Star Trek 2011

Our mission: To go where no Farley or Belville has gone before...Star Date: 89210.93

Well, we made it to Las Vegas. Everyone will be happy to know that Dave's bathroom karma held so, not only were we seated next to the bathroom, but there were some interesting odors coming from it. Too bad our tricorder was packed or we could have analyzed it. It's a balmy 104 degrees with low humidity.  The picture today is from our hotel. We have run into one other couple here for the Star Trek convention. :)

Tomorrow we head to the Hoover Dam and Grand Cannon. Hopefully we'll still have enough energy after that to go see the home of Pawn Stars! It's now time to crash.

Susan
P.S. I had to add the pic from Burger King (also in our hotel).

We've got cows! Star Date: 89213.67

Wrong movie, but still appropriate.
We stopped at a local grocery store to pick up the essentials (water, Blistex, and suntan lotion) and got an education. I was wondering why there was an alarm on my $4 pack of razors so, as I often do, I asked an employee. Apparently, there is a big problem with theft around here. They even have alarms on the packages of meat! I guess we will be sure to not leave anything in the car.

We made it to the Hoover Dam. By noon it was 110 and we were told it would reach 120 by 5. We left by then. It may be a dry heat, but it still feels like being in a convection oven. We took the Dam Tour (the actual name of the tour) so we got to go down 550 feet into the dam. We took pictures of the steps, but took the elevator. We actually got to look out the vents of the dam! Dave wouldn't let me throw anything out of the vents. It was the best dam tour ever!

After a quick bite to eat in Boulder City (No, I didn't get us lost and in the wrong state. There's one in Nevada. Like Dave would let me navigate...), back into the car we went. This time we headed to the biggest hole on earth: the Grand Canyon!

Traveling across the bridges with his winds in a little Kia Forte is... Interesting. There was no whimpering from the back seat so it wasn't too bad. We got to drive through some small towns including one where the library and fire department were in the same building. I can see it being very beneficial for the books.

There seemed to be cows just wandering around the side of the road. Not sure if they were lost, on a vacation of their own (who doesn't want to see the Grand Canyon), or are just free range cows. I have to say I was disappointed that I didn't see a vulture on a Joshua tree or a cattle skull anywhere. Brandy's said it was too hot for anything to be out (except the cows). She may have a point.

We made it to the Grand Canyon but, as usual, we couldn't do it like ordinary people. We ended up at the bottom of the canyon instead of at the top. While Dave was yelling "I've giving her all she's got captain" and Brandy looked out the window for Sand People, the poor Kia vibrated parts off (lighter and more fuel efficient and I'm sure they weren't important) while we wound our way down the dirt road further into the canyon floor. I kept looking for more cows. With no one to tell us we couldn't (their fault they left the gate open), we explored an old cap house (dynamite storage) and played in the Colorado River. We found some small caves in the hill, but the Sand People stayed out of sight. I think they were afraid of Dave.

After drinking half a case of water (good thing we got 2 cases), we decided it was time to head back to Vegas. We still had to pre-register for the conference! We were also concerned that we hadn't seen anyone for well over 2 hours.

We made it back to Vegas with plenty of time for early registration. We met some others here for the convention and a lot were already in costume. We decided we were a little wiped so we're going to save the pawn shop from Pawn Stars till tomorrow.

Live long and prosper!
Susan

Captain, I'm detecting strange life forms...
Star Date: 89216.41

Dave was not as eager to rise today, but he bowed to peer pressure and off we went. He even refrained from laughing at the fellow Star Trek fans we encountered on our way to breakfast. He was very happy to hear that our first stop after breakfast was the pawn shop from Pawn Stars since the "regulars" are registering this morning and the convention doesn't start till 1.

So, after breakfast at Egg Works (highly recommend), back into the Kia we piled to search for the pawn store. We found the marriage strip including the Little White Chapel where Britney Spears, Joan Collins and Michael Jordan were married.  We also found a place to get a tattoo for $10. Brandy wanted to get one, but Dave wouldn't stop. We made it to Gold and Silver Pawn before the rush, but didn't see the Old Man, Chumley, or any of the others. According to the security guard, they are gone till September. Oh well. The shop was a lot smaller than it looks on TV and we ended up leaving without buying anything.

It was then time to head back to the Rio to get ready for the convention. Brandy and I do not have the eidentic memory of Wesley Crusher, so we had to look up the names of some of the characters appearing today. Dave finally accepted being tagged and is now wearing his bracelet. He didn't put his badge on till we got into the convention area.

We had a few minutes before the first event so we wandered into the vendor area where Dave complained that it was the worst gun show ever.  Brandy and I bought some tribbles and had our picture taken with Apollo from the original Battlestar Galactica!!! Hopefully Lindsay won't kill me for getting Ben a new pet. Hopefully they know not to feed. Then we went to a presentation on the "Con of Wrath", a convention in 1982 that had some issues.

There were a lot of people in costume. Dave was surprised with how many people are here for the convention. We sat through a question and answer session (none of the type "In episode 92, Spock used a tricorder to repair the Enterprise, but it's obvious that it doesn't have a thingamawhat which would have been needed. How do you explain that?"). I was out voted in which universe to have the next series (the original or the one from the last movie). I figure you can't go wrong in a universe with two Spocks!

We saw a talk by David Gerrold who wrote the "Trouble with Tribbles" and "More Tribbles, More Trouble" episodes. When the first tribble episode appeared, David (19 at the time) told Freddy Kruger (a friend of his from CAL Tech) that no one would remember it. The joke was on him (Freddy thought it was awesome). Turns out that the reason the tribbles were pink in the animated series was because the guy who did the coloring was color blind. I guess the government doesn't own the patent on making bad decisions. He also helped with the DS9 episode of tribbles and was an extra on the episode. The director's minions gave him the evil eye when he told them they were doing some scenes wrong till the producer informed them that David wrote the original.

Dave is still looking for Jedi. We haven't had the heart to tell him that we won't find any. We did find some members of the Nevada Workers' Compensation Conference who decided our conference was a lot more fun.

Then it was time for dinner so we headed to the Stratosphere for dinner. We didn't make it to the top, but found some good pizza. Also found a lot of people roaming the streets advertising hot sexy girls that want to come to you. I guess they do call Las Vegas Sin City.

Live long and prosper,
Susan

The best diplomat that I know is a fully-loaded phaser bank.
Star date: 89219.15

We broke into the second case of water last night and Dave realized that the G in the elevator stands for Gambling and not Ground Floor.  We're still missing our fourth musketeer, but Amy promised she won't miss the next adventure.

During Chekov's (Walter Koenig) talk, we got the questions about "In episode such and such...". In case you didn't know, he actually wrote some of the animated Star Trek and Land of the Lost episodes. We also got questions about Babylon 5 (might be coming back) since he was Bester (aka Mr Evil). He told us a story about how he and Scotty were in Charlotte, NC for a movie rental story waiting in their Star Trek uniforms in the hotel lobby for the limo. A woman checked in and informed them that they could take her bags. He wrote a book of anecdotes called "Warped Factors: A Neurotics Guide to the Universe" that sounds like it will be funny.

Nana Visitor and Rene Auberjonois were awesome! They were asked the difficult questions about different episodes like how the names on the Kira's jersey kept changing in the baseball episode. I had to explain the importance of Odo's bucket (Rene took it after the final episode) to Dave.  I'm not sure if he got it.

We listened to Eugene Roddenberry and his creative friend on what's coming up for Roddenberry. There's a cartoon about Gene Roddenberry's childhood (he was abducted by aliens and didn't actually use his imagination to create Star Trek), a graphic novel called "Days Missing", and a movie shot with a 360 degree camera called "White Room 023B" that will really work your neck muscles.  There's also a documentary called TrekNation coming out in November.

Jonathon Franks was also AWESOME! He went through the aisles to meet and talk with people. His security guard had to go with him and didn't correct Jonathon when he kept calling him Eddie when his name was Kenny (he was eventually corrected). He was not happy that Data made it on to the banner, but Riker didn't. Riker out ranked him! I guess it was a typo. He told us the story about how, at his first Star Trek convention (right after Next Generation started), he saw action figures being sold. The sign that said "Buy any action figure and get Will Riker free" was very humbling for him.
Then we listened to the Star Trek Rat Pack made up of characters from DS9. My favorite song was the "Rules of Acquisition." Dave loved it when someone asked them to sing Freebird!

We had to leave early so that we could make it to the Star Trek Captain Smack Down. The captains were rated on Explorer, Leader, Fighter, Diplomat, and Lover. Janeway won for Explorer and Kirk won for Leader. When we started taking Fighter, there was an issue with Cisco having a bigger defense budget than the others, but he did command the gods to help in the war and knocked Q on his tush. Kirk had Kirkfoo and made a cannon out of nothing to defeat a lizard. He won Fighter. Kirk and Janeway were tied at this point! There was a man that looked amazingly like Piccard and one that looked like Cisco trying to sway votes. Piccard won for Diplomat. There were some angry people at this point (disagreement over ranking of other captains for this category). Janeway was winning at this point with Kirk and Piccard tied for second.  Lover was easy to decide (Dave says it was Kirk's way of diplomacy). Kirk and Janeway tied (Piccard was second by 1 point)!!!! So it was a vote down to decide which of the two was the best Star Trek captain. Was there really any doubt? Cisco was fourth and Archer was last.

Sorry, but the pictures with my phone camera in the main area didn't do well. Lighting is horrible in there! There will be plenty in the scrapbook from the Nikkon. :)

While looking for Yoda and Firefly shirts (hard to find at a Star Trek convention), we found a book on holistic cat care. We did find a Firefly shirt, but are still looking for one with Yoda. We found a Star Trek one with the caption "No brakes" we are thinking of getting for someone.

Then it was time to hit the strip in search of food. It took a while, but we did find a place in Caesar's Palace called Trevi. It doesn't really remind us of Rome, but the food was good and the service was fast.

Tomorrow is dress up day! Everyone is supposed to wear a costume. Dave is wearing his Scotty shirt so hopefully that will count. Brandy and I are going to have our pics taken with the Chippendales in our Star Trek costumes!

Live long and prosper,
Susan

I signed aboard this ship to practice medicine, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across space by this gadget.
Star Date: 89221.89

Dave gave Brandy and I a strange look before shaking his head and walking out the door to head to breakfast. Yes, we were outside the Rio to the Egg and I for breakfast. He did wear his Scotty shirt which will hopefully count as a costume for today's costume count.

First up was Terry Farrell, the first Dax. She still looks gorgeous!!! There are a LOT more people here today and most are in costume. She loved the original Star Trek and Kirk was her first TV crush. She did confirm that, in a fight between her and Worf, Dax would win. The best was when a kid came up and asked about when she died. He clarified that he was asking about her character. Rodney Dangerfield (she worked with him) also managed to save her from a creepy guy on a plane. Turns out she is clumsier than Dave. She stabbed herself with a knife cutting a grapefruit, pinched her eye trying to get her contacts out, and somehow got lead poisoning. It's a good thing she's best friends with her doctor. Her husband made her remove her high heels as soon as she walked off the stage.
Then it was time for Brent Spiner, Data.  Of course, before he took the stage, they should a video called Just a Gigolo about Riker to help spur the controversy between the two. Brent loved the video introducing him and commented that this would be the last time he worked with Creation Entertainment. He addressed the fact that banner that had him and not certain others (Riker) saying  the people on the poster are special and Mr. Gigolo, not so special. The rivalry between Riker and Data continues. One fan said that Riker picks on him because women prefer Data over Riker. I have to agree with her. Spot was really two cats: Brandy and Monster, who were also the most temperamental actors he worked with. They just wouldn't take direction.  He was briefly distracted by the fact the he was on the screen along with his picture on the banner. He's got an internet series called "Fresh Hell" that you can watch on uTube. He may crash the panel with Sir Patrick Stewart and William Shatner tomorrow. He just did the voices of the robots in an upcoming Simpson's episode (not sure where they got that idea).

Brandy and I informed Dave that we're coming back for the 50th anniversary. He just groaned. He doesn't like being surrounded by 4500 Trekkies.

Then it was time for Kate Mulgrew, Janeway. Ensign Kim, her stalker, joined her on stage. She said she learned during her run of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, that there were cell phones in ancient Egypt. During her death scene, a cell phone went off playing "When the Saints go Marching In.". Sounds appropriate, but she said she had never been happier to put a poisonous snake to her breast. She also talked about what Janeway did after returning to Earth (she lost her knitting needles). Apparently, she went to the show that NTSF:SD:SUV makes fun of all the TV shows on prime time. Voyager's Doctor makes an appearance! It is produced by her husband (who is also her old ex-husband). She said the guys on the show would get really naughty during shooting around four AM. Apparently they would drop their pants and shoot spit balls during taping when it got so late (or is it early?). She said Trek was the key to bliss in a marriage (good to know since Dave is Trek by marriage). Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13) also made an appearance. I grabbed a picture of him during the break.

After a short respite, we went to see Leonard Nimoy, Spock!!!!!!!!! He said his parents were migrants from Russia, aliens, and he was American, and then he went to Hollywood and became an alien. He told a story about how he did a signing event at a department store and had to go up to the roof and down a fire truck ladder to escape the crowd at the end. Then he went to speak at a college, a small one, thinking it wouldn't be many people. After checking into the hotel, he got a call from a woman who was very excited. He asked who she was and how he had found her. She said she was Mary, she was calling from Denver, and she called all three hotels to find him after hearing he was there. Shortly after, he got another call from a woman named Sally in St. Louis. He asked how she found him. She said her friend in Denver called to tell her. When he told his father he was going to be a actor, his father told him that he would be working with Gypsies and Vagabonds and that he should learn to play an accordion. He never did. His first movie "Zombies of the Stratosphere" didn't propel him into stardom like he hoped so he joined the army. Live long and prosper came from Nimoy's recollection from his Jewish childhood. He knew that practicing the hand gesture would come in handy so he spent years practicing. Amok Time is the episode where he brought up the idea of using it. When the company producing the show refused to pay for the pens and paper to handle fan mail, he responded that he and his secretary went around the offices at the company and stole all the pens and papers he needed. He told a story about being in the San Francisco airport when a woman came up with her little boy. She told the boy that here was his favorite character from TV. The boy just gave him a blank look. The boy didn't understand what Spock would be doing in San Francisco without pointy ears. John Wayne once came up to him and said "I know you. You've had your ears fixed." One of the phrases he tries to remember to keep him humble is: "Popularity is the crumbs of greatness." He is quite a photographer as well. He was once leaving an event with Tom Hanks when a guy came up and asked to have his picture taken with Tom Hanks. He then recognized Nimoy and said, "You're a photographer. Will you take the picture?" So, this guy now has a picture of himself with Tom Hanks taken by Nimoy. Wearing his LLAP (Live Long And Prosper), Nimoy bid a final good as this was his last convention appearance to a standing ovation.

After a quick bathroom break, it was time to stand in line for our picture with Nimoy! The line was HUGE! We got it done and then headed over to be counted for the Guinness Book of World Records. We were able to reach 1040 people dressed in costume, breaking the current record of 691 bring the record back to Star Trek and Las Vegas. Dave was not dressed up enough so he wasn't counted. I don't know if the guy dressed as a Storm Trooper was able to be counted or not.

Tonight we decided to skip going to the strip so we went to dinner at a restaurant called Off the Strip. It seemed appropriate. The food is MUCH better than the Chef Boyardee fare we got at Trevi last night.
The Rio becomes very "active" on the weekend. They have these ships that are go around a track on the ceiling with dancers throwing beads.

Tomorrow Brandy has to head home. :( After we drop her off at the airport, Dave and I get to have our picture taken with William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, Uhura. We also get to see Sir Patrick Stewart! Tomorrow's going to be great!

Live long and prosper,
Susan

Fate protects fools, little children and ships named Enterprise.
Star Date: 89224.63
This morning, we weren't awakened by the alarm signaling that it was time to get up to take Brandy to the airport, but by some woman screaming that they had ordered a blonde woman to their room (I guess they got the wrong color?). Dave managed (unknowingly) to quote Star Trek when he asked if he could pay extra for them to be quiet.

The airport was quite busy at 6 A.M. We're hoping it will be better tomorrow when we fly out. Brandy made it through security and on her plane.

Dave and I then headed back to the Rio so that we could make our photo appointment with Nichelle Nichols. She was great and personable pulling one little girl into her lap for a picture. It was adorable!

Today was a day of waiting. After our picture with Uhura, we went to wait for our autographs from William Shatner and Sir Patrick Stewart. Shatner agreed to sign as long as people were buying tickets. They ran out of the pre-printed tickets and had to write over the autograph tickets that didn't sell for someone else. Shatner signed over 800 autographs and Stewart signed over 700. With an attendance over 15,000, I was surprised that there weren't more. Both were quite nice and, even though they weren't supposed to, they took a moment with each person to talk.

Then it was time for Shatner, Stewart, and Mulgrew to take the stage. Everyone showed up for it. He does have a great voice. He's been researching for his part in the Merchant of Venice by living in Vegas. Brent Spiner crashed the party to give Patrick a hard time. Brent did a good job. I was able to sneak up to the stage to grab some pictures (I can get away with more than Dave). One fan asked if he would be on Big Bang Theory since Wesley Crusher and Geordi have been on it. He didn't know the show, but said, if it was good enough for Geordi, he would be on it. He said in Chicago a few days ago, a man asked if he could propose to his girlfriend in from of Stewart. Patrick said of course. After a lovely speech, the man proposed and the woman said yes. Patrick then covered their joined hands with his and said "Engage."

Then Janeway and Kirk came to the stage. Everyone stood. Janeway and Piccard pointed out that they had 7 years as captain whereas Kirk was only Captain for 3. Kirk pointed out that they got 7 because of his 3. When asked if he was asked to direct the Generations movie, kirk replied "No, they must have seen movie 5." He said he signed on board to the movie when they said Kirk would die. Shatner felt unloved and out in the cold as Piccard and Janeway muttered together about doing a play together. The three of them really played off each other well. Patrick was supposed to leave so that just Janeway and Kirk on stage, but Janeway begged him not to leave her alone with Shatner (Shatner grabbed her butt when they came to the stage). Shatner made fun of the fact that Patrick was wearing the same clothes he worse last year. When asked why there were no seat belts on the ships, Stewart replied that it was because there were little force fields that activated as soon as they were needed. Patrick then had to leave to catch his flight to London.

The first time Kate and Shatner met was on a private jet. Kate woke up to Shatner putting a camera and microphone in her face saying that they were going to become very intimate before the jet landed. The footage is in Shatner's documentary "The Captains" about the different Star Trek captains.

Then Kate was on the stage by herself. She said she was Irish so she never drank to health; the irish drink to drinking. Dave will drink to that... One guy asked why the last Star Trek movie was lacking in originality and was basically a copy of the first Star Wars. The guy was booed by all. She was asked why Janeway never developed a relationship with Chakotay and replied that she didn't want to deal with the jokes about the ready room.

Then it was time for her to leave and Shatner came back on stage. He did say he would never retire which was met with applause. He spoke about his next documentary about Star Trek conventions. Looks like were going to be a part of it. We may have to get a copy of it when done. Shatner told us a story about how he was injured when a horse threw him and almost landed on him. His leg wan injured so he couldn't get up. They convinced him to call an ambulance, but the ambulance wasn't like what he was used to from TV. He was thrown into the ambulance with no one in the back with him. Because of this, he thought he would die from the ambulance ride as he was thrown side to side in the mad dash along roads to get him to the hospital. He arrived and at the hospital and people thought he was there to film an episode of Rescue 911. When they finally realized he was there for an injury, they took him to a room. They tried to get him to go give a urine sample to which he said, if he could get up, he wouldn't be there. They gave him a bottle. While he was in the process of collecting his sample, a nurse threw back the curtain to inform him that she was his biggest fan. He luckily just had some very bad bruising.

The crowd thinned out when Shatner left the stage. I guess the Sulus aren't as popular as Shatner. Again I snuck up to grab pictures. Not sure if it was because I'm cute (which is true) or because I'm was wearing a short skirt. It was John Cho's first ever conference appearance. George Takei loved the fact that Sulu, and therefore him, was now young again. Then he spilled coffee on himself. At least he wasn't near my laptop. We had to leave before they were done speaking because we had an appointment to have our picture taken with Shatner. The line for pictures with him was LONG! He sold out at 800 tickets.

After our picture, we had some down time till we went to listen to Nichelle Nichols. At 79, she looks awesome and is very personable! She told us that Star Trek (during its first iteration before it was in space) was the first show to have multiple characters (especially a black woman) with equal billing. An inter-racial cast of equal billing was just unheard of! Gene was told that society wasn't ready for it. So, he threw it 300 years in the future and called it Star Trek. She also told us the story of how she was going to quit the series, but a Star Trek fan came to her door to convince her not to. Thankfully, she listened to Martin Luther King Jr. She was born Grace Nichols, but hated being called Gracie. When she was 11, she went to her mom and said she hated her name so please change it. That's how she became Nichelle. When her time with us ended, she also received a fitting standing ovation.
The convention was then over and we just had to pack and wait for our Shatner pictures to be ready for pick up at 10. Till then, we had packing and dinner to attend to.

Dave picked out a restaurant called Firefly for dinner. It had nothing to do with the TV show. Ut was a Tappas bar which we have seen a lot of around here. We tried something new and it was... interesting... Of course I stuck with something boring (small fillet), but I did try some of what Dave got. I liked my boring steak better. :)

Getting up for a 6 AM flight is going to stink! Unfortunately, there seems to be a HUGE party going on downstairs by the pool. We may still be up at 3 AM from the noise they are making. I downloaded all the pictures onto my laptop so that I can scrapbook on the plane home. We will see if that happens (Kelly will be proud if I do). :)
Live long and prosper,
Susan

P.S. Brandy made it home though her flight was delayed.
P.P.S. The cleaning staff here has been quite generous with the soap, lotion, and shampoo so Amy will have quite the haul for the women's shelter. :)

The Journey Home‏
Star Date: 89226.69
We made home. Now it's time to do laundry and finish downloading pictures. :)
May the force be with you
Susan