Yet another Odyssey!

Hey, why not!

Dispite some podcaster dissing them, people seem to like them, and everywhere I go everyone talks about them, and most importantly, I can look back at them and remember where the hell I’ve been.

Plus it gives people a look at some places they may not have seen before, and might give you some motivation to head out on a road trip adventure of your own. It’s a big world, get out there while you can! You’re a long time dead.

The more intelligent of you might notice that we don’t actually travel the world to play pinball. I have 100+ pinball machines at home. I can play those anytime. We travel the world to explore it, and meet other people.

Sometimes there are pinball machines where we go. Mostly there are not.

If we go to pinball peoples houses, then yes, astoundingly, sometimes there are pinball machines there. Sometimes we might even play them. Whatttyaknow!

A large tournament like INDISC makes a good addition to a road trip for a family of competitive pinball players. If you want to play the best players in the world, you have to travel to it.

Danni won the INDISC Woman’s tournament last year (at only 15) so she is back again to defend her title. INDISC is 11-13 January ... that’ll be one of the last stops on the tour.

Check out the names on the 2018 INDISC banner ....

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We arrived at LAX last Friday.

Scored a sweet deal on a Dodge Caravan mini van again - only $100 more than a mid size over a whole month, so we grabbed that. No pin purchases planned at this stage ... but there wasn’t last time either. And I ended up with two.

This Caravan is the basic model - not as nice as the top of the range one we had last time - but it still drives along ok, so that’s good with me.

We headed down to Fullerton for a few days with NimbleNuts and O-din.

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NimbleNuts has just landed a new Deadpool LE. He saw the shiny glittery orange finish on the powdercoat, and clapped his hands in a rapid fashion and shrieked “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH” like a little girl and handed over his bucks.

Now, I was down on Deadpool. Looked like a parts game to me - take away the sweet artwork and there isn’t much actually there.

But a few days with the game has changed my tune - the game is fun to play and there are some good gameplay rules there. I like the way the spinner is integrated into some modes, something that has been missing from pinball for a long time.

Only 5 modes is a bit of a worry - I completed 4 pretty easily - but Nimble reckons there are more things on the way.

So, DP gets a thumbs up from me. I probably won’t be buying one, but it was fun to play it and learn the rules.

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“Oooooh look at that glitter!” clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap lol

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If you’ve read the “where’s o-din” thread, you know we popped around there Sunday night with the NimbleFamily.

Odin had just deactivated his account after some fracas about his genuinely placed ad wanting to buy an old Thunderbird EM machine. He’s been looking for one for a while.

So, better have a couple of drinks to drown the sorrows.

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Always a great time at Odins place. A few drinks, a few games, some bullshitting, and lots of laughs.

Odins collection is always changing - he’s down to 4 games in the house and about 10 oldies out in the shed at the moment.

If you want to have a great night, and learn the awesomeness of pinball machines that whole multiplayer games last only a few minutes, I’m sure Odin will be happy to see you. Just take a bottle of JD and you’ll be BFFs.

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Hit the road today out to Las Vegas.

Only a 4 hour drive out to Vegas from LA, through the desert. One we have made many times.

The last few trips, we noticed a new building going up just past Yermo (about half way to Vegas) signposted as “eddie world”. And there was a huge ice cream sundae out front ....

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What the hell is an “eddie world”?

So we went and checked it out.

Turns out it’s a really fancy gas station - with awesome toilets!

From their website - this is really what it says -

“What Eddie World truly represents is a complete departure of traditional expectations. We want to completely redefine how people perceive gas stations. Hence, our biggest passion is our extreme dedication to clean and comfortable bathrooms. We want our customers to have a pristine and immaculate restroom experience each and every time they visit – and we’ve done some pretty incredible things to reach these lofty expectations. For starters, we have 2 sets of bathrooms for each sex and a full time bathroom attendant – which allows us to maintain a very high level of cleanliness. Furthermore, we spared no expense when building these bathrooms fit for royalty – meaning only the highest quality materials were used. Each stall is an individual room that is fully tiled rather than a partition (like all other bathroom competitors) with walls that go down to the floor, giving our customers the extreme privacy and luxury they deserve and appreciate. Furthermore, we have special fragrance equipment which keeps our bathrooms smelling rosy & peachy even during heavy usage. We’re also committed to helping you fight germs by installing sophisticated door handles on each bathroom stall. These door handles employ proprietary automatic sleeve dispenser technology, which automatically advances a fresh antibacterial sleeve over the handle every time it’s used. This ensures customers are no longer affected by the germs left by all those who opened the door previously. And for the gentleman – WOW – do we have one epic surprise. We have some incredibly advanced and awesome interactive technology straight from England that allows guys (sorry girls) to literally shoot tanks with their stream of urine. The tanks come from different angles so aiming your pee is part of the game – and yes, the more tanks you blow up the higher your score. You’ll want as much ammo as possible guys, so bring a full bladder if you want to secure the “High Score” of the day. This is incredibly awesome technology and certainly something you’ll never forget!”

So there it is!

Slap in the middle of nowhere, EddieWorld!

They had a number of food stands, fresh beef jerky, 10,000 soft toys, and half of the LA Lakers old basketball court stuck up on the wall.

Stop there for a leak next time you’re passing. I hear the toilets are very good.

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Just wait till your new matching phone case and purse shows up!

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Just spent a few hours in the new “arts district” which is close to Downtown.

You have to hand it to the Las Vegas City council. They seem pretty proactive and will support upgrading areas around the city.

Like the Fremont Street area - I remember coming here about 20 years ago and that whole area was a real sh*thole. Nobody went there. Now it’s thriving most nights of the week.

Their newest project is what they call the Arts District. I call it the Hipster District.

We have watched it start from nothing a couple of years back - it’s still a work in progress, but it’s getting there.

The area is near downtown - and close to where the outlet mall is. This area used to be a real dump.

Now the hipsters have moved in, and there are bars, vintage stores and other things there. Well worth a look around when you’re here.

Some of the vintage stores are “museums” (the prices are expensive!) but worth a look see.

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We will get to Yegpin one day, Derek.

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Probably the thing I like most about Las Vegas is the history of the place.

We are staying at the Westgate this time, next to the Convention Centre. We generally stay in a different place each time, just depends where the deals are. We only go to the hotel to sleep so no need for over the top fancy places. And it’s cool to explore new hotels and different areas.

The Westgate has an interesting history - it was built by Kirk Kerkorian in 1969 as the International - at the time it was the biggest resort hotel in the world with 1500 rooms.

Each floor was decorated with a different theme - a different country theme on each level. The restaurants were all international themed as well, that would have been quite the thing in 1969 ...

They signed up Elvis Presley and he stayed for a 7 year run - one of the more famous parts of Las Vegas entertainment history.

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Elvis Live in Person at the International was recorded here in 1970.

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In 1971, Kerkorian sold out to the Hilton corporation and the hotel became the Las Vegas Hilton. They added more rooms to take it up to 3000, and built the big convention centre.

Since then, it’s had a few different owners, Hilton eventually removing the Hilton name as the property had fallen below its standards. In 2014 Westgate Properties (the time share guys) bought it for a reported $170 million, and have done most of it up. It’s a pretty nice place. The rooms are very large and they are nicely renovated, in the centre tower where we are, at least.

It’s a little off the strip, but the monorail is right outside and you don’t have to battle the strip traffic if you’re driving somewhere. Of course, we just walk everywhere.

Interesting fact I learnt today - the sign out front is 85 metres tall and is evidently the largest free standing advertising sign in the world ...

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This afternoon we walked around 2 miles down to the Bally Casino on the strip, to give Danni her first taste of a Chicago deep dish pizza.

Giordanos have a restaurant here. Maybe not in Chicago, but it was still pretty good. Danni gave it the thumbs up.

Of course, you have to have the “cheese pull” shot ...

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Then we walked down the end of the strip to the Luxor to catch Carrot Top again.

“Tell me why I had to be a powerslave...”

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This is our third time at Carrot Top, but Dannis first - I knew she’d dig his show, and she did. Always a crack up. Tip - get your tickets from SmarterVegas.com for $40 instead of the usual $69 or so.

And Fiona finally got her pyramid drink - 70oz (2 litres!) of frozen cocktail. It lasted both of us all night. She’d missed out on one every time we have been here, so she’s happy. Small things ..

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I see what you did there ...

It was pretty heavy when filled with 2 litres of slush ... could have ended badly ... lol

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Cruisey day today in Vegas. Hey, it’s a holiday!

Bummed around for a while, then headed to the outlet shops at the end of town. Scored a couple of bargains.

Then headed to Hooters for some wings (haven’t had wings for ages) and some crazy woman greeted us at the door ...

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Then we walked over from Hooters to NYNY as Danni wanted to try an Oxygen Bar.

The lady cut us a deal for two so I had a go too. Didn’t do much for me, but it sure cleared out my sinuses, my nose was running like a tap. The lady put these electrode pulsing things on our shoulders and backs which you controlled with a little hand held controller ... of course when Danni wasn’t looking I cranked hers right up and she’s like BZZZZ BZZZZ BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ ARRRRRRGGGGGG so that was pretty funny.

Walked upstairs to the arcade to check it out, as per usual there was a good line up of newer Stern games on show. There was even a guy playing one!

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We walked back to Hooters and drove down to Timbos Pinball Hall of Fame.

Bit quiet down there tonight ... all the customers were playing the newer pins, a few were on the video games.

Pretty funny sign on the Mario Bros:

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I played a game of GOTG and got a couple of replays (sorry Tim..) and then had a couple of games on some EMs.

The EM section wasn’t getting much love tonight. Arguably they’re the best pins at the PHOF, condition wise.

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That’s the thing that worries me about the new PHOF - it’s going to have a lot more pins, presumably from Tim’s warehouse stash which are all oldies - but most people want to play the new pins. You see that at Banning too, there are queues to play the 90s onwards pins and the 250 EMs have like one guy playing them.

Also, the new location, you’ll still have to drive there or get an Uber - nobody walks outside of the Strip or Fremont St - so personally I don’t know if it’ll make a huge difference.

But it’s not my show - I’m sure Tim knows what he’s doing. And I wish him the best with whatever he does.

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Hmmmmm - good question.

Often we will start with an event - in this case, INDISC. That gives us a certain date we have to be somewhere.

Then, we wait for an airfare deal. Rack rate to USA is $2000 NZD per each. We like to pay under $1000 ($680 USD) return if possible. We book the airfares months in advance. I think we got these ones in June.

So, depending on what airfare we get, that’ll give us the time period we have. Then we can go from there.

This trip, we wanted to further explore the parts of Route66 that we had to bypass on the 2014 trip cause we decided to divert to Las Vegas midtrip.

So, Williams, Bear-a-zona, Phoenix, and there are some cool historic western era towns down near the border.

Just whatever we can cram in before INDISC.

Often we have seen things on the net or in a documentary - like the Salton Sea and Salvation Mountain on the last trip - and we head there to check them out.

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Yep, those are on the list.

Cheers!

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Cheers JJ. I was in GEX in 2014 at IFPA when it flooded ... water started coming into the Sorcerer I was playing! “Ahhhhh ... Josh ....”.

Good setup you’ve got there.

I want to get back to Denver at some stage. We even talked about getting there this time but it didn’t work out. So many good guys there, Kevin and Carol at Lyons Classic, the Lefkoffs, Zen, the list goes on ... and a great pinball scene as well.

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Yeah, I’ll probably have room in the wagon for one ... send me a PM if you know of any deals.

Lightning is still going well! Actually I bought my hand scanner to scan the one at Banning to patch up that little bit of wear by the drops.

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Another cruisey day in Vegas. Things will spice up a little when we hit the road on Boxing Day, I promise.

Today we walked down through the Wynn (very fancy!) and through the Fashion Show mall which is huge.

Ended up at the Twilight Zone mini golf down the back of Ballys. Pretty cool - similar to the KISS golf over at Rio.

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Look! They have a TZ pinball machine!

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Don’t touch the door don’t touch the door don’t touch the ....

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After a sketchy start, I cleaned up.

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Oh yeah!

When we were at the Fashion Show mall, I was waiting for my coffee and this lady came over and sat next at the table next to me - asking the lady sitting there “is this seat free?”

Danni said “that’s that scammer lady from yesterday!” When we were down at the outlet mall, this same lady sat down next to Danni and Fiona - “is this seat free?” - and started saying to them that she was a Psychic, and she was from Hawaii, and she was in town for a psychic convention and “have you ever had a reading?” ... we know where that goes ...

Well, today - she was from Miami, and some other shit - I listened for a couple of minutes, and then went over and said “hey, you’re the scammer from the outlet mall. We saw you yesterday!” This lady looks at me and says “ahhh no ...” then just whoooooosh disappears like a rat up a drain pipe.

The lady at the table was thankful - don’t know what I saved her from, I guess a painful conversation at the least lol

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Came back to the Westgate and had some free drinks they comped us with the room.

Drinks are better when they’re free.

Westgate was a bit of a ghost town and not really a lot of trendy bars or anything here. I guess it caters more to the convention crowd than the serious gamers and drinkers.

But the free drinks were appreciated.

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Exactly my thoughts!

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They were pretty cool. I said to the Mrs, we should get a pair for the garage.

Then I remembered the garage has 20 pins in it. Doooh

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That often happens!

When you live in a place, you get in a rut and you never explore the city.

When visitors come in, they have fresh eyes and often see new things. Plus, a little bit of googling, or tips ... I think Jessica Denardo told us about the Wave Organ in SF from memory. Same trip we went over to Sausalito and checked out the famous Record Plant recording studio which I’d known about for years ... one of the most famous recording studios in history ... and most locals probably just think it’s a yoga studio. Lol

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Went to the Counts Vamp’d rock bar tonight - owned by that Count guy off Counting Cars on the History Channel.

It was like a bastion for over 40 year old white guys! I felt right at home.

They played good rock music, had good food and cold beer.

It’s a way out of town - 4.5 miles from the Strip. Worth the trip out there though.

About 10pm a band started and they ripped out 3 Priest songs in a row, then 4 Ozzy songs - bonus credits for playing Miracle Man! They were pretty rocking.

Good times!

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Probably!

I shot a video of the cover band last night to show Danni, she’s right into the Priest.

Pretty rockin!

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One thing when you’re on the road for 4 weeks, you get to see the inside of a few Laundromats.

We pack generally 7 days clothes - 7 socks, 7 undies, 7 shirts, etc - then every week, we wash!

Today, I got a bit bored and took some pics and made a photo essay.

“One hour in the laundromat”

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Went down to Town Square this afternoon, a huge shopping place near the airport.

Walked through the GameWorks arcade. Very busy today (it’s Sunday) but the poor old pins weren’t seeing much love.

Someone had left two credits on the IJ so I felt obliged to use them. Game ended my first ball before I drained. Doooooh. Then next ball got jammed on the ramp diverter. Dooooooh. Had to shake it loose. Then the 3rd ball wouldn’t even kick out of the trough. Doooooooooh.

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Only seen two laundromats with pins in my travels. I think one was in Albuquerque. BK2000 from memory.

And Sunshine. They have more pins than washing machines these days!

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They’re the card swipe things that most of the big chain places have these days. You buy a card with credit on it and swipe away ...

You could certainly do some damage to your “downstairs” if you thrust too hard at the machine!

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Amarillo for a steak and El Paso for a look.

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The not wearing a tie bit won’t be a problem - I don’t own one!

Checked out their website - looks cool!

Thumbs up for:

• Voted the Manliest Steakhouse in America, 2012 by Men's Health magazine

And any restaurant with this combo:

• Children's Zoo •
• Snake Pit •

has got to be good.

Thanks for the tip Mr Bally!

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Merry Xmas to all pinballers everywhere!

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