While Las Vegas Sleeps…

Heidi Fleiss, the famous (or infamous, if you prefer; I prefer the former) Hollywood madam-to-the-stars who was convicted in 1995 for tax evasion (the pandering charges were dropped, as I understand it,) has branched out into the greater Las Vegas area, having moved to Pahrump, Nevada about a year ago. During that time the media now and again makes reference to her plans to purchase and convert a brothel in the Pahrump Valley into Nevada’s first male brothel for women, aptly to be named “Heidi’s Stud Farm…”

For various reasons of which I do not have the details, those plans seem to be on temporary hold. A girl has to keep herself busy in the meantime while the attorneys work out the nit-picky details and the community warms to the idea. Of all the businesses to go into, this would not have made my best 50 guesses as to which should would choose in the interim, but here it is: she is now a coin-operated laundry proprietress!

Okay, yeah, I’ll need to let that sink in for just a minute, I suppose… How about now? I bet the name of the place will help: “Heidi Fleiss’ Dirty Laundry!” hehehe I giggle every time I say it!

There have been some things in the media very recently about Dirty Laundry opening up and I thought I should drive out and take a few pictures for “While Las Vegas Sleeps…”. It happened to be Nick the Cabbie’s evening off so he jumped in the car with me and we drove out to Pahrump, which is about 55 miles away from the Strip, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the place (Pahrump is in Nye County, to the west of the Spring Mountains and Las Vegas, where Art Bell used to broadcast his paranormal/conspiracy/UFO type radio shows from and also has the dubious honor of being home to the closest brothels to Las Vegas.)

So we arrived at the Albertson’s shopping center where Dirty Laundry is located, saw the “now open” sign and pulled in. I really just wanted to get a couple of quick snaps for the ol’ blog and take off, pretty much, until walking through the door and staring past the brand new washers I saw Heidi Fleiss herself leaning up against the machines and talking on her cell phone at the far end of the room. I looked around at the decorations for a bit and took a seat until she got off the phone.

I like Heidi. She’s made for Nevada - she has a mind for business, willing to try anything, and in true businessperson form she didn’t think twice about taking time to talk to blog writer while she was in the middle of rearranging things and doing work to her place (who just had its opening on Sunday and not all of the decorations are up or in place just yet.)

Now I was really curious about her choice of businesses, being quite a diversion from her former occupation, so my first question to Heidi Fleiss was “what made you decide to start a laundromat?” I guess deep down I was hoping for some sort of juicy story that tied everything together nicely and made sense, but the answer she gave was the only one she really could give and make the venture a good idea - “I really just saw a need for it.” She said it’s the only one in the immediate area and none of the others have the type of equipment she’s invested in. She said that her washers have a higher “extraction” of water than most (clearly industry-speak for a faster spin cycle) and use less water to boot, allowing for a faster drying time in her dryers, which she said she also chose because of their very efficient performance, both energy and time-wise. Heidi explained that on top of the fact that she’s already $.25 less per cycle than her competitors, the cycle itself will take less time, saving her both her and her customers money in the long run. I replied, “You’ve basically built a green, state of the art laundry business,” to which she turned and smiled at me as though I’d just “gotten it.” What I got, I wasn’t 100% on. Maybe she liked the idea of me saying that her energy and resource-conserving facility made her green or maybe she was smiling at herself for leading a member of the Internet “press” toward precisely the conclusion she wanted for whatever I was to write. Either way, well done, Heidi.

It was about this time she looked up at me quickly and asked, “Have you seen the bathroom??” I kind of tilted my head a second and said that I hadn’t and she started walking towards the back of the place. When the door was opened I saw what she meant. This was a restroom built for people that don’t generally do their laundry any place other than their personal laundry or maybe the dry cleaners! I gotta get me one of those!! If I had a bathroom like this at home I’d almost definitely spend more time in there reading or whatever it is you do in a restroom. Okay, I’d throw a party and have everyone come in and sit down on the floor, very clean floor, mind you, and let the antics ensue. Just look at the floor.. That would have taken me months to get just right. The photo here doesn’t really do it justice, but for a public facility, hey, I think anyone would be comfortable, uhm.. you get the picture.

So as we were wrapping things up and I’d gotten her contact information, I could not help myself - I had to mention that I’d overheard her on the phone earlier saying that Good Morning America is going to be there on Tuesday. “Oh, yeah!” she said. I mentioned how all this publicity, all this hype is over a coin-operated laundry in little Pahrump, Nevada. She said yeah, Elle Magazine had already been here with photographers, reporters, the works. [Did you catch that? "While Las Vegas Sleeps..." beat Good Morning America to a story item!]

So I asked her what to me was the obvious question - “How does it feel to have the honor of being the owner of the most hyped, most famous coin operated laundry in history?” She laughed. She said she didn’t see it that way - she just saw a need and decided to open a business.

Who knew? *shrugs*

Tags: Art Bell, brothels, escort service, escorts, Heidi Fleiss, Hollywood, legal, madam, news, Pahrump, photos, pics, prostitution, Southern Nevada

Last week my little nephew was in town visiting from Houston. He’s been coming out the last few summers to stay with me for a week or so and I always like to take him on a little trip. In the past we’ve gone camping up on Mount Charleston, gone to Disneyland and the Santa Monica beach.. that sort of thing. This time I thought we’d go up to a place I’ve wanted to visit for a number of years and never got around to going to for whatever reason, a place a little Cub Scout could definitely appreciate - Zion Canyon National Park.

Zion Canyon, obviously renamed to its current moniker by religious folk, has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. It’s a truly beautiful area to see, the canyon walls having been carved over millions of years by the Virgin River. Though surrounded by desert, the river and the altitude, as well as the fact that it’s a bit further north than Las Vegas, make for warm days and cool nights.

I’ve chosen to feature Zion as #1 in my Las Vegas Day Trips series, as it is about two to two and a half hours away in the southwestern part of Utah. You could drive up early, have lunch, explore the area and be back in town by dinner time if you want to, though it would make for a pretty long day. We opted to take a tent and a little gear and camp in the canyon. We set up camp at one of the two main camping areas - Watchman Campground - which is run well, has clean restrooms, and a tiny man-made stream of fresh water running along behind the tent and picnic table areas at your site. Our four person group had three adults, one child, and two tents and it was $16 to camp for all of us. (there is a $25 per car fee to enter the entire park, but it is good for an entire week.)

In order to eliminate over-crowding of vehicles and ruin the natural, peaceful setting with unnecessary noise, the only cars allowed further into the canyon beyond the two camping areas are those belonging to people staying at the lodge. Don’t worry about that, though, as driving isn’t what you want to do anyway - there’s too much to look at. The National Park Service provides (as part of your $25 per car admission fee) a propane-power tram that simultaneously takes hundreds of visitors as deep into the canyon as they want to go while reducing CO2 emissions from vehicles that would be driving in there otherwise. The day that we were there on the tour there were sixteen trams running, all capable of taking several dozen passengers each. You can park at the main visitor facility, wait a few minutes and begin the tour, which takes about 90 minutes round-trip if you don’t get off of the tram, which you absolutely will want to do because there are so many great hikes to take.

We opted to go a fairly short distance into the canyon on the tram and take a short hike, having more of a laid back visit than some of the more adventurous people that were there that day, as my nephew was getting over being sick and we didn’t want to push him to hard. As it turned out, we accidentally chose a neat little hike called the Emerald Pools. A short .6 mile hike is paid off with a natural pool collecting water from springs seeping through the cliff’s cracks and two waterfalls overhead. It was very lovely. As pretty and relaxing as this area of the canyon was, it’s apparently even more beautiful the further in you go. I plan on going back before too long. When the heat is pretty killer down in Las Vegas, the nights up in Zion Canyon are still pretty airish. We had to snuggle pretty good to stay warm while we were sleeping later that night…

The village just before you arrive at Zion Canyon proper is a quaint little place, filled with tourist shops, local crafts, and some pretty interesting food. There’s one ice cream parlour in town and we went in (I suspected they had some unique sorts of ice cream for some reason and I was right!) I had my first ever huckleberry ice cream and I have to say, damn it was good! The next morning on our way out of town we had bumbleberry pancakes from the Bumbleberry Inn. I don’t believe in bumbleberries! I think they are blueberries rebranded by a very well-paid marketing department staffed by crafty Mormons! Tasty, those things were, though.

And oh yeah! They had horseback rides in the canyon! I didn’t have enough time to go on one, but next time it’s on like Donkey Kong.

So there you have it.. My first “While Las Vegas Sleeps…” recommended Las Vegas day trip!

Tags: camping, Entertainment, ice cream, Las Vegas outdoors, Mormons, nature, Utah, waterfalls, Zion Canyon

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to begin a series of articles on “While Las Vegas Sleeps…” that will just sort of happen upon occasion, most likely after I’ve recently visited one of the places I will have written about. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time but I am going to make an effort to do so effective immediately.

Las Vegas, Nevada is a lot things. It’s obviously the gaming capital of the world and that is just about all that most people know about Las Vegas. That definitely does influence most everything in the town to some degree, what with so many movie theaters or restaurants inside of casinos or shopping adjoining the resorts in their smaller, more upscale malls. All the local bars, of course, have gaming to a limited degree, even, so it’s true that it permeates “normal” life here in Las Vegas. The point I’d like to make by sharing some things that do not get a lot of attention is that Las Vegas is all that, unique and special in that regard, but it’s also much, much more.

Las Vegas is surrounded by natural wonders. I’ve heard it said many times, said it myself before, even, that Las Vegas is a city that by all normal standards “shouldn’t even exist.” It’s out here in the middle of the desert in what seems to be nowhere, except that - lo and behold - here is this shining, unbelievable metropolis. At a glance, it would seem that it was a complete accident that it ever came into being.

Upon closer inspection, however, other things show a much more interesting, if not obvious view. Geologically - and geographically - Las Vegas is near some very, very important places - almost dead center, in fact. The Spring Mountains making the western boundary of the valley is a wonderful place. It’s like the Colorado Rockies, only completely surrounded by desert. To the northeast there are ski resorts less than three hours away. Closer than that is Zion Canyon National Park, which I will be writing about tomorrow. Very close, indeed, is the Colorado River, now dammed and forming Lake Mead. The Colorado River carved out of the desert what is known by everyone in the world - the Grand Canyon. To the southwest - 150 miles or so - is the lower edge of one of the biggest sections of farmland in the world, producing around 50% of all the fruits and vegetables eaten in the United States, as I understand it.

Las Vegas is a little over half way from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. Most people don’t realize that the name Las Vegas means “the meadows” in Spanish and was named that because in the heart of the valley there used to be a natural spring, and thus Mormons first noted and began using the area on travels from Utah to the cities of California. Not that they were the first humans around here… not by a long shot. Native inhabitants have lived in this area for a very, very long time, as can be seen by the glyphs in the canyon walls all around the nearby areas.

So with these things in mind I’m going to begin writing my occasional series about what the Las Vegas area is that you might not be familiar with… places you can go to as a day trip while in Las Vegas, even. Las Vegas, Nevada is a lot of things - a lot of things most people aren’t even aware of.

Tags: cheap Las Vegas, Las Vegas outdoors, Southern Nevada

Feeling a bit under the weather yesterday afternoon, due to a bit of the ol’ cocktail flu, I decided to drive out to Goodsprings, Nevada with Nick the Good to have a beer at the old Pioneer Saloon

I don’t think that Nick’s been south out of the Las Vegas Valley in the few months he’s been living here, so this was a nice little outing, though it’s just a short 20 mile drive or so. I’d been out to see the Pioneer Saloon once before but it was a little early in the afternoon and it wasn’t yet open. Yesterday we showed up and things were a little different altogether…

Apparently around the first part of the weekend, a driver, not drunk but terribly sleepy, came around the corner on the road in from Jean and passed out at the wheel, careening off of the road and taking out the porch and entry way to the nearly 100 years-old saloon.

As we got out of the car and headed towards the entrance, a couple of guys were out front and had been working on rebuilding the damaged area. Before we got to the front door they were explaining to us what all the construction was about and pointing to the red car across the street. Apparently the driver of the car, which as you can see from this photo was completely wrecked, got out of the car with not so much as a scratch on him. Pretty amazing, though now I really wish that I’d had my camera when I was out there in Goodsprings before because the original look of the place is now changed forever, alas…

Nick and I went inside after talking to the guys out front for a minute and taking a couple of quick photos. We met Sandy, the super-friendly bartendress who listed off about 20 beers they had by the bottle. I chose a Blue Moon, because that’s just what I was in the mood for. We drank most of our beers at the bar talking with our hostess and then walked around, surveying all the old news clippings and photos with movie stars and dvds next to production stills from films the bar was featured in. The place has a lot of history and I just like having a cold one in a place that has the sort of walls that people like to muse about - “if they could only talk…”

Before we left, Sandy - rather excitedly - told us about the Pioneer Saloon’s annual chili cook-off that’s going on this Saturday, April 28th. She said that she’ll be trying to sell us t-shirts and raffle tickets but the event is free and you can sample all of the cooking, et cetera. The place is a living classic and not a lot of people know about it so I wanted to mention the chili cook-off on “While Las Vegas Sleeps…” and help them get some newcomers this weekend.

Here’s to another 100 years at the old Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, Nevada!

Tags: cheap Las Vegas, classic Vegas, historic, photos, pics, Southern Nevada