I am back from my Backroads trip to Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyon national parks with my mom last week. We had to stay in Vegas a night coming in and a night leaving for logistical purposes, and it was dramatically awful. I won’t at this exact moment elaborate on the hatred for Las Vegas which fills me when I think of the place, but I will throw out a few bullet points. First, I never liked the place because of its environmental footprint, which I knew about before I had ever set foot there. Upon arriving, everything was more grossly capitalist and more importantly fake than I could ever have feared. The masses of sheep feeding the slot machines, the 100+ degree heat, the commoditization of everything… the experience combined was extremely dreadful. United Airlines made us suffer by essentially ruining two entire days of my life; wasting first one coming in and then, unsatisfied, another leaving. Both were due in some part to mismanagement but more to the fact that in its drive for a profitable bottom line it cut flights, increasing delays, damaging the consumer experience.
I will not go to Las Vegas again unless someone is paying me a considerable amount of money to do so, and United… well, thankfully Boston is a Continental hub.
However! Lest my experience sound wretched in its entirety, I can not emphasize enough how amazing and fabulous the week I spent in Backroads‘ care was. United just got our bags to us this afternoon so I haven’t yet fished the digital camera out and uploaded pictures, but I will soon, and the raw beauty of these places I saw will be yours to share! Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, and Zion were all spectacular, even more so for my not ever having seen anything nearing their scale or nature. It was a majestic alien landscape which was often harsh but was consistently beautiful. I love the national parks and hiking and seeing new wonderful things, and this was unparalleled hiking luxury with Backroads, really immensely enjoyable.
Just getting back in the swing of things today, pictures and general return to posting will commence soon.
4 Responses
Nick
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:02 am
1Hey i’m with you on the hate for las vegas… I spent 4 days there expecting to enjoy the urban landscape…but was disappointed when I figured out that the only thing to do is walk around hotels… which is fun, for about five hours. After walking through each massive hotel that is owned by the same damn corporation, things get monotonous.
It’s crazy how the “las vegas hype” can get into tourists’ heads to make them think they really enjoy doing practically nothing…
Sam Jackson
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:07 am
2Glad to here there are some more people with me on this. The hardest part of it all was looking around and seeing myself in a sea of people contented–no, excited– to be giving their money away. Another reason to better emphasize basic statistics and probability in schools…
Jen
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:16 am
3Luckily, I visited Las Vegas when I was 5?
So my memories of Vegas are of the shows. That’s about it and in Ocean’s 11 (which is, hands down, the best Ocean’s). You should try it then.
Sam Jackson
June 24th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
4I got into Vegas just after seeing 13, and just after reading Clifford Irving’s book on the plane. I really, really wanted to run a huge heist, it was tempting.
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