Sunday, September 4, 2011

Escape From Sin City

Unfortunately, I did not get thrown in jail.

Unfortunately, Las Vegas needs a big detention facility for its serious, accidental, and notorious criminals.

It's the Clark County Detention Center and it's huge.

Apparently O.J. Simpson is there.

But the young man running the security station has a ten year old daughter who is into reading mysteries, so when I told him who I was and why I was trying to get into jail he was all over helping us.

In a sometimes confused, is-this-reality-you're-talking-or-are-you-making-this-up? sort of way.

Poor guy. I do talk about my characters like they're real.

Anyway, I found out some important information, even though it was from outside the holding tank. (Which is as far as a 13 or 14 year old will be allowed to get anyhow.)

(Go ahead, pick a character. Any character.)

(Well, okay, not Hudson. He's 73. I mean any character of appropriate age. You know.)

And then, as luck would have it, across the street from the cagey CCDC--a mere parking lot away--we spotted a wedding chapel.

With a drive through window!

I squealed, I was so excited. Mark and I were with another couple who had flown in to Las Vegas to join us on this adventure. I'll call them Bill and Loraine to protect their identities. (After all, no one would guess that I'd use their real names right? I mean, if I said I was making up names, that's what I'd be doing, right? Right.)

Anyway, Bill and Loraine are fans of the Bellagio (as are many of you apparently!) and Cirque du Soleil shows--you know, the more high end stuff. I warned them that this wasn't going to be a high-end excursion. That we were there to check out bad shows, tacky wedding chapels, forbidden corridors, and the jail.

Loraine couldn't wait.

So when I spotted the wedding chapel, she squealed, too. And then we dragged the men to this drive-through facility and got an awesome tour of the inside of the chapel. You can get married in the little room downstairs. Or a churchy looking big one upstairs. Or on the rooftop! With Astroturf and a little arch bridge. (The photographers blue-screen out the CCDC in the background. for no extra charge.)

And, if you want, Elvis can marry you.

Loraine and I came away from our extensive chapel tour thinking that it was actually a lot nicer than a drive-by facility first seemed.

The boys just wanted to get out of there!

Speaking of Elvis--we ran into a few of those (as you can see from the picture). They all wear that white getup. And, yeah, that little Elvis cracked me up. It would be interesting to know his story.

We saw bad shows, got nosy in back corridors, took tons of pictures, and had the good fortune of asking the right person to show us around behind stage at a club. There were all sorts of rooms, offices, VIP sections, sky boxes, and loading docks that I had no clue existed. From the front the venue looks almost small, but as you probably already know, nothing's small in Vegas.

(Well, except that one Elvis impersonator.)

So it was a very fruitful trip and I'm excited to get Sammy off the plane and into Las Vegas's McCarran Airport (which we also took lots of pictures of). And even though I'm pretty sure I won't be using all the information I gathered, it's better to have too much than not enough. Especially since I'm not a fan of Sin City and have no desire to go back.

Unless maybe it's to the Bellagio.

Still. How could staying at a posh hotel compare to a Sammy Keyes romp through the city?

Watch out Las Vegas, here she comes!

10 comments:

N3WYORKD3VIL said...

Detention facility. When they put it like that it sounds nicer. Even though my friend was stuck in hat place for a whole week for no reason.

Ooh! I'll marry Elvis! Then we can go over to the detention facility and do the Jailhouse Rock. Wow, I'm corny. And anxious. I have to wait so long for this. And I was just wondering if Heather would be there to mess something up. Of course, I was in the library with my brother and it just popped into my head. Then my brother brought over a book and demands that I read it to him.

In the middle of the Cat in the Hat, I shout "Dude what if Nolan and Sammy switched archenemies!"

I didn't even KNOW where that came from and I almost got kicked out of there. I was just thinking what if Shredderman had to deal with Heather and Sammy with Bubba? And I started laughing cuz Bubba wouldn't DARE mess with Sammy after she did what she did to Heather.

I'm going so random these days. I was just thinking about that all week after your last post. And my brother was none too happy about me shouting random stuff when the Cat in the Hat was bringing out Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Ohmygosh. Sammy in VEGAS. It's gonna be FUN :)

sammy4ever said...

SAMMY GOES ON A PLANE?! OUR LITTLE GIRL IS GROWING UP!!!!
I loved this post. Oh, Las Vegas.
If you want, Elvis can marry you!
A DREAM COME TRUE.

The Seventh-Born Chronicles said...

My name is Rachel Flores, I'm 20 years old, and I love your Sammy Keyes books with a passion.
Seriously. Since the seventh grade (appropriately enough). So I am super, super, duper excited for not only Night of the Skulls, now I'm even MORE excited for the Whatever of Justice Jack (just to prove I have been reading the blog and not just skimming).
Sammy Keyes in Las Vegas? Good Lord, I'm not sure Hollywood has recovered from Sammy yet. Las Vegas doesn't stand a chance. ;)

Ryan said...

Can we start throwing out names for this book yet? Sammy Keyes and the Vice in Las Vegas? =)

I really need to change my profile picture. I think it looks a little creepy whenever I see it on your blog. =)

-- Ryan

g said...

hahahaha that sounds like so much fun! hahaha the little elvis was a crack up! loved the post as usual :)
glad to hear you had a good time.

- GwyMaLaur

Mel said...

Oh man. Still worried about Sammy being in Vegas. At least she won't be alone, that's for sure. Now, the only question is who is actully joining her in Vegas...hmm. Glad you made it out of Sin City alright! See you next week!

Alexa said...

haha well I'm curious to see what kind of trouble Sammy can stir up in Vegas! A drive-through wedding chapel??? What's the drive-through window for??? haha well very interesting to hear about your trip to Las Vegas!
-Lexa

bookworm said...

Wow, I am so excited for the book already. I have it marked on my calendar and everything. :D (for SK14).

Hey hey hey, how about a sneak peek, he he he he he............................. :)

Raisa Karim said...

Honestly, from the heart, this and the last post are the MOST INTERESTING posts I've read YET.

Anonymous said...

Sammys going to Vegas!:D
How exciting!Now,more than anything,I want to be a writer.
I've always wondered how authors came up with their spectacular ideas; Now I know!Aside from all the things that needed done,did you have a great time?
Great post!(:
Abagayle.