Road Trip Photo #2: VEGAS

This is an image of me on the left and my friend H on the right, jumping up in front of the logo from The Beatles Love show that's performed by Cirque de Soleil at The Mirage in Las Vegas (H's wife Virginia took the shot.)

Beatles Love is a fantastic show, especially if you grew up to love The Beatles music as is the case with me. Other shows seen on the trip to Vegas were Rita Rudner, Penn & Teller, Bette Midler and Mystere, one of the other Cirque de Soleil shows (there are 4 of them) that are playing in Vegas.

Everyone in LV says the economy is having a big effect on the town. The house at Penn & Teller was a third full, for instance, and the tickets were discounted, as were the tickets to Bette Midler and Mystere. The way that work is if you're staying at one of the hotels on The Strip, they'll leave a message at your room and say since you're such a valued guest, you can get half-price tickets to so-and-so show tonight if you like. Or, you can go to one of the discounted ticket outlets to get a deal.

There are a number of high-rise buildings in the midst of construction on the LV Strip, but the thing I noticed is that the huge cranes on the top of the buildings never are seen hauling anything up. Whether that means there are construction delays caused by the recession I cannot definitively say.

There are, however, plenty of foreign visitors there thanks to the value of the once-mighty Dollar.

To my credit, I did my best to help the Vegas economy by losing $100 at the craps table in an astonishingly fast 20 minutes.