Vegas for my birthday...Yes Please!!

Since I was forced to put off my Vegas plans this summer, due to my inability to swim secondary to my crippledness, My girlfriend, Lova and I decided to go to Las Vegas for my birthday last weekend.

We flew out of the Fort Collins - Loveland Airport aboard the plane above.

Our plan was delayed for almost 6 hours due to president Bush's little stop over in Vegas the day before. Apparently he shut all of the air space down over all of Las Vegas, creating a big back log of air traffic. I am holding Brian personally responsible for delay his boss caused and the consequential missing of my birthday dinner reservations, Brian - you bastard! Because of this delay we got to sit in the spacious terminal at the FNL airport, seen above.

We tried to make the best out of the wait, the presence of good company helped to pass the time. That and the constant mocking of others

The first of many required self portraits, patiently awaiting take off, notice its dark-long delay, damn you brian.

The prodigal city layith upon the horizon.

The Mandalay Bay
Here is the hotel where we stayed, it is located right next to the Luxor and Excabilar. It had 9 or 10 restaurants to choose from, a lavish outside pool area which was closed, huge casino, shark aquarium. Our hotel room was very nice, we were able to fanagle a strip view room with a plush bathroom complete with lcd T.V in the bathroom and big screen in the bedroom.

This was one of the restaurant was at the Mandalay, as you can see it was one of WolfGang Puck's. It was Italian food and it was fabulous. We split two different dishes; one was prime tenderloin and arugula salad, and the other, a hand made ravoili with artichoke hearts and goat cheese, and to round out the meal a Nappa Vally merlot from 2002.

This was the view from our room on the 16th floor at night looking up the strip

I love gambling

Unbenounced to us there was an UFC fight at the Mandalay on Saturday Night. This brought some interesting folk to our hotel leading up to the fight.

Other Hotels

Here is the egyptian sphynx from the Luxor. This was the entrance to the Luxor from the mono-rail that went between the Luxor-Excaliber-Mandalay Bay.

Here is the monorail pulling in to take us to the Luxor from the Mandalay

Self portrait in front of Excalibar, I got caught by another tourist taking this pic, mildly embarrissing

View of Las Vegas from one of many pedestrian bridges over the Strip, it is my understanding that pedestrian and car altercations are fairly common here in Sin City

As you can see here is the MGM grand, if you are an animal lover, steer clear. They have real lions in the hotel that seem to be on as many downers as elvis was before the end. People were crowded around the glass like they had never seen captive lions before, as if zoo's didn't exist.

This is the Trump Tower, all condos. This was taken from the taxi stand at the Wynn. Trump tried to build a casino and the govt said yeah..no!

Here is the Luxor, taken from inside the monorail.

The Wynn...So nice!

Inside courtyard at the Wynn

High scale shopping for the high rollers

This is the best looking suit i have ever seen, from Alexander McQueen

Here is the show that Lova and I had the opportunity to see on Saturday night. It is playing at the Wynn and it was hilarious.

Another self portrait

Here is a picture of Lova and I both looking fantastic. We had a great time and I can't think of anything I would have rather done for my birthday, thanks baby.

Birthday, Stitches, Vegas, Blood...Not in that order

I think that I have told many of you, but for the few that still don't know, on the first group ride on jan 27, I was the victim of an incident of panic in the "peloton". I was riding on the front of the group, i took one of my gloves off to eat a package of pina colada shot blocks, yum... After finishing the shot blocks i noticed that my hand was not cold, so i removed my other glove. At this point I decided to go the back to talk to one of the new riders on the team. Then people started hitting their brakes. My proper drafting position at the back of the pack resulted in me coming in contact with the rider in front of me who had his brakes completely locked up. Elapsed time from when I had removed my gloves before my front tire was so elegantly removed from underneath me was approximately 3-4 minutes.

Having had my fair share of experience with the ground while cycling, i knew it was in my best interest to just get back on the bike and ride back before it really started to hurt. Above is a picture that I tried to take a few minutes after it happened whilst riding back with the group. I decided that riding with no hands and my new camera out was not the greatest idea.
Here is my hand after cleaning at the urgent care center. Please note going to urgent care on sunday is not highly encouraged. The wait time I was quoted upon entering the clinic was 2 hours, i said thats fine, do you have any paper towels?

Here is the sterile field where my mini hand operation took place. It took 7 stitches to close this little adventure in human hand anatomy

Above is my hand about 30 hours after I was stitched back together.

Here is my hand today 11 days after.

Here is the proof that of my bicycle carnage. Don't worry the Orbea is fine.

Next post will be about my birthday trip to

Vegas!