Next Stop, Sin City!

 Las Vegas, NV

Playing Pinball in a window display at Atomic Age Modern 

So Long Phoenix!

This morning we packed up the van and headed north, but before that story, I will catch you up with our Phoenix stay.

Phoenix was great.  We hade a wonderful 2 months (minus the doing dishes by hand every day, and our very nice but overly, "I want to swing by" Airbnb Host) taking in all that the area had to offer.  We had a great Thanksgiving with Sophie and Josh, we had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Sophie and Josh, and we had a great New Years Day with them.  Donna and I got to go to a cool bar called Platform 18 for New Years Eve, and I played a lot of pinball with a great pinball community.

We went to Kon Tiki (the oldest Tiki Bar in Arizona) in Tucson on our way back from finishing the state with Sophie and Josh.

We rode the Tucson Street Car

Sophie bought me this cool shirt

We celebrated New Years Eve (on London Time) at Platform 18, a bar that is a virtual train ride.  This trip took us through The Bayous of Louisiana.

The Drinks were Awesome!

We made gingerbread houses on New Years Day (we forgot to make them on Christmas).

We went bowling in Arizona!

We ate James Beard Award Winning Fry Bread at Fry Bread House.

I put up High Score #3 on the new Elton John Pinball Machine at The Electric Bat.  It's a great game as far as I can tell so far.

I played at another Atomic Age Modern Pinball Tournament

I played in a tournament at Star Fighter Arcade

I took an "Accidentally Wes Anderson" photo on a dog walk.

And we finished Arizona with Santa Cruz County!

Whenever I leave a place I talk about how great the pinball community was and Phoenix was the same, great!  Great people, great places to play, and great tournaments.  I am starting to think the pinball community is great everywhere.

From the Valley of the Sun to The Valley of Sin

We headed north out of Phoenix and drove for a few hours, drove over The Hoover Dam and then into Las Vegas!  Our Airbib is in the shadow of the Stratosphere and right in the Art District (my favorite area in Las Vegas). We have already met our neighbors and their dog and are getting settled in.  We have lots of plans and I hope to keep you up to date.  I also plan on playing in 3 pinball tournaments.  The last thing we do before we leave in February is avoid The Super Bowl completely.  

Our backyard

Francis enjoying our backyard.

That's it for today.  If you missed the last post all the way back in November, The Electric Bat Bounty Knockout Tournament, check it out.  I also plan on writing more.  

The Electric Bat Bounty Knockout Tournament

 Mesa, AZ

I didn't have a documentary team today so I had to take a selfie

Chui's Electric Bat Bounty Tournament

Today's tournament was a 4 strike tournament with a twist, when you enter you get a poker chip and when you get knocked out you give that poker chip to the person that knocked you out.  It cost $5 and you cash it in for $5.  It's a really fun format where the money is spread around to more than a few people.  

I also got an envelope with 2 things in it 1) a playing card and 2) a slip of paper saying what prize I won.  The playing card lined up with 1 card drawn at the beginning of the tournament.  If you had that card (the 10 of Diamonds) you got money when you got knocked out depending on what round you got knocked out on.  You weren't allowed to open your envelope, the Tournament Director had to do it.  The player that had the 10 of Diamonds got knocked out in Round 5 and won $150!

I won my 5th round on Deadpool and knocked out a player so I got a chip!

When I was knocked out I took my chip and my envelope to Chui, the Tournament Director and he opened it to reveal my prize.

A framed Big Guns One Sheet!  I also got $5 for my chip.  I am really going to have to buy a bin just for pinball prizes and trophies.

I lasted 7 rounds and I almost got through round 7.  The scores were VERY close.  I finished 33rd out of 64.  I had a terrible game on Creature but I was happy with the rest of my rounds.  I just need to continue to play better.  When this tournament gets entered on the IFPA site it will replace one of my terrible scores and my ranking will go up.

That's it for today.  If you missed Christmas Cocktails and a Pinball Speakeasy, check it out.

Christmas Cocktails and a Pinball Speakeasy

 Scottsdale, AZ

The Pink Dolphin

Today we headed over to the newly opened Global Ambassador Hotel in Scottsdale.  It's a new really fancy hotel with a couple cool bars.  We both wanted to celebrate the Christmas season by visiting a festive hotel and bar.  Instead we had amazing drinks at a poolside bar called The Pink Dolphin.  The hotel wasn't very festive and the bar we had intended on going to didn't look that fun.  The Pink Dolphin delivered on drinks, atmosphere, and service.  We had a great time.

The bar was right next to the pool and had inside and outside seating.  We sat outside facing inside.

It really felt like a Vegas Bar.

Donna ordered a drink and it ended up being a frozen drink.  It was fantastic despite it's frozenness.  A bit later we asked the bartender what the other frozen drink was and she gave us a sample.  It was also fantastic.  

We bought Tajin Fries and they were great.

Since we were by the pool, everything was served in plastic cups but they were very fancy plastic cups.

Donna couldn't wait for the photo to be taken.

My drink was pink too and it was a really good drink.

After our drink and snacks we walked around the hotel a bit.  Rooms are like $500 a night so we shan't be staying there.

A Pinball Speakeasy

Later in the evening I went to Stardust Pinbar for some pinball.  Yesterday my sister asked if I ever get bored because I have no schedule or deadlines to meet (you know because it used to be all work work work) and I said no, I make my own silly goals and try to drive them forward each day.  Pinball is one of my goals (it isn't a silly one) and I wanted to get some of the Stern Insider Badges that expire at the end of the night (this, I admit, is a somewhat silly goal).  I headed over just before 7pm (later than I normally play) because one of the badges was Play James Bond 007 after 7pm.  

I snapped this cool Prince mural on the way over

The pinbar is behind a refrigerator door in the back of a pizza parlor.  I had to look twice to make sure I was going the right direction.

The machines played really well.  They were more expensive than normal, $1 each play vs. 3 plays for $2.

The murals on the wall are cool.

Both Godzilla and Foo Fighters had a free game on them so I played them.  I ended up winning 5 more games on Foo Fighters.  Replay scores were pretty low.  I was mostly there to play James Bond 007 and Venom for the badges.

I got the 007 badges I set out to get and one of the Venom badges.  I have until the end of the year to get the other Venom badges and they are all based on cumulative score between now and the end of the year.  

Tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday I play in pinball tournaments.  They should be pretty fun.  I hope to replace some of my lower scoring tournaments.  My IFPA ranking is based on the 20 highest scoring tournaments played in the past 12 months.  I just hit 20 tournaments so now the really bad ones get replaced as I finish higher in the tournaments.

Right now I am 4764th in "The World" but I have a few real stinkers at the bottom (one I didn't even play in so I got last place).  As I replace those with better results my score will go up.  It's dumb but fun.  

That's it for today.  If you missed Another Day, Another Pinball Trophy, check it out.  I won another pinball trophy!