Vegas Vacation

VEGAS VACATION!

 

In 1995 (or 1996 I forget) Me and Eileen went to Las Vegas for a vacation.  Pete (friend of ours) decided he wanted to fly up and join us.   Pete had always wanted to see Hoover dam.   I had already been there a couple of times on previous trips, and was kinda "Meh" about taking the time to drive out to the damn dam yet again.     Pete REALLY wanted to go.   I said "well if we are going to do this, we need to take the extra long in-depth tour inside the damn dam,  deal?"   I had not managed to do this previously,  it would make things more interesting.     We all agreed 

 

It was going to be a spectacular but HOT day.   For whatever reason, only the earliest tour time slot was available, I booked it.    We arrived early in the morning before the heat, parked, and noticed that there was hardly anyone at the dam cause it was so early.  

We quickly checked things out on top and then    

 headed inside for the damned 2 hour tour. 

 

It was a pretty interesting tour and indeed it took a very long time to go through.

Lots of blah blah blah,  eleventy billion gallons of water blah blah blah can you imagine?  blah blah something something.    Hey I think the damn dam is leaking ha ha  blah blah something words words words.

More words, blah blah something something.

Eventually the tour ended and headed back up to the top and headed outside.   When we got outside there was a mass of humanity all around.    Then we felt the heat like 114 degrees WHAT THE HELL?  Not wanting to fight through the crowds to get back to the car right away,  me and Pete decided we could cool off a little by hanging over the top of the dam and feel the rush of air push us back that occurs when the wind hits the damn and is forced up.   

Eileen at this point is MISERABLE from the heat and decides it's time to stop messing around and make our way through the crowds to get to the car.    LET'S GO! she says..  And thus we start working our way through the crowd single file.    I end up following this tall guy who was wearing green shorts, Hawaiian shirt, straw hat, and carrying a FISHING POLE!     "REALLY" I think to myself.    I'm not a fashionista (fashionito?) or anything, but was thinking "what the Hell?" again.      I can't see where we are going behind this guy when suddenly the crowd parts a lil bit.  I look around and see a movie camera sitting by itself with no one next to it.  I was like "hmmm I wonder what it looks like looking through that camera  so I walk up to it and see what I can see.   No one tries to stop me.   I take a step back as a few of us were still around me including the big dude in the Green shorts and Hawaiian shirt.    I'm thinking maybe they are filming a documentary about the dam.    I go to ask the guy in the green shorts what he thinks, and as I turn towards him, he looks at me.     It's  OMG it's Randy Quaid!    I turn to my left and notice that standing right next to me is a short woman who is shooting me a look like "Who the F*ck are YOU?"  My eyes grow wide and I realize wait a sec! It's Beverly D'Angelo  the mom from VACATION THE MOVIE!

They must be filming a new Vacation movie!!!   AND Just then up the escalator comes Chevy Chase! 

A couple of production assistants come out and push the crowd back including Eileen "Get back!  Back I'm BEGGING YOU!"        No one is telling me I have to leave.  I just stood there.    Chevy Chase starts cracking jokes about how "Chilly it is outside" and how many autographs does he have to sign before he can start charging for them.      We stayed and watched them film a short bit where the family goes down the escalator and into the dam for their Damned tour.

It was a very cool, and very lucky experience.  Eventually I just walked back and out through the crowd found Eileen who had been watching all of this from a distance.    We laughed about it all the way back to our hotel.     That was fun Damn it!