TR: Las Vegas/Calico Ghost Train/Sunset Strip (2/11-2/13/2008)

This should be longish, but hey, whatever.

————————————

Another night spent at Chris Murray’s house was welcome, but with the rise of the sun came another morning of BK breakfast as we ventured east into the desert. No real plan was in place for the next few days apart from our Tuesday afternoon appointment. The drive through the desert is always a great one: Its big, its beautiful, there’s no civilization for miles, and there’s random shit on the way. We did several geocaches on this drive and had a blast trying to find them. There were also a pair of stops for amusements:

TR: SPEED Opening Weekend (4/29-5/1/2000)

Here you go, ultra-fast. Ride is great, possibly the best shuttle loop in the world. Smoothest Premier to date, and it grew on ACEers in attendance. A camera crew also visited, and provided 4 free rides on Big Shot. A huge thanks to Sahara Hotel and NASCAR Cafe for their hospitality, and a thanks to the unreal and blazingly fast ride crew. Easily the best in Nevada.

(Editor’s Notes, AKA a real TR, 11 years after:

This trip came about because my mom and my pseudostepfather had never been to Vegas before and because hey, there was a brand new coaster and an opportunity to ride it. And it was cheap. Even then, $289 RT to Vegas was pretty impressive, red eye flights or not, and less than two weeks prior to the opening, we were booked and going. It was that short a turnaround. As I will do many, many times in trip reports in the future, its amazing that my mom was willing to do this sort of thing, but then again, it isn’t like she didn’t enjoy herself.