WHAT is your name?
Oboe-Wan?

WHAT is your quest?
To find the R2D2 mailbox in Las Vegas.

WHAT is your favorite color?
Blue. NO! Green!! Aaaaahhhhh......


Several people had emailed me asking if I'd seen it yet, but unfortunately it is located downtown about 45 minutes from my house. So, it would have to be a "special" trip. No matter! Today I'll pack Padawan-Wan into the car & take a road trip. Grab your cameras kids, it's time to get excited about a... um... mailbox?

Hubby-Wan has been continuously laughing to himself all morning over the fact that I was going to find this R2 mailbox today. He is a big SW fan, almost (I said almost) as big a fan as I am, but apparently his true colors were showing today. He not only did not want to go see the mailbox with me, but proceeded to make fun of me all morning. I swore to him that there would be a blog bashing if he didn't knock it off, and he didn't stop, so now I get to make fun of HIM in my blog. Ha ha. Who's laughing now?

Oh wait, having a SW.com blog does kind of make me a loser in the eyes of the rest of the world, so I guess he's um... still laughing. I just can't win, can I?


12:30pm
Padawan-Wan adamantly declares that he does not, under any circumstances, want to see the R2 mailbox. Why? Because he wants to play Lego SW all afternoon. He does already know that playing video games all day is not allowed in this house, but I give him credit for trying. Hubby-Wan hands him an envelope & says, "It's your quest to mail this and it has to go into R2."
"OK, Daddy! I'll do it!!"
Hooray, my co-pilot is on board!

1:09pm
Oboe-Wan & Padawan-Wan are strapped into the landspeeder & we embark on our journey. "Mommy, can we please listen to the Beatles?" Sure thing, kid. I turn on "Abbey Road" on my iPod and now the real fun begins. I hit the stop sign at the end of my street, and what do we find? Not just the usual annoying construction. Nope. Our 8 lane main drag is now down to 2 lanes while they pave the other 6, so traffic is backed up in both directions for about a 1/2 mile (that's 0.144 829 374 nautical leagues for all you desert sailors out there) leading up to the next stop light.

1:13pm
Finally reach the stoplight and make my treacherous left turn, but finally we are on our way!! A non-stop, uneventful trip all the way to the intersection of S. Maryland Parkway & Tropicana (that's for all you in Vegas who don't know where the mailbox is!) in the Vons shopping center.

1:48pm
Arrive at Vons and begin trolling the parking lot like a shark. There are at least 100 speed bumps through this parking lot, and only about 15 cars in the spaces. This is not a place I really want to go into with a little kid, so I'm hoping that the box is outside & not in the store. I make 3 passes of the entire plaza, up & down & up again, then reluctantly turn back to make a 4th go of it. I'm getting annoyed. If drove all this way for nothing, Granny-Wan is going to be in deep Bantha poodoo.

1:54pm
As I'm turning the car for one last pass, I see it. There! By the road! It's not in the shopping center at all, it's on the sidewalk along the side of Tropicana.

Now, if any of you have been to Vegas, you've probably been on Tropicana at the south end of the strip. It's busy busy busy. 6 lanes on the east bound side where our R2 was situated - and only a small, 2 foot space of concrete between us and cars going 0.065 685 151 mach. Yikes. Not a place where I'd normally stand with a 5 1/2 year old completely bouncing off the walls with excitement over a mailbox.

But, we park next to it & grab the camera & head out over the rocks to examine our little R2. It's actually kind of cute, but because of the main road being so close, I can't actually take a picture of the front. No, that's a lie, if I felt like playing Frogger with my life, I could certainly stand 2 lanes out, snap a photo then run for my life back to the curb. Imagine the therapy my kid would need if he saw me struck by a "Best Female Impersonators in Town!" billboard truck right before his eyes.

First order of business is to mail Hubby-Wan's letter (actually our Discover Card bill) then do the best we can with the angle to take a couple shots of the Padawan with the side of the box, and after much coaching & believe it or not a minor tantrum right there on the sidewalk, I convinced him to take a picture of moi. This shot is better than the first one he took, which was just of my legs - which, believe it or not, are not clad in skin tight brown leather pants.

I did manage to snap this one shot of the "front", daring to stand as close to the road as I could.

In all, we had a great time! It was a fun adventure & I'm glad i had a chance to see it! If you're in Vegas, remember, it's on Tropicana & S. Maryland Parkway in front of the Vons Shopping Center.