LAS VEGAS

I believe this is Acidburn's selection for her second place prize. It's not brilliant, but it's not bad either. My favourite purchase was made in LA - which is a Sylar-like jacket. I love it!

The other half of Pngaou's piece: Mr Bennet is coming, but I'm unhappy with his likeness. I think his head's too fat. So when I get a second I will redo it.

I'm totally nose to the grindstone drawing a Mohinder Heroes story. After that, straight onto Zero G.

But more about the trip:

Las Vegas was the most regimented and planned part of the trip. It was the shortest visit: 3 days. It was a military strike planned by Mitch involving a helicopter lunch in the Grand Canyon, a visit to the Hoover Dam ("Where's Megatron kept?"), and copious amounts of shopping.

At the last minute in San Diego, JAn joined us. He was going to spend the time in LA with Lauren Perry (our uber editor) and her boyfriend, (and my art director), Chris Moreno. Then JAn decided that he probably won't get another opportunity anytime soon to see the great wonders made by man and nature.

Ironically, it was his presence that ruined any plans to see any of these things.

JAn motivated us to so much drinking, I pretty much didn't see sunlight for three days.

The first night we got into Vegas late. 11pm I think. We decided that we needed to do as much drinking on the strip as possible. We started our voyage at the MGM Grand ($35 per round) and made our way up to the Wynn (the casinos preceding the Wynn managed to get the rounds down to about $13 each). Our defeat came at the hands of an ambush of alcoholic slurpees. It was only the next day that we found out that there's 5 shots in a regular sized cup. That accounted for the Good Ship Team Clusterfrak's running aground at the Wynn.
Here's Simbo (ass-wards) and JAn after a 5 shot slurpee having run heedless across 8 lanes of traffic to pose with Sigfreid and Roy. I'm amazed my hand was steady enough to take this shot.

When we returned to the MGM, Simbo brought documents from his room. He looked around the sorry crew. His barely focusing eyes fixed on me, as I was the least drunk as I had passed on the first few rounds of Jaegers. He ran up to me and shook me violently, "Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"

He produced the car rental documents. We had to get the car back before 11am the next day. I looked at the clock. 6am. I knew that I had to be out the door by 10am if I wanted to have a fighting chance of getting the car back.

What should have taken 1 hour, took 3. The GPS didn't work, so I spent a great deal of time circumnavigating ever-expanding rings around the MGM Grand - following suspect directions from a valet. A gas station attendant and some blind luck later found me at the airport. Another hour and I had extricated myself from the tedious incompetence of the rental place. A further hour and I was seated at the buffet at the MGM Grand.

JAn came down first. I was surprised. He had easily drunk the hardest. A bright smile and he started the day with a champagne and orange juice. Simbo came down next, looking a little pale, but had definitely survived the first night. Mitch came down. He was grey. He shuffled his immense frame into the chair next to JAn's. He turned to JAn and looked him dead in the bloodshot eyes, "I respect you. But you have a problem."

Apparently Mitch had thrown up in the bathtub as he didn't trust his aim with the toilet.

Highlights of Vegas included:

1. Ka: The epic martial arts inspired Cirque De Soleil show was the best $100 I have and probabl ever will spend. It was mind blowing. It was so beautiful and incredible what these performers were doing, and how it was conceived, that I almost teared up as my mind exploded.

2. Drinking: We drank everywhere. The Strip. Fremonte st. Circus Circus. New York New York. Luxor and some places I really can't remember.

3. The Star Trek Experience: I'm not a huge Trek fan, but you HAVE to go. Simbo and JAn, even less a Star Trek fan than I, ran straight back around the queue to do it again. It is so well written and well done, we were quite taken aback. The Star Trek themed restaurant (Quark's) had some fantastic food and thematically belligerent Klingons.

4. Shopping: I didn't want to see the Hoover Dam or the Grand Canyon. A big wall and a big hole in the ground as far as I was concerned. I had recently discovered my sense of fashion and wanted to exercise my metrosexual muscles. The hour and a half I had to shop was a definite highlight. God... I'm sounding less and less hetero by the day...

5. Shooting: I'm kinda terrified how three guys (JAn, Simbo and I - Mitch had left) who had never held a gun in our lives were kitted out with an M-16, a H&K MP 5, and three pistols: a glock, a .45 and a beretta within 2minutes of my credit card clearing. It was a lot of fun. I've decided I like pistols best.
Here are the boys doing their little bit for the war on terror.

6. Drinking: It's on the list twice cos we did so much of it.

NEXT: LA - the conclusion of our trip. Clubbing. Drinking. Nocturnal encounters.