crystal praywheels 

 

 

 

The solution to a puzzle can sometimes be found at the front of the book. 

That is what I was thinking that as we drove the cruiser down the off ramp into what used to be -Vegas 

There were enough vestiges of what used to be here to make it clear that Wealth and excess had certainly existed here but not recently,  not for several decades  Sand had filled in the fountains,  earthquakes had opened up canyons and those creases had been filled with cars, buses and billboards:  steel skeletons jutted out of the hills at odd angles, reflecting the muted sunlight.   Even with the dustclouds,  Vegas still required a good pair of shades,  that had not changed.  

We didn't come as tourists, because that sort of travel ended some fifty years ago, but there were rumors of an outpost here, so we had ourselves a two day Search and destroy trip and the Old guys got to tell the newbies about the days when Vegas was filled with fast cars, fast women, liars and cheats.  Oh and yes,   everyone loved it. 

I am sure Rome looked a bit worse for wear after WW II,   was the other thing I was thinking,  but that was so back in time that I didn't even bother to tell those stories.   

Now we just hovered through blocks of half blown up hotel towers and the occasional bottom half of a jet liner.   Towards the end I heard there were a lot of hijacking,    Lot of good it did them,  of course, they just died faster as opposed to slow  

One of the young guys asked about Caesars, because some of the signs were still lying around- and Rico made a joke about Romans, but the kids didn't get it

Its hard to explain a place that was based on history and also based on a joke.  A lot gets lost in translation.   

48 hours later,  still nothing moving, not even a stray coyote,  which we had seen up North.   Coyotes and cockroaches,   those are the real survivors.  Not us. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

spun and shining all day long in the dead city

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