Week in the Desert, part 4

By the dawn of Day two (or, should I count the 30% day Monday, and call this day three?), I was still not impressed with my room, because (a) this was my view -- and the interior was even less scenic --
and (b) we couldn't make our cell phones work inside the rooms.

Still, we managed to get ourselves together, and after another great steak-and-eggs breakfast, we made our way to the Sands Expo Center, for AAPEX.

I had a lot of fun collecting pelf and ideas, but by noon, my seester and I had pretty much reached saturation looking at tools and car parts, and were discussing where to go next. The decision was made... the Liberace Museum. It took a little digging around on her "brick," the handheld government-issue blackberry equivalent, but we found directions, and ended up at the first of the two buildings which make up the museum proper.
That front part housed Liberace's collection of cars

(I posted a pic of one, already, didn't I?)

and Pianos, fortepianos, and other keyboard-and-string instruments,

including this spiffy little feller:

which we were hoping to convince my brother-in-law my seester had ordered for delivery at their home for Christmas. Because everybody needs a little night music.

The second part of the museum is at the back end of the parking lot, and is the recognizable landmark piece of architecture shown at their website. That's the part that shows the more...personal stuff.

Like his costumes,

some of the furnishings he lived/worked with, and


some of the gifts he received from his fans

For all the camp Liberace presented on stage, he had a conscience, as well, establishing the Liberace Foundation to fund music education for others. This I had not known until I was preparing for my trip.

But, besides all that, I got the impression he really wanted to see that everybody had a good time... and he seemed not at all unwilling to get silly to make that happen. I can not imagine anybody else, especially in this day and age, who would be willing to wear a rhinestone-and-sequin affair weighing 200 pounds, above platform shoes, while playing a mirror-bedecked piano night after night...

And he was genuinely, sweetly funny.

Maybe that's why the young couple, who arrived at the museum a few minutes after my seester and I did, were so respectful, even though they were far too young to have seen him perform.

Anyway, the museum visit doesn't have to take very long, if your legs are going all wobbly from walking around a trade show, and you can still take in an awful lot of smiles.

We had plenty of time, that afternoon, to pick up my BIL and go see another wonder Nevada has to offer: the Valley of Fire.

I'll post on that, I hope, tomorrow.