Vegas: Yet another scorpion

I've had the luck to have been able to live in several different cities around the world throughout my life, from the world-renowned den of sin and glittering desert city of Las Vegas, Nevada, to the densely populated metropolis jungle of Tokyo, Japan or the fast-paced, fashion-forward capitol of Seoul, South Korea. Every city I've lived in has offered its various pros and it's cons, like the crowds on the Tokyo and Seoul subways, trains and busses, or the creepy crawlies with a poisonous sting that can invade your home, such as the scorpions in Las Vegas ranking high among my cons lists. Generally speaking, the desert landscape isn't hospitable to too many species of insect, so while you'll occasionally spot a Black Widow spider, moth, or daddy long legs, you're not likely to encounter too many mosquitos- or lightning bugs, either. The environment, being a harsh, desiccated wasteland low in readily available resources, fosters only the toughest of beasts, and unfortunately for the residents of Las Vegas and it's outlying areas, scorpions are among those that thrive.  

These tiny little scorpions are especially fearsome, as those stingers on the end of their tails aren't just for show! While their sting isn't necessarily lethal, unless you have an allergy or are immunocompromised (like an infant or the elderly), they can be extremely uncomfortable to receive. I have absolutely zero desire to ever be the recipient of their wrath, and any time we've encountered one in our living space we've extracted it by using chopsticks to keep a safe distance from (and a measure of control over) their tail. Some people might go out of their way to test their bravery or manhood by taking a sting, I wouldn't recommend it. To each their own, but personally, I'll stay far away from any scorpions I come across. 

Vegas: Bonnie Screams Halloween haunt

Bonnie Springs has no shortage of entertaining ways to while away the daylight hours throughout the entire year, but come sun down in October things shift gears quite a bit. After their normal operating schedule, the springs close down to the public for a couple hours as the ghouls start to crawl from their crypts and the venue itself changes it's name from the unassuming "Bonnie Springs" to "Bonnie Screams"! It's a fitting change in moniker as the shadows spread and spookiness prevails you might find yourself hard-pressed to silence a scream. Not only is the location famously haunted (as explored in an episode of Ghost Adventures) year round, anyway, but when the barrier between this world and the next one over thins during Halloween it's bound to get a bit spectral. Even during the supposedly safe daylight hours I found myself screeching in shock and horror in the wax museum when one of the wax "figures" sprung to life and damn near scared the shit out of me, literally... Luckily for us, it was just one of the gunmen from the afternoon shoot-out messing with us, but with the thick and ominous atmosphere of the wax museum I really wouldn't have been surprised if that had not been the case. There's a lot of history at Bonnie Springs as it was an important stop in the Spanish trail for some time and helped in the exploration ever Westward that led European settlers to build up the Americas as we know them today...  but prior to that Paiute tribes and indigenous people called this place their home for much, much longer. If all the tales of misfortune attributed towards building upon ancient Indian burial grounds holds any water, the entirety of Las Vegas and especially Bonnie Springs would be rife with curses and foreboding. 

With multiple haunted houses to explore, the cost of the tickets themselves is quickly absolved. We had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed our exploration of the grounds. One especially fun thing about your tickets is that you can do the haunts as many times as time permits in the evening, there's no limit- so if you need several rounds through to get your satisfaction you absolutely can! On top of the haunted houses there were live performances from fire dancers and magicians, tapping into the otherworldly powers provided by the Hallowed eve. Between our explorations of the petting zoo and daytime grounds, we did have an hour or two to pass before they reopened to the public...we opted to hang out in our van after moving to the Screams specified parking. We watched the sun go down and took a few more photos of the van, and ourselves, before we were able to strike out for the spooky fun. You have a couple of options from there- we opted out of the zombie paintball this year as it wasn't in our budget and instead took the creepy walking trail up to the haunt. Though the darkness made it difficult to snap much, I'm not terribly bothered by this as I wouldn't want to ruin the fun for anyone else! Suffice to say, winding our solitary way along a desert path in the dark with creepy sounds echoing among the terrain and the occasional hung man, clown or other otherworldy spook greeting us around various turns had our hackles well and raised before we even entered the grounds proper...

More photos after the cut...

Vegas: October Springs Preserve visit

Happy Holidays everyone!

Hope your Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus/Saturnalia was an awesome one, full of good food and good company. Antho and I both had to work because the economy keeps churning even on celebratory days, but we got to spend it in the same country and actually see each other which was nice. Christmas Day last year I was making my way back to the US from Seoul, a process that was rather complicated due to the fact I missed my originally planned flight and had to arrange a last minute one for the next day. Lucky for us we were able to find a flight, and one year later I was here to spend the time with my love...after work, anyway.

 This post, however, is not about winter holidays- more of an autumnal one. I don't know about you but as far as I'm concerned Halloween is the one true holiday to rule them all, and when we popped over to the Springs Preserve one pleasant October day we were quite pleased to discover that the grounds were decked out in festive decorations! The evenings are when the real haunting begins, of course, as the ghouls all crawl forth from their graves when the moon begins to rise so never fear those of you with young ones who might fear the frights too fearsome: you'll find that the harsh light of day makes it plenty safe to walk the grounds and enjoy the flowers, even with a few spooky scruffigans loafing about. As usual we had a lot of fun and discovered some new spots we hadn't explored previously, so there will be plenty of photos ahead- even though Antho did have to leave at some point to go pick up Vanticore from the shop, leaving me to my own devices (a lot of wandering most aimlessly taking photos of flowers for the most part). After seeing all the fun decorations throughout the grounds we knew we'd have to come back for the actual Haunted Harvest- the Springs Preserve's own spooky celebration for the whole family. There will be a post of it's own about that, so don't worry! For now enjoy the sunny gardens pictured below and after the cut...