Vegas - One Year Later

Last year on October 2nd, I left Las Vegas in a daze. Our hotel was just around the corner from the concert venue and the Mandalay. I made a conscious effort to not look in that direction, I did not want to see that building and the broken windows of the shooter’s room.

I was tired, there had been no sleeping that night. Every time I started to drift off, I heard gunshots, loud, like they were in the room and they jerked me awake.

I took my time on the drive home. I love the drive between Kingman and Vegas, I think it is beautiful and the geology is cool. I stopped at the dam and walked up the road, so I could take a photo of Black Canyon and the bridge (something I often thought of doing, but never actually took the time to do.) It is the first photo.

This visit to Vegas changed everything. I stood outside the concert venue at 10:00pm with thousands of other survivors. We hugged, we drank, and we had a good time. I made new friends. I remembered that Vegas is fun.

The Mandalay is my favorite of all of the resorts in Vegas and for one year I avoided it. I hated seeing it every time I flew in and out of the city. But this year, on the morning of October 2nd, I walked down to the Mandalay and went inside. I took a lot of photos and ate in a cafe that has the best coffee I have ever had and I remembered that it is just a building, it is not the Overlook Hotel. An evil man did an evil thing, but he is gone and the hotel is just the hotel again.

When I left Las Vegas on October 2nd this year (two days ago) it was very different. I took my time again, and I stopped at several places and took more photos and thought about what a great time I had the night before and about all of the wonderful people I met.

In the last 12 months I have let fear have more power over me than I normally do and I am done with that. It is time to plan my next big adventure…

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