trip

HOOVER DAM--There's not a lot I can say about Hoover Dam in a blog entry. So, I'll be posting a full story and photo gallery within a day or two.

But after a private, four-hour behind-the-scenes tour given to me Friday by Robert Walsh, external affairs officer for the Lower Colorado Region of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation--part of my Road Trip 2007 around the Southwest--I am still kind of speechless.

The dam, not even the biggest of its kind in the United States (that would be Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state) is just stunning. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--I've been here for three days, and boy, it's been intense.

As the first real stop on my Road Trip around the Southwest, I've had two behind the scenes tours of the Cirque du Soleil, and one tour underground through the tunnels underneath Sin City.

And now, I bid the city, and my great view from the 19th floor of the Mirage, overlooking the Strip, adieu.

It's on to the next stops: Hoover Dam this morning, and then onto the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

There will, of course, be more blogs, more Twitters, more photo galleries … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you're involved in the technical side of the Cirque du Soleil, like Keith Wright and David Dovell are, then the scarcity of available radio frequencies poses a potential headache for you.

That's because Wright--the operations production manager for the Cirque's show, Ka, and Dovell, the technical director for its LOVE show, are both in charge of productions that depend heavily on wireless radio transmissions between hundreds of crew members.

And they face different, but equally challenging, problems.

For Dovell--and, actually, for Wright as well, come to think of it--the problem is political. He told me … Read more

LAS VEGAS--I just got back from a tour of the storm drainage tunnels under Las Vegas. I was given the tour by Matt O'Brien, whose recent book, Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnel of Las Vegas, chronicles his experiences there.

I will put up a full story and photo gallery later, but I thought it would be good to post a little taste now to whet your appetite.

Enjoy, and make sure your shoes are sturdy and dry.

LAS VEGAS--So, I'm here in Sin City on my Road Trip around the Southwest, and I'm carting around a very un-gadget-like toy.

These are the brand-new Stickers from Moo, the British company that brings you the brilliant Moo business cards that are the toast of the Web 2.0 world, and clever little notecards, as well.

Moo's stickers, which come with the oh-so-cheerful slogan, "Ooh, Sticky!" on the cover of a little flip book, come 90 to a book. Like the company's other products, you can upload your own images, allowing you to wow … Read more

LAS VEGAS--One of the things I heard about this insane city that surprised me the most was that the Monorail had Wi-Fi on it.

I'm in town to cover the technology of the Cirque du Soleil on my Road Trip around the Southwest, and I had heard it from a friend. That in and of itself wasn't enough to make me believe it. But then I read something on the Intarweb that I thought confirmed it. After all, the pipes never lie, do they?

And if there's one thing I like, it's finding new ways to get online when on the road. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--I just got back from a backstage tour of Cirque du Soleil's Ka theater, and I'm still a little dumbstruck by the technology that's built into the show and the infrastructure that runs it.

I'll write much more about this--as well as some of the tech behind the Cirque's Love, as part of my Road Trip 2007 coverage--but one of the things that came out of my tour that I thought warranted a quick blog was when Keith Wright, the operations production manager for Ka, mentioned to me in an aside that he'… Read more

LAS VEGAS--I'm never surprised when I visit Sin City and find that the hotels here have come up with new and innovative ways to get my--and your--money.

But when I arrived here late Tuesday night for the first real stop on my Road Trip 2007 around the Southwest, I discovered a new one--new, at least, to me--that make me blink.

I've stayed in a million hotels and motels in the last few years, and even a few in Vegas. And in many places, I've used the in-room fridge to store a couple of drinks I brought in … Read more

GROVELAND, Calif.--This is a very old town. It is just about the last piece of civilization before the western entrance to Yosemite National Park, and the town is studded with 19th century Wild West saloons and wooden buildings with wraparound porches.

Ah, but it isn't the 19th century anymore, is it?

Today, this venerable town, which millions of people surely pass through each year on their way to Half Dome and Yosemite Falls and such, is doing its best to keep up with the times.

And the most visceral symbol of that?

It's surely the fact that … Read more