I spent all day today, until 6:00, inside the Flamingo Hotel at the Airport Noise and Emissions Conference. The conference is very worthwhile. They brought in Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so there was no need to leave. The conference attendees can roughly be divided into these sets:
* Academics, who study noise and pollution from aviation. They hold the conference.
* People who work for airports and carriers, who are responsible for the noise and pollution.
* Consultants, who are looking for work from the people who are responsible for the noise and pollution.
* Community activists, who complain about the noise and pollution.
I am in the community activist group. There was a networking session just for us yesterday, and we all decided we are each other's people, and we are the only normal people here. We have gardens and raise chickens and ride bikes. I think everyone else is probably Reptilians. Today is probably going to start making me have work nightmares again.
But at 6:00, I'd had enough, and it was time for a bike ride. The sun goes down at 6:30. I wanted to put some air in the tires (which I purposely had at fairly low pressure for their unpressurized plane ride), so I headed east for a bike shop three miles away where I figured I could use a floor pump with an accurate gauge. Unfortunately, they were closed. So I kept on going east a few more miles, and then turned west towards downtown.
I'm out of range of the tourist megacasinos at this point, and the sun is setting behind the mountains, and the billboards are now targeting the needs of the local residents.
* Academics, who study noise and pollution from aviation. They hold the conference.
* People who work for airports and carriers, who are responsible for the noise and pollution.
* Consultants, who are looking for work from the people who are responsible for the noise and pollution.
* Community activists, who complain about the noise and pollution.
I am in the community activist group. There was a networking session just for us yesterday, and we all decided we are each other's people, and we are the only normal people here. We have gardens and raise chickens and ride bikes. I think everyone else is probably Reptilians. Today is probably going to start making me have work nightmares again.
But at 6:00, I'd had enough, and it was time for a bike ride. The sun goes down at 6:30. I wanted to put some air in the tires (which I purposely had at fairly low pressure for their unpressurized plane ride), so I headed east for a bike shop three miles away where I figured I could use a floor pump with an accurate gauge. Unfortunately, they were closed. So I kept on going east a few more miles, and then turned west towards downtown.
I'm out of range of the tourist megacasinos at this point, and the sun is setting behind the mountains, and the billboards are now targeting the needs of the local residents.
It was pretty dark at this point, so I went to put on the headlight, which was stored in my decaleur bag. Only to find I packed the light, but not the mount. This was not so cool, since there was no way I can get back to the Flamingo before it's completely dark.
I decided the thing to do was to ride the busiest streets possible past as many casinos as possible, and hope that all the casinos would be lit up enough for me to see.
This plan worked, and riding around Vegas after dark is definitely the way to go.
Las Vegas has a small downtown that predates all the big casinos that were built starting in the 1960s. The big casinos are on "the strip", which is Las Vegas Boulevard south of downtown. The casinos on the strip are huge, impersonal, corporate spectacles.
Downtown is really cool though. It's on a much smaller, human scale. It has so much neon. And it leans hard into the sleaze.
I decided the thing to do was to ride the busiest streets possible past as many casinos as possible, and hope that all the casinos would be lit up enough for me to see.
This plan worked, and riding around Vegas after dark is definitely the way to go.
Las Vegas has a small downtown that predates all the big casinos that were built starting in the 1960s. The big casinos are on "the strip", which is Las Vegas Boulevard south of downtown. The casinos on the strip are huge, impersonal, corporate spectacles.
Downtown is really cool though. It's on a much smaller, human scale. It has so much neon. And it leans hard into the sleaze.
Here is the road entering downtown.
The entrance to the historic Fremont Street pedestrian mall. This is the intersection with Las Vegas Boulevard.
The neon cowboy is about 40 feet tall.
And last but hardly least, the "Heart Attack Grill" where you eat free if you weigh over 350 lbs.
The weather on this bike ride was perfect. It's so comfortable outside.
Here's the Strava Track: https://www.strava.com/activities/17680638828
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