Many months previous to this trip, an old friend had let me know that he was headed to Las Vegas for a music festival in August. As time went along, work and life became busier and busier. By the time that early August had hit, I had almost forgotten about this. I needed a break badly, made all of the proper arrangements, and confirmed with Chris that I would be there.

The trip for me was Thursday to Saturday. I had every intention of leaving work at a reasonable time Thursday and driving up. As is the norm now, work interfered and I got moving late. That said, the drive up was great. I got to drive through a little rain, blast some great music, and wind down a bit. I pulled into town and my hotel was the first stop. I was staying at a Hilton property off of the strip. I dropped my things, set up the room, and headed out for a bit. I took the monorail to the strip, bought postcards for my nieces, walked around, and then headed back. It had been a long day and I needed the rest.

I got up Friday and got normal. I grabbed something to eat, slowly got the day started, and connected with Chris. He was there for Psycho Las Vegas with his son and a friend. They were finishing breakfast and then doing some shopping. We agreed to meet up and check out Area 15. I made my way to their hotel, picked them up, and headed on over. I had not heard of the place before and was excited to check out something new.

The overall consensus was that Area 15 was cool, but overpriced. We didn't feel like spending a large amount of money to try the limited experiences. There was a bar and arcade upstairs that we migrated to. We spent a few hours having a few drinks and playing the games. From there, we headed back to the festival. We got some food and then sat around talking for many hours. This was the first time that I had been able to hang with Chris as 2 adults, and it was a blast recounting the past and catching up. I did not have festival tickets, so I headed out later as they went down to catch some of the closers. I got to the hotel, prepped everything for the morning, and got some sleep.

I woke up Saturday, cleaned up, and grabbed breakfast at the hotel. I gathered my things and checked out. From there, I headed out to meet with the gang again. Since I had driven, my car was available. We decided to head to the west end of the strip, do some shopping along the way, and check out the Las Vegas sign. With the shopping complete and the sign too busy to stop at, we turned around. As we did, we saw the Las Vegas Pinball Museum and decided to check it out. We were in there for hours playing all of the games, laughing, telling jokes, and having a good time. It got to be around 3 and we headed back to the festival. I dropped them off, said good bye, and then got on the road. I stopped and ate, checked out Kingman, and got caught in an insane storm that almost required me pulling off the road. The drive was longer than expected, but I was at the house and unpacked by 10.

The trip was everything that I had hoped for. I connected with old friends, made new ones, escaped work, and had a blast. The festival will be back next year and there is already talk of another reunion. I'm looking forward to it.