Until Next Time

We had dinner with friends from Topeka this evening. They had flown out to Las Vegas, rented a car, and drove to the Pacific coast for a vacation. They spent a night or two in Vegas coming and going. They marveled at how much things cost there and the fact that one cannot do very much there at all without spending money to do it, even to the point of sitting on a lounge chair at the hotel.
I’ve never been there. I don’t intend to go anytime soon. It’s not on my list of things I want to accomplish before I die. If I get to that part of the country, I’d much rather see Hoover Dam and perhaps the Grand Canyon for the second time. Northern California wouldn’t be a bad place to visit, and there are parts of Nevada and Utah that are stark, breathtaking, and drop-dead gorgeous. Vegas isn’t one of those places, in my mind.
There are other places where money greases everything. Cruise ships are one of those places. My heavens, you can’t sling a dead cat (as my brother would say…please don’t send PETA after me) on a cruise ship without hitting an attendant waiting to sell you something. Mostly they want to sell you drinks, but they also sell bingo cards, souvenirs, and other trippy trap stuff.
Branson is lubricated nicely by money. As in many of that type of place, it takes dough to flow.
But there are things one can do that don’t require money, or at least much of it. Sometimes those are good deals, sometimes not. But most of those things are at least worth looking at and perhaps going back to.
I’m glad we spent time with Chris and his family. We were able to re-connect in a good way, and managed to send them on their way with a full tank and filled stomachs. Until next time…