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This is an older video.I taped it before I officially launched Vlogs here on the site.Still… I hope you enjoy.

Recently I was in Orlando for a trade show.

It wasn’t as great as Orlando could have been…

I mean I was staying in the Disney Dolphin resort, and the weather was awesome, but all I saw was a hotel room, the trade show floor, and a few in-hotel restaurants.

But I did have one really memorable moment.

And I don’t mean a “I’ll always remember that moment at the trade show” type moment.. I mean “At the trade show I remembered that great moment”" type moment.

It sounds more complex than it is.

They say smell is the sense most strongly tied to memory.

I believe it.

The trade show had ended and we were all packing up.

The crew of the Dolphin was taking down the hotel’s stuff, and had some of the big loading bay doors open.

A warm breeze wafted in scented with a subtle mix of sea salt and orange. I’m sure the natives didn’t think twice about it, but that’s an experience you don’t get everyday in Indiana and I noticed it right away.

A flood of memories came back to me.

First the balloon ride Jana and I took when we first went to Florida together.

I really REALLY loved that trip.

I get all nostalgic thinking about it. We weren’t engaged or anything, heck we hadn’t even been dating all THAT long. But we had a BLAST. One of the highpoints was our hot air balloon ride.

We got up at dawn and lifted off from a hazy field as the sun came up.

I’d planned the outing for her… not expecting to get such a kick out of it, but it was really amazing. We swooped down over the orange groves and you could smell the oranges on the air.

Of course that trip was fun for a lot of reasons.

We walked the board walk, laid around clear water beach, and toured the Disney parks at length.

Really an awesome time.

And it all came back to me in about a tenth of a second.
Then (in the following tenth of a second) another memory came back.
This one much older.

Space Camp!!

Yeah space camp… like the movie.
But we never really made it into space.

When I was a kid Dave and I went to Space Academy (camp for the slightly older kids).
We were geeks.
We still are geeks.

But it was also a great time.

I met great people, and got to see/learn/do things that most people (of any age) will never get to do.

I mean think of this… both years I was there I was fortunate enough to be the commander of the shuttle that our team had for our simulations.

(and even though this isn’t an awards show I have to say that I was even MORE fortunate to have a really stellar team to work with. The pilot, the CAPCOM on ‘the ground’ all were great.)

Anyway… as a precursor to the BIG mission that concluded each year I was given a schematic of all the controls in the shuttle cockpit, along with a brief description of what they were for.

Same for the CRTS that would display various menu options.

More time was spent on the controls / menus that I would be needing in my mission of course. And as logic would dictate a very large part of my mission was successfully getting off the planet… and back onto it.

I can honestly say that if for some reason I ever find myself on a space shuttle, and the crew is incapacitated… I could land it.

Absolutely.

As long as the radio worked and I could talk to someone down there … I could land it.

How many of you can say that?!

But I digress.
We were talking about memories.

So in an instant I remembered the dorm I stayed in.

The full size shuttle in the center of the campus.
All the great people I met:

- Dave (Hilarious guy.. wonder what he’s up to)

- Crispy (My top notch Pilot)

- Jessie (The girl I had a crush on)

- And The Canadian (I can picture her .. but her name eludes me. When I’m home I’ll see if I can find a letter.)

The cafeteria…

Climbing into the flight deck.

Meeting all the “real life” astronauts.

It was a lot of fun.
And I hadn’t thought of it in a long, long time.

The flood of memory was interesting, and it made me think.
Will I remember these things so vividly when I’m 70?
Will the people I met remember me when they catch a familiar breeze?

Does it work the same for bad memories?

Does my Dad ever get flooded with memories of his buddies in VietNam on some random summer afternoon?

I guess time will tell.

I hope though that I can always remember those things so well.
Hopefully at home as well as in Florida.

Wow this is a long Blog.
Generally not the best idea to make huge Blogs… but hey I’m feeling nostalgic.

Some other time I’ll tell you about riding bikes up the ramp at the empty YMCA building during my childhood .

Ok ok ok.. it’s been awhile … so sue me.

I’ve been really busy and all that jazz.

I haven’t even been checking the sites I usually frequent.

I’ll try to catch you all up but let me say this right away:

The Colts really let me down last night. It’s one thing to have a good game and not win.. but we didn’t even do that. Oh well.. .a good season I suppose.

Anyway…

Vegas was figgin’ awesome!

Jana and I went down on December 30th and I had a BLAST!

I don’t think I really realized how great a time I had until I was home. Jana was worried because we didn’t have a lot of money to throw around the slot machines, but we still managed to have a good time. I REALLY enjoyed seeing Vegas.

I’m glad we went when we did too. I had to stay in Vegas longer than Jana because I had to work at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) for work. I didn’t want my first experience in Vegas to be work.

New years eve was wild. They close down the strip to traffic and 400,000+ people just walked down the middle of the strip drinking and screaming. It was like Purdue’s Grand Prix but on a larger scale.

Jana and I were staying at the stratosphere at the time, which is at the far end of the strip, and we had walked all the way to other end to take part in the festivities. After seeing the Luxor and MGM we headed back to the middle of it all and at 11:00 we were at the Bellagio enjoying the atmosphere and excitement of the city as midnight approached.

Here’s a map to help you visualize it.

Then it hit us.

We were exhausted. We’d been walking for days (we didn’t know about the monorail at this point) and we were far from home. The road was closed down, and even if a cab COULD get to us they’d have 400,000 fares at 12:01.

We decided we’d better start looking for a way home.

We asked a nice looking young lady at the bell desk of the Bellagio if she could give us any strategy on getting back to the stratosphere… or maybe getting a cab.

Here’s what she should have said:

“Sure just walk right over there to the Excalibur. You can catch a Tram to the Mandalay Bay, and from there you can take the monorail all the way to the Sahrah which is right across the street from your hotel.”

But this must have been her first week as a Vegas hotel staff employee cause she had no idea how to help us.

We walked around, trying to figure out how to get to a road that may have a cab, not knowing there were monorail stops all around us.

Thank GOD a bellman at the MGM clued us in.

We were back at the Stratosphere in time for Jana to get changed, me to play a few slots, and get outside for the count down.

We were underneath the stratosphere spire when the new year came and an awe inspiring collection of fireworks launched from the top of it. We may not have been hanging out with the high rollers at the Bellagio but it was a pretty impressive site. And when it was done we could go gamble knowing that we were only an elevator ride away from bed.

Here’s a picture I tried to capture with my mobile phone.

Not a great shot… lousy phone camera, at night, moving target.. but here you go none the less.

I had some great cigars while I was there, two of which were on my “one day I’m gonna try one of those” list. The Padron Anniversary Maduro, and a Rocky Patel 1997 vintage. Both very nice. (the PAM was the clear winner between the two of course)

As far as gambling goes…I did pretty well on the penny slots and actually made some money. (well enough to balance out our loses for the most part)

I also got to play some poker, which was a requirement for me being in Vegas. And I did ok! Jana and I sat down at a low limit table. ($1-$2 Holdem) We each took $100 bucks to the table and I left with at least $150. So I can honestly say I’ve never lost money playing poker in Vegas.

We played at the Luxor.

Pretty easy game… perhaps I should have moved up to 2-4.

The Luxor was my favorite of the casinos to hang out in.

But I really wouldn’t want to stay there. it is though one cool looking place.

We’ll that’s about it for now…

But here’s one more cool Vegas site: the man made volcano.

(again it’s a cell phone picture, but you get the idea. Very impressive in real life)