Road Trip 2007

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.--If you ever happen to be in need of a room for the night, and happen to come across a Saga motel with "vacancy" illuminated, don't get your hopes up.

I was in this Route 66 town Saturday night on my Road Trip around the Southwest, desperate for a bed, and discovered that I had been dumb enough to think that I could easily find one, despite this being a July Saturday in the closest city to the Grand Canyon. Oops.

But at last, after checking several other motels, I wandered up to the Flagstaff Saga, whose neon sign offered salvation.

Alas, I was foiled. They were full, the clerk told me, and when I helpfully suggested that they turn off the "vacancy" sign, he told me he couldn't, and that company policy forbids them from ever turning it off, regardless of whether rooms were available.

Now, this may be standard operating procedure in the motel industry, and if it is, then I guess I'm naive. Or, perhaps the gentleman was lying to me and Saga doesn't make any such demands.

But if it's true, then I'm appalled.

The Grand Canyon Skywalk juts out over the canyon in a way that defies gravity.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Walking on the Skywalk takes intestinal fortitude that some people clearly don't have.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz.--If you've never walked on air, you should come visit this place.

This is the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a bridge of glass that juts out over the Grand Canyon and will make your stomach clench up.

Or worse.

But it is one of life's great experiences: to be in the air over this natural spectacle, and I highly recommend a trip out here.

I will be posting a full story and photo gallery of my visit here as part of my Road Trip around the Southwest, so please stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, hear me when I say that while there is something entirely wrong about being suspended in the air over this monumental natural achievement, there is also something that is absolutely right about it.

It's a haul from Las Vegas, and it requires a car with some clearance, as there are 14 miles of bad roads. But that will improve over time.

So go. The Hualapai tribe that owns the land and runs the Skywalk needs your business. And you will never forget it.

Hoover Dam from the front, as seen from a site the public doesn't get to visit anymore.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

HOOVER DAM--There's not a lot I can say about Hoover Dam in a blog entry. So, I'll be posting a full story and photo gallery within a day or two.

But after a private, four-hour behind-the-scenes tour given to me Friday by Robert Walsh, external affairs officer for the Lower Colorado Region of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation--part of my Road Trip 2007 around the Southwest--I am still kind of speechless.

The dam, not even the biggest of its kind in the United States (that would be Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state) is just stunning. It was, and still is, a wonder of human engineering, and something that continues to be one of the most important elements in the West's economic vitality as well as its life force.

The project to build a new bridge bypass around the Dam is delayed due to an accident.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

So, this is just to give you advance warning that you should stay tuned for my story and photos. I will discuss the governor's plans for how to deal with continued drought in the Colorado River region, as well as plans for the new bridge bypassing the dam that will get thousands of cars and trucks off of it.

LAS VEGAS--I've been here for three days, and boy, it's been intense.

As the first real stop on my Road Trip around the Southwest, I've had two behind the scenes tours of the Cirque du Soleil, and one tour underground through the tunnels underneath Sin City.

And now, I bid the city, and my great view from the 19th floor of the Mirage, overlooking the Strip, adieu.

The view I'm leaving, from the 19th floor of the Mirage, looking out over the Strip.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

It's on to the next stops: Hoover Dam this morning, and then onto the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

There will, of course, be more blogs, more Twitters, more photo galleries and more stories. Also, video will be coming as soon as I can get my camcorder pulled out its box and turned on and figured out.

So. Stay tuned!

LAS VEGAS--If you're involved in the technical side of the Cirque du Soleil, like Keith Wright and David Dovell are, then the scarcity of available radio frequencies poses a potential headache for you.

That's because Wright--the operations production manager for the Cirque's show, Ka, and Dovell, the technical director for its LOVE show, are both in charge of productions that depend heavily on wireless radio transmissions between hundreds of crew members.

And they face different, but equally challenging, problems.

For Dovell--and, actually, for Wright as well, come to think of it--the problem is political. He told me Thursday, as he helped lead me on a backstage tour of LOVE, that his show and many others in Vegas are facing a potential shortage of radio frequencies due to the Federal Communication Commission's interest in auctioning blocks of spectrum to digital television networks.

"The whole town is writing congressman after congressman," Dovell said, "trying to get them to change that. Every now and then, they'll test one, and knock (a bunch) of our radios out."

For Wright, there's a different problem.

The communications control room at the Cirque du Soleil's Ka.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Because Ka is at the MGM Grand, which also houses a concert arena, radio transmissions from visiting-concert technicians frequently pose interference problems.

So, Wright has in his employ a full-time technician whose sole job is negotiating those situations and resolving conflicts.

Unfettered wireless transmissions are crucial for both Wright and Dovell because, they told me, Ka and LOVE have the two largest sets of wireless needs of the Cirque's 13 shows.

And if you love the Cirque, as I do, then you're just as interested in making sure these technicians are able to do their job without interference from other shows or political agendas.

Under the Las Vegas Strip is a series of storm drainage tunnels that some people live in, and that are a common site for graffitti.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

There are hundreds of miles of the tunnels under Las Vegas, and hundreds more are planned.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

LAS VEGAS--I just got back from a tour of the storm drainage tunnels under Las Vegas. I was given the tour by Matt O'Brien, whose recent book, Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnel of Las Vegas, chronicles his experiences there.

I will put up a full story and photo gallery later, but I thought it would be good to post a little taste now to whet your appetite.

Enjoy, and make sure your shoes are sturdy and dry.

LAS VEGAS--So, I'm here in Sin City on my Road Trip around the Southwest, and I'm carting around a very un-gadget-like toy.

These are the brand-new Stickers from Moo, the British company that brings you the brilliant Moo business cards that are the toast of the Web 2.0 world, and clever little notecards, as well.

Moo's stickers, which come with the oh-so-cheerful slogan, "Ooh, Sticky!" on the cover of a little flip book, come 90 to a book. Like the company's other products, you can upload your own images, allowing you to wow your friends and family with no end of different stickers featuring your cat.

Moo Stickers let you upload your own photos into books of dozens of small stickers.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Okay, well, that's me.

In fact, however, Moo was not able to get me my stickers before I departed on the road trip, but it did send me three packets of sample stickers. So I got to see the form factor.

The books are built like a oversize book of matches and are crafted with paper that's pleasant to the touch. The stickers are small and glossy, and perfect for putting on a laptop, a cell phone or a friend's back. But if you want anyone who's not within a few feet to see the sticker, you're probably out of luck.

Nevertheless, they're fun, and I'm really looking forward to getting my personal stickers when I get home.

LAS VEGAS--One of the things I heard about this insane city that surprised me the most was that the Monorail had Wi-Fi on it.

I'm in town to cover the technology of the Cirque du Soleil on my Road Trip around the Southwest, and I had heard it from a friend. That in and of itself wasn't enough to make me believe it. But then I read something on the Intarweb that I thought confirmed it. After all, the pipes never lie, do they?

And if there's one thing I like, it's finding new ways to get online when on the road.

Contrary to what I'd heard, there is no Wi-Fi on the Las Vegas Monorail.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

So, next thing you know, there I was, toting my laptop into the station and onto the train, thinking that I'd be able to blog from there about the great way to get online.

Sadly, it's not true.

Although, at the very end of my ride, which I took from the Harrah's stop to the MGM Grand, I did pick up a signal from the MGM itself. Excitedly, I tried to connect, only to be told I could have my Internet, but only for a $12 fee. I declined and got off the train.

LAS VEGAS--I just got back from a backstage tour of Cirque du Soleil's Ka theater, and I'm still a little dumbstruck by the technology that's built into the show and the infrastructure that runs it.

The servers that control the lighting systems at Cirque du Soleil's Ka show in Las Vegas.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

I'll write much more about this--as well as some of the tech behind the Cirque's Love, as part of my Road Trip 2007 coverage--but one of the things that came out of my tour that I thought warranted a quick blog was when Keith Wright, the operations production manager for Ka, mentioned to me in an aside that he's in need of some new network-savvy technicians.

Ka is a pretty advanced show--and it should be, given that the theater alone cost $165 million to create. Behind it all are lots of different systems, many of which work together in some way.

But in particular, Wright said he needs folks who can come in and understand and work with the network systems that run the show's lighting. After all, this is a huge theater--the second-largest of all the Cirque theaters, I was told--and it has 3,400 stationary lights and 47 moving lights. All to make it so the 1,951 guests can see exactly what they're supposed to see.

And running it all is an advanced computer system that controls everything and ensures that--usually--everything goes off exactly as it's supposed to.

A lighting console that is used to control the lighting effects during Ka.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Now, I'm not saying Wright suggested I tell you, my dear readers, to send in their resumes. But he sounded pretty sincere about needing more help. So, if you're in Vegas or interested in being here, and you're a network guru, I would think a discreet inquiry into what jobs are open with Ka might well be worthwhile. Just don't tell them I sent you.

LAS VEGAS--I'm never surprised when I visit Sin City and find that the hotels here have come up with new and innovative ways to get my--and your--money.

But when I arrived here late Tuesday night for the first real stop on my Road Trip 2007 around the Southwest, I discovered a new one--new, at least, to me--that make me blink.

I've stayed in a million hotels and motels in the last few years, and even a few in Vegas. And in many places, I've used the in-room fridge to store a couple of drinks I brought in myself, or maybe some leftovers from dinner. That kind of thing.

But when I checked into my room at The Mirage last night, I was told that doing such a thing would be impossible. Why?

Because the fridges are now equipped with motion sensors, the helpful woman at registration told me. That is, if I move a drink to make room for something of my own, it'll charge me. If I accidentally knock something over, it'll charge me. If I put something of my own on top of something, it'll charge me.

Fridges in Vegas are now geared with weight sensors in order to charge you automatically if anything moves.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

She didn't say so, but I was convinced that if I even looked at the interior of the fridge funny, it would charge me.

And even if I somehow was OK with incurring a charge of, say, $12 for chocolate almonds, just so I could put my leftover sandwich in the fridge, the registration woman told me that the maid would remove my food anyway.

Now, maybe this technology has been around for awhile, in which case I'm naive to imagine it's new. But it sure seems novel to me. And cynical. I know Vegas wants every dime in my pocket, but this is a little over the top.

And looking at the fridge itself, part of me wonders if maybe the whole thing is a hoax. The sensors, if they're there, aren't obvious. Then again, I don't want to exhale in the wrong direction and incur an $11 charge because my breath hit the cashews.