Geekazine.com

It’s officially Sunday Funday, and I was not going to sit up in my room watching twitter go wild with quotes like

Thanks @blogworld. Getting ready to board the plane. Goodbye, Vegas.

Before I left, I found about a place where I can watch the Packer game in Vegas. Rum Runner is a small bar south of the strip on Tropicana that hosts Packer fans. I decided to go there to start.

I didn’t know I was so close to the Pinball Hall of Fame or Liberache Museum.  RAWK!

Rum Runner – Packer and Badger Bar.

Rum Runner Bar

I started at Rum Runner – a bar filled with Wisconsin spirit. About a mile or so from the strip on Tropicana, this little bar / restaurant looked like the bars of the 70′s. Paneling on the wall, yellow lighting, pool tables.

It was also decorated in Green and Gold – along with some halloween decorations. The 100+ person bar was packed with packer fans, ready to watch the Packer – Miami Dolphins game.

It is too bad the Packers lost. It was a great time watching the game, rather than watching from the bookies room at Mandalay Bay.

Liberace Museum

Liberache Museum

I cannot say much about this, for I only passed the doors. It looked like an old Country Kitchen revamped to house the King of Bling. Fitting that it was across the street from Rum Runners. The mall behind the museum had the Liberace school for all.

I can also say the doors were about to open and there was a line waiting to get in.

Pinball Hall of Fame

Line of Pinball Machines

When I heard the Pinball Hall of Fame was down the block, I made no hesitation to plan going down there. The pinball machine is one thing I miss from bars nowadays. Not too many places have them nowadays. If they do, a flipper is busted or the game doesn’t work right.

Game after game, I marveled at a dieing pastime. Games that I remember growing up – High Speed, Pinbot, White Water Rafting, Adams Family – to the really old and the brand new. It was all there.

The first machine when I walked in was Iron Man 2. The first 2 1/2 rows had machines from the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s. Newer games started to mix in as you walked the aisles. The owner was working on a Pinball machine – running back and forth.

I got to play some pretty cool games. Orbiter 1 seemed to use magnets to move the ball around. No bumpers! You had to watch and predict as the ball moved around like it was possessed.

The hall also has old video games. Track and Field was one of them. I remember doing the “Comb” technique on the game. Asteroids, Defender, Donkey Kong – all the classics were there.

Storm is a brewin

Storm clouds approaching

Alas, I had to move on. I decided to take the walk back to Mandalay Bay – about 3 miles back. As I was about 1/2 way there, I look behind me to see the storm clouds coming in.

Now for those that don’t know – we are in the desert – it seldom rains there. About 7-10 days out of the year, you will get rain. So it’s great to see it rolling in.

I didn’t get very wet on the rest of the walk. I look out the window now and it’s definitely wet. The air smells sweeter than I ever indulged before. Very inspiring.

So it was back to the hotel, relax and get ready for dinner. Tonight I will be lounging downstairs and take a small nap for my 6 AM flight tomorrow.

I did put out a twitter for anyone still around that wants to meet up. Hopefully I’ll meet a couple more people tonight.

Here are the pictures I took: