Fun!

Just so you know, I think there are some odd spelling mistakes here, but I can't seem to find them right now :-)

Vegas and I don't seem to go together very well... Every time I try to go down there to see the sights, I end up walking miles, seeing nothing but old ladies playing the slots, and getting back exhausted. I think I might have to bring a map down there some day.

This morning, I decided to see the local sights, not the tourist sights. Man, I had a blast.

I heard someone at the dam say something about some chocolate factory with tours, so I decided I had to visit. (Why? It's a factory!) I looked around on the Internet and found that it is the Ethel's chocolate factory and includes a "Botanical Cactus Garden." Cactus? Whoo, hoo.

As it turns out, the Mars family started a lot of the big-name candy companies like M&M, Hershey's, Ethel's, etc. They're all still owned by the Mars company.

I entered the destination into my GPS, drove 15 minutes, and decided I needed to write a blog post tonight. As it turns out, the "Botanical Cactus Garden" is really amazing. Yeah, I know. I should have been bored with it, but frankly, I wasn't. The pictures you should see if you click below don't look all that interesting, so you'll just have to take my word for it: "It was cool." I think we should turn our front yard into a "Botanical Cactus Garden," but I doubt that would work in Colorado. :-)

Today

The self-guided tour was ok. Of course it was Saturday so nothing was happening, so I got to read "fun facts and quotes" instead. MEH! I learned that in yet another area, I'm "one out of ten." I don't really like chocolate all that much. It's ok, and I like it fine, but it's not all that exceptional in my opinion. I also learned that Charles Schultz said something to the effect of every time someone mentioned exercise, he washed his mouth out with chocolate.

After taking the self-guided tour, I headed back to my hotel while making a detour to my local friendly UPS store run by a nice man and his wife. They know my by name and remember who I send stuff to.

After that, I headed up to my room to check on Buffalo Bill's Casino. I had seen a pretty amazing-looking roller coaster on the way out to California for the NAAM convention, so I decided to drive out there today. Believe it or not, the 45 minute drive and the $30 price tag was worth it.

Upon arrival, I thought the place looked kinda cool. The "family friendly" casino looks very much like Casa Bonita but is themed in the old west style. True, there still were mean ol' grannys puffing away on their disposable peace pipes while playing the slots, but overall, the place really didn't have much smoke and was surprisingly quiet.

I arrived at lunch time, so I headed over to the food court. Instead of a big, noisy room with tons of kids running around who are in need of disciplinary action for their misdemeanors, this food court was setup like a town. Various streets had different restaurants on them. I ended up eating at Mc Donald's. Double 1/4 ponder, drink, and fries. It was pretty good except for the fact that the fries kind of reminded me of wet sponges. I used them to mop up ketchup.

After that, I headed out to the thrill rides. I ended up biting the bullet and buying an all day pass for all the rides for $30. It seemed like a lot at the time, but it turned out to be a good deal since they charge $8/ride for the roller coaster.

First up: The Desperado, a two minute and forty-five second long coaster with a two-hundred and nine foot drop at speeds up to eighty miles per hour. You will experience g-forces greater than an astronaut. (Well, so I heard over and over and over from their safety video. And, no, I am not undergoing blood coagulation therapy.) Oh, I also heard that you're not supposed to smoke on the ride. I want to see someone try to do that. :-)

I went up to the loading platform. It's really kind of weird boarding a roller coaster inside a building. The hand rails are brass, there's carpet, it's clean...

I seated myself near the rear because "it's faster." (It used to drive me nuts trying to figure out how the back goes faster than the front and yet the length remains constant.)

When the coaster starts, it immediately goes down a little dip that surprises you before the big hill. Girls release cries of whoa without fail on that little dip. (It is surprising the first time :-)

Then the chain... Oooh! A a fast and smooth chain. I love it! At this point in the coaster, you're still inside the casino. The hill comes out the roof, and you begin the long 200' climb.

The 209' plunge is pretty fun. It's incredibly steep and feels like it's straight down. What's really cool is it dips underground, so it really looks like you're going to hit the ground right up to the point you blast your way through the underground mine tunnel and immediately fly to the sky once again.

The coaster is really long and surprising. Although it's metal, it was built similar to a wooden roller coaster, so there're not flips, loops, etc. (I don't really like flips and loops that much anyway, so I was just as glad. Flips, loops, and corkscrews, in my opinion, are just visuals that make it so you can't ride too many times before you feel "done-in.")

The coaster goes all over the place. Since Buffalo Bill's Casino is set out in the middle of the desert, there's plenty of room, and the coaster makes good use of it. Towards the end, the coaster circles back to the front of the casino and enters a fake mountain. Inside the mountain, it spirals upwards and comes out again. Yes, that's right. You leave the mountain at a higher elevation than you enter it.

After that, the track takes a couple banks and enters the casino once again.

After riding that once, I realized I had seen this coaster before... in my roller coaster book! Yes, folks, it is one of the tallest and fastest roller coaster in North America, making it one of the top ten.



It seemed like there were hats and scarfs flying off of people every ride. I had to keep pulling my shirt down.

Oh, and just to make you jealous, it was warm enough to ride the coaster in short sleeves even once the stars came out :-)

There was some guy and "his girl" arguing for a solid 5 minutes about whether the front or back was more scary. They eventually agreed to go on it twice, once in the back and once in the front. I have a feeling that ended in another argument over which really was more scary. :-)

Ok, ok... So how many times did I ride this thing? There was no line. I could walk from the exit to the entrance and not miss a ride. Close to the beginning of the day, I was talking to some kids, and I asked them how many times they'd been on it. I didn't believe them when they said, "Uh... we lost track at about 75." After I lost track somewhere between 15 and 30 rides, I started to believe them. I think I road the coaster somewhere between 30 and 40 times. (I actually think it was just over 50, but I'll stay conservative. :-)

Towards the end, I started asking myself, "Why am I on here again?" I was so bruised and sore and my back had "carpet burns" all over it, but every ride was so much fun that it was really hard not to get right back in the non-existent line. No wonder I kept seeing the same people over and over and over.

There were some other rides, too. There was a log ride, similar to the one at the old Elitches, but it was also an interactive shooting game. The log ride starts in the casino, goes outside and up a hill and down for a splash and then reenters the building and goes all over the place right in the casino floor. The first time I went on it, there were a bunch of guys standing on a bridge over the canal. When I passed under it, they yelled, "TARGET ON THE RIGHT!" I turned and shot a bandit... Well... his pistol shoots water at you when you hit him. Oh, it was funny. A roar of laughter went up, and they prepared for their next victim :-)

Ugh... I am... so... sore... and... and tired. I'm off to bed.