  I realized at that point that I wasn't sweating and after TSA made me chug the contents of my water bottle at the check-in point or throw it away, I was too spooked to refill my bottle even after disembarking at my destination.  This was definitely bad news.  I had a half-mile more to go, and while I could see the concrete big top of Circus-Circus in front of me, I knew it was a trick of the heat - I still had 5.5 minutes to go and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it.  I removed my hat, hoping that the hot, stiff breeze flowing down the boulevard would give me at the least the illusion of cooling; no such luck.  I looked to my left and saw a newspaper box; each compartment had a beautiful, naked woman of every ethnic persuasion on the cover of a booklet; scattered on the ground were business cards advertising escorts in equal states of undress.  The private parts were covered with a spade or a heart - haha, because women are like playing cards!

The only person I saw was a young man in a red t-shirt from neighboring The Riviera, who had slipped through some door to throw a bag of garbage away; I noticed he didn't stay very long because before I could ask for some water he had quickly disappeared back into the bowels of The Riviera.  Steeling myself for the last leg of the "walk" I shouldered my enormous bags (what the hell had I packed, anyway, bricks?!) and lurched back into the white-hot light.

I was starting to get light-headed - I had forgotten that I was prone to heat exhaustion, which made me ineligible for most jobs in Florida that required outside labor - and was wondering if whoever found me prostrate would call an ambulance or just rifle my bags for the laptop and wallet before taking off.  Circus-Circus came into closer view and I saw people crossing the intersection and cars waiting impatiently at stop lights.  I was almost there!  At least, if I collapsed before crossing, some tourist might take pity on me and call 911 before rifling my bags and person.

Finally, finally, I made it to the door, but stopped briefly to take my hat off again and straighten myself before entering.  I don't care how close to passing-out I am, I WILL look presentable when entering a high-class resort like Circus-Circus.

Housing Update

Well, it totally throws off my blogging about the Zen center, but after agonizing over it this afternoon I decided to stay somewhere closer to the convention center.  It seems like all the cool librarians are staying at The Quad, but I ended up getting a pretty awesome deal at Circus Circus.  A vague memory of reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as a wee lass of eighteen reminded me that Circus Circus is featured in the book.

What Hunter S. Thompson and his lawyer probably stumbled into, circa 1971

So, I'm still going to visit the center and pay my respects to my precepts teacher, and sit with the Sangha, if they're practicing, but staying at the Zen center itself is a non-starter.  Oh well.  But, the Zen center doesn't have a ROLLER COASTER or a 25-ride THEME PARK, does it?!  I thought not. Yeah, Circus Circus was made for me.  Party at my house!

Transportation in Vegas for me

Now, this is just for me - I've posted about general Vegas transportation options here, but this is just my own muddled attempt at transportation.  Do you want to know how long it's going to take me to get from the Zen center to the convention center?  An hour.  Each way.  I'm thinking my idea of living on the cheap in Vegas may have not been such a great idea.  And it might be too late to make a reservation, haha.  Oops.

ALA Pinterest boards.

ALA is in Vegas! is the name of the Pinterest board where my first blog post for American Libraries has been linked!  Hooray!

Transportation options for Vegas during #alaac14

So, you're in Las Vegas, Sin City, the land of the bright lights, and other names I could make up for this bustling town - now what?  Transportation is going to be a big question for a lot of folks so here is a handy guide to links and resources for getting to and from and around the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Vegas dot com has a lot of information about getting around Las Vegas, and I just love Trip Advisor because they seem to have good reviewers and lot of excellent tips (if you're a Yelp-er, as well, there's also that!  I especially enjoyed the Yelp reviews about The Deuce, as pictured above, and I'll have to save the discussion thread entitled, "why does everyone hate the monorail?").

Trip Advisor also has a lot of great information about the RTC bus system in town and I'm planning on getting the 30-day pass and doing most of my traveling via bus as I have to shuttle a little further than most folks.

So, what about the monorail?  And why does everyone hate it?  Seems to be that it is only used by tourists and convention goers, which makes sense as the main action is on the Strip, right? ALA Annual Conference Attendees get reduced rates here.

Should also add a link to an article about the shuttle system that runs behind the strip, so if you're decidedly anti-capitalist about the monorail, even with the ALA-subsidized prices, this might just be the option for you although the map they have posted looks a little limited.  Still, it seems like a cool, tourist-y thing to do!

I'll update if I come across any other cheap and/or interesting transportation options in Las Vegas, but in the meantime - did I miss anything?

NOTE:  Thanks to commenter Mary, who reminded me that there is a page on the ALA website that gives you all the transportation information, including how to get the reduced price tickets (there is no promo code, just click through to get the reduced price)

One month to go! #alaac14

Okay, let's try this again - I just deleted the first post, so now I have to rewrite the whole darn thing - how do I manage to do these things?  It is a mystery.  The Google Hangout last night went well, if not a little disorganized on my part, and I definitely learned what NOT to do with hangouts, like try to pause the broadcast, which essentially ended the scheduled one I had been advertising for about a week.  So I had to create another hangout on the fly, got the time wrong, and started later than intended.  I'm sure I lost a lot of potential views because of that, but all I can do is try again with another hangout.  I think what I will do is synthesize the information that folks generously gave during this last one and then present the information at the next one.  Or I'll just post it on the blog.

Hey, and a big shout-out to those who attended and generously supplied their time and expertise to the topic of attending a huge conference like #alaac14.   I am truly appreciative of the people involved in building community online and in person, and it encourages me to keep on keeping on.

Will have to post on some of the activities outside of the scheduled events.

So much for sleeping

Good thing I'm going to Vegas, a place like my home town in that it never sleeps!

Maybe I'm still totally stoked from finding out that I will be a stringer blogger for American Libraries for their coverage of ALA 2014 in the happiest place on earth - no, wait, that's Disney World.  Anyway, I can get to sleep to save my life tonight so I'm blogging today about what I just spent the last hour researching, mass transit in Las Vegas. 

http://www.rtcsnv.com/transit/fare-information/

I CANNOT believe they are charging peeps 65 dollars for a thirty day pass to the las Vegas transit system - who rides the bus for thirty days straight?!  Oh wait, that would be people with normal, everyday jobs in Las Vegas.  Still better than a car, cost-wise, but ends up costing me 4.05 each way between the convention center and the zen center!  A super friend offered to let me stay with her, but I really want to stay at the zen center.  Who needs in-room cable when you've got the Las Vegas strip?!  And the zen center looks like it has a pool , but that could just be ornamental - I'll have to see!

Plus, as always, cycling seems to be the middle path, here, as far as time spent in transit.  The longest, of course, being the bus.