What can I say about KA? It was awesome!! I am glad that we went.

KA is a live Cirque Du Soleil show at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas. Describing it is another matter. It almost defies description. In short, it is an acrobatic/martial arts display with a story line. A more longer description would be, 130 aerial artist and acrobats who take you in to their fantasy world. They even drop out of the sky into the audience. Awesome!!

My brief posting of this event can’t even come close to describing this event. And yes, it was not just a show, it was an event.

Did I mention that it was AWESOME!!?

http://www.mgmgrand.com/ka/

The picture is taken from the 25th floor of the Luxor.  My wife took the picture.  I hung on to the railing with both hands.

Living at the Luxor in Vegas is a little unusual. First of all, it is a huge pyramid. And in each corner of the pyramid is a set of elevators. And each set of elevators serve a unique set of floors. So, while there are 4 elevators that serve our floor, they are all located in the same corner of the pyramid.

And to make things more interesting, the elevators or inclinators as they are called, run on an angle and not straight up and down. So, you are always a little off balance when you ride in the inclinators. Imagine the effects with a few drinks!

Navigating the main floor of the casino is a challenge and getting lost occurs multiple times a day. In fact, getting lost is more of the norm and not the exception. The place is huge and getting from point A to point B in a straight line is impossible as there are too many obstacles to divert your travel. Plus, you can’t see your destination.

The easiest way to travel through the main floor is to stay to the outside walls and follow them around. If you do try to travel on a diagonal, the best thing to do is to look up at the ceiling of the pyramid and navigate by the stars so to speak.

Of course, there are no charts anywhere which will show you where you are. After all, once they get you into the casino, they want you to stay in the casino. So, they would prefer you to be lost.

When you look up at the ceiling of the pyramid, you see 30 sets of balconies. In many respects it reminds me of that scene from the movie Matrix where the people are held in rows of pods which climb to the sky.

Finally, since the windows of every room compose the outside surface of the pyramid, every room has a set of windows that run on a angle. This is not a problem except that you have to be careful not to bump your head on the glass.

Certainly, the Luxor is one of the most interesting and challenging casinos on the strip. While it may be a challenge, I really like the place.

We were only half awake when we went wandering through the Luxor casino looking for food. Just before we got to the food, we were stopped by the casino staff and asked about seeing a show. Since we were interested in taking in a show we stopped and listened to their spew.

They gave us a choice of about a dozen different shows and told us that we would get some great rates. They also mentioned a tour of an new resort where we would receive additional gifts.

We were interested in seeing Ka Cirque Du Soleil and when they quoted $100 seats for $35, we said yes! So we paid them for our portion of the tickets and they arranged for us to take a 2 hour tour of a new resort where we would receive additional free gifts.

We were told to be at a certain location in the casino where we would be taken by bus to the new resort. And, we were told to bring along our IDs to prove that we were married.

Married? Why are they concerned about us being married? It was too early and we weren’t thinking clearly.

As we were being transported to the new resort, I came out of my sleep induced stupor; we were going to be listening to a sales pitch for a time share! NO!!

Rats! I imaged that we were going to be forced to listen to 2 hours of sales rhetoric by high pressured sales people. So, I prepared my psyche to say no.

When we got to the place, we were ushered into a room full of chairs. And, one by one, the names of people were called off. And one by one, couples got up and disappeared behind a set of doors.

Kathy and I noted that no one every came back out from behind those doors. I could imagine them being tied to chairs and forced to endure endless sales pitches with bright lights shining in their faces. Or better yet. They are being abducted by aliens where they will be sold for food.

After about 20 minutes, our name was called. Slowly we stood up and proceeded to the desk.

We had not told any one about this tour so we could disappear from the face of the earth and no one would know where we went. It happens every day! Would they drug us? Would they beat us with rubber hoses? (Do they do that any more?)

When we got to the desk, the rep said that they did not have enough staff to handle all of the people that had arrived. Therefore, we were declared to be “Over booked”. They then gave us our theater tickets plus our other gifts and told us to get back on the bus. We were to be returned to our hotel without the tour.

YES!!! Theater tickets and a free cruise. The tickets were issued by the MGM Grand and had the actual price listed on the ticket. We saved about $140. Plus, they gave us a free 2 day cruise. All of this for about an hour of our time.

But wait. Lack of staff? It is not like a sales group to give up that easily. Were we being rejected? Was there something on our information sheet that they didn’t like? Were we not a fit for their new resort.

Who know? Who cares? Life is good!

While staying at the Luxor in Las Vegas, we got upgraded. We got moved from the 3 floor to the 25th floor. No problem. The worst that we had to deal with on the third floor was the 3 story ride in the glass elevator.

But, as I said, we got upgraded. I don’t know if the upgrade was due to me winning $5 on the penny slots or if it was due to me wearing my cowboy hat like Amarillo Slim. Either way, we got moved up.

We were now assigned to the 25th floor. The elevators to the 25th floor were in one special corner of the pyramid and you had to use your room key to get up there.

Well, since we were being moved, they sent some one to help us move. Paul seemed to know just exactly where to take us and was very courteously . Great! No instructions to follow, we just followed Paul.

Paul took us to the special elevator, which was named the inclinator, and opened the doors. Up we went, luggage and all. Once we got to 25, he showed us where to go. That is where things got interesting.

We stepped out of the elevator and on to the floor and around the corner to the rooms. Unfortunately, the view of 25 floors down, was wide open over the balcony.

Given that I have vertigo, things started spinning as I caught a glimpse of the 25 floors below. I quickly moved away from the railing in order to keep my balance.

Knowing that I would have to deal with this for the next few days ( my fate for winning at the slots), I mustarded my strength. I grabbed the railing and looked over the edge; right down to the people that were looking up at me.

They seemed surprised that someone was looking back at them and I can understand that as I was surprised that someone was looking up at me. Maybe they thought that I was a jumper.

Well, while I am not wild about looking over the edge, I can tolerate, it I guess.

We are staying at the Luxor. The Luxor is a casino/hotel that is shaped like a pyramid and is 30 stories tall.

Most hotels have a coffee maker in the room as a courtesy to its guests. The Luxor does not. They expect you to visit one of their 24 hour Star Bucks coffee shops and pay 3 something for a large cup of coffee. And, I suspect that this is the case on the Vegas strip.

OK. I am not wild about the price but drinking decaf does give me something to do while I am blogging. So, I swallowed my wallet and went for their large.

Apparently, my request for a large black decaf took them by surprise. They said, ” You want a black decaf?” I confirmed my request. They then replied, “You want decaf?” I said yes. They said “You want it Black?” And once again I said yes.

Finally, they handed me a cup and said, “you wanted a black decaf?” I said yes and took my cup to the check out.

I guess it is hard to get a plain cup of coffee at Star Bucks.

While we were staying in Rock Springs, Wyoming, we noticed that there was a restaurant named Emperor of China and they had a buffet. 

Now, while Rock Springs is a fairly good sized community, its main claim to fame is the fact that there isn’t anything within two hundred miles of the place.  So, it has a lot of hotels and fast food restaurants and caterers more to travelers who are too tired to make the trip to the next major community.

Rock Springs, itself, is more of a red neck community and offers food that is more meat and tators, so seeing a Chinese buffet seemed a little out of place. 

I doubt that there is any appreciable Asian population in the area and there certainly isn’t any china town.  Any Asians in the area are probably descendants of the Chinese who built the railroad.

So, what is this leading too?  I doubt that the food at the Chinese buffet would be very good according to Chinese standards.  In fact, I suspect that it would probably be in the same category as La Choi.  So, I think that the operative word in the Chinese Buffet is Buffet.

A buffet would fit in well with the community.  An all you can eat would be ideal for the meat and tators crowd.  Egg drop soup, Sweet and Sour chicken; you’ve got a Chinese buffet.  Throw in some macaroni and cheese and some meat loaf; you’re golden.

Don’t get me wrong, I have eaten at a lot of Chinese buffets over the years and some were very good.  But most were not.  When I have found it hard to find good Chinese food in China Town in San Francisco, I doubt that I am going to find good Chinese food in Rock Springs, Wyoming.  Sorry.

Apparently there is no drinkable water in Wyoming state. Every time that we stop at a rest area, the bathrooms have water but the drinking fountains are shut off. Some even have signs posted that the water is not drinkable.

When we stop at the truck stops, we find that there is water for the bathrooms but the water fountains have trash bags covering them. Apparently, if you want water, you have to buy it for $2.00 a bottle.

Interesting. The water prices must help them recover their losses on $3.50 a gallon gasoline.

Fortunately, having previously experience this water shortage in Wyoming, we packed a case of bottled water which we enjoy as we stop and use the bathrooms at all of these truck stops.

While things may be bad with the economy in Michigan, at least our water is drinkable. So sorry Wyoming.

Yesterday, as we were making our drive to Vegas, we stopped for lunch just east of the Iowa state line on 80. Just as we finished eating, someone came in and said that there was a tornado warning for the area.

I realized that tornado warnings usually cover a large area even if only one is spotted, so we got into the car and headed west in an attempt to drive out of the warning area. Besides, the KFC didn’t look like the best place to be during a tornado.

Once in the car, we turned on the radio and listened for weather alerts. Sure enough, we were in a warning area. But, we were on the fringe of the warning area so we could drive around the storm.

Looking to the south, we could see all of the black clouds. But to the west, we could see gray sky’s.

The storm was moving slowly and we could compare the warning areas with our map so we knew where we had to be and just how much time we had before the storm hit us.

We had just made it into the gray sky region when we got hit with a down pour. For about 15 seconds, though it seemed like an eternity, it rained so hard that we couldn’t see more then 50 feet in front of us. And then, it stopped.

For the next hour, we raced against the weather, getting ahead of the storms before they hit us. Finally, we reached blue sky.

Later we heard that the tornado had hit the area where we were and that cars had been turned over. Clearly, God was watching over us.

One Saturday afternoon, my car pooler looked out his living room window and saw his wife down on her hands and knees working in the yard.  Since she likes doing yard work, he was not surprised to see her outside. She waved at him and he waved back.  He then went back to watching the ball game on TV.

A few minutes later, he glanced out into the yard and noticed her waving at him again.  Since this sort of friendliness seemed out of place, he went outside to see what she wanted.

When he got to her, he discovered that her back had gone out and she couldn’t get up.  She wanted him to go into the house and bring her back a muscle relaxer.  No problem.  He returned a few minutes later with a pill and a glass of water.

She took the pill and waited.  Shortly, she collapsed on the ground.  Her muscles were now relaxed.

Unfortunately, she was too relaxed.  She couldn’t get up.  Now came decision time.  Does he leave her in the yard until the relaxer wears off or does he move her into the house?   Since it would be several hours before it wore off, he decided to  move her into the house.

Now, he himself had a bad back and was not able to lift much, so he couldn’t carry her into the house.  But, being resourceful, he brought the wheel borrow from the garage and laid it on the ground next to her.  Then he pushed her into the wheel borrow and tipped it upright. Volia!   He now had a means of getting her into the garage.

Once he got her into the garage, he tried to slowly dump the wheel borrow just like he was unloading dirt.  Unfortunately, gravity had a bigger force than he had anticipated and the wheel borrow went over in a sudden crash, spilling its contents onto the floor of the garage.

Though she was somewhat shaken by the event, she was OK from the dumping.  Just a little bruised.

Now, the next big task would be moving her up the stairs and into the house.  And while there were only 4 steps, the only way he could move her was to grab her by her ankles and pull.  And so he did.

Once he got her up the stairs, he dragged her into the living room.  He had thought about dragging her up onto the sofa but she protested at the mere mention of the act.  So, he left her on the floor.

Awhile later, the muscle relaxer wore off and she was able to get up and walk again with a little help.  Since she was covered with dirt from the event, she headed upstairs for a bath both to remove the dirt and to sooth her battered body.

While his plan may not have been the best, I do give him an A for effort.