Gun Range
Pool: The Tank of Sharks and Slide
All you can shovel in buffet
Downtown Vegas, ceiling videos, street performers
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Las Vegas- where you can do anything! It's the only place where one can drink on the street. They pay big money so that people can smoke indoors. They also pay big money so that no one will notice- ensuring air circulates quickly, drawing smoke away to keep non-smokers happy. There's also the concept of pumping extra oxygen onto the gaming floor to keep people awake longer for more gaming, as well as giving them free drinks and not having any clocks up so no one can see what time it it. Oh, and the casinos being laid out so that you get lost and can't escape. You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.
Our "do anything" for this morning was Guns!!! Discount Firearms offers a wide range of cheap packages of weapons which one can fire on their range. Most with very American, military, or movie names. It was an interesting mix of weapons, most highly illegal in Europe. I've fired shotguns, rifles, semi-automatics, and muskets before, so I wanted something new. The Special Ops package was for me. A handgun, small automatic, M4 automatic rifle, and a belt fed machine gun. Mwahaha!!!
The handgun was a wee 9mm, so not too much kick. Something new, and fun. It's only a little toy gun, why can't everyone have one?
The military automatics were new and cool- I've only fired semi-auto before so it was interesting getting to let rip.
The belt fed monster was just that. Rip up the field with a hail of flying metal. Ridiculous, but when else am I going to get to fire something like this?
It's great but personally I'm with the Australian government who remade most of these weapons illegal. Having these sort of guns is insane. They're military spec. They're designed to kill with impunity. Equally handguns are easily concealed. The automatics are supposed to mow down enemy troops, or give you a better chance of hitting and killing them. Who the hell needs all of that in their house? It's fun and interesting as a wee day trip to a well controlled firing range but the idea people should have what ever they want freely in their house is stupid. And as a defense? Defense from what? The other idiots who've been allowed them and turned against you, or those who've managed to steal them from "good" citizens who were allowed them. Granted it's not impossible for illegal weapons to make it across the Mexican border, as well as there being many illegal weapons already in the states. But do you really need an automatic weapon to defend against any of them. Even a semi-automatic is terrifyingly dangerous. Even more stupid is the idea that all teachers should have them to stop school shootings- not because there will be more guns around schools but because teachers are by nature humanitarians. They would have to be in a state of insane panic before they would shoot a person- it doesn't, or at least shouldn't, come naturally to a teacher to shoot a person, especially not one of their pupils. What's more people in panic mode are the worst at hitting targets. Between that an the bullets bouncing around the room innocent pupils are more likely to get hurt than the shooter.
But then that's just a Yorkshireman's opinion.
After being a Republican for a morning it was time for a dip in the pool. The Golden Nugget has a central pool called The Tank. This is not merely due to the whale watching but also because of the large tank that sprouts from the centre of the pool, filled with fish and a number of ugly looking sharks. It's a great sight, especially with the water slide that runs through the middle of the tank. We did this once- the queue isn't huge but one is going so fast as to never be able to notice the Sharks around you.
Eventually enough people cleared off the pool side recliners that we managed to get a seat. We had a few beers, I caught some sun that had been filtered through an ozone layer for a change, and read until I fell asleep.
For dinner that evening we went to the casino's buffet. For $14 it all you can eat anything you can imagine. With free Coke. Sushi, meats, fried stuff, Italian pasta and pizza, various breads, salads, overly sweet puddings. Three courses later I felt like Monty Python's Mr Creosote. Lovely.
We spent the evening wandering about the Fremont Experience. We watched the ceiling displays from The Doors and Imagine Dragons. The street performers all have to stand within specific black circles on the street, ensuring the place doesn't get too crowded with them. I think the circles used to look like poker chips, but they've been scuffed into darkness. A few costumed crusaders such as those we'd seen on the Hollywood Boulevard were present, alongside an ancient Elvis, and showgirls/strippers young and old. A number of acts played the drums. We saw one excellent duo playing the electric cello- even bought their album which we'll play on the bus at some point.
Further down we exploded the lands of darkness. After the Fermont Experience area of eternal light comes an area which still has some life to it. Small clubs, casinos and motels. The thing to see though is the Container Park. It's an American versions of what I saw in Christchurch- a small shopping centre made out of shipping containers, of the frames of them, unlike Chrischurch this one had two storeys, with a balcony made of and supported by the steel frames of containers. There's even a playground based around shipping containers with climbing frames, a "tree" house and towers made of upended containers.
Outside was the show piece for the park, though it wasn't made of shipping containers. A welded sculpture of car parts and gas lines formed a 20 foot long, 10 foot high preying mantis- this fires burning from the tips of its antenna! Fires that were brought into life in time with a song, bursting forth as giant scorching flamethrowers! We felt the heat of them from the other side of the street. It was ridiculous, amazing, mesmerising. So very Vegas.
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