The 219's long term vision when it grows up is to be a connecting route linking Buffalo to Greater D.C. Area and also part of a big NAFTA Superhighway connecting Buffalo to Miami called Continental 1 . As your choices now are to wind down through Erie and Pittsburgh to catch the Penn Turnpike to take you to the Northern Burbs as an "Interstate Route" or drive through Pennsylvania's Coal Country by taking Route 17 which at times is a similar road like Niagara Falls Blvd.

As for the Seneca's I can see them pulling the plug on the project for Economic Reasons. In Vegas although there is just Freakin' Insane building going on there, many projects did get "delayed." These are the projects at the Old Stardust, The former New Frontier and the airport expansion. No matter what the people pumping and dumping on Wall St tell you there is a credit crunch still going on, the funding may just not be there to finance any more projects. What makes it believable is that they stopped the project down on their own territory in the Southern Tier. That land has no controversy since it is part of their actual "Territory."

Plus the market forces have changed. The "tourists" that they want to draw from Ohio and Pennsylvania have slot machines in PA and easy access to table games in West Virginia. Heck on the drive up to Buffalo they could stop off on the 90 at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pennsylvania and save plenty of gas. If they want to play table games they could go the the Mountaineer in Chester, WV or Wheeling Island in Wheeling, WV. Why burn all that gas and waste the time?

In the end they just have the locals the the tourists that come for 4 month out of the year. In my estimation they have pretty broke the compulsive locals, so the return on investment would not be there at this time to expand.

Since I'm getting a dose of the "Vegas Drop," the phenomena that is when you return to reality from that town and reading (e:paul) 's posts I felt that it I should post on my little experience out there.

I went out there last Saturday to Thursday and I have to say that it was not the typical Vegas experience that I had for the place is just plain more nuts that I had remembered it. For half my life I 've been going out to Vegas. Now it just has become a behemoth of a city with all of the massive overbuilding. Getting around is now on par with NYC it seems, or at least when I tried to get around town on the bus.

I went to Rehab on Sunday @ the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and it turned out to be an insane time for myself. Yea everything that you ever heard about the Sunday Pool Party is True. The place is just stacked with people that are 9's and 10's strutting their stuff. I just took it in by paying a $50 cover and had my share of more than enough $19 dollar drinks! There isn't a glamorous ending to the whole time other than I hope that what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas.

For the rest of the trip I ended up hanging with my friend Bill that came into town on Monday. Basically we just went up to the top of Mandalay Bay and had a good time @ the H.O.B. Foundation Room which has a pretty spectacular view of the Strip. Other than that we just hit every major casino on the strip and stopped by the old casinos Downtown in the Freemont St Experience. I still love the shady downtown area. The highlight of that experience was not a the lightshow, but a guy trying to sell up a laptop!

The gambling was OK as I did hold my own betting baseball. Really the bulk of the trip's funds were spent partying with my friend Bill attempting to "score." That didn't happen at all, but we did take some good pics of the Strip from Ghostbar @ The Palms.


My Room @ Paris looking towards the "Death Star" City Center


My Room @ Paris Nightime looking at the same Spot


Rehab


I Say "No, No, No!"


Tower of Wine @ Mandalay


Top of the Foundation Room


Bellagio



A Very Neat Idea


Rio & Strip From Ghostbar


City Center from Ghostbar


Moonlit Center Strip Ceasars, Flamingo


Palms from Playboy Tower


Fake France


Steve Wynn's 18th Hole

I have to say I freaking hate Coke for that Olympic Sponsorship commercial that they play that uses this song When I am watching the Olympics, and being getting a flashback of the finale of Six Feet Under is not a place that I want to be taken for the next 2 weeks. I'm not seeing the Olympians of year gone by, I get Claire driving off into the desert and then getting visions of everyone dying!!!!! Yea, I still break out in tears ever time I watch it...

I must have been insane to go to the fair today. Somehow we managed to surf our way through Route 5 and Lake Ave with some wicked hydro plaining. The upside, not as many people as not once did my ankles get attacked by a stroller. It was really my only day to go as I have other stuff going on this week.

So here is a pic that is a pretty impressive sculpture of our future President, made out of a dairy product.

I was just bored when I decided to go and burn some calories today. Back in the day my GF at the time would videotape herself doing tricks on her blades. Well I haven't seen her in 10 years so there is no one edging me on to do tricks, so I just spontaneously decided to whip out my phone and record this little thing. It's the one thing about the summer I love doing and the path is always a nice time. This stayed on the Isle View side of things.

it does have quite a bit of wind, but you do hear my wheels grinding away.

It has been something that I have been giving serious thought for quite some time. Over the past few months I have applied for other jobs in other cities and when the acceptance and interest has been there for me I had to do some serious analyzing on what my next move would be. At some point it became a, "be careful of what you wish for, since you just might get it" type of thing. So I sit here with opportunities to move on elsewhere, but for some reason I just can't really pull the trigger.

I think it just may come down to money. Yea I have some saved up and do have most of it working in some way, but to be honest I am able to be in that position due to the way I live here in keeping my expenses low. If I picked up and moved to Richmond, VA that wouldn't be as cost effective as where I am currently.

What's the reason why I'm driving myself to push all in and make a move if I'm really torn and feeling the urge? It really comes down to the fact that I have the spent the last 10 years looking for someone and I have come to the fact that either, I am totally Fucked up in the head (which may be a possibility given my lack of confidence/game) or such a woman does not live in the Western New York area that fits to my standards and has the potential to mesh in some kind of chemistry.

Although I have plenty of faults I think that's it's the later. Especially given the last couple of dates I have been out on I have just realized that in some ways I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel around this area. Crap I had to move to Canada to find my ex-wife. I don't want to choose between looks and chemistry, in the end you are just unhappy eventually because you want at least some of one that you are not getting or have.

SO, I may be totally screwing myself for not packing up and leaving town in search of a dream, mainly finding a suitable mate. It's just that I'm being a bit partial to something that will just scorch a marriage if it's not looked after, money. With how things are going economically these days, how could you not?

Those "suitable" wife material women elsewhere that have scores I can only dream of on these dating sites that have those fancy smanchy algorithms and match percentages that are non-existent for me her in Western NY are just going to have to wait I suppose...

I remember drinking a 6 pack over Christmas this year when I was down in Sarasota. I guess the positive trial markets indicated that they could make a go of it. With the revitalization of Pabst Blue Ribbon I don't see why they wouldn't parlay that success into another emotionally nostalgic brand. Plus as I remember it was actually pretty good. I did buy some of the "new" formula over the spring when I went down to Virginia and although it's great to complement a picnic, it just wasn't as good as the original stuff I had in Sarasota.




It's not entirely about the beer. For older people it's about nostalgia, for people like me or younger it's about communion with older long passed on relatives or better simpler times. Then again it could just be that people won't be able to afford beer brewed by microbreweries with no bargaining power for key ingredients due to their diminished economies of scale or beer imported from a country with a stronger currency. I think that's why the foreign brewers bought out the domestic macro breweries, so we can be the "cheap foreign labor" for their brands as we do for our children's toys and clothes from southeast Asia.