Vegas/Utah Side Quests

Mar 26
3 min read

Updated: Mar 27

My purpose for being in Las Vegas was to attend Amusement Expo International, but there’s nothing wrong with having a side quest or two before the show, right? So with Noah, Sadie and Maree along for the ride we decided to chill for a bit by making a road trip to Utah! I knew Cope, Caleb and some other tag friends would be at Laser Mania in St. George for an SM5 members night on Tuesday, so it seemed like a perfect time to catch up with friends…and since every arena we visited from here on out was one I had played before it did not alter my count. ;)

Before we got as far as Utah we checked out a couple of local arenas in the Vegas area.

Flip N Out Xtreme in Summerlin, NV has a really interesting build (the work of Bryan Severance) so we took a tour of the MANY levels inside the arena.

Then we checked in on Battle Blast Laser Tag in Las Vegas, where owners Derek and Jessica have hosted several of my Tag 4 A Cause events in the past. We met their new manager Chris and played a game with Battle Company gear inside their awesome arena.

Keeping with my new tradition, I brought a Las Vegas monkey with me. He was just “hangin’ around!”

After this stop it was off to Utah, starting with a stop over to Fiesta Fun Center in St George where Noah and I battled it out 1v1 with Laserforce Gen 8 packs (new since the last time I played here).

What I find most notable inside this arena is the ramp lighting in red and blue leading you towards each team’s respective base side.

This trip we worked up an appetite and stopped for dinner at one of my favorite places when I’m in the area…Anjelica’s Mexican Restaurant. We met up with Cope and Caleb and had a delicious meal out in their open-air patio.

Knowing there were four inches of snow waiting for me back in New York, I savored every moment of sunshine and gorgeous weather this trip!

Once we had finished our meal it was time for the member’s night, so we walked across the street to Laser Mania where the competitive players were already getting ready for some SM5 (no doubt practicing for Nats, which will be held on my side of the country this year).

Before entering the building I was standing out front when Rockwood got out of his car. Not sure why, but I thought he was a Loveland player, so I was surprised and didn’t immediately recognize him, thinking perhaps he could be Luke or someone else from this area. It seems so fitting that I don’t expect to see Rockwood in St. George after the livestream where he was so surprised to see Tivia in Syracuse…both of us playing in EXACTLY the place you’d most expect to see us, yet somehow neither of us did, lol. Anyhow, a short time later we were playing together in the game.

It’s been a few years, so I had forgotten where everything was inside this arena! I had to get my bearings quickly!

We had a couple of close games. My goal was not to play hard, but like the Bee-Gees sing “uh, uh, uh, uh, staying alive, staying alive!”

You can imagine how much I loved checking out this Laserforce history too!

Not mine, but these certainly look awfully familiar! ;)

When the night was over we all returned to Vegas, ready to attend the Amusement Expo trade show the next day. That will be a story all on its own, however while in Vegas the side quests didn’t stop.

On Wednesday after the show we took a trip to the Flamingo Casino to see a performance by comedian/magician Piff the Magic Dragon where we were close enough to touch the stage.

This was an exceptional event! I was thoroughly impressed with the show. We also got to soak up some Las Vegas atmoSPHERE.

And a particular highlight of the trip was a visit to Fremont Street (aka Old Las Vegas).

The light show on the canopy covering the entire street was amazing!

https://video.wixstatic.com/https://video.wixstatic.com/video/4bae25_0bde3234f24d480c8ddb2e0f9308339d/file

And this will probably be the only time I’ll ever be standing next to a pile of cash this large as I had my photo taken next to a million dollars in Binion’s Casino.