Early a.m. Vegas settled in to watch the last noise the Stardust will ever make. My sis and I had taken a drive through an industrial area on Highland, just past Cheetahs,across the tracks from the freeway,a few days before and also cruised Industrial Road – Industrial runs right behind the Stardust property. Once we’d set our location/viewpoint, we figured to be camera ready by about 1:30 a.m.

This is from our scouting trip and where we thought we’d settle on Highlands.

We parked between McDonald’s and what was left of the Stardust for these shots, climbing into the back of the Silver Steed to shoot over the draped security fence. This is the sign and Sports Book area.

This was all that was left of the sign.

The end view of the Dust – no pun intended.

Fast forward to watching the final execution of the Stardust. We arrived at our chosen view point about 1 a.m. We were the fourth vehicle there and had the perfect view point with the Steed as our foundation. We took lawn chairs, a cooler for drinks, cameras, and tripods, and settled in in the bed of the truck, setting up our tripods on the roof.

The area started to fill up with other viewers and vehicles. Even in the darkened area, I knew I knew this guy as he walked by the Steed, “Hey, are you a blogger?”

He wheeled around, “Hi Linda!”

Hello Tommy (please send me an email – geenenATpokerworks.com).

We had a cyclone fence in front of us, rail road tracks, Sapphire’s parking lot (Strip Club touted as a gentlemen’s club) and the parking lot had obnoxious lights that glared into everyone’s brain. One of the viewers with a great looking camera made a comment about the lights. Yup, they suck. He said we could call Sapphires and see if they would turn them off. What the hell. I did call and asked to speak to a manger. The manager was quite polite but told me it would hurt their business if they turned off those lights – but we were welcome to park in their parking lot if we wanted and he informed me there were news crews there also. He was quite polite. Perhaps there are gentlemen at that club but I’ve never believed that true gentlemen believe a woman should strip in public. My sis and I decided that if the Stardust’s replacement – Echelon Place – is imploded in the future, we would opt for the parking lot at Sapphires.

I used a particular setting on my camera that requires a tripod and slow shutter speed, etc., for this shot and it the whole scene appears well lit, in reality it was not well lit. And an action shot is out of the question with this setting. But this gives a view of where we were and the lights in Sapphire’s parking lot.

We were already locked in to our space and place and we weren’t moving to another location. No one was absolutely sure what time the implosion was supposed to happen. There were a variety of reports and someone behind us turned on and tuned in to a station that gave us an update. We heard the report that there would be 4.5 minutes of fireworks first – but some of us translated it to there would be 4.5 minutes after the fireworks and the implosion would begin. Whatever!

Lights played over the skeleton frame of what was left of the Dust. With that light, this is a regular setting on my camera and the whole scene comes in quite well…except for the damn parking lot lights of Sapphire.

And then – don’t you know it – a train happened along. Just about close to the time we all thought the whole reason we were there would begin, a train whistle started. BOOM! Our view was blocked. Man that parking lot at Sapphire was looking better all the time. I was holding my breath. Had I did all of this advance scouting and planning only to be foiled by a train schedule? Ugh! As the last car rolled out of sight, a cheer and applause went up from everyone around me…I was right there too. YIPPEE!

Water spray started on the bottom floors of the Dust. We knew it was getting close. You can see the water at the bottom of this picture – this was with the special camera setting again – and the people you see at the bottom of the picture are standing on the tracks.

The first fireworks started.

The fireworks were hellery impressive and resembled a beautiful nebulae – only they cast out a lot of smoke and ash and we were feeling the after effect as the ash started dropping on us and our surroundings.

There were more fireworks, some of it shooting out of the top of the Dust; one huge, funneling, burning inferno to the left of the Dust seemed to signify the fires of hell. This little beauty sort of opens the door for the last phase.

And unfortunately, since I’m on my way to the shower and work, this will finalize in about 10 hours, here on this page, so come back.

*****

Back from the time clock routine.

The fireworks on the top of the Dust resemble stars.

I got one picture when the fireworks ended with the special camera setting. Looking back now, I wish I’d left the special setting on for the remainder of the show. This is the only one I took:

As soon as the fireworks stopped, the lights that had been moving over the Dust stopped also. Everything went to midnight black and the smoke in the air just added to the darkness. A red flow started across the floors, the explosives were going off.

All the floors were filled with the red flow.

One last burst of fireworks or explosions shooting from the roof and the show was over.

I would like to report that I got a great picture of the Dust folding in on itself and dropping to the Earth. I did NOT. Not with the digital camera anyway – the movie camera was perfect and the whole building coming down is pretty kewl. With the digital, it was just too damn dark and too much smoke hanging in the air kept the final part of the show hidden – from me anyway. We wondered later if the light show wasn’t supposed to stay on when the building came down. This is all I could capture and from the picture above to the picture below, the time frame couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds.

It was over.

I did read somewhere that the Dust was the tallest building – 31 stories – to be imploded on the Strip in Vegas. I’m sure that record can be easily broken and will at the rate that Vegas destroys and rebuilds.

Goodbye Stardust.

*****

Check out this page for some great pictures of the final days of the Stardust and other info around the city.