I've been making a two week vacation out of the USBC Open since 2009(When it was at the Cashman Center in Vegas). Instead of just going for the tournament, I spend time either in the area, traveling to and from or doing stuff in the area.


For Syracuse, we flew into Chicago-Midway(from Sacramento) and drove up through Michigan and across Canada to get to Syracuse. We spent three days in Niagara Falls, visited Toronto and Montreal, then came down through Vermont and back across New York to Syracuse. After the tournament, we drove back to Chicago along the southern edge of the Great Lakes, made several stops in Amish country and spent a day at Cedar Point. We spend the last day in Chicago exploring Lake shore drive on Segways.


Two years ago in Las Vegas, took the helicopter tour of Hoover Damn, drove exotic cars at the Las Vegas Speedway, took a whisky tasting class, ate at way too many restaurants and saw a few shows. We drive from No. Cal through Yosemite National Park and down the eastern slopes of the Sierras rather than the boring trip through Fresno and Bakersfield.


I made a similar trip out of Baton Rouge and El Paso, but we have pretty much done Reno so many times there isn't much left to do, so next year we will bowl then fly to Disney World instead.


This year in Vegas we are planning the Segway tour of Red Rock Canyon, several shows, dinners at Joel Robuchon, two different Jose Andres restaurants and a few other higher end restaurants along with the normal "Vegas Stuff", but no gambling.


Of course, we bowl the main tournament, the 40 Frame game, BTM and Bowlers Journal as well.


So do you just fly/drive into town, bowl the tournament and go home or make a vacation out of it?

120 or 130, there is no difference. Both are too f*(&ing hot.


Actually, we will be driving right through Death Valley on our way to Vegas.

I would go see Furnace Creek (Death Valley, only 2 hours away IIRC).  If go in summer might get lucky and get to see what 130 degrees feels like.   Always wanted to but hard to get in a car and drive six plus hours (from Phoenix) when its nearly 120 degrees to go somewhere even hotter.

Yep, I've done the Route 66 thing, it's a cool trip. We took a road trip from Los Angles to Oklahoma following old 66 a few years back.

It's okay, we know the order. 

In no particular order. Bowling, gambling, and high end call girls.

Look, this right here is why my BR dream team Nationals team is:

1) Doom - Sets the pace in the 1 hole
2) GTGT - I’ll hide myself and let you all carry me lol
3) notclay - Met him in Syracuse (very nice dude)
4) Luke R - Logical
5) northface - obvious reasons

way off topic, but isn't seeing the Hoover Dam from above is pretty damn cool.

I work on Helicopters for the Navy, and we did a detachment to Nellis AFB.  And flying back to San Diego, we went over the top of the Hoover Dam.  it was pretty cool.

ive kinda given up golfing, but next time i go to vegas i'm going to golf a round at one of the nicer courses out there

Quote from: michael.willis9 on April 03, 2019, 11:19:42 AM

ive kinda given up golfing, but next time i go to vegas i'm going to golf a round at one of the nicer courses out there

Careful now. Seeing that those golf courses are the only places where there are any trees, let alone grass, you might find it the dog's best places to do their business.

Seriously, you should be good for this, especially if you head to TPC at Summerlin, and stay away from anything close to Las Vegas Blvd (too expensive).

Additionally, there is the Neon museum, now that they moved it to its more permanent place than behind Neonopolis on Fremont Street.  Seeing all that old neon from the mob days to pre-2000 is really cool and makes you wonder how Vegas looked back in its heyday.

Or better yet, want to do some skiing? TV and Radio down here are saying that the fallout from the storms in California is making the snowpacks stay around a lot longer than they should. Mammoth Lakes is staying open for skiing up until July 4th, and if it extends further down, there may be some snow left on Mt. Charleston.

BL.

Just plan on doing your golfing early in the morning if you are going May or later.  We are already seeing 90 degree weather (mid 90s next week) during the day out here in the desert.  Dry heat doesn't much matter over 105 to 110 or so (also exposed skin burns in 30 minutes or less, sun doesn't tan here just burns).  There is a reason don't see locals outside during the day much in summer.  In general be careful in the desert as we get tourist deaths pretty regularly out there in the west.