There are several stories in a book printed about 1930, Coronado's Children bt J. Frank Dobie, which collects a number of old lost mine stories. Note that it does use words from that time, so if offended, don't read it. In one or more of them there is mention of bad luck by those who had black opals. Myself, I don't care for diamonds nor gold. Silver and turquoise is more my style. Area 51 ? Oh yeah, it does exist there now a days. At one time you could see it in satellite photos, but "Its not there". Pinball Museum ! Hurrah ! Ring, dng, ding, ding, ring ! Wow !
Aren't those opals gorgeous? Did you know that you should always keep opals in the refrigerator in water as much as possible? They survive much longer under cooler damper conditions. Even after being mined, cut, polished, and mounted, they can and will begin to fracture. By keeping them in the refrigerator in a small container of water, make sure the opal is covered by the water, like one of those little Ziploc containers with the screw on lids, the opals can go for decades without getting fractures as it imitates the best conditions for it. My mum had a ring and she never wore it, but I believe it was made for her when I was 10 and I had told her that she needed to replicate the conditions of a mine, damp and cold. So we put it in a container with water and checked periodically to make sure it had water in it. She passed when I was 34. I took the opal ring to the jeweler before it was given to my older daughter to have it checked and he was amazed it was the age that it was and had no fractures in it. I would not tell him how as he would probably make some kind of ridiculous Opal Preservation Kit and sell it for an outlandish price and make a million. He was a jeweler, he was supposed to know gemstones, he should have known what the opal needed.
Yes, in this museum, you are allowed to play these pinball machines which are all the older ones, not the digital ones they have now where you get 3 balls and do not earn free plays and stuff.
Runs over and grabs all the Green Skittles. *offers to share with fellow ROAD TRIPPERS if they like Green Skittles*
Oh, i can't eat skittles, well, these are virtual. Color of candy doesn't matter, as long as its not a disguise for those 'off' flavors made by a certain jelly bean company. And I found Jelly Babies at Pandera, so there. ( Dr. Who reference. )
Good Afternoon ROAD TRIPPERS!!! Its Sunday and we are in Reno, Nevada. This morning we visited the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is where all of the Neon signs of ages past go to die. It is sad in a way to see the signs for the old Palms, the Sands, the Stardust, Caesars, the Sahara, the Dunes, they even have the Guitar from the Hardrock. There are more than 200 unrestored signs which are illuminated with ground lighting as well as a number of restored signs which are illuminated all the time. Some of the signs are from Hotels/Casinos that were never rebuilt, some are from Casinos that still stand but have changed and upgraded their signs so their old ones have come to rest here. The museum is a non-profit 501 (C) 3 organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying, and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs for educational, historic, arts and cultural enrichment. The Visitors’ Center is housed inside the former La Concha Motel lobby, the main collection which is where the majority of the signs are held is in an outdoor area which is the Neon Boneyard and then there is an additional indoor area called the Neon Boneyard Museum which houses additional rescued signs and displays. It was much larger than I remember it from the visit I had there when it first opened in 1996 and contains a lot of information on the various signs and hotels they were from. Then we visited The Mob Museum, The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. They have The Underground, which is a Prohibition Era exhibit space, featuring a Speakeasy and a Distillery. The first floor contains an exhibit entitled 100 years of made men, its a display of all information on different mob criminals spanning 100 years, both men and women, with crimes ranging from bootlegging and bookmaking to murder. Then there is an exhibit called Listening In, where you can actually listen to recorded conversations whether they were by wire tap or by people that had been wired and sent in to record their personal conversations, its very interesting. The next area is called Crime Lab Experience, it is an interactive area where we were able to learn to dust for fingerprints, we were taught to match fingerprints from fingerprint cards and using AFIS. We were given autopsy reports, we were taught how to match ballistic fragments, we were taught how to take DNA samples and how to process them in the lab and then how to enter them into the National DNA database to see if we get a match, we were taught evidence collection methods, and criminal profiling. They gave us a sample case to solve using all of this information. Of course none of what we entered actually went into AFIS or the National DNA database, it is just a backup they use to allow patrons to enjoy the Crime Lab experience. I loved it!!!! The next room contains a 17 foot touchwall of Organized Crime today. It gives you the information on how Organized Crime has progressed with the decades and now traverses International boundaries and uses digital means as well, then the touchwall turns into a map showing the various concentrations of organized crime in todays world. The last area of the first floor is The Firearm Training Simulator. I could not describe it in better detail than the guide did, so here is what they said: "You will engage in an intensive, eye-opening training session using both digital and live role-playing scenarios that demonstrate the speed and complexity of use of force decisions. These situations are very real-to-life and you may experience an exhilarating response. As part of this orientation, you will receive a CO2 pistol and police officer duty belt to use throughout the experience. Related exhibits will examine an array of factors that influence law enforcement responses to real or perceived threats, with a particular focus on the use of deadly force." I have already been through this training as part of my law enforcement training but it is still a very eye-opening and solemn experience, after the adrenalin fades, the solemn feelings arrive, that you may have had to take a life to save a life whether it was your own, another officer, or an inmate. The Second Floor has a display called the Kefauver Hearings. By demand of concerned citizens due to an increase in mob activity in 1950, the U.S. Senate, led by Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, launched a high-profile inquiry, holding hearings in 14 cities across the country, including one in the building that now houses The Mob Museum. This display details those proceedings. The second room on this floor houses a display called Open City. As law enforcement across the nation cracked down on illegal gambling, mobsters turned their eyes toward Las Vegas. Nevada had legalized gambling in 1931, and Las Vegas was regarded as an “open city,” meaning that no one crime syndicate could dominate the town. That made it an enticing place for mobsters nationwide to start fresh and launch new ventures. The displays in this room are items from the Nevada gaming commission, various items from different mobsters that came to the city, different items from law enforcement, a lot of pictures, and a lot of stories to read. The third room on this floor houses a display entitled Web of Deceit. Like a spider spreading its web, the Mob expanded patiently, relentlessly and ominously. Eventually it formed a vast, often invisible network, ensnaring whatever got tangled in its sticky strands. Politicians and labor leaders often got caught in the web, doing the Mob’s bidding instead of representing the best interests of their constituents and rank-and-file members – with fatal consequences. This room houses national magazines, newspaper articles, and other items from hearings on political corruption and the mob, including some clothing and such that were worn when some politicians tried to turn on the mobs they were taking bribes from and were executed. The last room on this floor houses an exhibit called The Mob's Greatest Hits, this makes me think of a mix tape. This display contains pictures and details of the end of the lives of various gangsters whether it be in a gas chamber or whether it be at the hands of another gangster. There are items in here such as one of Nevada's two chairs from their gas chambers, vials some mobster used to poison victims, there is a lot of information in this room. The third floor of this museum has the first room which is called Birth of the Mob. This room gives a detailed examination of how the mob came into existence in the overcrowded and poverty ridden immigrant cities in American in the early 1900s. The second room is A Tough Little Town and gives a detailed history of the beginning of Las Vegas from an outpost for workers on the Hoover Dam to an Entertainment Capital. The Third Room is called Prohibition and is the history of Prohibition in America. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1919, banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Congress then passed the Volstead Act to enforce the ban. At the stroke of a pen, centuries-old customs became illegal, dividing Americans along ethnic, regional and religious lines. Bootleggers, rum runners and the Mob seized the opportunity to, as they boasted, “Give the people what they want.” The Prohibition Era ended in 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Even committed Prohibitionists had lost faith amid Mob-run bootlegging, rampant crime and open disregard for the law by drinkers. The Great Depression that began in 1929 caused waves of unemployment, federal tax revenue plunged and the government anxiously looked for a new source of revenue. The new pro-repeal president, Franklin Roosevelt, on March 13, 1933, urged Congress to do away with Prohibition. Congress acted quickly. Ten days later, Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act that legalized beer with 3.2 percent alcohol (up from the 0.5 percent national maximum set by Prohibition laws). In April, states started electing special conventions to consider the 21st Amendment to rescind the general ban on alcohol. Michigan was first to approve it on April 10. The seemingly complicated process took less than nine months. On December 5, 1933, Utah’s state convention was the 36th of the 48 states to vote wet, the three-quarters needed to end the nationwide ban on most liquor sales in the United States in effect since 1920. The 21st Amendment overturned the 18th Amendment. The new amendment took hold as of December 15, 1933. The era was officially history. The fourth room is called St Valentine's Day Massacre Wall. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929 in Chicago remains one of the darkest moments in Mob history. Seven members and associates of Bugs Moran’s gang were lined up against a brick wall and shot to death by assassins allegedly associated with Al Capone’s gang. Bugs Moran was supposed to be with them but he spotted a police car the assassins had stolen to commit the murders and get the gang to line up against the wall believing they were being arrested and he did not continue forward with the rest of his gang, he was the intended target of the hit. The museum purchased the bricks of the wall from various owners and rebuilt the wall on the 3rd floor. The fifth room is called Massacre Evidence and contains photos and the reports on the coroner's investigation as well as display of some of the bullet fragments and glasses and reports from one doctor that was a pioneer in the field of ballistics. The sixth room is called The Feds' Fight Back. This room is a history of law enforcement efforts against the mob as well as some items such as a pearl handled .38 revolver that was confiscated from Al Capone upon his arrest in Florida, some photos of various gangsters, notably Al Capone and his lawyer, information on the various special prosecutors, and displays of toys that were marketed as G Men were a big thing and kids wanted to be them. The seventh room is called Follow the Money. This room is dedicated to the T Men. Who put some of the most infamous mobsters behind bars? Many people don’t realize it was, in fact, the IRS. Known as T Men, U.S. Treasury Department agents working for the Special Intelligence Unit, under the leadership of Director Elmer Irey, quietly built tax evasion charges against mobsters such as Al Capone, Nucky Johnson, Waxey Gordon and Dutch Schultz, as well as public official Huey Long and businessman Moe Annenberg. See? You cannot escape taxes!!! The eighth and final room is called The Tentacles Spread, Ttobey should like this room, Tentacles dangle. This room shows what the mafia and organized crime did after the repeal of Prohibition. The repeal of Prohibition abruptly ended organized crime’s smuggling and speakeasy operations, but it didn’t end its ambitions. As with astute entrepreneurs, mobsters adapted. Emboldened by a decade of fat profits, and with a well-organized network to settle internal rivalries, the Mob explored gambling and other opportunities from Hollywood to Havana and all points in between. Even without bootlegging income, organized crime anticipated a lucrative future. They were known to smuggle drugs into the US in cans of tomato sauce from Sicily, in 1919 they conspired with 8 Chicago White Sox players to throw the World Series, ran a lot of illegal betting operations all over the US, drug smuggling, and more. I believe we could have spent a week in this museum alone. We even had lunch in the Speakeasy in the Prohibition Exhibit in the basement. The have Prohibition era food and cocktails as well as beer, hard liquor and non-alcoholic drinks. This afternoon we went the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area. In about 15 minutes, we will be porting back to Reno so that we can shower and change. I have scheduled cocktail hour for 5 pm and dinner for 6 pm at Squeeze In. This place has something for everybody. After dinner we will go to Fly Geyser as it is on the Burning Man land and then we can poke around at the art exhibits and the merchants at Burning Man until the Fire Hooping, then we can return to our hotel for some much needed sleep after such a long day!!! *passes out two new hats to everybody one with a miniature Fly Geyser on it, and the other with a miniature Al Capone and Elliot Ness on it, casts the group speed buff, has someone with an ice spell or arctic spell cast it because it is hot out here, rechecks the time delays and relocks the security cover, asks Schmet to stealth over and put one of Ttobey's new hats on him, then shouts* Ok ROAD TRIPPERS, rally round, its time to port back to Reno and get cleaned up so we don't smell bad for dinner. I am sure we are going to sweat again in the desert to see the Fly Geyser and the Fire Hooping at Burning Man. The Bright side is there are shopping opportunities at the Burning Man Festival and we have mages with us that must have some type of ice or arctic spell they can cast on us to cool us down!!!
I love the mob museum. The prohibition era and that time has always been of interest to me, don't know why maybe I was a mobster's wife in another life LOL Back in those days though they actually had some sort of respect for the law, not like nowadays.
O NO HAVE YOU NOT HEARD OF THAT POOR LITTLE PUPPY I can not describe what he loos like now , it's just to horrid , and gasp are you kind of green behind those gills !!!!!!!!!!!!! gills YIKES Cyrrena I always thought your a wood elf well I think you look's cute as a froglog too . At least the tadpole state is over and now's you got's lungs again and you can breath with your'd skin too . have you seen those giant Poker Chips in Reno ?
I suggest we go on a trip to the Extraterrestrial Highway ( 375) you get to have all sorts of alien encounters, if we are on our way to area 51 anyway. Stop in Alamo to see the " black mailbox " Begin in the small town of Hiko . " ET Jerky " many different kinds of flavored jerky with names inspired by alien obsession. Just opposite the jerky shop is the official " Extraterrestrial Highway sign , with has been nearly covered with stickers over the years . " the Alien Research Center Gift Shop " is only open a couple of days a week , but if you get there one day the shop is not open you can still enjoy the site of the giant statue of an alien. " the tiny town of " Rachel " were people are willing to tell you all about area 51 they know , and the aliens. Rachel has a population of 40 people and maybe an alien or 2. stop by the " Little A' LE ' Inn " a quirky café and diner with a alien décor . There is not legal way to visit area 51 so don't get to close , but if you want to go on a 14 mile drive on a dessert dirt road you can get a hand drawn map here . the rest of this 93 mile road is pretty empty .
They're allowed to have British candy sold in the States? The recent Congresses' sponsors got bent out of shape that the Brits actually use real ingredients, like real fruit juice, colors, and real sugar (vs. High Fructose Corn Sh -- er, Stuff), so they made up some nonsense about "bad QC" and banned all the imports, last I knew. :-/ Uwk who still "smuggles" in stuff from Amazon... ;->
Good lord, no wonder no one's apparently Contacted us since; they saw what happened that one time... :-/ "They made JERKY out of them?! By the Flying Spaghetti Monster! Those were sentients!! " Uwk
I love neon signs. I linked to pictures of them. No idea where those pictures are, many computers and hard drives ago. Bus depots, gas stations, Lunch counters, small stores, hotels, movie theaters, drive-in movie theaters, Dairy Queen. Aaaaah. I had links to nostalgia sites, but those links are gone. A web search doesn't show me the ones I knew long ago and far away. But it doesn't matter. I see other people have taken up the challenge of tracking them.
My mistake, Publix has a whole column of British food, including candy. I like Toblerone candy bars... but in the US they don't have honey in them. Unlike in Europe, albeit back about 1970, they used honey and sugar, not high fructose. There is a big taste difference.
only Cyrrena ran to grab ALL the green ones Did she turn into a 16 legged caterpillar dog , or a green jello regurgitating floglog tell us the horrid details how about a giant lime monster rolling and bouncing around squirting everybody with margaritas ? O and yes Uwkete those are real amber but most people only find little pieces .
He got me didn't he Schmet? I hope there is a cure for whatever he did to the Skittles!!! Breanna ate the red ones!!
