Walkabout on Wheels

The day had finally arrived. Zorah's birthday! She woke up not remembering what day it was, but then, we really haven't stressed at all the day, date, and time thing with her. After breakfast, we all took her to get her present. At the casino they had a shop where you pick an animal, watch it get stuffed, and pick out its clothes. A Build-A-Bear type of thing, but with more variety, perhaps, in the animal selection. Zorah picked a koala and, of course, a pink princess outfit for her. She had fun watching her koala get stuffed. The guy offered to let her do it herself. "No, fanks," she said. She named her new friend Kwala La, after Kwala, a koala on this great site (www.boowakwala.com) which has fun games for kids. Check it out!


Anyway, Brian headed back over to the foosball room at the Riviera, and Ian and I took Zorah to the Adventuredome, an indoor amusement park within the Circus Circus complex. There, we bought all-day bracelets for the rides. Z was a bit dismayed to have a grey bracelet, but that was quickly overshadowed by her excitement at going on the hot air balloon shaped ferris wheel and the carousel, which she had been eyeing since we arrived in Vegas. We had also found out that the clown shows were held in the Adventuredome, so her anticipation at finally seeing some clowns was at an all time high.

So the first thing we did was walk around looking for the clown area. We couldn't find it, so we asked a friendly Adventuredome employee where it was. We were informed that there were no clowns to be seen. Apparently, the stage reserved for the clown acts had been requisitioned for their Frightdome event. All of October Adventuredome would be following a Halloween theme. Sigh. So, yes, believe it or not, it was impossible to see any clowns at Circus Circus. We quickly made our way over to the ferris wheel. We rode once with Zorah sitting next to me. When the ride was over, Z wanted to go again, so we flashed our bracelets and remained seated. Next, she sat by herself, then with Ian and Kwala La. After three ferris wheel rides, I was feeling a bit dizzy, so we took a break. Ian and Z walked around while I ducked out of the Adventuredome for a smoke. I think it is the only non-smoking area of the casino. No, wait, the Midway where the circus acts perform is also.

We walked around for a bit, then proceeded to the carousel. It was one of the few we have found that didn't go too too fast. Still fast enough to make us a bit dizzy though. Are they dizzy? Or thinking? We rode that four times, I think, then walked around some more. There was a lot of stuff to see. Booths with useless items, an arcade, and midway games.

Zorah and Ian found bumper cars and rode that two or three times too. I think that might have been her favorite ride, and I know it was Ian's favorite. After that, Zorah wanted to try a game at the midway where you throw ping pong balls into a bowl. Depending on which color bowl it landed in, you might win a prize. Total luck. Anyway, I let her try it twice, with no luck. She took it pretty well. I wasn't sure if she expected to win something.


Afterwards, Z decided that she didn't want the pink outfit anymore for Kwala La. Fortunately, I had kept all the packaging, so I put everything back in the bag exactly as I had found it, with the exception of the tag not being attached to the dress. Then we walked back to the store. The guy looked at us rather suspiciously, but agreed that we could exchange the dress as long as it hadn't been opened. Hum. Whistle. Kwala La now has a red dress with roses on it.

Z decided to take her bracelet off after that, so our time in Adventuredome was over. Ian went back to the trailer, and Zorah and I watched a few more circus acts. In between, we walked around the games surrounding the stage. Again we came across the ping pong ball game. Zorah tried again, and this time, she won! She won a big, pink stuffed rose, which was exactly what she had wanted. Hooray! After the contortionist, Zorah asked me to try the Chicken In A Pot game.

In this one, you have to put a stuffed chicken on a catapult type thing, hit the thing with a mallet, and have the chicken fly into a pot. I got one chicken in, which meant I won a little white tiger. Zorah named him Konki. What a great name for a prize won by conking something!

We ate at the Italian restaurant at the Riviera for dinner. I ordered osso buco, and gave Zorah most of the marrow since it was her birthday. Afterward Z had fun running around the foosball tournament. It was weird seeing a few people we knew and hadn't seen for years. I guess it's a bit like how it would have been if I had gone to my 15th high school reunion.

So Z and I woke up early and drove the truck to the Ford place, dropped it off, and got a ride back to the campground. Neither Brian nor Ian wanted to come with us, so Zorah and I walked across the campground, in the casino entrance, across the moving walkway, through the shopping area, down the escalator to the main floor of the casino, and through the casino to the Strip. Whew! Then we crossed the street to catch "The Deuce," the bus that goes all the way down Las Vegas Boulevard. Z was so excited to be taking a bus! I guess after all that driving, public transportation with Mama seemed like quite a novelty. I think it is partly because she got to see so many new and different people. She said hi to quite a few of them too.


From the central bus station we took another bus further down Las Vegas Boulevard, and finally arrived at the Children's Museum, which was located in the library. I was expecting to see that famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign, but all we saw was kind of a miniature version. Disappointing.

Anyway, the museum was great. I'm not sure if this was a good or bad thing, but since we came on a Thursday, there were no kids there since school was in. We had the run of the place to ourselves. I tried going into detail with some of the exhibits, but the place was so big and had so much stuff in it that she mostly ran around taking everything in. She put on this construction outfit and pushed a wheelbarrow around for a bit, but moved on pretty quickly.

Another one she spent a lot of time with was this piano that they had at the very top floor of the museum. Rising above the keyboard were all these neon things -- stars, musical notes, moons -- and when you pressed a key on the keyboard, a certain one would light up. The sounds weren't very loud, but she loved that one. I think if I actually want her to learn anything at one of these, though, we will have to find one when we settle down and go to it on a regular basis. Then she will maybe get tired of running around and will really look at the exhibits. Well, the important thing is that she had fun.

As we left the museum Zorah insisted on sitting on the rocks just outside the parking lot. I had a feeling we would miss the bus if we did this, but agreed. She climbed on them for a little while, and as I had thought, we saw the bus drive by. We waited about an hour, during which she fell asleep on my lap, then I had the fun of carrying and holding her through two bus changes during rush hour. One good thing about the Las Vegas bus system is that you can buy an all day pass for $5. Was nice not to have to worry about finding change in my pocket as I was toting her around.
After about two hours of commuting, we made it to the Ford dealer and picked up the truck. Yay! I don't think anything else of note happened that day. But tomorrow would be big. It would be Zorah's 4th birthday! Whee!

The next day we went over to the Riviera to see if anyone we knew had shown up yet at the foosball tournament, but did nothing really memorable until later on, when I took Zorah to Circus Circus. Being true to their name, they have free circus acts in the middle of the casino. What they don't tell you is that there is anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes between acts. Anyway, she wanted to see them, so we went after dinner. Brian was at the foosball. The "pride and joy of Circus Circus was these two men here.
It's no wonder; I mean, what strength and balance. However, it was also a bit strange to see these two bald headed men in skin tight pants strolling and rolling around each other in slow motion and doing these balancing acts. I have to say it was a must see. A marvel of physicality and homoeroticism, I suppose. Zorah thought it was pretty cool and insisted I take these pictures, which I now share with you.

It was close to midnight by the time they were done, so we headed home. Z was getting cranky. See? Besides having finished way past her bedtime, she had been hoping to see clowns since before we got here, and there were none at the show. One would think that it would be easy to see clowns at Circus Circus. Oh, well. Zorah had been dying to go to a children's museum, so we Googled one and decided to take the trip the next day after dropping the truck off for some work. If we couldn't see clowns, we could at least see a children's museum.

I was going to put in some great pictures of the casino and Brian patting the butt of this bronze statue, but for some reason they keep coming up here stood on their ends. Frustrating. Oh, well. So at about three in the morning, we walked from our site, through the Circus Circus casino. These casinos are so huge that it took quite a while to find our way out of Circus Circus, but I guess that's the point. Hide the outside light so you have no real concept of time, and make it hard to leave. Of course, you have to pass open gaming areas, with the slot machines flashing and dinging. Zorah wanted to play the slots, which I guess is another one of their layout goals. Anyway, we finally made it onto the Strip, stopping to take a picture of the happy Circus Circus clown.

We crossed the street, still pretty busy despite the time. I guess that's another thing about Vegas. In the "city that never sleeps" category, it really beats New York. Directly across from us was the Riviera, which had this crazy Vegas fountain, in front of which we took this Mary Tyler Mooresque picture of Zorah. At least it makes me think of Mary Tyler Moore. If only I had a hat for Z to throw up into the air!

It really was energizing in a strange way to see the flashing lights of Vegas. The strip is like a different world. It put me in mind of the movie musicals from the 50s and 60s. You know the ones, where they have that walking montage where the couple or person is just walking and the neon signs change on either side of them? Having been to Vegas, I can totally understand where that idea came from. Very weird.


The sad thing is that many of these old casinos are being torn down to make fancier, pricier, cheesier, themed casinos. The Stardust is being torn down, as is the Riviera at some point. In their places will rise silly theme park casinos with midway games and ticket arcades for the kids to hook them on gambling when they're young. In a way, they are fun, but I think they change the flavor of Vegas. Make it more Disney and less mobster. But I get ahead of myself. I didn't find any of this out our first night. We just walked around and soaked in the atmosphere until Z started getting tired. Around 6 am, we called it a night, and got a few hours of sleep.

September 19, 2006

The next day we looked through the Las Vegas guide and coupon book which the people at the KOA had given us at check in. We decided to eat at this "fine dining" Chinese restaurant called Fin at The Mirage. Ian didn't want to go. I guess he hadn't had enough sleep yet, understandable. We valet parked and walked into the casino. Again, huge. After about five minutes, we got to the restaurant, where the hostess, positioned outside the doors of the restaurant, asked us how old Zorah was. When Brian said she was three, the lady apologized and said we couldn't go in! There is an age requirement for restaurants! You have to be five years old.I think she then directed us to the buffet. I couldn't believe it. We wandered around the casino for a bit to try to find another place to eat, but we had really gotten our hearts set on the Chinese. So we went back, and Brian said to the girl: "Can she just be five, please?" And we were in. So weird. I don't know how other three year olds behave, but, seriously. The food was pretty good. Zorah was very well behaved. The only problem was that she kept wanting to touch these glass balls that were suspended on wires throughout the restaurant. No big deal though. We went back to the Mirage that night. I don't remember what we ate, but I got these nifty pictures of the kids in front of the entrance to Cirque du Soleil's Love show.

We then took a walk through the Riviera again. Because, what a strange coincidence! We got to Vegas just in time for the World Championships of Foosball! It was starting on Wednesday, if I remember right. So we walked down to the tournament room to check it out, but no one was there. Or if they were, they had locked the doors because it hadn't started yet. So that was that. As with all the other casinos, the Riviera was pretty big. It took about 5 or 10 minutes to walk from the entrance on the Strip to the conference rooms.

September 17, 2006

Wow, I have been so bad about updating this blog.

So as I was saying, we set out from Tahoe on Sunday. We had to stop at the casino again first, though, because I had forgotten my pillow and my credit card there. I knew the credit card was somewhere in the room, but for some reason I just couldn't find it even though I scoured the place. Luckily, housekeeping did, with their superior thoroughness. I had already canceled it, but I was glad to see it wasn't in someone else's pocket.

Zorah and Ian sat in the throne-like shoeshine chairs for a little while before we left. If you look carefully, you will see Ian behind Z in the picture.

Random comment: Isn't Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze" just lovely?

Anyway, I took the helm once we got out of the mountainous parts of Tahoe and Nevada. Really scenic, but not so much fun to drive through with a trailer attached to your vehicle. The way to Vegas seemed simple: follow state route 95, take a left to stay on 95, and follow it pretty much all the way. Nevada's deserts are beatiful, with their camel hump mountains and incongruous lakes and waterways. I think people have said that there is nothing in Nevada, but they're wrong. I kind of had the urge to just park somewhere and wander into the desert sometimes.


Brian, Ian, and Zorah all napped as I drove and listened to my iPod. As they slept, we passed through a really beautiful canyon. I drove over a hill, and onto this windy road with a speed limit of 35. It went right through Wilson Canyon, through which a river ran, first on one side, then on the other (if I remember right). It took about five minutes to drive through, and I wanted to either stop, or turn around and drive through it again. I couldn't even take pictures because I was driving.

About ten minutes later, however, I noticed that we were not on 95 anymore. When did we miss it? I had no idea! I drove for about ten minutes more before I thought to look up at the compass in our truck. We were heading west. And one of those road markers showed the mileage to California. Oops. At first I was irritated to have missed the turn on 95. But then I realized I could go through the canyon again! Hooray! This time I stopped and took pictures. It was almost sunset already, so they weren't as dramatic as they would have been had we stopped earlier. As a matter of fact, they weren't very good at all. Oh, well. If I knew anything about photography, I guess I could have experimented with the camera a bit, but everyone was waiting for me in the car, and a bit irritated that I had gotten lost while they were sleeping. Time to move on.

So I got back on the right track about 30 miles later. The gas station where we had stopped to refuel was right at the 95 turn. There was a small black and white sign I had missed on the way out the first time. Sigh. Nothing too eventful happened. We did see another place I'd like to visit, Walker Lake, not too far from Wilson Canyon, I think. It even had a campground! You come down a steep incline, and there it is! A lake in the middle of the desert. I can't help thinking that's odd. We pushed on.

We reached Tonopah, Nevada, at around 10 or 11 pm. I had been driving for about eight hours by then. We were thinking of staying the night here, until we realized that the campground was the parking lot behind the casino. Tonopah is really the middle of nowhere, with nothing to offer but gas stations and motel/casinos, from what we saw. Better, we decided, to drive on through and have our first view of Las Vegas be at night with all the pretty lights at their dazzling best. The only bad thing about this was that all there was to see was some scrub just to the side of the road, and the painted lines of the highway. There were, however, rabbits hopping about by the side of the road, so I entertained myself for a while by counting them. After 41 rabbits, they stopped appearing. I told Brian he should place a bet on 41 on the roulette wheel, but I guess there aren't that many numbers. You can tell I gamble a lot. Zorah entertained herself with computer games as we drove.


At around 2 am, everyone had fallen asleep. Except for me, the driver, of course. In the distance, over the darker shadow of the mountains, I could see a beam of light shooting straight up into the sky. I figured it could be nothing but Vegas. Now I know that this was the light from the Luxor Hotel and Casino, a big pyramid on the strip. I could see it and really nothing else for about an hour or more. And then, finally, after so much monotonous darkness, I started seeing the rest of the lights of Vegas, twinkling and sparkling just like everyone wanted.

But no one wanted to wake up to see it, lol. We found our way to the campground and hooked up the trailer. Since B, I, & Z had all napped, they were, of course, ready to see a bit of the town. So we did.

Most of our days in Lake Tahoe, we just relaxed. The highlight of our visit was really just hanging out with Evan and Stephanie, and getting to know them. That may seem like a weird comment, but in the twelve or thirteen or how ever many years Brian and I have been together, I think I have only seen Evan maybe four times, and then with the happy but distracting presence of various family members. He and Stephanie are both great and seem to be a real team. How cool is it that they make dinner at home, then watch old Star Trek episodes? Very.

Zorah had a lot of fun playing with Rex the dog and Slick and Sleek, the cats. Her favorite thing may have been when she and I ran and walked around the loop on which Stephanie's house is situated. We ended up with four dogs running with us, fighting for a tennis ball, and tearing up pine cones. We would throw these huge pine cones to the dogs who would tear at and worry them with their teeth, and she would laugh that big belly laugh that kids have.

On Saturday, we went to a Renaissance Faire. I had been to one a long time ago, and thought Zorah would enjoy it. It wasn't like the one I had been to, however. This one was strange. It seemed like a lot of the "attractions" were fenced off places where people in generic "medieval" costumes would sit around and drink unknown substances out of goblets. I had a feeling that there has formed a very insular Renaissance Faire community which just travels around the country in their medieval clothes and says "thee", "methinks", and such to each other, tolerating the local visitors in order to support their habit. Maybe they are what happened when Jerry died. I don't know. It was a more than a little uncomfortable for me, and Stephanie thought it was a bit weird too.

Still, we stayed for the joust, which was pretty entertaining. Their goal was to break their lances, rather than unseat each other. The armor was pretty impressive, but the rodeo ring detracted a bit from the whole experience. There were only two knights since one had been injured, along with two or three of their horses. Eh.


We decided that night that we would depart Tahoe and head to Vegas. Though it had been a wonderful, relaxing stay, it was time to move on. So the next morning, with many hugs and e-mail address exchanges, we set out.

Since everything right now is a bit vague, I am only going to hit the high points of our trip. Wednesday we pretty much just relaxed. Thursday, we went with Evan on a short hike in order to see Lake Tahoe. Of course, Zorah insisted on wearing her dress for the hike, but she consented to wear sneakers instead of sandals for practical purposes. So after lunch, we drove out towards the trail. Brian was driving really slowly for him, five miles below the speed limit or so, admiring the scenery. With its steep mountains, conifers, and the twisted black shapes of burnt out trees, it really was something.

Until we heard honking behind us. Actually, it was more like a continuous horn blast.


We turned around to see a diesel Mercedes tailgating us. Inside was an angry old lady, jamming down on the horn and weaving a bit in the lane as she tried to find some way to pass us! Apparently, she had very important places to go. On a windy, two lane road, there was nowhere for us to go, and no way she could pass us. So for the twenty minute drive to Eagle Rock, we were plagued. Why did Brian not go faster? I don't know. Evan assured us that she must not be from this area. Whether she was or she wasn't, it was pretty entertaining. How often is Brian asked to drive faster, much less from an old lady in a diesel Mercedes.

When we finally got there, she gave us one more honk, and probably the bird, though I didn't look.

The hike was great. We went up a trail to a steep dirt path, then climbed up the face of the rock. Everyone helped Zorah up. We wandered slowly up and up until we reached the top, and this wonderful view of the lake.

Zorah kept trying to explore on her own, on uneven, precarious rocks. I got that vertigo feeling (vertiginous?) watching her, and finally asked her to stay away from the edge. I didn't need that kind of excitement.

It was starting to get late, so we headed back down the slope and started driving when we came across a small beach. Zorah insisted on trying to swim, even though it was windy and a bit chilly. So we got her into her swimsuit and she waded in to about her ankles before deciding it was too cold. Still, she had fun throwing rocks and playing with Rex in the shallows. Crazy kid!

So on Tuesday morning we set out for California. The drive was beautiful. It was a sunny day, and the sky was so blue it almost hurt, a stark contrast to the bleached rock of the desert. We had good directions to follow, but the Truckee/Lake Tahoe area is strange. The exits seem to pop up out of nowhere and lead to nowhere. The off ramp curved all the way around and back under the highway onto a fairly narrow road into the forest. Tempted though we were to turn around and find a cell phone signal. We stuck to it and found our way to Stephanie's house. For those of you who do not know, Stephanie is Evan's girlfriend.

We made it there safe and sound, and Brian backed the trailer into her driveway. She was still at work, and Evan had to go to school, so after lunch at a nice Thai place called Dragonfly, we went our separate ways. Evan headed to Reno, and we headed to the skatepark/playground in Truckee. Zorah had a wonderful time running around there, of course. Moreso, however, because this time there were kids to play with. This little boy named René followed her around for at least an hour. I had another cute picture of them on one of those rocking Barneys, but for some reason, when I load it into this blog, it comes out sideways. Beats me. As soon as I figure that out, I'll put i in. After a while, Ian was finished with the skatepark, so he and Brian took a ride in the jeep.

We had dinner at a really nice place on the mountain called Cottonwood. Expensive, but nice. Truckee is a small town not far from the lake, and it seems that the prices reflect that. Still, it was great to sit on their deck overlooking the town and eat good food. We returned to the house and chatted with Evan and Stephanie for a while, then went to bed. It had seemed, I think, like a long day.

September 9-11, 2006

So we set out early in the morning on our way to Lake Tahoe via Reno. I had forgotten to mention how lovely the desert landscape of Nevada really is. It was completely overshadowed by the clouds (ar ar ar). Take this mountain, for instance. Doesn't it look like the one in the Paramount logo? Except it's real! This is Pilot Peak, I'm pretty sure. I used to know, but that was two months ago. We also saw some rock formations that looked like they were taken from the set of Planet Of The Apes or something. You may think that these look similar to pictures I have placed in other areas of this blog, and, probably, you are right. But, oh well! You read my blog, you get sucked into my obsession with landscapes. Fortunately for you, I drove some of the way, and so was unable to take more photos of our journey across Nevada.

Zorah entertained herself looking at books, and listening to music, as shown here. Awwwww!

We approached Reno feeling pretty hungry, so we decided to stop off at the first casino we saw and eat. That would be John Ascuaga's Nugget. Who is John Ascuaga? Why would he want his name in front of Nugget? This word might inspire thoughts of gold in some minds, but in mine, it puts me in mind of the toilet. Anyway, we had a great dinner and decided to take a break from trailer life as we awaited Evan's call. So we got a hotel room! Hooray!

It was really nice to have some of the things we took for granted before being on the road. A hot shower with good water pressure which you don't have to walk outside to use. A bed you don't have to crawl into literally. Lots of room to walk around. Room service. LOL. The pool in this place was really nice. It was heated to a temperature where it actually felt heated, and had these little pools around the main one which had spa jets without the heat. Hot tubs always make me feel like I'm suffocating. Zorah had lots of fun in the little pools, and also in a little waterfall nested between the minipools.

On Sunday night, I went down to the poker room with Brian for a little while. Apparently, there was a special visitor in town, who made their little $3-$6 Limit poker table quite the exciting place to be. Chuck was a guy from Arizona who comes up to Sparks every three or four months to throw some money around the casino, entertaining or irritating those who end up at the same game. He would raise, call, and bet without looking at his cards at all until the hand was over. Sometimes he would win; most times he would not. When I was there, he would look at his cards at least by the last card to be dealt. He told Brian that if there was one thing he shouldn't do, it was to swear in front of a lady. Of course, pottymouth Brian did on many occasions while I was at the table, which bothered Chuck to no end. At about 2am, he decided to go back to his room, and asked me if I would like to push his wheelchair up there for him. I politely declined. Quite a character, and one of the more interesting ones we have encountered on our trip.

Evan met us at the casino on Monday. We had lunch, then headed to the pool area. Seated in the doughnut-shaped jacuzzi were about five older gentleman, with more in the bubbly minipools. They all seemed to be together, and I couldn't help thinking they should all be smoking cigars. It was like a scene from a mafia movie. I wanted to take a picture, but there was no way to do it without being obvious. Instead, I got a picture of Evan, Ian, and Brian a little later.



We made plans to leave the Nugget the next day, to go to Lake Tahoe. I have a feeling this entry was a bit boring. Sorry. Not much happened here, I guess. Not that I remember.

My camera wasn't set to the right time, either 12 hours ahead or behind. I'm not sure which, but I think behind. And it's been so long since we went through these places, I don't really know either. In any case, I suppose the actual dates don't matter as much as what we did. So I'll try not to go too anal on it.

We left Utah happy to continue on our way west. We were in such a hurry to rejoin our adventure that we neglected breakfast and stopped at a rest area by the Great Salt Lake for a quick picnic lunch. This afforded me another opportunity to take a picture of that strange phenomenon, the Salt Lake.

Zorah, meanwhile, enjoyed her lunch of gazpacho and a ham sandwich.


When we continued driving, we saw some really incredible cloud formations. If you have been reading this at all, you will know how into clouds I am. We have seen a lot of clouds, having driven thousands of miles. I have never seen ones like this before. Maybe it is a Utah thing. Look at it! It's like a funnel! Weeeird. Some people say that clouds like this are actually camouflage for alien ships.


On the other side of the highway the clouds looked like a smack of jellyfish complete with tentacles stringing down.
The picture doesn't do it justice. Coupled with the salt flat landscape, it was totally unreal. If any of you know what's up with these things, please let me know. Sorry to have dwelt so much on them, but seeing these for me was like having your dog talk to you or maybe like seeing a tree with dayglo leaves. I don't know.


Enough, right? Okay. We hit Wendover, which is the first town as you cross into Nevada. Though Pacific Time is supposed to start in Nevada, this town was special. Wendover, being as close to Utah as possible, caters to Utah gamblers and keeps their time in Mountain Time!

Anyway, we had planned to drive as far as possible, and this was about as far as we felt we could go. So we stopped here at another KOA. I don't know if I have specifically mentioned these campgrounds, but they are kind of like the McDonald's of campgrounds. They are everywhere and are consistent in their offerings. Of course, KOAs don't destroy your liver and kidneys, or lead to obesity either, but you see what I'm getting at. This one, I was amazed to see, even had the KOA logo in the pool. Neato!

As we relaxed poolside, Brian visited the casinos and played a bit of poker. He did quite well, amazed at the bizarre playing style of Utah-people. Utahans? Utavians? Whatever. I won't go into details, but in any case, we were happy to leave with some additional cash and a good night's sleep. Zorah was so exhausted from our exciting journey that she fell asleep on the kitchen floor! I didn't leave her there, of course. I allowed her 20 minutes to reach a deep sleep level, then put her on the bed.