Drove down with Lore. I'd grabbed food at Crack inna Box before leaving, and Lore grabbed Taco Hell in Barstow. Apparently their new thing, Gordita, means "little fat chick." Seeing as how the one ad I've seen for it had a pregnant woman, they may even be using it as their advertising campaign. We tried to stop at the Roy Rogers museum to see the stuffed Trigger (and stretch the legs). Alas! It has closed! We could not find it at first, even though there is the big sign by the freeway informing us we should not miss it. And then, we found out it is moving to Missouri. Bastards. All that, and we didn't even get to see a stuffed horse.

We did stop off at Calico, a nice little ghost town, current population: 9. All of whom work in the tourist industry there, I'm sure. Checked out the Mystery House thingie (tilty house so water runs "uphill" and walking up a ramp onto the wall is easier than walking down, that sort of thing), and Lore broke the "ride" by being able to stand up. Also rode the train, and checked out the mine. At the entrance they had a sign about the best thing that could happen to Calico would be for 1000 marrigable age industrious young women to move there. Then there was a spoooooky blacklight show. With rocks. All the men in the mine were mannikins (well, except the first one, who was clothes stuffed with more clothes, and missing a head). One of the mannikins was sitting on a box that proudly proclaimed "Trojan." And then, the glory hole, with a couple of guys in a cave room with a bed making lots of talk of sticking dynamite into holes.

Back on the road again. Mmmmm, jerky. We stopped off at Primm, just over the state line, at Buffalo Bill's (someday I shall have to check out Whiskey Pete's, I've never been there). We got food (I ended up with a huge plate of stuff, because I didn't realize that it came with a mountain of sides as well) under the flying taxidermy cow, and then decided to ride the roller coaster (much much much better than the one at New York New York). Sadly, it needs 16 to ride, and there were only a few waiting, and the wait could have been quite some time for the rest, especially since noone showed up the entire time we were there. We did decide to take the log flume ride, which I hadn't done before. They give you guns! Lazer guns! And you shoot targets! The only problem is that the guns make no noise, but that is a minor complaint. We did not get one of the mannikins shot, who has a gun in our general direction. He turned the hose on- quite a stream for his water gun, until we shot him to make him stop. We took out all subsequent mannikins first, as we were soaked. Some of the bottles spun when shot, the rest were probably broken (but then, that seems to be typical).

After Primm we made the rest of the trek to the Flaming go, and struggled through the long confusing journey between the parking structure and the lobby. I spent most of my time in that hotel the entire weekend horribly lost. Checking in was reasonably painless, the check-in guy asked me about Convergence. Lore called up Sean Hexed and eventually convinced him to meet up with us, and along with Angeldye, Penance, and EvilDahlia, his rides and roomies. Angeldye had her carnivorous pink furry boot cozies on, and they were truly wonderful and horrifying at the same time. Sean gave me a spikey bracelet with the whole "your wrist is just a little smaller than mine, right?" Well, it is smaller! I can slip it on and off without unfastening it (until he makes it smaller), but it didn't fall off. We headed over to Red Square at the Mandalay Bay for the pre-party. Found people, including Purple Heather, Ian, and Dania, but no Laura or Éilis yet. Too many people in too little space, and $10 margaritas sent us out to the house bar in the casino area. After a round, some guy came up and made friends with Señor Hexed and Mister NoPants, one of those "hey, you guys look interesting, what's up with you?" people. And he proceeded to buy us all 3 rounds of drinks. We saw him later macking on the not-his-wife ladies.

We went back to Red Square to see most of the normals had cleared out to make more room for us, and we found Éilis and Laura outside (where we spent most of our time, seeing as it was still too crowded). Also met someone who shared an affinity for chartreuse, who offered Sean and me some from his flask. Mmmmm. I made the pleased face which happens where that is involved, and my face stuck that way for the majority of the rest of the night. Sean and his pirate liver still didn't get drunk. We also got invited to his room party the following night, although we did not make it there. Interesting realization of the night: people introducing themself as "my name is _____, and my livejournal name is _____." But then, the newsgroups do seem to have gone downhill (I gave up reading a couple of years ago), it is the new "thing." Eventually we turned in, and I stayed up a little later mucking about on the laptop. Why yes, I am a computer addict.


AGF moment: girlie black cargo pants, New Rocks, Frankenstein Pub shirt, grey fur-edged hoodie. With the exception of the New Rocks which were from London, all from the recent sojourn in Edinburgh.