It has been said that the Mountain West conference is “At the Peak,” and to me, nothing illustrates that more, than the fact that there are 12 teams competing in the only NCAA Division 1 conference that sponsors e-sports. Of course, since the matches are played head-to-head, Boise State has an advantage because they tint the monitors blue, and play with all blue avatars; an advantage that is confirmed in their winning of League of Legends and Overwatch, but with the Spring season being cut, next year the Mountain West has announced that they will be playing Mario Kart 8, for the Nintendo Switch. Due to the large amounts of people in the Mountain West cities suddenly having $1200 burning a hole in their pocket, every store that sells Nintendo Switch has sold out of their allotment; yes, even, Amazon. So, thus the conundrum becomes: How can these players, prospects, and ordinary people practice in order to “git gud” as the gamers would say? Well, that’s where I come in. For, you see, since I am allowed out on the streets again, finally, due to both my prison sentence being cut short, and my work being determined to be “essential,” I had the time to scope out some places. Alas, while my cough and fever are not improving as much as I had hoped since I last got back from Italy, I did manage to find some time to visit all of the Mountain West cities in order to find the easiest place to get a Switch and Mario Kart 8 location. For simplicity’s sake, I am going by the football stadium since it’s a well-defined point in most locations – San José State fans, the football stadium is that big ovoid building at the corner of E Alma Ave, and S 7th St… It’s the place where the people aren’t on Saturday’s is September. Should you get hungry during your travels, I have also managed to find a some breakfast locations in the same vicinity

Mountain

Air Force

Okay, so I lied a little; I tried to get into the university, but, unfortunately the men with guns wouldn’t actually let me get beyond the gate on S Gate Rd, and I was still a little jet-lagged having just gotten in from Frankfurt after having woken up for my 0610 flight for the Linate to Frankfurt leg (stupid weather prevented the flight from Denver to ABQ, but my loss is your gain). So, while this may not be the closest, it certainly will fit the bill. Tyler-Jay Rowland who lives at 3075 Navigation Drive, in Colorado Springs was more than willing to help out, especially since his son, Jeremiah, was grounded for a month for staying out after curfew two weekends in a row. As the falcon flies, this location is 5.2 miles away; in a car, it’s not too much further than that.

Boise State

Now, I don’t, technically, hate the way that Boise is laid out with the river running right through the center of town, but even though Maci Drew lives in the Clearwater Apartments, unit 323, which is in a straight line, only a quarter of a mile from the stadium, you will have to go the Exxtramile, to get to her apartment. Also, she would like me to point out, that times for a waitress like herself are a little rough, so please, if you’re hungry, skip Taco Bell, and eat at the Bar Gernika in downtown Boise, right next to the Central Plaza and Century Link Arena. “We have wifi” she said.

Colorado State

This is, by far, the most remarkable location; I had completely forgotten that they moved to an on-campus stadium, so I initially went to the Hughes Stadium location, and found a big pile of dirt. And not much else – well, if you exclude the trees that formed a nice line, that brought me back to my college days. Having corrected my too old Garmin in-car GPS, I found Tim Thatcher on 604 Balsam Ln; he’s a little deaf, so you might need to knock like you are ram-ing down the door. He bought the Switch after his wife of 35 years died to help him grieve and spend his retirement, “but it’s just making me too sad lately, and I’ve never been very good at vid’ya [sic] games. I still don’t know how I’m supposed to save the princess when she’s trying to beat me… That reminds me of my princess, who I lost last year. She was so kind, we met in high school, I had an onion on my belt as was the style in those days. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.” I’ll be honest, at this point I started zoning out because, again, fever. He honestly looked really sad as I was talking to him, so you might want to try to cheer him up, since he’s just a lonely guy bein’ a dude. In a straight line distance, you’re only going .3 miles, and it’s not too much further by car.

New Mexico

This is by far the closest location to the stadium. The UNM Lobo Club is a non-essential business in the state of New Mexico, and UNM and the Athletics Department realized that funding would need to be cut dramatically throughout the state, and with the sweetheart deal they got from the legislature this year, they decided to close all athletic facilities, including the Maloof building, home of both Eddie Nuñez’s office, and the Lobo Club. I suggest using the side door closest to the field level entrance of the stadium. That’ll take you to the weight room; an alarm will go off, the code is “1892” the year the football team first played (interesting tidbit: the marching band was founded in 1889, the same year as the university); from there enter the main hallway, and go to the first door on the left after you pass the restrooms. The last time I was there, they had a vending machine that dispensed free Mountain Dew; I was howl-ing with laughter after I found that. Also, if you see Señor Manta, say “Hola!” he’s been down on his luck since his family were killed in the accident, and now he wanders the street like a lone Lobo.

Utah State

It was like a bomb went off. No one was around; maybe they were busy playing Farmer, or having a bonfire out in the dirt behind the stadium, wit their brown-eyed girls, but Jeff Field’s dorm room, Aggie Village Community building 17, first floor, third window from the right (he leaves it unlocked, so don’t worry about access) has a Switch just sitting there on the bed, as though he borrowed it from someone, but never managed to return it before he left. Go on, take it, just say that it was yours and he left it, no one will check.

Wyoming

Cowboys and Cowgirls are just different, I guess; I could not find a Nintendo Switch in town for the life of me. I found many Switchblades, Light switches, and many wooden rods, so I took my horse down to Cheyenne, and found a recently laid-off Subway Sandwich Artist called Dom, who knew just where to look. He directed me to 803 West 21st St, Suite B. He told me, “yeah, the guy who runs this storefront, has a little son, about 6 years old. He keeps a Switch in his desk’s keyboard tray for when he picks his son up from school.” Because of the ordeal in Laramie, I asked him to clarify, and he did, “yeah… Nintendo switch.” He said as he looked around shiftily. If that doesn’t work you can always try Suite C, I heard they stock Switches… oh wait, not that kind.” I was going to ask him for more information, but he entered what looked like an abandoned brick building just passed the railroad tracks, “You didn’t see me,” he said. And I also didn’t hear the gunshots that went off as I walked back to my car.

Table View

School	Distance Driving (mi)	Straight Line Distance (mi)	Drive/Drone Difference	Variance (from all schools)A
Air Force	8.44	5.22	3.22	0.047
Boise State	1.00	0.282	0.718	1.069
Colorado State	0.420	0.312	0.108	1.792
New Mexico	0.206	0.191	0.015	1.920
Utah State	0.444	0.305	0.139	1.751
Wyoming	47.90	40.69	7.21	4.894

A: Variance is calculated based upon DDD’s distance from the standard deviation of DDD… Why DDD? Because, DDD is King.

West

Note: SDSU currently does not field an Esports team; I am including them because it seems likely that they will in the near future

Hawai’i

Hawai’i is interesting because the Honolulu airport has a much better open air location than the El Paso airport; there’s a water path, it’s weird man, it reminds me a lot of the Tiki Room at Disn… oh, yeah, Hawai’i, Polynesia, that makes sense. Anyway, the stadium is home to the largest swap meet’s I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, I did not find any Switches, but I did find a guy swapping Macadamia Nut cookies for a few dollars, so naturally, I bought some. It started to rain, so even though many people are Rainbow Warriors or Wahine, as the women prefer to be called, I am not. I stopped in at the ‘Aeia Public Library for a spell, and my phone was dead, so I needed a place to charge for a bit. The nice librarian, Akela (“it means graceful,” I was told. After I asked, “like the wolf-spirit in Hindi myths?”), pointed out, that, “We loan out all sorts of stuff here; pots, pans, sewing machines. Believe it or not, we even rent out video game systems. Our most popular is probably the Nintendo Switch, but we also have a couple of Xbox’s and PS4’s.” I guess I looked very shocked because Akela continued, “with the military surrounding us, we, the library system, get a lot of goods from contractors who don’t want to have a lot of their goods shipped back to the mainland.” Seeing how much it cost to ship out, I completely understood, and bid ¬¬Akela aloha, and failed the Hawai’I test by passing out at the nearest Embassy Suites, in Kapolei, if I remember correctly (I probably don’t, I was tired).

Fresno State

A nice cow brought me to Clovis. Much like what happened in Las Vegas, it was not the cool one, but instead the one in California. She (I saw udders), brought me specifically to 264 Clovis Ave, and said, “what you seek, from my master, is in there.” I’m not sure if it was my fever, jet-lag, a combination of them, or something else entirely, but then the cow vanished as though she was just a thing on the internet. A stray puppy passed by me in downtown, so that was probably the highlight of the trip.

Nevada (Reno)

Look, I’ll be honest, Reno to me always makes me feel like I’m going to be leaving the city without one or both of my kidneys. I don’t know why I expect Renoirs to chew my body like a Pack of Wolves, but there you are. Diedre Thomas of 128 Keystone Ave, fell on hard times. She poured herself a glass of vodka, neat, and said, “you can have anything you want,” she paused briefly to wink at me, “for the right price.” I specifically enquired about the Switch, “Anything,” she replied. She pulled out what appeared to be a small glass bowl that looked like an incense holder, and a baggie of chalk dust, and… Oh my god, she was going to smoke cocaine. Anyway, as she pulled out the pulled out the baggie, I hastily took my leave. I then went to the airport and went to my next stop….

Nevada – Las Vegas

Can you believe parents still bring their children, like elementary school aged children to Las Vegas. And it’s not the cool Las Vegas, in New Mexico, it’s the one in Nevada; well, I guess, technically they bring their kids to Paradise, and not Las Vegas, but c’mon man, there isn’t that much difference. Anyway, head to the Excalibur hotels because Carla, the housekeeper said that on average 3 Switches get left by guests every day. I then felt really depressed while walking around the hotel, so I left to check out the Mirage, where I normally stay on these Mountain West trips. I also learned that if there’s one thing that freaks me out more than the throngs of people walking the Strip, it’s when there’s nobody around. Once the new stadium gets completed it will be vastly easier to get to the casino than at the current location.

San Diego State

I stayed with Dominic, at his house of Friars Road. I was starting to feel sick to my stomach with the lack of green chile, so it was so enjoyable to spend time with a fellow New Mexican (and my roommate junior year). He took me on a little tour: Balboa Park’s stadium (home of the former Harbor Bowl, and the first tie in UNM Football history), the USS Midway, and Ocean Beach. I had forgotten about the assignment until I looked down at my feet and found a working Switch. When it was still there after an hour, I borrowed a small boat, realised, I need a bigger boat and headed out to the Ocean. Having claimed rights, I then put it back, so you might also find it.

San José State

Look, there are a lot of people who depart from the San Jose Airport. The kids who travel on these flights are slightly scatter-brained because of the adrenaline of taking a plane ride (and passing through the checkpoint), and leave some of their electronics, and I found a shoe! A shoe! Who only puts one shoe on and then walks-off? It was an adult shoe, so it’s not like a child/toddleparent left it, no, someone made a conscious decision to leave their shoe… Maybe it was a protest? Anyway, just tell the guy that you left your Switch at the checkpoint, if he asks you what color it was say, it had yellow grips that slide off, but the screen was bounded by black.

Table View

School	Distance Driving (mi)	Straight Line Distance (mi)	Drive/Drone Difference	Standard Deviation (all schools)A
Fresno State	4.46	3.28	1.18	0.644
Hawai’i	1.420	0.696	0.784	1.001
Nevada (Reno)	2.410	1.69	0.720	1.067
Nevada – Las Vegas (SBS)b	18.426	8.93	11.258
Nevada – Las Vegas (NVS)c	2.125	0.590	1.535	0.391
San Diego State	9.861	8.08	1.78	0.252
San José State	6.575	4.60	1.975	0.164

A: Variance is calculated based upon DDD’s distance from the standard deviation of DDD… Why DDD? Because, DDD is King.
b: Sam Boyd Stadium
c: New Vegas Stadium (Allegiant Field)

Conclusion

Even if the stores are sold out of Switches, there are always places you can go to get them, some are definitely within walking distance of your house, maybe even right next door. If you do choose to do that, there are a few things to keep in mind: 1. Milk 2. Eggs, specifically from Natural Grocers, if they still have member pricing. 3. Chicken thighs
Wait, that was my grocery list for last week.

1. Basque food is amazing.
2. The addresses are real, any businesses mention are real; the people mentioned or alluded to (with exception to the person who has an office in Clovis, CA; and Dominic in SD) are fake.
3. No, I do not know who lives at the addresses, and unless you can look it up in the phone book, I recommend that you don’t either. Please don’t bother them.
4. No, I am not sick… I have a lingering cough from allergies to junipemesquite pollen.
5. I have not visited Colorado Springs/Fort Collins/Laramie/Reno/San José/Honolulu, yet.
6. Information for the other cities comes from my memory
7. I remember when Park MGM was the Monte Carlo
8. Is Secret Pizza still at the Cosmo? I don’t remember seeing it the last time I was there, but that might have been because I was on the wrong floor.
9. Toss a coin to your witcher.
10. Normal people stop listing things at 10, but
11. This list goes up to 11.

Hey everyone, I'm a Canadian who's done a couple festivals in Canada (VELD and Osheaga), but I always wanted to go to a camping festival and Coachella worked out amazingly with my school schedule this year. I got most of April off, so I bought 2 W2 passes at the general sale and found a buddy who was interested in doing a road trip. I'm a huge fan of climbing and surfing, and I love California but there's a lot of places I haven't been, so I wanted to work in some of that given how much free time I had. Anyway, here's the details of our trip, hoping it may inspire some future Coachella road trippers!
PRE-TRIP:

1. Bought 2x W2 passes + Shuttle Pass (unwanted) and car camping on General Sale day ($1200 US total). Wanted W1 and actually had a shot at them but my credit card was maxed out.
   
2. Bought flights on SWOOP from Hamilton Ontario (near Toronto) to Vegas - $250 round trip.
   
3. Reserved a rental SUV in Vegas for 2 weeks. (Considered a JUCY but eventually decided tents and an SUV would be more flexible and cheaper).
   
4. Did some general research on the places I wanted to go, had a rough idea of an itinerary but no bookings.
   

Sunday April 14-VEGAS:

• Parked at Hamilton Airport ($65 CAD for 1 wk + $15/day for each additional day).
• Direct flight Hamilton to Vegas 9:30pm. Packed everything in 1 backpack per person, didn't pay carry-on or checked fee.
• booked a room at Luxor hotel that same day on Priceline (came to $80 US total for 2 queen beds).
• Booked campsites at Zion for next 2 days ($20 + $50)
• Walked around Vegas till 2am drinking beers, checking out casinos (I had never been).

Monday April 15-ZION:

• Picked up Venture 2P camping rental pack from Basecamp Outdoor Gear in Vegas. Upgraded to 3-season sleeping bags. Came with stove, sleeping pads, 2P tent, camp table, 2 camp chairs, knife, headlights, lantern. $325 for 2 weeks.
• Grocery run at Walmart, got pasta, meat and sauce, chili, water, etc.
• Arrived in Zion, did a sunset hike of Watchman trail, set up camp and cooked dinner.

Tues April 16-ZION:

• Bought America the Beautiful 1-yr all-included National Park pass (covers a whole vehicle). - $80 USD
• Hiked Zion: Angel's landing was amazing, very cool classic hike with scary cliff drops. The Narrows hike, another classic, was closed (typical in April). Ranger said we had hiked most of the open trails in Zion.
• Opted to give up our $20 site and instead drive to Page AZ to check out other parks. Easily booked a campsite, $25.

Wed April 17-Antelope Canyon/Grand Canyon:

• Went on Antelope Canyon tour. $60 US, run by Navajo locals. Short, photography-based tour. Had to either book ahead or show up early for cancellations.
• Drove to Indio, beautiful drive and stopped at the Grand Canyon on the way.
• Stayed at Indio motel (booked day-of, $100 US for 2 beds). Owner held onto our camp knife and tent pegs for the weekend!
• got In-N-Out burger - was amazing

Thurs April 18-SO-CAL:

• Debated going early for Coachella camping spot, but instead spent the day getting supplies at Walmart (Got info from another camper to get a Canopy - this was key) and in Orange county/LA. Checked out Newport Beach.
• Pulled into car camping at 10pm, short lines. Spot was pretty far away in 1017 st S, but it really didn't bother us too much. Neighbours were all friendly, most of them stayed around camp for most of the festival though.
• Checked out silent disco and went to bed.

Fri April 19-COACHELLA:

• Woke up late, made breakfast, got ready and headed to festival for 2pm. Blown away by how amazing the grounds were. Antarctic was also dope. Saw about 15-20 acts, just exploring the grounds. Went back to camp 1x in evening, then went back to the festival until 1am, then slept.

Sat April 20th-Coachella:

• Entered fest at about 3pm, regrouped at camp in evening, then went back and stayed till 1am again. Slept

Sun April 21st-Coachella:

• Lined up for Sunday Service at 7am. Stayed till finish
• Went to camp, headed to the grounds at 3:30pm, stayed until midnight. Went to turn-down tent for a couple hours, grabbed food, had beers with neighbours and slept around 2-3am.

Mon April 22nd-Joshua Tree:

• Tore down camp and ready to go by 10am - needed a jumpstart though (dude did it for free because we only had canadian version of AAA!)
• Grocery run at Wal-Mart
• drove to Joshua Tree, rented climbing shoes ($10 each), and tried to rent a crash pad but the place was closed.
• Cooked dinner in the Boy Scout parking lot, then hiked out to backcountry camp (you have to self-register)-FREE.
• ran into a dude hiking who was gonna go bouldering the next day so we planned to meet up in the morning.
• Stars in J-Tree are amazing. We threw "Underwater" by Rüfüs du Sol on repeat to relive Antarctic, and right at the final second we saw a gigantic shooting star!

Tues April 23rd-Joshua Tree:

• Caught sunrise in J-tree from our campsite, then tore down camp and met up with the guys to go bouldering. Bouldered till 3pm, then returned our shoes and did the Mt Ryan hike at sunset.
• Drove to Santa Barbara for a halfway stop on our way to big sur. 4-5hr drive, motel cost $100 for 2 beds.

Wed April 24 - Surfing/Big Sur

• Got up late, drove to Pismo beach (such a nice surf town) and rented some boards and wetsuits for the half-day-$25 USD each. Waves were good for beginners to fool around on. Packed up around 4pm and drove towards Big Sur, Highway 1.
• Saw the elephant seals at the southern tip of Big Sur
• Saw evening and sunset along Big Sur - truly the most amazing drive I've ever done.
• Got dinner in Monterey and then drove to Yosemite in the dark. Got to the park entrance at 2AM and slept in the car.

Thurs April 25 - Yosemite

• Woke up at 5am to drive to Camp 4 and get spots in this famous campground where rock climbing was born. We were 12th in line for 59 spots, and cost is $6/person per night. (*NOTE: this first-come first-serve system is getting shut down forever in May - you will have to enter an overnight online lottery).
• We set up camp (6 people share a site - our site-mates were really friendly and we met lots of great people in Camp 4).
• We hiked Upper Yosemite Falls which starts right at Camp 4. Took all day as we decided to try to get to El Capitan during a trail closure (many trails were closed due to snow). We didn't succeed but it was fun.

Fri April 26 - Yosemite

• We rented shoes and boulder mats in Yosemite and went bouldering until 3pm. There are great boulders right near Camp 4.
• At 3:30pm we did the Mist Trail hike, which brings you to Vernal falls and Nevada falls. It's beautiful and a lot easier than Upper Falls.

Sat April 27 - San Francisco

• Caught sunrise over the Dawn Wall of El Capitan. This was an amazing sight to me.
• Tore down camp and headed out before 11am. Drove to San Francisco (5 hours), crossed the Golden Gate in.
• Got a cheap motel in San Francisco ($110/night for 2 beds). Used the Ford GoBikes ($10/24h) and did a bike tour of Japantown, Chinatown, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Mission District, Coit Tower and Telegraph hill, Haight-Ashbury, and Presidio/Palace of Fine Arts. Got home at about 3am, exhausted.

Sun April 28th

• Woke up at 7am for the long drive back to Vegas. Stopped at the google campus in Mountain View to ride the GBikes around.
• Got to Vegas at 5pm, returned our camping gear and ate some great Mexican food.
• Flew back to Hamilton on a 10:30pm flight.

Overall we had an AMAZING coachella, saw some breathtaking views, got a taste of California climbing and surfing, did some amazing drives, and met awesome people. We spent a lot of time outdoors and we felt super relaxed by the end of the trip. I think overall we did well saving money, and had a good mix of planning and spontaneity.
WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY:

• Plan only 1 day in Zion and book campsite in advance - too many closures in April. Maybe spend some time in another park (Death Valley, Mojave, etc)
  
• Spend less time on Friday getting supplies and more time in So-Cal (check out LA Observatory, LA Proper or San Diego)
  
• Try to do less campsite re-groups for coachella, and just stay once I enter the grounds. Maybe go a little later in the day to stay out later. Try and find a big group there to party with early on. Bring more Mio Sports (1/person/day would be safe) for electrolyte hydration :P
  
• Try not to let our battery die on Monday - think I left a door open, oops
  
• Get to J-Tree a little earlier for a boulder mat (3:30 or so)
  
• See the eucalyptus forest in Pismo Beach!
  
• Bring my own climbing shoes, maybe other climbing gear too.
  

I definitely travel very fast and I was lucky to have a travel buddy who was able to keep up. But if you want to see some amazing parts of california and have some free time around coachella, I hope this gives you some ideas! Drop any questions below, and let me know if you think it would be good to crosspost this anywhere.
Thanks!
PS: We got so much good coachella info from this Sub. Not sure how it would have gone without everyone's help. Thank you!

Alright, this is a fairly comprehensive list of all the active launch sites on Earth as of the year 1999, in Overheaven’s alternate history timeline.
Realistically, most of these only launch satellites, and the ones that do shoot people into space are probably doing so with capsules, though the more developed countries have fleets of reusable space planes (both manned and unmanned). The overwhelming majority of launches are going to be routine unmanned, reusable rockets sending up supplies or satellites or space station construction materials, and then touching back down on the launch pad like SpaceX's BFR (we get that level of reusable launch vehicle by the mid/late 70's, rather than the late 2010’s - amazing what you can accomplish when two superpowers feel the need to put thousands of nukes in orbit, because the 1967 Outer Space Treaty never happened).
Many are run by the military or public-sector space agencies like the ESA, NASA, the Commonwealth Space Program, or Soyuzcosmos (the USSR's NASA counterpart), but I'm willing to bet that at least half (perhaps even two-thirds) of these are private-sector operations, and most non-military public-sector launch sites do private-sector flights as well. Rockets like the Sea Dragon theoretically don't really need launchpads, and while there might be launch facilities which specialize with Sea Dragon-type rockets, I think that the smaller spaceflight companies would just buy one of these rockets, strap the payload on top, and tow it out to sea near the equator for launch. And there's also air-launched sub-orbital vehicles (stuff like Virgin Galactic's White Knight), which I wager could take off from regular old airports on the backs of Boeing 747's or Antonov 124's.
Some of these are existing rocket launch sites (mostly for sounding rockets), which I've turned into full-on Cape Canaveral/Baikonur-type facilities, while others are proposed locations for launch sites, and some are just good ideas I figured would work but never appeared in our timeline.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is enough space infrastructure to serve as the basis for a smoothly-running interplanetary civilization by 1999, with the Internet still in its infancy. In Overheaven’s alternate timeline, the lack of an OST leads to a more aggressive and ambitious space race. Men on on Mars by 1976, men on Venus by 1978, and the construction of huge nuclear missile platforms in orbit by both superpowers. By the late 70’s, space industry was just getting started, and by the 80’s, the “Space Boom” was in full swing, baby. Experimental atomic research, rotating space hotels, medical and chemical research labs in orbit, space manufacturing, solar power satellites, mining near-earth asteroids, space tourism, orbital fuel depots, telecom sats, space casinos, offworld banking, and so much more. By the late 1990’s, the idea of people working and even living in space is still exciting, but it’s also pretty damn normal now.
With all these launches, plus material being extracted from Luna and near-Earth asteroids, I think it's perfectly feasible for there to be a few Stanford Toruses, and at least one O'Neill Cylinder, under construction in Earth orbit by '99. And as launch costs continue to plummet, expect the scale of humanity's ambitions to only escalate.
And these are just the launch sites on Earth. I don't even know how many orbital launch facilities there'd be by this point - huge space stations building truly-massive vessels in zero-g with all those resources we're shooting up on what I imagine is a daily or even hourly basis; ships like those, built and fueled in orbit, would undoubtedly be able to reach Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Main Belt and Jupiter with relative ease. And everything I've stated here will only continue to grow at a geometric rate as more of the Solar System's resources are harnessed, spaceflight costs continue to drop, and technology continues to improve. And we’re not talking about Overheaven’s current year, which isn’t actually 1999.
It’s 2185.
Oh, right. Here's the list:
United States of America:
Cape Kennedy Space Center (Merritt Island, Florida)
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (Delmarva Peninsula, Virginia)
John Glenn Memorial Spaceport (Matagorda Island, Texas)
Southwestern Regional Spaceport (Roswell, New Mexico)
White Sands Launch Center (White Sands, New Mexico) Datil Launch Center (Datil, New Mexico)
Yuma Spaceport (Yuma, Arizona)
Keweenaw Spaceport (Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan)
John Bardeen Memorial Launch Center (Sheboygan, Wisconsin)
Mojave Spaceport (Mojave, California)
Vanderberg Space Center (Lompoc, California)
Oklahoma Spaceport (Burn Flats, Oklahoma)
Kodiak Launch Complex (Kodiak Island, Alaska)
Stockton Space Center (Stockton, Arizona)
Lone Star Space Center (Van Horn, Texas)
Coleman Launch Center (Sea Dragon launch facility located between Tutuila island and Manu’a island, American Samoa)
Johnston Space Center (Johnston Atoll, Pacific Ocean)
Sarigan Launch Center (Sairgan, Northern Marianas Islands)
Reagan Launch Center (Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands)
Poseidon (privately-operated mobile sea-launch platform in the Gulf of Mexico)
Ocean Odyssey Launch Complex (privately-operated mobile sea-launch platform in the Pacific Ocean)
Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics:
Baikonur Cosmodrome (Baikonur, Star City)
Tereshkova Cosmodrome (Zapovednoye, Primorsky Krai, Far Eastern SSR)
Vostochny Cosmodrome (Tsiolkovsky, Amur Oblast, Far Eastern SSR)
Okhotsk Cosmodrome (Okhotsk, Khabarovsk Krai, Far Eastern SSR)
Sarishagan Cosmodrome (Priozersk, Karaganda Oblast, Kazakh SSR)
Nyonoksa Cosmodrome (Severodvinsk, Archangelsk Oblast, Russian SSR)
Plesetsk Cosmodrome (Mirny, Archangelsk Oblast, Russian SSR)
Kapustin Yar Cosmodrome (Znamensk, Astrakhan Oblast, Russian SSR)
Isakov Cosmodrome (mobile sea-launch platform in the Indian Ocean, currently 960 miles off the coast of Sri Lanka)
European Space Agency/European Union:
Guiana Space Center (Kourou, French Guiana)
Archimedes Launch Center (Syracuse, Sicily, Italy)
Nuka Hiva Space Center (Marquises, French Polynesia)
Touamotu Space Center (Rairoa, French Polynesia)
Fort-Dauphin Space Center (Tôlanaro, Republic of Madagascar)
Borglio Space Center (offshore platform off the coast of Kenya, administered by Italy)
Koroni Launch Center (Messenia, Greece)
Salto di Quirra Spaceport (Sardinia, Italy)
Cuxhaven Launch Center (Cuxhaven, Germany)
Ile du Levant Launch Center (Iles d’Hyeres, France)
El Arenosillo Spaceport (Mazagon, Spain)
Svalbard Space Center (Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway) (northern-most spaceport in the world)
Andøya Space Center (Andøya, Norway)
Esrange Launch Center (Kiruna, Sweden)
Oberth-Barre Launch Center (Bangoli, Orientale Province, Zaire)
OTRAG Launch Center (North Sheba, Katanga Province, Zaire) (privately-operated spaceport, under German/EU jurisdiction)
People’s Republic of China:
Dongfeng Aerospace City (Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia)
Hotan Aerospace City (Hotan, Xinjiang)
Xichang Launch Center (Liangshan, Sichuan)
Wenchang Launch Center (Wenchang, Hainan)
Taiyaun Launch Center (Xinzhou, Shanxi)
Taiwan (Republic of China):
Sanxiantai Launch Center (Sanxiantai, Taitung)
Haiqian Launch Center (Manzhou, Pingtung)
Republic of Bulgaria:
Smrikite Cosmodrome (Varna Province)
Republic of Hong Kong and Macau:
Stanley Ho Space Center (Tai Chau Island, New Territories) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Islamic Republic of Pakistan:
Sonmiani Launch Center (Las Bela, Balochistan)
Tilla Launch Center (Jhelum, Punjab)
Federative Republic of Brazil:
Barreira do Inferno Launch Center (Parnamirim, Rio Grande do Norte)
Praia do Cassino Launch Center (Rio Grande do Sul)
Alcântara Spaceport (Alcântara, Maranhão)
Belém Spaceport (Vigia, Para)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:
Sutherland Spaceport (Caithness and Sutherland, Highland, Scotland) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
South Uist Space Center (South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Newquay Space Center (Newquay, Cornwall, England) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Ascension Launch Center (Unicorn Point, Ascension Island, South Atlantic) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Diego Garcia Launch Center (Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Federal Republic of Romania:
Costinești Space Center (Constanta County)
Republic of Colombia:
Soledad Launch Center (Caquetá Department) (jointly-operated with the United States)
Commonwealth of Nations/Commonwealth Space Program:
Mount Kenya Space Center (Nyeri County, Republic of Kenya)
Kilimanjaro Space Center (Kilimanjaro Region, United Republic of Tanzania)
Gan Launch Center (Gan, Addu Atoll, Maldives) (jointly-operated by the Commonwealth and India)
Commonwealth of Australia:
Woomera Space Center (Woomera, South Australia) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Darwin Space Center (Darwin, Northern Territory) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Carnarvon Space Center (Carnarvon, Western Australia) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Manus Space Center (Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Weipa Launch Center (Mission River, Cape York, Queensland) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Christmas Island Space Center (South Point, Christmas Island) (jointly-operated by Australia and Japan)
Spaceport Valhalla (offshore privately-run launch platform off the coast of East Timor)
State of Japan:
Tanegashima Space Center (Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima)
Uchinoura Space Center (Kimotsuki, Kagoshima)
Akita Satellite Launch Center (Akita, Tohoku)
Obachi Satellite Launch Center (Rokkasho, Aomori)
Okinotorishima Space Center (Okinotori Reef) (a very large launch platform built atop a coral reef, mostly so Tokyo can thumb their nose at an EEZ dispute with China and Taiwan, increasingly growing into a small city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean)
Ryori Space Center (Iwate, Tohoku)
Watatsumi Launch Platform (very large mobile sea-launch platform in the south Pacific Ocean, currently 100 miles off the coast of Baker Island, USA)
Asada Goryu Space Center (Wuvulu Island, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea)
New Zealand:
Birdling’s Flat Launch Center (Canterbury, South Island) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Mahia Launch Center (Hawke’s Bay, North Island) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia:
Morava Spaceport (Lađevci, Republic of Šumadija)
Imperial State of Iran:
Qom Space Center (Qom Province)
Emamshahr Space Center (Semnan Province)
Semnan Spaceport (Semnan Province)
Republic of Algeria:
Hammaguir Space Center (Hammaguir, Abadla District) (originally built by the French, abandoned in the 60’s, brought back online by the Algerian government in the 80’s)
West Indies Federation:
Barbados Space Center (Kitridge Point, Barbados) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
St. Margaret Space Center (St. Margaret, Trinidad & Tobago) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Mabaruma Space Center (Mabaruma, Barima-Waini, Guyana) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
State of Israel:
Albert Einstein Space Center (Hasna, Sinai Peninsula, Israel) (recently launched a Palestinian-designed satellite into orbit as a sign of goodwill)
Socialist Republic of Vietnam:
Phạm Tuân Launch Center (Hon Khaoi Island) (jointly operated with USSR)
Malaysia:
Riau Space Center (Padang, Riau Island)
Ahmad Shah Space Center (Larapan Island, Sabah)
Republic of India:
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala)
Satish Dhawan Space Centre (Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh)
Abdul Kalam Space Centre (Bhubaneswar, Odisha)
Canada:
Churchill Space Center (Churchill, Manitoba) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Primrose Lake Launch Center (Cold Lake, Alberta) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Maritime Launch Center (Canso, Nova Scotia) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Cape Breton Spaceport (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Grand Turk Space Center (Grand Turk Island, Turks and Caicos, Canada) (part of the Commonwealth Space Program)
Dominican Republic:
Las Terrenas Space Center (Las Terrenas, Samaná Province) (jointly-operated with the United States)
People’s Democratic Republic of South Yemen:
Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi Launch Center (offshore platform off the coast of Socotra) (jointly-operated with the USSR)
Republic of Ecuador:
Puerto Quito Launch Center (Pichincha Province) (jointly-operated with the United States)
Republic of Poland:
Łeba-Rąbka Spaceport (Pomeranian Voivodeship)
Blizna Spaceport (Podkarpackie Voivodeship)
Republic of the Philippines:
Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone (Clark Field, Metro Manilla)
Lambajon Launch Center (Lambajon, Mindanao) (built with Japanese investment in the 1970’s, recently came under joint Japanese-Filipino administration)
Republic of Cuba:
Juventud Spaceport (Cayo San Juan, Isla de la Juventud, Cuba) (operated jointly with the USSR)
Republic of Chile:
Isla San Felix Launch Center (Isla San Felix)
Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya:
Libyan People’s Space City (Sabha, Fezzan)
Korean Federation:
Tonghae Spaceport (Musudan, North Hamyong) (originally built by the DPRK in the 80’s)
Anhueng Spaceport (Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province)
Naro Space Center (Goheung County, South Jeolla Province)
Iraqi Republic:
Babylon Space City (Al-Anbar region) (jointly operated by the Iraqi and Syrian governments; operates Tammouz rockets for manned launches and Project Babylon super-guns for satellites)
United Mexican States:
Sierra de Jaurez Launch Center (Sierra de Juarez, Baja California)
Alcubierre Spaceport (Laguna Tamiahua, Veracruz)
Puerto Bravo Launch Center (Puerto Bravo, Quintana Roo)
Republic of Singapore:
Changi Spaceport (Changi, Singapore)
Republic of Zaire:
Mbandaka Spaceport (Bamanya, Equateur Province)
Republic of Indonesia:
Motorai Launch Center (Motorai Island, North Maluku)
Biak Launch Center (Biak Island, West Papua)
Enggano Launch Center (Enggano Island, Bengkulu)
Republic of Argentina:
CELPA (El Chamical, La Roja Province)
Felix Aguilar Launch Center (Pampa de Achala, Cordoba Province)
San Martin Launch Center (Mar Chiquita, Buenos Aires Province)
Marambio Launch Center (Marambio Base, Antarctica) (southern-most spaceport in the world)
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:
King Khalid Spaceport (Tabuk, Tabuk Province)
Al Haddar Spaceport (Al Haddar, Riyadh Province)
Apartheid South Africa:
Denel Overberg Launch Centre (Agulhas, Cape Province)
Walvis Bay Launch Centre (Swakopmund, Southwest Africa)
Aquarius Mobile Launch Platform (mobile sea-launch platform in the Atlantic Ocean, 894 miles off the coast of Liberia)
Jan Smuts Launch Centre (St. Lucia, Natal)

Hi everyone, I posted a few weeks back about starting to write a series about my adventures on the road - to inspire! I just finished the first section of my first story. This part takes place from 1 sunset to the next - adventures of 1 day on the road. This is part of a longer segment about a road trip to Coachella.... I hope you enjoy:
ps. any feedback greatly appreciated
edit: I misspelled the title :/
It’s 4:45pm on a cold April evening in Boston, I’m counting the minutes and seconds 'till I can dart out of my office and head to the airport. I have my carry on bag and backpack with me at my desk, and my mind is far from work. My father, who happened to be in the city for meetings, is waiting outside to take me to the airport. The clock strikes 5 and I am gone before the big hand ticks again. I smoke a quick spliff on the sidewalk around the corner and then hop in my father’s car - I’m officially on vacation. He drops me off, we say our goodbyes, and I arrive at the airport with enough time to have 2 beers before my flight. As I sit in my window seat waiting for takeoff, I slowly watch the sunset over the Boston skyline, only imagining what the next couple of sun sets will look like from the west. I couldn’t imagine everything I would see before the next time the sun set. The plane took off at 8pm. I’m usually the type of person to stare out the window for the entire plane ride, so much so that I usually leave the plane with a sore neck - but for this flight I knew I should sleep so I could be energized for what lay ahead. I managed to sleep for about 2 hours on the plane. I woke up to the captain calling for the final descent into Denver. We touched down in Denver in the midst of a late spring snow storm, 10:30pm local time. Syd was already at the Terminal West pickup zone waiting for me with his bags packed. We make a couple of quick stops to prep for the road (munchies and what-not) and off we went - headed West. The clock strikes Midnight as we get on the highway - it’s now officially 4/20 in Colorado, I’m overwhelmed with joy, excitement, and weed smoke. Syd took the initiative and picked up an ounce for our trip - each gram was in its own bag which was odd at the time but came in handy later on in the trip. Just a few hours ago, I was in my cubicle - now I’m in Denver on 4/20, every adolescents dream. This was just the very beginning.
​
Exiting Denver heading West, I started to notice the drastic change in landscape. Denver sits at the very edge of the plains that spread across middle America from Pennsylvania to literally Denver. East of Denver is plains, farmland, and corn for 1,500 miles. Each farm and cornfield a spitting image of the previous one. West of Denver is the most beautiful, drastic, diverse scenery all the way to the Pacific Ocean. You have what seems like unlimited options to choose from once passing through the rockies - head southwest for desert, head northwest for ancient forests and god’s country, head directly west for a mix of both and everything in between. This trip we were going southwest. We zoomed into the rockies with snow getting heavier by the minute. I started to get nervous but remembered how I was here back in February with the same road conditions and the same fright. I then remembered how well Syd could handle these roads, so I chilled out. We passed by Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, and Keystone ski resorts, and I started to reflect about my 2 weeks of snowboarding here only 2 months prior in February. I thought about how I would love to snowboard here again one day. Little did I know, I would be working for Keystone the following Winter (more on that later).
​
With Keystone in our rear view, we quickly approached Breckenridge, then Copper, then Vail, and then Beaver Creek. Coming from the East Coast it was hard to believe that all of these world class resorts were all within 45 minutes of each other. You can drive 10 minutes in any direction in Summit County, Colorado and arrive at a world class resort. Once we passed Beaver Creek the snow started to subside and you could see dirt and grass start to be evermore present. A relief from the harsh storm. I was now more relaxed and slept for an hour or 2. I woke up to see an array of lights in the near distance, a massive city- like region as far as the eyes could see. We were approaching Grand Junction, CO, a city declared in the late 1800s as a “grand” junction of the mighty Colorado River and it’s largest tributary, the Gunnison River. Grand Junction is Colorado’s wine country and the closest civilization to Grand Mesa, the world's largest flat-topped mountain which covers hundreds of miles. I was in awe as it seemed to go on forever. We passed through Grand Junction and immediately crossed over into Utah around 4AM, and I took the wheel.
​
One thing that strikes me about these Western states is you can actually see and feel yourself crossing into another state without there being any formal notice or signs. The way the land drastically changes is amazing. As soon as we entered Utah everything around us started getting more colorful. The brown dirt changed to red clay, the tan grass of Western Colorado quickly changed to green cactuses (or cacti?). The snowy mountains changed to rainbow-colored hills and otherworldly rock formations. I felt like I had just left planet earth and landed on Mars. “This is the coolest place ever” I said to Syd. I continued on in admiration for about an hour, then I could see the very first sign of the sun rising in my rearview mirror. What I thought was beautiful before instantly appeared way more spectacular. I was in awe, trying to soak everything there was to see. I’m lucky that I didn’t drift off the road during these gazes, but luckily the Utah highway was straight and flat, with no other cars at this hour. Each and every minute grew more beautiful as the sun rose higher and higher in my mirrors. It seemed as if the sun was chasing us from the east as we bolted west at a steady 80mph. Once the sun was about halfway up the horizon behind us everything started to brighten up from the darkness of the night. I pulled over at a rest stop to climb a hill and watch the sunrise over the utah desert. I found a boulder at the top of the hill perched over a valley, and watched the sun slowly illuminate hundreds of miles of desert. I will never forget it. Now that it was bright as day, I hopped back into the driver’s seat and continued on. Syd woke up from a snooze; I tried to describe what I had just witnessed but no words could do justice. From there on, I pulled over at every scenic viewpoint that we came across, which seemed like every 10 minutes. They each got better and better the further into Utah we ventured. Sand Bench, Ivie Creek, Devil’s Canyon, Ghost Rock, Spotted Wolf, San Rafael Reef, Black Dragon Canyon, and Crescent Junction to name a few. We probably lost an hour off of our ETA for these stops, but to me they were priceless, and I didn’t care the least. By this time it was around 8am and the temperature had now reached a comfortable 70 degrees. From here the windows would be down for the rest of the trip.
​
After about 8 hours of cruising I-70 from the snowy Rocky Mountains through the Utah desert, we passed through Fishlake National Forest in Salina, UT and pulled onto interstate 15 to start heading South. The desert had now transformed into an oasis with green grasses growing, wildflowers budding, trees waving in the gentle wind, and chirping birds greeting the morning. It was like entering a whole different environment yet there was still snow capped mountains in the near distance. I could smell the beautiful scent of the valley and everything it had to offer. I thought to myself how bad the streets of Boston stunk where my office was located, and how amazing this often overlooked section of the country had been so far. Syd was well rested at this point so we pulled over, took our shoes off to walk around the soft warm grass, had a quick beer while soaking in the morning, and hopped back on the road - Syd driving now. We only drove for about 10 minutes until we saw Our next stop was Zion National Park.
​
We approached Zion National Park from the north, so we were able to get in without paying the national park dues. As we approached Zion, I was convinced that I had already seen the beauty of Utah, and that Zion National Park was going to look like the beautiful valley that we were in during our approach. I was wrong. We traversed the winding road that leads into the northwestern park of the park and then she revealed herself. The sheer beauty of this valley is almost indescribable, and only the finest poets could barely do justice. All of a sudden we were hundreds of feet above this majestic garden of eden. Both Syd and I had to pick our jaws up from the car floor, and still remained speechless after that. We pulled the car over and sat there in awe and tried to absorb all the beauty that was in front of us. It reminded me of the old childs movie “The Land Before Time”. I imagined pterodactyls soaring above the cliffs, gazing over all sorts of other dinosaurs that roamed the valley floor. There were emerald rivers below me and massive cliff walls surrounding me with trees and plants growing everywhere. Every color on the spectrum could be seen in this little speck nature. I pictured the natives who used to call this place home and how it must have felt to discover this desert oasis. I felt one with nature here. Syd and I must have spent an hour sitting here and admiring this beauty. We had to get going so I took one last gaze, and went back in the car. I told myself I would come back here to really explore the place. I sure did, but that adventure comes in a later story.
​
​
We left Zion and had Las Vegas in our sights. Zion is only about 2 hours away from Las Vegas, so we planned on that being our next stop/point of interest. Right around this time, about 10AM, we realized that we had left Denver about 10 hours ago and needed some food. We decided we would wait until Vegas, but then all of a sudden a mirage appeared in the desert. “That *is* a mirage, right Syd?”. “It must be”. I got overwhelmed with excitement as my mouth started watering, the mirage got closer. “That mirage looks pretty real” “But it can’t be...we’re in Utah”. Yup, it was real. I rubbed my eyes to be sure. We pulled up to the Washington, UT exit signs and there was a billboard that read “In-N-Out 1 mile”. I hadn’t been that happy in a while. We checked what time they opened: 10:30 AM, we checked our clock: 10:20 AM. It was a miracle. We smoked a joint and walked in as they were taking down the “closed” sign.
​
Now here is where I had another “holy shit it’s a small world” moment. Throughout my life I had always had these weird coincidences where I see someone I know while on vacation or somewhere hundreds/thousands of miles away. From seeing a college friend at a resort in Puerto Rico, to sitting next to my hometown buddy on a plane from the DR, to sitting across the table from a classmate in the Bahamas. As I was munching my burger, in the middle of Southerwestern Utah, two people from my highschool walked in. An older couple that was I think 3 years above me. Now we didn’t know each other well enough, so we didn’t speak but we all looked at each other with the “WTF?” eyes, and continued to pretend not to know each other, even though we both knew our stories started in a small coastal town in MA. “What a small world” I thought as I finished my burger (animal style, of course).
​
We hopped back in the car and in a flash we were in Las Vegas. I was very excited to finally see Las Vegas. I was reminiscing of all the crazy stories ive heard and movies ive seen, portraying this to be the place of no rules where everyone leaves with a crazy story that they can’t tell their mother (I do have a crazy vegas story, but thats from a different road trip). Well, not at 1:00pm I guess. We drove up and down the strip feeling like movie stars with our arms and feet hanging out the window, trying to show off my fake Y-3 shoes (SMH). Vegas is a whole nother world during the day, and there is not much to be excited about. We parked the car at Caesars Palace and roamed around the casino, only to find desperate slot-goers at this hour. It was kind of depressing. After an hour of roaming the strip and fantasizing in the Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores, we decided it was time to leave Vegas. The next time I was in Vegas turned out to be a lot more...fear and loathing-ish, we’ll get to that later.
​
After Vegas we were ready to get to California. We decided we would only stop for gas from this point on, and set our sites on San Diego. The goal was to race there fast enough to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean before heading to Coachella the following day. My cousin lived in San Diego at the time and welcomed us to stay the night at his house before the festival. We drove and drove racing the sun which was starting to gain on us. We crossed into California and kept driving until we hit San Bernardino and came to a complete stop. There was traffic for as far as the eyes could see. “Are you kidding me? LA traffic all the way out here” while it might not have specifically been LA traffic, there was certainly bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way to LA. “wow, people aren’t joking about LA traffic” we laughed. Luckily after only a couple miles we pulled off the exit to head south to San Diego and were back cruising along.
​
In what seemed like a close race against time, we pulled into Pacific Beach, San Diego right as the sun was reaching the point where it really starts to turn the color of the sky to a pinkish-peach color. It was so beautiful. We paced onto the boardwalk and got a perfect spot to watch the sun set over the surfers trying to catch their last waves before darkness. We stayed and watched in awe until there was no sun left to watch. As we were exiting the boardwalk we were overwhelmed with delicious smells of local vendors preparing food for the night crowd. It felt as if we entered a food truck convention, and thousands of people now fluttered in to get a taste of the local cuisine. We walked around aimlessly smelling and tasting all they had to offer. I had a couple beef and pork tacos and a churro; Syd had a freshly caught fish taco. From there we soaked everything in, breathed a sigh of relief for we had made it and reflected on what an incredible day we just had. From there we went to my cousins loft and relaxed with him, only to begin a new adventure tomorrow.

Hi everyone, I posted a few weeks back about starting to write a series about my adventures on the road - to inspire! I just finished the first section of my first story. This part takes place from 1 sunset to the next - adventures of 1 day on the road. This is part of a longer segment about a road trip to Coachella.... I hope you enjoy: ps. any feedback greatly appreciated
It’s 4:45pm on a cold April evening in Boston, I’m counting the minutes and seconds 'till I can dart out of my office and head to the airport. I have my carry on bag and backpack with me at my desk, and my mind is far from work. My father, who happened to be in the city for meetings, is waiting outside to take me to the airport. The clock strikes 5 and I am gone before the big hand ticks again. I smoke a quick spliff on the sidewalk around the corner and then hop in my father’s car - I’m officially on vacation. He drops me off, we say our goodbyes, and I arrive at the airport with enough time to have 2 beers before my flight. As I sit in my window seat waiting for takeoff, I slowly watch the sunset over the Boston skyline, only imagining what the next couple of sun sets will look like from the west. I couldn’t imagine everything I would see before the next time the sun set. The plane took off at 8pm. I’m usually the type of person to stare out the window for the entire plane ride, so much so that I usually leave the plane with a sore neck - but for this flight I knew I should sleep so I could be energized for what lay ahead. I managed to sleep for about 2 hours on the plane. I woke up to the captain calling for the final descent into Denver. We touched down in Denver in the midst of a late spring snow storm, 10:30pm local time. Syd was already at the Terminal West pickup zone waiting for me with his bags packed. We make a couple of quick stops to prep for the road (munchies and what-not) and off we went - headed West. The clock strikes Midnight as we get on the highway - it’s now officially 4/20 in Colorado, I’m overwhelmed with joy, excitement, and weed smoke. Syd took the initiative and picked up an ounce for our trip - each gram was in its own bag which was odd at the time but came in handy later on in the trip. Just a few hours ago, I was in my cubicle - now I’m in Denver on 4/20, every adolescents dream. This was just the very beginning.
Exiting Denver heading West, I started to notice the drastic change in landscape. Denver sits at the very edge of the plains that spread across middle America from Pennsylvania to literally Denver. East of Denver is plains, farmland, and corn for 1,500 miles. Each farm and cornfield a spitting image of the previous one. West of Denver is the most beautiful, drastic, diverse scenery all the way to the Pacific Ocean. You have what seems like unlimited options to choose from once passing through the rockies - head southwest for desert, head norwest for ancient forests and god’s country, head directly west for a mix of both and everything in between. This trip we were going southwest. We zoomed into the rockies with snow getting heavier by the minute. I started to get nervous but remembered how I was here back in February with the same road conditions and the same fright. I then remembered how well Syd could handle these roads, so I chilled out. We passed by Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, and Keystone ski resorts, and I started to reflect about my 2 weeks of snowboarding here only 2 months prior in February. I thought about how I would love to snowboard here again one day. Little did I know, I would be working for Keystone the following Winter (more on that later).
With Keystone in our rear view, we quickly approached Breckenridge, then Copper, then Vail, and then Beaver Creek. Coming from the East Coast it was hard to believe that all of these world class resorts were all within 45 minutes of each other. You can drive 10 minutes in any direction in Summit County, Colorado and arrive at a world class resort. Once we passed Beaver Creek the snow started to subside and you could see dirt and grass start to be evermore present. A relief from the harsh storm. I was now more relaxed and slept for an hour or 2. I woke up to see an array of lights in the near distance, a massive city- like region as far as the eyes could see. We were approaching Grand Junction, CO, a city declared in the late 1800s as a “grand” junction of the mighty Colorado River and it’s largest tributary, the Gunnison River. Grand Junction is Colorado’s wine country and the closest civilization to Grand Mesa, the world's largest flat-topped mountain which covers hundreds of miles. I was in awe as it seemed to go on forever. We passed through Grand Junction and immediately crossed over into Utah around 4AM, and I took the wheel.
One thing that strikes me about these Western states is you can actually see and feel yourself crossing into another state without there being any formal notice or signs. The way the land drastically changes is amazing. As soon as we entered Utah everything around us started getting more colorful. The brown dirt changed to red clay, the tan grass of Western Colorado quickly changed to green cactuses (or cacti?). The snowy mountains changed to rainbow-colored hills and otherworldly rock formations. I felt like I had just left planet earth and landed on Mars. “This is the coolest place ever” I said to Syd. I continued on in admiration for about an hour, then I could see the very first sign of the sun rising in my rearview mirror. What I thought was beautiful before instantly appeared way more spectacular. I was in awe, trying to soak everything there was to see. I’m lucky that I didn’t drift off the road during these gazes, but luckily the Utah highway was straight and flat, with no other cars at this hour. Each and every minute grew more beautiful as the sun rose higher and higher in my mirrors. It seemed as if the sun was chasing us from the east as we bolted west at a steady 80mph. Once the sun was about halfway up the horizon behind us everything started to brighten up from the darkness of the night. I pulled over at a rest stop to climb a hill and watch the sunrise over the utah desert. I found a boulder at the top of the hill perched over a valley, and watched the sun slowly illuminate hundreds of miles of desert. I will never forget it. Now that it was bright as day, I hopped back into the driver’s seat and continued on. Syd woke up from a snooze; I tried to describe what I had just witnessed but no words could do justice. From there on, I pulled over at every scenic viewpoint that we came across, which seemed like every 10 minutes. They each got better and better the further into Utah we ventured. Sand Bench, Ivie Creek, Devil’s Canyon, Ghost Rock, Spotted Wolf, San Rafael Reef, Black Dragon Canyon, and Crescent Junction to name a few. We probably lost an hour off of our ETA for these stops, but to me they were priceless, and I didn’t care the least. By this time it was around 8am and the temperature had now reached a comfortable 70 degrees. From here the windows would be down for the rest of the trip.
After about 8 hours of cruising I-70 from the snowy Rocky Mountains through the Utah desert, we passed through Fishlake National Forest in Salina, UT and pulled onto interstate 15 to start heading South. The desert had now transformed into an oasis with green grasses growing, wildflowers budding, trees waving in the gentle wind, and chirping birds greeting the morning. It was like entering a whole different environment yet there was still snow capped mountains in the near distance. I could smell the beautiful scent of the valley and everything it had to offer. I thought to myself how bad the streets of Boston stunk where my office was located, and how amazing this often overlooked section of the country had been so far. Syd was well rested at this point so we pulled over, took our shoes off to walk around the soft warm grass, had a quick beer while soaking in the morning, and hopped back on the road - Syd driving now. We only drove for about 10 minutes until we saw Our next stop was Zion National Park.
We approached Zion National Park from the north, so we were able to get in without paying the national park dues. As we approached Zion, I was convinced that I had already seen the beauty of Utah, and that Zion National Park was going to look like the beautiful valley that we were in during our approach. I was wrong. We traversed the winding road that leads into the northwestern park of the park and then she revealed herself. The sheer beauty of this valley is almost indescribable, and only the finest poets could barely do justice. All of a sudden we were hundreds of feet above this majestic garden of eden. Both Syd and I had to pick our jaws up from the car floor, and still remained speechless after that. We pulled the car over and sat there in awe and tried to absorb all the beauty that was in front of us. It reminded me of the old childs movie “The Land Before Time”. I imagined pterodactyls soaring above the cliffs, gazing over all sorts of other dinosaurs that roamed the valley floor. There were emerald rivers below me and massive cliff walls surrounding me with trees and plants growing everywhere. Every color on the spectrum could be seen in this little speck nature. I pictured the natives who used to call this place home and how it must have felt to discover this desert oasis. I felt one with nature here. Syd and I must have spent an hour sitting here and admiring this beauty. We had to get going so I took one last gaze, and went back in the car. I told myself I would come back here to really explore the place. I sure did, but that adventure comes in a later story.
We left Zion and had Las Vegas in our sights. Zion is only about 2 hours away from Las Vegas, so we planned on that being our next stop/point of interest. Right around this time, about 10AM, we realized that we had left Denver about 10 hours ago and needed some food. We decided we would wait until Vegas, but then all of a sudden a mirage appeared in the desert. “That is a mirage, right Syd?”. “It must be”. I got overwhelmed with excitement as my mouth started watering, the mirage got closer. “That mirage looks pretty real” “But it can’t be...we’re in Utah”. Yup, it was real. I rubbed my eyes to be sure. We pulled up to the Washington, UT exit signs and there was a billboard that read “In-N-Out 1 mile”. I hadn’t been that happy in a while. We checked what time they opened: 10:30 AM, we checked our clock: 10:20 AM. It was a miracle. We smoked a joint and walked in as they were taking down the “closed” sign.
Now here is where I had another “holy shit it’s a small world” moment. Throughout my life I had always had these weird coincidences where I see someone I know while on vacation or somewhere hundreds/thousands of miles away. From seeing a college friend at a resort in Puerto Rico, to sitting next to my hometown buddy on a plane from the DR, to sitting across the table from a classmate in the Bahamas. As I was munching my burger, in the middle of Southerwestern Utah, two people from my highschool walked in. An older couple that was I think 3 years above me. Now we didn’t know each other well enough, so we didn’t speak but we all looked at each other with the “WTF?” eyes, and continued to pretend not to know each other, even though we both knew our stories started in a small coastal town in MA. “What a small world” I thought as I finished my burger (animal style, of course).
We hopped back in the car and in a flash we were in Las Vegas. I was very excited to finally see Las Vegas. I was reminiscing of all the crazy stories ive heard and movies ive seen, portraying this to be the place of no rules where everyone leaves with a crazy story that they can’t tell their mother (I do have a crazy vegas story, but thats from a different road trip). Well, not at 1:00pm I guess. We drove up and down the strip feeling like movie stars with our arms and feet hanging out the window, trying to show off my fake Y-3 shoes (SMH). Vegas is a whole nother world during the day, and there is not much to be excited about. We parked the car at Caesars Palace and roamed around the casino, only to find desperate slot-goers at this hour. It was kind of depressing. After an hour of roaming the strip and fantasizing in the Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores, we decided it was time to leave Vegas. The next time I was in Vegas turned out to be a lot more...fear and loathing-ish, we’ll get to that later.
After Vegas we were ready to get to California. We decided we would only stop for gas from this point on, and set our sites on San Diego. The goal was to race there fast enough to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean before heading to Coachella the following day. My cousin lived in San Diego at the time and welcomed us to stay the night at his house before the festival. We drove and drove racing the sun which was starting to gain on us. We crossed into California and kept driving until we hit San Bernardino and came to a complete stop. There was traffic for as far as the eyes could see. “Are you kidding me? LA traffic all the way out here” while it might not have specifically been LA traffic, there was certainly bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way to LA. “wow, people aren’t joking about LA traffic” we laughed. Luckily after only a couple miles we pulled off the exit to head south to San Diego and were back cruising along.
In what seemed like a close race against time, we pulled into Pacific Beach, San Diego right as the sun was reaching the point where it really starts to turn the color of the sky to a pinkish-peach color. It was so beautiful. We paced onto the boardwalk and got a perfect spot to watch the sun set over the surfers trying to catch their last waves before darkness. We stayed and watched in awe until there was no sun left to watch. As we were exiting the boardwalk we were overwhelmed with delicious smells of local vendors preparing food for the night crowd. It felt as if we entered a food truck convention, and thousands of people now fluttered in to get a taste of the local cuisine. We walked around aimlessly smelling and tasting all they had to offer. I had a couple beef and pork tacos and a churro; Syd had a freshly caught fish taco. From there we soaked everything in, breathed a sigh of relief for we had made it and reflected on what an incredible day we just had. From there we went to my cousins loft and relaxed with him, only to begin a new adventure tomorrow.

2017: Some deep tropical moisture associated with a fairly strong upper level shortwave pushed into central California on September 11th and produced a severe thunderstorm outbreak during the afternoon and evening. Numerous reports of downburst winds exceeding 60 mph were reported and the impacts form these thunderstorms included downed power lines, damage to roofs; and large objects being knocked over and damaged. Rainfall amounts were generally a quarter of an inch or less with a few locations in the Southern Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mountains receiving between a quarter inch and a half inch of rain. APRS station 5WSW Firebaugh reported a 59 mph wind gust from a thunderstorm. A dairy farm south of Hanford had several barns with extensive roof damage from thunderstorm winds.
8 telephone poles were downed on Jackson Ave. near 9th Ave. south of Hanford.
A tree fell onto a vehicle near the intersection of 13th Ave. and Houston Ave. near Hanford.
A microburst downed 30 powerlines in Mendota.
8 miles west of Caruthers a chicken barn was blown down by thunderstorm downburst outflow winds.
In Corcoran thunderstorm winds produced damage to a house and snapped several trees. Beams from a wood fence were snapped from from concrete support and shingles were blown off of a roof.
There were reports of nickel-sized hail in Corcoran. There were several trees down on northbound State Route 99 just south of the State Route 190 interchange.
Lightning struck a house near Hanford High School. A Weather Service forecaster providing onsite support at the Pier Fire reported penny sized hail at Pierpoint Springs.
2012: A stationary thunderstorm brought persistent, heavy rain to Mecca.
3"-5" of rain fell in just a couple hours (more than a year’s worth). Floodwaters damaged a school, a mobile home park and several orchards.
2012: On the afternoon of September 11, 2012 thunderstorms producing heavy rainfall moved across much of the Las Vegas Valley. Rainfall rates of a half-inch to nearly eight-tenths of an inch in 30 minutes resulted in significant and in some cases devastating flash flooding. A total of 1.18" of rain was measured by the automated weather station at McCarran International Airport. This set an all-time record for a calendar day for the month of September. Automated weather stations operated by the Clark County Regional Flood Control District as well as Mesonet weather stations, cooperative observers and spotter reports showed the heaviest rain fell in several areas. 1"-2" of rain fell in northern portions of Summerlin, NV, in and just south of downtown Las Vegas, NV, along Flamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue from near Interstate 15 to near Mojave Road and in southeast Henderson, NV. The highest total reported was 2.09" at an automated station operated by the Clark County Regional Flood Control District near Swenson Avenue and Flamingo Road by the Tropicana Wash. According to local media reports, at least 50 vehicle rescues took place throughout the Las Vegas Valley by Clark County Firefighters. 40 of these were swiftwater rescues. The largest number of rescues was 15 near the intersection of Sloan and Sahara with one rescue done by helicopter. Roadway flooding was extensive with several inches to several feet of flowing water reported on many roads especially in the central and eastern parts of the Las Vegas Valley. Interstate 215 was closed from Interstate 15 to Eastern Avenue after intense rainfall washed large amounts of mud and rocks onto the highway from nearby landscaping along the side of the road. This also resulted in the Airport Connector to McCarran International Airport being closed. The Charleston Underpass flooded for the first time since extensive construction work was done to mitigate this once flood-prone area back in the mid-2000s. The worst impacted area though was near the Desert Rose Golf Course. At least 45 homes were flooded mainly on and near Walton Heath Avenue. Most of these homes suffered extensive damage to their lowest level with many people loosing furniture and appliances. In some cases the force of floodwaters busted through concrete walls. Numerous vehicles in this area were flooded and some were floated 300 to 400 feet. Three dogs drowned to death that lived in one house. In addition, a worker at the Desert Rose Golf Course was swept away by the floodwaters from his tractor around 4:22 PM PDT on September 11th. His body was found dead two days later about two and a half miles away.
​
2011: Small hail was reported at Bodfish and Lake Isabella as was street flooding which was also reported in Kernville.
2011: Monsoonal thunderstorms brought flooding to Downtown Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip. A rain gauge in Downtown Las Vegas recorded 0.98" of rain in about 20 minutes. Water ponded up over curbs of streets from Downtown Las Vegas to North Las Vegas. Several inches of water flooded the Circus Circus Adventuredome. The parking lot at the Cannery Casino in North Las Vegas was flooded.... with some cars partially underwater. A few inches of water also entered part of the casino and movie theater.
2008: The Cascadel Fire began on this date in the Sierra National Forest at 2000 PST. The cause was human, from target shooting. The location was 3 miles East-Northeast of North Fork in Madera County. It burned 280 acres and was contained on September 17 at 1700 PST. There were no fatalities or properties damaged. The cost to containment was $3,100,000.
2008: A thunderstorm produced strong outflow winds measured at 67 mph in La Quinta. Another thunderstorm produced golf ball sized hail in Ranchita.
2004: The Nehouse Fire 25 miles east of North Fork in Madera County burned 204 acres. Its cause was human in origin but no fatalities,injuries, or structures-lost occurred.
2004: Severe thunderstorms in Borrego Springs produced one inch hail that broke windows. Strong winds gusted to 60 mph before the anemometer was destroyed, and knocked down six power poles. Training thunderstorms over Johnson Valley produced severe flash flooding. Hwy. 247 was washed out in numerous sections. Minor damage to homes occurred and 12 vehicles were trapped. In La Quinta, 138 trees were knocked down at one golf course with damage to a building. More trees fell down at other golf courses. Roof tiles were blown off. Damage occurred to power poles and transformers.
2004: The China Fire began on this date 15 miles southwest of Lake Isabella in Kern County. This suspiciously-caused fire burned 314 acres but there were no fatalities, injuries, or structures-lost.
2001: On this date 19 hijackers seized 4 U.S. commercial jetliners on the East Coast and flew two aircraft into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City destroying them, one aircraft into the Pentagon Building near Washingon, DC, causing severe damage, and one was destined for another target in the Washington, DC, area (either the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building) but the passengers resisted and the hijackers crashed the plane near Shanksville, PA. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed and civilian air traffic into, out of, and within the United States was grounded for days afterwards.
1998: Severe thunderstorms pounded the Las Vegas Valley and Lake Mead for a few hours producing golf ball size hail, a small tornado and widespread flash flooding. Large hail began falling shortly before 11 am PST and numerous hail reports came in for the next couple hours with some episodes causing damage to several automobiles. A small tornado tore the roof off a Henderson, NV, warehouse and destroyed a large block wall at a service station a short distance away. Heavy rain fell mainly on the east side of the metro area with amounts up to 1.85" in a two hour period. As a result flash flooding filled streets and washes and trapped several motorists although no serious injuries occurred. The heavy rain damaged about one acre of the 750 acre Sunrise Landfill and carried significant amounts of debris into the Las Vegas, NV, wash. The Clark County School District activated the "shelter-in-place" policy for school children at approximately 30 schools around the area. Children were not bused home until after flooding had subsided.
1990: It was 117° F in Borrego Springs, the highest temperature on record for September. This also occurred the previous day on 9.10.
1983: Half Moon Bay had a high of 94° F -- a record for the month.
1982: The morning low temperature at Reno, NV was a chilly 29° F.
1976: Record rains that started on 9.9 ended on 9.12 came from Tropical Storm Kathleen (called a 160+ year event by meteorologists). 14.76" fell on south slopes of Mt. San Gorgonio, 10.13" at Mt. Laguna, 8" at Mt. San Jacinto, 4"+ in the Little San Bernardino Mountains, and 1.8"-2.8" in the Coachella Valley. Deep Canyon (above La Quinta) recorded 2.96" in three hours on 9.10. Rainfall in the Santa Rosa Mountains above the Coachella Valley was called the a heaviest in recorded history. 6 were buried and killed in sand in Ocotillo. Floods of record were attained at numerous streams around the Coachella Valley. 1.84" of rain fell in Riverside on this day, 2.09" fell in Borrego Springs, 2.33" fell in Victorville, 2.57" fell in Idyllwild, and 5" fell in Palomar Mountain, each the greatest daily amounts on record for September. The Victorville amount is also the third highest daily amount on record. This occurred during the El Nino of 1976-77. Hurricane Kathleen also brought the southwest the highest sustained winds ever associated with an eastern Pacific tropical cyclone with sustained winds of 57 mph at Yuma on 9.10.
1976: The remains of Hurricane Kathleen move across Baja and into southern California near El Centro. With its circulation still intact, tropical storm force winds produce considerable damage in Yuma. Sustained winds exceed 50 mph, and gust as high as 76 mph in Yuma, AZ. One man is killed as a 75 foot palm tree crashes onto his mobile home. Severe flooding occurs in Mohave county.
1971: It was 100° F in Palomar Mountain, the highest temperature on record. This occurred on eight other occasions.
1960: North northwestward moving Hurricane Estelle dissipated west of the central Baja California coast from 9.9 to this day. On this day a thunderstorm hit the area east of Lucerne Valley. The resulting flash flood was four feet deep and washed out a section of road, stranding several vehicles east of Lucerne Valley.
1952: Chilliest morning in three day stretch from the 10th through 12th in Fresno; record lows were set each on morning and all still stand to this day. Low of 44° F on this date is the earliest 45° F or lower reading on record in Fresno.
1939: 4"of rain fell across the deserts and mountains as a dying tropical cyclone moved across Baja California into southwestern Arizona on this day and on 9.12. This was the second tropical cyclone to impact California during the busy month of September 1939. A strong El Nino contributed to the activity.
1939: The remnants from the second of three tropical cyclones to affect the southwestern U.S. in one month floods homes in Eldorado Canyon, roads in the California Wash near Glendale and washed out parts of Charleston Blvd. near Rancho Blvd. in Las Vegas, NV.
1888: Fresno set an all-time record high of 111° F for the month of September. This is also the latest in the season that Fresno has had a high temperature of 110° or better.
Source: NWS San Francisco/Monterey, Hanford, Reno, Las Vegas, Phoenix, & San Diego
📷

We just spent a week in Vegas split between two hits and three hotels.
This is my 6th time in Vegas, my fiancé’s 3rd time, and my friend’s 2nd time. We love the city. It is the only place like it on Earth. I love it, but this massive adult theme-park needs to be treated with respect and best approached with experience. So, I hope this report will help others.
We were here last year, and although we had an amazing time, we did make some mistakes. This year’s trip was refined to near perfection.
Flights (UK to Vegas).
We’re from the UK. We flew direct with Virgin Atlantic. As far as I know VA are the only airline that flies direct from UK to Vegas. We used 80,000 airmiles to upgrade to Premium seats. When you’re sat on your arse for 11 and a half hours, the extra comfort, space, and legroom are well worth it. It also means the actual cost for the flight was super low compared to booking Premium seats without miles (£400 compared to around £1500).
As it's a 747, I would recommend getting seats on the upper deck. As it is the top bulge of the plane, it only holds around 70 passengers. It feels exclusive, with faster service from the staff, shorter lines for the bathroom, and far less chance a child or baby will be sat near you.
Jetlag.
Something I didn’t take into account last time was the effect of jet lag. We paid for it. With the West Coast being 8 hours behind the UK, we tried a different tactic this time around. As soon as asses touched seats on the plane, we adjusted clocks to Vegas time. We respected the need to sleep by front-loading the flight with lots of booze and soon got our heads down. With those few hours of sleep, we were much better adjusted when we landed.
ESTA.
Immigration into the US can be a pain, but here’s a tip; if you’ve travelled to the US before with the same ESTA, you can use the automated passport scanners and skip the massive line.
Food.
We’re foodies. We’ve traveled the world and eaten at many Michelin Star restaurants. It’s our thing. It’s our passion. We had high hopes for Vegas food last year, but we came to the quick realisation Vegas can’t do quality. It's not surprising. The sheer volume of people that pound the strip means restaurants don’t really need to try to turn a profit. As I said above, Vegas is a theme-park. It supplies the fake and gaudy like no other, but on the flip side it can’t really do genuine or authentic. Last year we had to pay truly spectacular amounts of money before we got a properly impressive meal at é by José Andrés in the Cosmo. I can’t afford to do that again. So, this year we did things differently. We embraced the brash, the massive, and the crappy and ate like the locals.
Finances.
Vacations are my opportunity to live large. I look forward to them all year, and save for them with the intention to experience things way beyond my normal life. I want luxury. I want finery. I want to be treated like a rockstar, because these things just don’t exist in my day to day life. I spent a lot on this holiday, but that’s because I saved for it and budgeted hard for it. If you’re doing Vegas, then you have to do it right!
Hotel 1: The Vdara.
After the flight and immigration we got a cab to our first hotel; the Vdara. What a brilliant hotel. It doesn’t have a casino attached, so is less Vegas and less insane than many strip hotels, but I’ve been there and done that - so this was a beautiful, calm hotel for the start of our trip.
We went for a Lake View Suite. Sounds fancy, and it was, but so much cheaper than an equivalent at one of the other big hotels. The room was massive, and modern. It also had a microwave and food preparation area with fridge separate to the mini bar.
The Vdara also has a nifty room service robot that can deliver snacks and drinks to you autonomously. It is a novelty now, but it worked well and I can see it being rolled out to other hotels soon.
As for location, the Vdara is right behind the Aria and the Bellagio. There’s a sneaky walkway to the Bellagio, or a short walk across the valet to the Aria. From either of these hotels you are straight onto the strip.
Adventures.
Day 1.
First port of call was a walk down the strip to In-n-Out burger next to the High Roller. We don’t have In-n-Out in the UK so its a real treat.
We walked the strip until well after dark, visiting Caesars, the Bellagio for coffee, and finally back to the Vice Versa bar at the Vdara. It is a quiet lobby bar with a calm outside section. We had a few drinks there and then off to bed.
Day 2.
Breakfast at Eggslut at the Cosmo. Expensive, but very tasty. Get the cookie. I has just the right amount of gooey inside and salt crust to make the perfect pud.
Back to the Vdara for a workout at their OK gym and then relaxing at the pool. They do a bag check, but we just had water and coke so let us in. I think they were looking for booze.
After our fill of the sun (still 30^o C + in October) we made our way back to the Cosmo for a late lunch at Block 16. This is their new “street food” area with an excellent selection. We went for the sushi rolls at Tekka. Really good, and bigger than expected. They also have Asahi on draft. Again, a little expensive for the type of food but nice.
Hopped in a taxi for a walk around the canals at the Venetian, then over the the Wynn for drinks at Parasol Down. We like drinking outside, and it was really relaxing sipping cocktails by the waterfall. I had a crab cheesy dip thing with breads that was surprisingly tasty.
We headed back to the Vdara to get ready for our evening at the Luxor. It started with drinks at an Irish bar I forget the name of. It actually had genuine Irish staff and live music, so the fakery was better than most. A few pints later we went to see the Blue Man Group. Hilarious and a lot of fun. Well recommended.
After BMG we wandered to the Mandalay looking for food, but their restaurants were all taken over by a massive convention. We hopped into a cab and made our way back to the Cosmo to Beauty and Essex for food. The restaurant was very cool. You enter through a secret door in a cheesy gift shop. You’re then lead to a dimly lit, intimate table by a pretty server lady. Food was only OK, but definitely not up to scratch for the price. However, the atmosphere was amazing.
Day 3.
Breakfast was a 15 inch pizza slice from Pin Up Pizza at Planet Hollywood. Horrible, greasy pizza, but the novelty was fun. We checked out and picked up our car from our Turo host, a Tesla Model X for the next leg of our trip; a week in San Diego. Amazing city. Go.
Vegas Day 4.
Hotel 2: The SLS.
It was fight night. Hotels were stupidly expensive because of McGregor vs Khabib, so we stayed for one cheap night at the SLS. When we booked it it was still the W, but the SLS since took it over. The room was a Fabulous King, but I’m not sure that name is relevant anymore. Anyway, the hotel is still in a state of flux. The W side was dead. The bar was closed and the few remaining staff seemed to just be milling around. It was odd.
The room was spacious, and had an interesting theme, but seemed a little empty given its square footage. It did have a mirror above the bed, though. Very Vegas. After the long drive from SD, we freshened up and got dinner at Bazaar Meats by José Andrés. This was my favorite meal in Vegas. José Andrés can actually be counted on for a great theme and good food. It wasn’t quite good enough for the price, but it was closer than any other restaurant we visited on this trip.
The atmosphere and decor were incredible. A massive industrial fire pit grilling many meats greets you as you enter. The entire room is bordered by the various kitchens and preparation areas, and produce is proudly on show. There were some freakishly huge vegetables and a vast array of meat slabs all around. Of all the Vegas restaurants I’ve visited, the theming here was on point.
After dinner, we stayed at the SLS for drinks around the casino watching the fight in the sports bar.
Vegas Day 5.
Hotel 3: The Cosmopolitan.
We checked out of the SLS quickly, glad to be away from its strangeness. As if to confirm our ikky intuition, we passed a crime scene investigation outside, little orange cones all over indicating spent bullet casings. Welcome to America, motherfucker!
We headed to our next and final hotel - the Cosmo. What an incredible place. By far and away my fave hotel on the Stip. In addition to the hotels this trip, I’ve stayed at the Stratosphere, Luxor, Aria, and Bellagio. This was better than them all.
Even though it was around midday when we hit the check in desk, the concierge sorted us out with a room upgrade to an immediately available room. With three of us sleeping in one room, he wanted to ensure we were comfortable, so booked us into an unlisted suite with two bathrooms, a japanese soaking tub, and a massive balcony on the 55th floor overlooking the Bellagio fountains and the strip.
That view was breathtaking, and the room was stunning. Only one minor issue - we found a diaper behind the sofa that housekeeping had missed from the last guest. We complained to the front desk and they sorted it with a $75 credit and resort fees refunded. Score!
Lunch was at Secret Pizza. A good slice. Be aware they have more slices available than is on display.
We went to Walmart to pick up booze and snacks. And a kettle. I’m English. I need my tea. Vegas hotels don’t have tea and coffee making facilities in the room, so a $15 kettle and some tea was a must. For the cost of three drinks at Starbucks, this is a good move for us Brits. The Cosmo room also had a little bar with additional fridge to the mini bar, so we packed that bitch with booze, mixers and fruit.
After Walmart we picked our friend up at the airport and got her showered and dressed ready for dinner. A few drinks at the Chandelier bar in the Cosmo, then over to Jaleo by José Andrés. I’m sure you’re seeing a theme with our booked restaurant choices, but José is consistently good. Jaleo was no exception. The paella was a touch disappointing this time, but the other dishes were amazing.
We drank a bit too much sangria, so kept the party going with drinks in Beauty and Essex. It may be a restaurant, but the little bar area also has seating for drinkers to watch the patrons come and go (and the pretty front of house ladies). It proved a great spot to people watch and enjoy their amazing cocktails.
After too many drinks, we retired to the room and enjoyed the view with more drinks and snacks on the balcony. That experience was priceless. The twinkling view of the Vegas madness far below our own intimate little party felt very special. We got pretty messy loving that very special moment, and eventually found the bed. After all, our friend had been up for nearly 35 hours. Hardcore!
Day 6.
To work off the punishment to our livers the night before, we hit the Cosmo gym. It is OK, and actually has a good number of heavy dumbbells. Many hotel gyms I’ve been to stop at around 60lbs but the Cosmo went way up to 100lbs weights. There were only two benches though, so I can see it being a problem when busy.
We got brunch at Lardo in the Cosmo Block 16 street food thingy. Great food, but three sandwiches, a coke, and one fries cost nearly $75! Fucking ridiculous. Street food prices these are not.
After nursing my abused credit card, we headed to The Range 702. We’d booked the Triple Threat package where you get to pick three guns of your choice with 25 rounds each. I shot a Colt, a P90 and an M4. The girls both opted for two handguns and an AK47. The automatic rifles were quite an experience. Loud and violent.
I have shot at The Strip Gun Club before and they were very attentive and let us take our time. Our shooting at 702 felt a little rushed in comparison. They have you shoot all your guns back to back, so for the girls especially they were a little beaten up after their sessions. It would be better to alternate shooters with each gun to give the wrists a rest, but hey, it was a noisy, blasty, shooty good time anyway.
After the blasting we went back to the Cosmo to get ready for our evening. This is where we again paid for wanting to wing it and not book too many things. All dressed up, we headed to the Bellagio because we wanted some drinks at Hyde to watch the fountains as the sun went down. It was booked out by a conference party. So we went to try at Spago. Same story. Booked out by conference weenies. We tried back at the Cosmo at the Chinese Mexican called China Poblano, but again the same fucking story! Booked out by conference weenies.
We said fuck it, went to the room, threw on our shorts and sneakers, and hit the strip for a dirty night. We walked the craziness with slushy margaritas and ended up at In-n-Out again. We had a burger and then went on a drunk hunt for pudding.
Ok. Let me make one thing clear. If you cover a cupcake or doughnut or cookie in enough frosting to choke a donkey, then it will just taste like frosting. And it seems like that’s all you can get at the quick and easy places on the Strip. Our failed pud-hunt brought us to Caesars. I remembered the Gordon Ramsey restaurant did a sticky toffee pudding. Somehow we got seating for three, even though we looked like we’d just been kicked out of a pool party.
I say somehow, but when we entered we could see why.
Gordon Ramsay’s Pub and Grill is the perfect metaphor for Vegas. I’ve eaten at two of Gordon's Michelin starred restaurants in London and one that didn’t have a star. They are all exquisite. Decor, food, service and the general experience all live up to his reputation for perfection. London is possibly the best place on earth for fine food. Gordon has to be on top of his game to make it there. And he does. Vegas he does not. Vegas is about churning out vaguely thematically relevant crap to the clueless for huge profit. Gordon’s Pub and Grill is hilarious. The theme is old English pub in the middle of a Roman themed casino. With TVs. Lots of TVs. It’s as if someone described a pub down the phone to the designer it’s that bad.
We had the corned beef poutine (not an English pub dish) and and the sticky toffee pudding (better). The poutine was terrible. Just fries with pastrami meat (not corned beef) and bad cheese. There was hardly any gravy. The pud was good though, but maybe that was because of a few sunk pints. It hit the spot and the size of it caused comment from the table beside us (who were eating burgers - sigh).
Anyway, after done there, back to the room for more balcony drinks and that view.
Day 7.
A quiet one today. Using the room credit we got a daybed at the Cosmo pool. The cabana bed thing is a $200 minimum spend. The $200 lasted us all day. We managed to eat well, with breakfast, other nibbles, and a few drinks reaching $200.
The pool is gorgeous and the attendants were very attentive (hence the name, I suppose).
By the time we’d spent our credit, it was nearly dinner o’clock.
Dressed up pretty, we headed to New York New York and got Shake Shack burgers. Tasty. Not quite In-n-Out good, but still better than anything in the UK. We played some giant jenga with some random people at one of the outside bars, then went to the Zumanity show.
Zumanity was great fun. Very naughty, funny, and the acrobatics were impressive. Well recommended. The boobies on show and the sexy theme got us ready for our next stop - the Palomino Strip Club.
My fiance and I had been to the Palomino the year before and we loved it. It is the only club in Vegas that does full nude and booze so it is a no-brainer to be number 1. Our friend had never been to strip club before, so that night was a special treat. We got a bottle service table at the runway with champagne and a stack of ones. It was spectacular pervy fun drinking, watching the girls, and chatting with them as they visited our table. We all got a few sofa dances and had a brilliant night. The girls were super attentive, really looked after my friend as it was her first time, and made us feel very special.
We got a drunk burger at In-n-Out (our last - I promise) and somehow made it back to the room alive
Day 8.
Our last full day. After the craziness of the night before, we slept in.
Brunch was at Mon Ami Gabi. Much like Gordon’s Pub, this place was a hilarious parody of a Parisian café. It was nice to sit outside and watch the Strip go by as I munched my lunch, but the food was pretty bad for the price.
After brunch we walked up the Strip past the Mirage and then over to the Venetian. The girls did some hard-core shopping while I made stupid comments, made their lives difficult, and generally didn’t help. I don’t like shopping, OK. Because I’m a child, they soon gave up. Back to the room for our last bookings of the trip. Yay.
After getting pretty, we hit the Skybar at the Waldorf Astoria (previously the Mandarin Oriental). Gorgeous views and really tasty cocktails.
We hit up Lemongrass for dinner without a booking because the Aria was next to the Waldorf. We ordered way too much food, so got most of it boxed up. We dumped it at the room, and then grabbed a cab to the Wynn for our last big destination.
We were on the guest list to see Afrojack at Intrigue. Great club. The line wasn’t too bad. About 30 minutes as they checked on everyone. My friend had a bit of an issue with her ID as it is an English driver's license, but she found a picture of her passport on her phone to confirm it was her. The girls both got two free drink vouchers and I got one (am I not pretty enough?).
The club was just my thing. It was not massive, but still big. The large outside area around the fire fountains and the waterfall was perfect to escape the heat and craziness of the dance-floor. We stayed for far too long given we had a 9 hour flight to catch the next day, but it was worth it. An amazing last night in an amazing city. Of course when we got back in we ate the rest of the Chinese food on the balcony.
Day 9.
One last (expensive-ass) Eggslut, and we were on our way home.
Thank you Vegas.

2001: A strong thunderstorm in Twentynine Palms caused property damage.
1989: Truckee recorded 1.21" of precipitation.
1989: One of the most severe convective outbreaks of record in Southern California began on 8/7 and continued until 8/11, when it climaxed.
Over 1" of rain hit Idyllwild on 8/9 and more than a 0.50" fell on Palm Springs on 8/10. 1989: Three days of widespread monsoon activity, on a level that hadn't been seen in SoCal and the Mojave Desert for several years, began.
The highest wind gust ever recorded in Las Vegas occurred on this date. Winds gusting to 90 mph were recorded at McCarran International Airport which received most of the damage. Forty two airplanes were damaged at McCarran while another 22 aircraft were damaged at Sky Harbor Airport in Henderson. Damage estimates reached $14 million. Also on this date, the most impactful storm occurred just west of Death Valley. Runoff from thunderstorms in the mountains resulted in two feet of mud to wash onto Highway 395 near Lone Pine, CA closing the highway for 12 hours. Just north and south of the junction of Highways 395 and 190, runoff from mountain thunderstorms covered the highways with water and mud. Flash Flood debris also found its way into the Los Angeles Aquaduct, producing a dam of debris that extended for nearly a mile.
1981: The high temperature at Portola was 107° F.
1981: It was 92° F in Big Bear Lake, the highest temperature on record for August. This also occurred on 8.25.1985 and on 8.29.1974.
1975: Mount Hamilton hit its all-time record high of 103° F.
1970: It was 100° F in Palomar Mountain, the highest temperature on record. This also occurred on eight other days.
​
1967: Las Vegas was hit by two storms which bore in from the south and covered a 50-square-mile area. Damage was estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Showboat Hotel on Boulder Highway was forced to close its casino, restaurant, and showroom when muddy floodwaters invaded through the kitchen doors, passed clearly through the large building and out the front doors. At Caesars Palace on the Strip, a casino boss said the water was deep enough in the front of the hotel to "swim in".
​
1965: A sudden thunderstorm dropped “several inches of rain” on the foothills south of Lucerne Valley. A flash flood covered a 50 foot wide canyon floor with 4' of water. 21 members of the Riverside Jeep Club were stranded as the club was in the canyon at the time. Three jeeps were demolished, one being swept 300 foot down the canyon.
​
1963: A heavy thunderstorm struck Victorville - Desert Knolls with 1.67" in two hours and Victorville with 0.81". No deaths or injuries occurred in the flash floods, but there were rescues of motorists. Some flooding was three feet deep in Apple Valley, 4-5 feet deep on Old Woman Springs Road.
​
1947: A heavy thunderstorm struck Needles, causing damage to highways and railroads, including Highway 66 (Old Route 66).
​
1936: The remnants of a tropical cyclone brought widespread light rain to the coast and valleys of Southern California; no major issues were reported.
​
1908: Fresno reached 113° F, tying an all-time record high for the month of August set on August 11, 1898.
Source: NWS San Francisco/Monterey, Hanford, Reno, Las Vegas, & San Diego

Like I mentioned in other posts, I began working on a retelling of JW three years ago and at the current state, it's around 500 pages long. According to my estimations, it will be finished this summer, the french version at least (I don't think I'm bad in English so the writing of an english version is not impossible for me, it will be quite a big undertaking however and help might be needed). I've shared a link on this subreddit months ago (topic : https://www.reddit.com/JurassicPark/comments/8ftjqo/a_link_to_the_first_two_thirds_of_my_novelform_jw/), where the first two acts of the story are featured (the first half of the third one have been completed on the meanwhile). Near the end of this month, I will put another link for the updated version of Act I, II and a big chunk of Act III (up to Chapter XV)
Here's are the main changes from the movie and some of its features :
- Increased length, more akin to an epic movie (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EpicMovie) than your average summer blockbuster.
- A more adult and darker tone, similar to Crichton novels or HBO's Westworld. While most of Act I is quite kid friendly with the park's visit and the characters introduction, the same can't be said for the latter parts of Act II and Act III in its entirety, espacially for some scenes of the latter due to their harsh nature.
- More accurate animals even though if the species introduced in the previous installments keep their appearence while the concept of different versions is discussed in one of the scenes.
- A larger cast and bestiary.
- A different esthetic for the park. While the most remote parts of it have a safari feel akin to what can be seen in Universal's Parks or Jurassic Park itself, the main hub is a ancient-looking city called Burroughs and whose architecture have heavy precolombian and Spanish revival style inspirations.
- Although it is mostly based on JW, it also includes some elements from Fallen Kingdom.
- A 3 Acts structure like I mentioned earlier, with a prologue set at the beginning of the construction of JW in the early 2000's and an epilogue heavily inspired by one of the original novel scenes.
​
Here's the list of the chapters :
PROLOGUE : THE END OF A REIGN
ACT I : JOHN HAMMOND'S LEGACY

• Chapter I : A Long Expected Journey
• Chapter II : The Eight Wonder of the World
• Chapter III : Panem Et Circenses
• Chapter IV : Sunset O'er Isla Nublar
• Chapter V : The Merry Iguanodon
• Chapter VI : A Dragon's awakening

ACT II : THE SHADOW OF NUBLAR

• Chapter VII : The Calm before the Storm
• Chapter VIII : From bad to worse
• Chapter IX : On the tracks
• Chapter X : A Feast for Vultures
• Chapter XI : The Ride of the Pegasus

ACT III : THE FALLEN KINGDOM

• Chapter XII : Storm over Burroughs
• Chapter XIII : The Board
• Chapter XIV : The Haunted Mountain
• Chapter XV : The Time of Wolves
• Chapter XVI : The Twilight of the Gods
• Chapter XVII : A Clash of Queens
• Chapter XVIII : Nothing will be forgotten

EPILOGUE
​
I wrote on one of the answers of another post that I will post on this subreddit summaries of the finished chapters. Today, I will publish the ones of the Prologue and Act I's chapters. The next ones should come later this month or in the next one.
But before reading them, I think it's better to have a look on this list of the characters I created for this story, to know who is who because some of them are mentioned in the summaries.
InGen Jurassic World employees Regina Powers, public relations director. Jonas, head zookeeper and curator of the large theropods. Lambert Ross, manager of the Merry Iguanodon. Neil Harrimann, control room technician. Ivan Preston, Wu’s most trusted genetician.
InGen Security (the slayers) Gregor Sherman, leader of the slayers. Damian Parker, the youngest of the slayers. Olivia Decker, Sherman's right hand woman. Paco Cortès, a Tun-Si. Nolan Olsen Reynald Faraci Kevin Leng
Board of directors Susan Lynton, vice president. Alistair Iger, public relations director and spokesman of InGen. Dominick Silverman, chief financial officer.
Grey Guard Nublar's garrison Gilbert Brunet, a french ex-mercenary who became a lieutenant in the Grey Guard. Nataliya Darbinian, the russian warrant officer of Brunet’s platoon. Leif Drekanson, a norwegian sergeant in Brunet’s platoon. Erin Laurence, an australian lieutenant. Duncan Glenmore, a scottish lieutenant. Patience Bellamy, an american sergeant in Brunet’s platoon. Julio Velasquez, a costarican recruit. Tamara Durant, an american recruit. Mei Tian, a chinese recruit. Gareth Turner, an english recruit. Ben Rahim, an egyptian recruit. Vincent Chapuy, a french corporal. Percy Baker, a jamaican corporal.
Five Death's garrisons Niall Forrester, a canadian private. Selma Forrester, a canadian private. Zhuge Yu, a chinese lieutenant.
Others Cassandra Landis, journalist.
​
Prologue : The End of a Reign
After an opening scroll describing what happened after the San Diego incident and explaining the reasons behind the construction of Jurassic World, the story opens in some misty tropical rainforest and we witness a boa constrictor being preyed upon by an harpy eagle. The bird brings its prey at the top of a large tree and begins to eat but suddenly, a helicopter emerges from the mist, flying very close to the canopy. Said helicopter is actually searching somekind of large creature in the jungle. When the shooter onboard spots its, he informs a ground team about this.
On the ground, a small group of vehicles (the same thant the one used by the hunters in TLW) drives quickly. From a cage which top one of the vehicles, Hoskins lead the operation. He orders his men to stop in a small meadow and to wait for the target which is coming in their direction. As their target, a very large animal, emerges from the jungle, he orders the activation of a ultrasound-producing box. As the animal is bothered by the ultrasound and flees, Hoskins get a glimpse of it while its tails brush past the top of the cage, their target is non other than an adult T.rex. Hoskins order his men to follow the dinosaur and to force him to head in a certain direction. A jeep gets too close to the jaws of the T.rex and angered, the animal rams the vehicle with his head and the jeep barely escape the attack but doing so, it rolls on a big root and crashes. Inside the helicopter, the hunter put darts in his rifle and aims at the T.rex as it is heading towards a field. He misses his shot the first time but as the dinosaur is now in the open, he has a clearer view and this time he succesfully manage to tranquilise the animal which roars. The vehicles exit the jungle and circles the dinosaur, preventing it to go back into the jungle and the hunters wait for the tranquilizer to act. The body of the dinosaur is then put into a large truck by a flying crane. The vehicles used in the hunt are parked next to the truck and the hunters are relaxing while a documentalist is filming them and the tranquilised T.rex. Hoskins congratulates his men for the successful capture. They leave the area, escorting the transport truck, while passing next to decaying electrical fences and driving on one of Jurassic Park’s roads, now partially covered by grass. The Convoy enter the Embrace, a large U-shaped Valley (where the Gallimimus Stampede was witnessed by Grant and the kids in JP), heading towards a tunnel dug in the mountains. They enter and the vehicle emerges in a forested area but as one part of the road was taken away by a landslide, the convoy leave the road and exit the forest. As they are crossing a hilly zone, the documentalist takes her camera to photograph the skeleton of a brachiosaur as the convoy drive past it. Another skeleton is half-sunked in a waterhole and the convoy head towards the south-east, driving past cliffs overlooking a river called the Cartago. A few minutes later, they arrives at a bridge spanning the Rio Iris gorge and pass a portal guarded by armed men. As they are heading towards their destination, they see workers building some construction at the top of a rocky spur. The convoy descends into a valley and arrives in a construction site extending over dozens of hectares where workers and cranes are being busy around the skeleton of large buildings or digging a giant mine-looking hole in the middle of the site. The vehicles split up and the transport truck heads towards a complex delimited by giants walls. While Hoskins is talking with a cheerful Masrani at the other end of the telephonic line, the T.rex is being put in a quarantine paddock connected to its future paddock, still under construction. Nothing seems to threaten Jurassic World's construction.
Night fall and work stop for the day. On a ridge north of the Rio Iris, a female proceratosaurus is watching the camp. She then journeys accross the island back to the lair of her clan, located in the decaying jurassic park visitor center. Among the labs, several nests were built and next to one of them, the mate of the proceraotsaure awaits and together, they watch the first eggs of their clutch hatch.
​
Chapter I : A Long Expected Journey
The chapter starts with Zach and Gray arrival in Costa Rica on the 23rd December 2017. They board into a bus at Juan Santamarià Airport in San José, travel to the Pacific Coast and stops at Caldera, a port near Puntarenas, where they enter into a ferry terminal owned by Ogen Cruiselines, one of Masrani’s Global subsidiaries. There, the two brothers board into the largest ship of the company’s fleet, a 200 m+ ferry named The Avalon. When it leaves the harbour, it’s around midnight and the journey to Nublar taking between six and seven hours, the boys spend the night in their cabin.
They awoke the following morning before dawn. As Gray is walking the Avalon’s promenade deck, the ship enters into a thick veil of mist and passes near huge tower-like rock formations. As passengers are gathering on the bow, Isla Nublar slowly appears. The Avalon follow the southern coast of the island northward, heading to the Ferry Terminals, between the coast and a mountain. The passengers disembarks and inside said building, they take a metro that drives them through the mountain overlooking the terminal. They exit the cave and stumble into a narrow pass between the mountain’s spurs. At the end of the pass, their way is blocked by a massive wall that looks straight out of King Kong in their eyes, with a huge gate at its center, flanked by two massive tyrannosaur heads sculpts. A recorded voice, provided in-universe by one certain famous sci-fi actress, greets the newly arrived guests as an orchestral music with choirs plays. The gate finally opens, letting the visitors enter into the park. Behind the gate is Hammond’s Plaza, whose name is drawn from the statue of John Hammond that stands at its center. While Zach meets Zara, Gray goes to the panoramic viewpoint at the end of the plaza, overlooking Burroughs and the 25 hectares lagoon around which the city was built but also giving a view on a large part of the island, including the Cartago Valley, the Misty Monts and, at the northern end of the island, Mont Sibo.
​
Chapter II : The Eighth Wonder of the World
After they drop their luggage at their aunt’s house, the boys are bringed by to the Eastern Boardwalk. Since they have to met Claire in the volcano-shaped Discovery Center, they must take said boardwalk and Richard Owen Avenue, both featuring quite a number of shops and restaurants. As they walk in the busy avenue, the crowd in front of them make way to somekind of old-fashioned tramway but instead of being drawn by horses like in Disneyland, they are by mantellisaurs. Stepping out of the mantellisaurs and carriage’s way, they proceed and reach the Obelisk Plaza, cross it and reach the stairs leading to the bronze gates of the Discovery Center, guarded by two life-size giraffatitans stone statues. Entering the building, they head to the spacious rotunda, which main feature is a huge squatch field sized model of Isla Nublar. Claire arrives, chatting with two of her colleagues about the press conference scheduled for the same morning and complaining about a certain Henry. Once the conversation is done, she greets her nephews and talks briefly with them, telling them that since she will be busy all day, she is the park director after all, Zara will watch over them.
Following Claire’s advices, the brothers begins their tour by the zoo. They visit the Children’s Zoo, encountering and feeding with a special kind of granule avimimi, kunbarassaurs, hypsilophodonts and the juveniles of the largers herbivores that populate other attractions, including young ceratopsians which children can ride like shetland ponies ; have a glimpse of a presentation show where a zookeeper feeds a dimorphodon with mice ; passes next to the pachyrhinosaurs enclosure and walks after straight ahead to the Tyrannosaur’s Kingdom. As Gray watch the T.rex feeding, he notices that Zach is texting and Zara is on her phone, seeming to not pay attention the superpredator that is in front of their eyes, underlining the idea that watching live prehistoric creatures have became an experience not too dissimlar from watching a movie in 3D or riding a rollercoaster. This serves as a good transition to the beginning of the next chapter.
​
Chapter III : Panem Et Circenses
We come back to Claire as she is in the middle of the press conference that was mentioned earlier, It’s purpose is to discuss about the future of Jurassic World, including the development of its franchise (two others parks are planned to be built in Mediterranea and Southern China) and the direction that the Isla Nublar park will take. She mentions the phenomena of the normalization of cloned prehistoric animals in modern society, explaining that millions of people have seen them live at least once in their lifetime since the opening of Jurassic World, they are all over the internet, and InGen is selling animals to zoos and aquarias worldwide. That brings her to pretend that they need something very unique for their next new attraction, a man-made dinosaur species : The Indominus rex. In a short video, the attraction name is revealed : The I.rex Colosseum, scheduled to open in July 2018. Claire turns to Wu and he answers some of the journalists questions before playing an explanatory video featuring Mr DNA and himself in which they delivers a vulgarization of the process that aims to create entirely new species from scratch. The conference proceeds and ends around 11 a.m.
Leaving the Discovery Center like all the attendants to the conference, Claire brings along with her the envoys of a potential sponsor and they drive out of Burroughs, passing near the Administration building, sitting on the top of a rocky spur like a fortress or a monastery, before entering into a canyon that leads to an helipad at the base of a tall waterfall, the same one that was used in the time of Jurassic Park. Claire and the envoys waits there for the helicopter that will take them to the Colosseum and it lands shortly after. They notice that Simon Masrani is flying the aircraft, he greets them and Claire, surprised by his unexpected visit. They take off and the helicopter then heads north-east first, flying over apatosaurs and corythosaurs drinking in the Rio Iris gorges as one of the Jungle Cruise boats floating down the river and later, in the middle of the Cartago river, a group of baryonyx feasting on the arapaimas that zookeepers on the upper deck of one of the boats are feeding to them. They then bypass the Cartago Aviary, the largest in the whole world, encompassing over twenty hectares and being 200 meters tall at the top of its geodesic dome, and housing several pterosaurs species like geosternbergia, rhamphorhynchus and tupandactylus in a spectacular lush gorge and waterfalls environment. After a passage near the northern summit of the Misty Monts, the helicopter turns west, fly over a group of therizinosaurs, and enters the Embrace (a.k.a Kaaawa Valley for those familiar with the saga’s filming locations) where they see some safari trucks and herds of several dinosaurs, including dryosaurs, gallimimi, triceratops, parasaurolophuses and two mamenchisaurs near which the envoys sees a small group of riders wearing dark green-grey uniforms and watching over the dinosaurs and groups of tourists in the trucks. Masrani turns north and flies over one of the mountainous range encompassing the valley, heading first towards Mount Sibo. As they behold the desolate landscape at the volcano’s foot, one of the envoy ask Claire if they fear the effects of an eruption. She reassure them by saying they have taken every precaution recommended by the consulted volcanologists (i.e digging trenches to prevent fluid lava flows from reaching key installations), that a minor eruption in 2006 have actually attracted people on the island, and telling them that the volcano provides over sixty pourcent of their energy through the geothermal power plant. She points the Colosseum and Masrani lands shortly after on the margins of the construction site.
They joins at its entrance Claire’s colleagues, Wu and the journalists. As they all heads towards the enclosure itself, not located in the colloseum which is only the show area but located further away, encompassing a cirque, Claire and Masrani talks about the conflicts Park Management have with the Grey Guard, saying that if they have delays it’s because of them. The group then meets with Jonas, head zookeeper and large theropods curator, and while he talks to it about the enclosure and its denizen, Claire goes to see what captain Katashi Hamada, the commanding officer of the Grey Guard’s garrison on Nublar and who was waiting for them alongside Jonas, wants from her. Once again, he ask the park director about the large security bunkers needed according to him and his colleagues in case of large-scale disaster. She tells him that they will see that after the press tour and she comes back to the group who has spotted howler monkeys in the enclosure. They are scattered away by a roar from the I.rex. The chimera dinosaur stay hidden behind the thick vegetation of the enclosure. Masrani asks about the second specimen cloned and Claire answers that she was devoured by her sister. The I.rex being the subject of some not-so pleasing surprises, Masrani worries a bit and asks her about Owen Grady’s opinion on the matter. The press tour of the colosseum concludes with a test showing. Masrani, Claire, the envoys and Wu take place in the vip lodge as the groups sit on regular bleachers. Amovible walls and roof began to move, obscurating the sunlight and plunging the arena in total darkness. A portcullis is lift up, letting the I.rex enters the arena. Spotlights project the I.rex shape on the audience.
We cut to the achillobators training scene. It plays very much like in the movie and just like in it, it’s followed by a debate between on one side Owen and Barry, and on the other Hoskins but here, informations on competition existing between InGen and other biotech companies are given (Among other things, a safari park housing animals from the ice age and situated near Toula in Russia is mentioned). During the conversation, Owen receives a text message from Claire, asking where and when she can meet him later in the evening. Again like in the movie, Leon falls from the walkway into the enclosure, albeit in a different manner, but in this version, Owen orders him to stay behind him and they slowly back away from the raptors, following behaviours and gestures that are adopted by nature guides in Africa when confronted to lions and other dangerous game. Owen and Leon manage to leave the enclosure unharmed but the former reprimand the latter, telling him to show himself more cautious the next time before asking him to pay his and Barry’s beers in the evening as a retribution. Hoskins muses about the way Grady managed to have, in his eyes, control over the achillobators.
​
Chapter IV : Sunset O'er Isla Nublar
Claire, Masrani and co returns to Burroughs where an contract with the envoys is signed. Before going back to her office, claire pass by the control room for a daily checking. She have a debate with Lowery about the I.rex and the sponsoring around her.
Zach and Gray attends the mosasaur feeding show and once it’s over, as the bleachers brought them down below the lagoon surface, they meet up with Zara and visit the oceanarium, made of not only the mosasaur lagoon but also other lagoons that together forms the big lagoon, separated from one another by barrier reefs that converges towards an underwater mountain located at the very center of the lagoon called Mount Thetis, which houses aswell the submarine tour base. After walking through subaquatic tunnels and viewing galleries, the trio goes back to the surface and passes in front of the nothosaurs enclosure. While Gray is petting henodus in a touching pool (similar in design to the ones that exists in many aquarias and marine animals parks over the world), Zach gets a phone call from their mother, Karen.
After being told by Zach that Claire is not with them, Karen phones then to her half-sister, then working in her office, and they argue about this and other family matters. They coldly ends the conversation and Claire decides to go out on the attenant balcony to relax herself, overlooking Burroughs as she drinks sips of some alcohol glass.
Near 5 p.m, Wu arrives at the hilltop Masrani’s hacienda and him and the indian billionaire talks about the day, with Masrani’s preasing the indominus and Wu’s efforts. They then sits in the terrace and drinks tea as the sun sets and dinosaurs come to drink at a nearby lake. The two soon have a conversation about Wu’s proposal to update some of the oldest species cloned by InGen and begin to slowly replace the old versions individuals by others from new and more scientifically-accurate versions (a scene which is very inspired by the version 4.4 chapter from Crichton’s novel where Wu and Hammond discusses on the same subject). Both debate, with Masrani showing himself reluctant and saying that reaching scientific accuracy is nothing but delusion since new discoveries will make current representions obsolete, making the pursuit of this ideal a never-ending race. Once their conversation on that subject is over, they drink to the park’s prosperity and the future success of the I.rex as an attraction.
In the I.rex enclosure, an old howler monkey is left behind by his troop. As he tries to flee, the I.rex catches and eat it.
Chapter V : The Merry Iguanodon
>! Night has fallen over Isla Nublar but while the animals areas had been closed for most of them, the park is not yet devoid of activity, far from it as both guests and employees goes to dine and entertain themselves in Burroughs restaurants, bars and other leisure places for the evening. Claire is dining with her nephews in the Winston’s steakhouse. While Gray is in the toilets, Claire tells Zach about her conversation with their mother. When they exit the restaurant, Claire ask Gray if he wants to go to the cinema but he declines, saying that he is tired, but the oldest of the brothers that he will stay a bit longer in the area and ask her aunt if there is some nice bar there. She recommends the Merry Iguanodon, where she have to meet Owen a bit later. As Claire bring Gray back to her house, Zach wanders around the Obelisk Plaza, the large pond east of the Discovery Center, the facilities located under the Grand Nublarian Hotel overlooking said pond (among them there is a casino and a cinema multiplex), the Eastern Boardwalk. Following Claire’s indications, he founds the Merry Iguanodon tavern and enters it. Zara bump into him there and she apologizes for the distant behaviour she had with the brothers. Lowery and Vivian, who are friends with Zara, arrives and Zara asks Zach if he wants to join them. He accept and while heading towards them, they pass next to Leon, who is telling his fellow interns his near-death experience with the achillobators. Barry appears in his back and reminds him that he must pay two beers. Leon complies, brings the beers at Owen and Barry’s table and takes his leave from them. The two zookeepers then talks about the potential reasons behind Claire’s need to talk to Owen. Claire arrives in time and she and Owen go outside, while her assistant, the two control room technicians and Zach discretly watches them. After losing a game, Zara have tell to Zach the story of Claire and Owen’s secretive but intense relationship. !<
While talking about Masrani’s request, Claire and Owen goes to the lower terrace and stops there, as a sound and light show takes place on the previously mentioned pond. They end up arguing a bit about the flingy relationship they had a couple of years earlier but they soon focuses back to the inspection requested by Masrani and agrees on a rendezvous time at the colosseum for the following morning, when the I.rex will be subject to an operation whose purpose is to implant into her a new tracking implant. They wish a good evening to eachother and Claire leaves. We come back to Zach, Zara, Lowery and Vivian as they still talk about the latter three’s boss affair with the raptor’s whisperer.
Hamada and two other guards, the Forrester couple, arrives after and go upstrair in a separated room where a non-negligeable part of Nublar’s garrison are off-duty and relaxing. While Hamada sits with the other officers and join them in their game of cards, the two Forresters go to meet the five recruits that incorporated the guard this year. One of them being the niece of a lieutenant stationed in the Five Deaths, they pass her uncle’s greetings to her. Hamada tells his colleagues that Claire informed him that it will be a no for the bunkers he recommanded. The other officers are disappointed and displeaded by the news. After a game of darts, the Forresters and the recruits sits and the couple tells them more about the Five Deaths and the reasons that push soldiers and forces of order members from all over the world to serve in the Grey Guard. The manager of the Merry Iguanodon, Lambert Ross, enters the room and asks what Hamada and the Forresters want to drink. They order but when a waiter arrives with the drinks, a tremor. Being of small to medium magnitude, it’s not strong enough to do any signficant damage and Central America being quite a geologically active region, most of the people on the island aren’t that worried despite being surprised. However, when Roberta unleashes a powerful but plaintive roar, echoeing in all of Burroughs and its valley, Hamada worries since the T.rex didn’t do the same thing before the 2006 small eruption. Sharing with the others the signs they witnessed (odd behaviour from the wildlife and the park’s denizens, worrisome readings coming from the Geothermal Power Plant…), many guards fears than a larger eruption is set to happen soon. Durant, one of the recruits, think it will be the end of the island but Glenmore reassures her by saying that the Sibo isn’t the Santorini’s volcano, Mt St Helens or the Krakatoa while another guard, an amerindian costarican who knows a lot about Nublar’s history, mentions that despite having entering into eruption several times across history, Nublar didn’t exploded or sank into the ocean, and that the only victims of the Sibo were spanish settlers who built their colony, San Fernandez, a bit too close from the volcano. Said colony was destroyed at the end of the 16th century and it being located not too far from where the I.rex Colloseum is being built, the officers fear that the trench whose purpose is to protect the attraction from any lava flows will not be completed in time, making the evacuation of the I.rex a possibility. The I.rex having a bad reputation among the guards, some states that they will let her die if that happen and rants about the Park Management desire to display the largest and viciousest beasts that they can make because they are the one who attracts people on the island. Lambert tells them that Masrani and Park Management have became too confident over time and that most park executives ignores what exactly had to be made to make Isla Nublar safe again. He reveals to the recruits that he worked before as an henchman for InGen Security. He narrates the aftermath of Roberta’s capture, stating that this event wroke havoc among the already fragile ecosystem of Nublar by allowing the smaller carnivores, whose populations were kept in check by the T.rex, to multiply and eat all the herbivores that weren’t captured before turning themselves to the most abundant kind of meat on the island, manflesh. Lambert tells that one night, a horde of proceratosaurs raided InGen’s camp, killing many people and snatching others, This attack marked the beginning of a series of conflicts opposing InGen to the feral predatory dinosaurs : The Saurian War. During that « war », Lambert was badly wounded (he limps and have one eye hidden behind an eyepatch) and spended the rest of the it in an hospital bed. His wounds were inflicted by one of the infamous three gorgons, a trio of dilophosaurs, whose venom half-blinded him. Aside from the three gorgons who were shot after weeks of tracking and some of the herrerasaurs who were captured and integrated into Jurassic World collection, Lambert ignores what happend precisely to the proceratosaurs. Some of them were indeed captured aswell to be put for the rest of their lives in the quarantaine paddocks and still lives but they were only a fraction of their population. How InGen Security dealt with the others is still a mystery and all related informations are classified. After telling his story, Lambert leaves and the guards goes back to what they were doing before the tremor.
Chapter VI : A Dragon's awakening
>! Near half past seven on the morning of Christmas Eve, Lowery goes to work on his bicycle while humming the main theme of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. He is the first of the control room’s day team to arrive and when Vivian and the rest of his colleagues arrives, he talks with her and some of them about their plans for the evening. Meanwhile, the I.rex is being tranquilised.!<
We then follows Owen as he drives north on his motorbike, towards the Colosseum. He arrives there and meets up with Claire. They enter the construction site and while theye enter the Colosseum and climbs the bleachers, they talk about the I.rex genetic composition and Owen can’t help but to make fun of many things concerning the chimera dinosaur before warning Claire about the ethical drifts that the I.rex creation can create and the fact that they don’t exactly know how her physiology works (they talk mainly about the choosen amount of tranq administrated to the I.rex with Owen stating the same thing that Muldoon says in the novel concerning the amount of tranquiliser to choose with large animals). They arrive near the entrance of the surveillance room, guarded by Darbinian, where he must join Jonas and some of the guards (Brunet, Tian and Velasquez in addition to Darbinian) to start the inspection, wish to eachother merry christmas and he heads to the room. Darbinian lets him pass and he finds Jonas and Brunet finishing their breakfast and the two forementioned recruits drinking coffee. He greets them and as he is pouring himself some coffee, Darbinian teases him about the rumors concerning his relationship with Claire. Owen then asks Jonas and Brunet how the I.rex is and they answers by listing some negative adjectives. Once they are ready, Brunet orders Darbinian to stay in the room and Tian and Velasquez to come with them. They goes down to the I.rex lair where Owen sees gnawed-on bones. Jonas explains him that when the I.rex is fed carcasses, she took them to the lair where she rapidly eat them before gnawing the bones during hours. He leaves Owen and the guards to the inspection and goes to the holding area, where the I.rex is being operated in her indoor enclosure.
The veterinarian administrate the I.rex, whose body is covered with a surgical drape, an anesthetic at the base of the neck, where the tracking device is to be implanted. But as he is ready to cut the skin and the flesh there, he notices that they left the needed hand circular saw in their ambulance. One of his two assistants proposes himself to go to the ambulance and bring it back.
Owen and the guards arrive to the enclosure wall and sees the claws marks on the wall. They tell him that the I.rex often does this, sometimes in front of the guards standing in the miradors, like if she wanted to provock them that way. They head to the wooded area of the enclosure.
As she is looking over the I.rex health record, the assistant that remained with the vet shares with him her concerns, stating that the weight she gaine and her current appetite is abnormally higher from what they expected. The vet ask her if she thinks the I.rex is pregnant before saying it’s ridiculous. They mention the eggs found in the ruins of Jurassic Park during the 1994 expedition and the consequences of the inclusion of west african frog DNA inside the dinosaurs genomes. The assistant brings the idea that the potential offspring of the I.rex might be the result of a parthenogenetic process and adds that since Wu didn’t reveal the integrality of the I.rex genomic composition, they don’t know if he made another mistake by including the DNA of some species able to reproduce itself through parthenogenesis. The vet reassures her assistant by promising her they will do the necessary tests the next month if that can take away her concerns.
In the wooded part of the enclosure, Owen finds a howler’s monkey paw and deduces that it was devoured by the I.rex. Tian wonder why the I.rex had done that since monkeys are way too small to be considered as suitable preys for a dinosaur of her size. Owen answers by stating that she doesn’t do that to feed herself, but in a distraction purpose. He then recapitulates everything they have seen until now and admits to the guards that he is against displaying the I.rex to the public. Brunet proposes him that they go the indoor enclosure to see how things are going there and he agrees.
His other assistant had return on the meanwhile with the hand circular saw on the meanwhile, the vet begin to cut the I.rex skin with but suddenly, a malfunction in the ventilation creates a strong draft that sends sheets flying all over the place. The same assistant that brought back the saw is charged by the other to pick them all. He does this but the other assistant tells him that one of the sheet had slid under the drape, next to their patient head. The assistant goes under the drap and notices that the sheet went under the jaws. He tries to lift them up and not without efforts, he manages to pull the sheet out but after he launched a scream of satisfaction, he hears the I.rex opening one of her eyes. Paralysed by fear, he tries to move or scream to warn his colleagues but can’t do it properly and the I.rex raise her upper lip, revealing her rows of teeth. He finally screams and the vet makes out for the door but a tail swing push him to the ground. One of the zookeepers that was watching the operation at the other side of the enclosure heavy railings, rushes to a panel on the wall to push an alarm button, warning everyone in the vicinity and the control room at the other end of the island. The other assistant rushes to pull out her colleague far as possible from the I.rex head but when she grabs him, the chimera closes her jaws around the lower half of his body, letting the upper half to his victim’s colleague who screams in terror and panicks. While the drap is still covering her, the I.rex stands up. The vet put himself quickly on his feet but seeing that the I.rex stands between him and the man-sized gate in the railing, he exits the enclosure right into the tunnel that connects the arena to the enclosures and taken before by the assistant when he went outside, rushing to the door at is other end. When the zookeepers came back with electroshocking ammo rifles, he is too far away to be within earshot. Grady and the guards arrive aswell and the first go inside the enclosure to get the remaining assistant out of there as Jonas and another zookeeper, standing between the gate and the I.rex, shot on the exposed body parts of the predator. She repels the two zookeepers out the enclosure with a tail blow and swiftly turns, making the medical devices attached to her flies over Owen and the assistant who are forced to crouches down to avoid getting hit, before closing the gate and ramming it with her head to break it and trap Owen and the assistant with her. The two runs to the tunnel, heading towards the same normal-sized gate to which the vet headed. The latter had arrived before it but as he is looking for the keys that open it, he reminds that he gave to the assistant who still had them when the I.rex ripped him in half. The beast roaring at the two humans that are running away from her, the vet fears for his life and through a panel, opens a larger gate in which the small one is integrated and big enough to let trucks pass through. But as he flees outside, he forgets to engage the closing process. Seeing this, Brunet contacts the control room and orders the technicians to close it but Lowery, fearing that he will trap Owen and the assistant by doing so, heavily hesitate. However, the closing process is still engaged. A CCTV footage that Darbinian has done this from the surveillance room in the Colloseum. Owen and the assistant are still running but suddenly the latter collapses on the ground, with a lot of blood pouring out of a wound on her throat. Wondering how the I.rex was able to inflict said wound from a distance, Owen accelerates and rushes out of the tunnel as the door is almost closed. Outside of the facility, a large veil of mist covers the parking and Owen goes to hide under a tipper truck as the door is about to break under the I.rex assaults. Knowing that the I.rex could easily find him because of his scent, Owen cut a pipe and pours fuel all over him. The gate finally fall and the Indominus walk on the parking but the mist is so thick that Owen sees only her feet when she passes near him. The indominus pick the vet scent, who is hiding behind the Veterinary Services ambulance, and as she silently gets closer to him, Owen has only a glimpse of her general shape. When she is close enough of the vet, she brutally throw the ambulance on its side and stand over her screaming prey before shutting up her prey by closing her monstrous jaws on him. Owen stays still under the truck, praying not to be found, but suddenly gunshots are fired, scaring away the I.rew which flees and disappear into the jungle. Once he thinks it’s safe enough to get out, Owen screams to let his presence be known and crawl away from the truck. The guards, zookeppers and J-SEC agents arrives and Brunet asks Owen in which direction the I.rex went before telling the garrison that they have work to do.
​
Don't hesitate to tell me what you think about it and I will gladly answer to any question.
​