San Francisco Chinatown History: the good..and the grim.

https://chintalks.blogspot.com/2012/05/edsel-ford-fong-sam-wo.html
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I think we need to stop buying into that internalized racist BS that Asians are timid, square, don't know how to live life, sexless. Enough with the Bullshit. Martial Arts, the Taoist cultivating of SEX, SUN TZU, and the GOD OF WAR all come from the EAST. I like to think that the Asian philosophy teaches us how to be peaceful warriors with strategy without acting like Covert Barbarian psycho cowards who prey on those who won't fight back but never dare to lose to a true Dragon warrior. Asian philosophy also teaches us to protect our elders and look out for our communities (Real, Uncorrupted Confucianism teaches this and Taoism and Buddhism and Folk Beliefs also value the wisdom of the Warrior).
The Zhuang people in Southern China also had warriofighting traditons even before the influx of the Han into the region such as Zhuang Boxing (similar to Muay Thai) that also influenced some modern day Cantonese Martial Arts styles (Cantonese being a mixture between the Han from the North and the Southern Yue (including the Zhuang).
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Also, for anyone saying Asians aren't creative, talent does not come instinctive to any race, talent doesn't have a colour. I think it's safe to say that CULTURALLY, Asian culture encourages people to be more Spiritual (philosophical and creative) and open minded than European culture (particularly Anglo-Germanic culture). Some of the most talented and Artistic people have come from the East.Another thing, I don't like being put in a box of MODEL MINORITY or hard working, boring, lifeless Asian, drone stereotypes. Most of us are not like that.
Also, Asians are some of the most passionate people so those Asians that we see who are Architects, Doctors, or Cooks/Chefs often put all their heart into their profession, even the Gangsters. In Asian cultures, everyone has a code. Being passionate at what you do and having love for people is so ingrained in our philosophies and Taoism also encourages us to not just work hard but also have fun and be spontaneous and enjoy the simple things in life.In many parts of the Bay Area, the majority of the Chinese immigrants come from villages in Guangdong where they used to get money sent to them every month from overseas relatives or various business ventures that were funded before coming to the United States.
The high development of that part of China today is in large part due to the ability of the many locals to have a healthy, work, life balance as Cantonese culture is largely incorporated with Taoist thought which encourages simple and non stressful living as opposed to the extreme, status climbing and psychopathic lack of trust in the general hierarchies of the west where everyone is just out for themselves with no value for any kind of Balance or Harmony that leads to a better quality of life.I also would like to dispel the myth that Asian immigrants in America do not take welfare or are ashamed to receive government assistance.
In California, Cantonese/Toisanese immigrants from Guangdong make up a lot of the common welfare recipients in addition to Southeast Asians such as Vietnamese, other Indochinese, and Burmese as well as a lot of Pacific Islanders and African Americans. Often when White people take welfare, it's just an excuse and often for the pose of being poor while having the perfect privilege and the capacity to make lots of money in the corporate world but instead choose to waste their time being Hippies on WEED just like their cousins over in Amsterdam.There are however genuine good Whites on welfare such as the many homeless and some starving artists who actually need the assistance and are humble enough to not make a big deal about it but then you have many Whites just being greedy assholes, who, instead of screwing their way through crony capitalism in the corporate world, they screw the local resources with their Fake Poverty.
I've seen genuine poor White folk from Missouri working in the logging/wood selling business near campsites in Oregon and those are good people for the most part, yet, these people are not taking government welfare. It's mostly the White Hippies and COUNTERCULTURE POSERS over in San Francisco and Portland doing that bullshit or many of them are trust fund Babies with money flowing in from their Rich Mommies and Daddies in Connecticut.There aren't a lot of jobs for Working class Chinese immigrants in the Bay Area. Most of the manufacturing and garment jobs are dead as that kind of work was shipped over to China and now you have Chinese slaves working in factories for their White Masters (modern day colonial slavery).
The Chinese Restaurant Business is dying with restaurants closing left and right, unable to afford the high cost of living.Toisanese folks are not dumb or naive in the slightest, our people have suffered and are well aware of the history of White supremacy both in the west and in Hong Kong and China and we know the western system well enough now (from decades of immigration and word of mouth) that we're able to find all the loopholes and know how to game the system. Gaming the system is good enough because we're taking a lot of money from the racist White taxpayers and piece of shit government and get to enjoy our lives here in California while screwing over the Racist Whites.
Hahaha, Rich, affluent, and middle class suburban whites and urban hipster posers and techies complaining about us taking all the jobs or us driving up real estate or us being sleazy, gaming parasites when in reality, we know this is all projection from the Whites. By the way, us gaming the American system is good, it's one of our ways of fighting White supremacy and CRONY CAPITALISM and eventually taking over the US through our numbers/immigration and turning San Francisco and Oakland into our little extentions of Hong Kong/Guangzhou and our funky home villages back in Toisan. Model Minority we are not.
Maybe some other groups like the Taiwanese, Fujianese, Shanghainese, Hakka, and Koreans take a more literal interpretation of Confucianism as defining core values like education and hard work through excess competition more than us Cantonese and our cousins over in Vietnam. Us Cantonese as well as some other Asian groups such as Sichuanese, Yunnan, Hainanese, Tibetans, Nepalese, Burmese, Cambodian, Viet, Thai, and Indonesians believe more in enjoying life and not taking things too literal or serious and many of us just like to eat, party, sing, and gamble.
I believe other Asians can learn some things from these mentioned groups such as not taking life too seriously and enjoying what you have with what you've got and being less rigid and more flexible and open minded.This is just a comparison of our different cultures within Asia and how we can all learn from each other and improve each other's welfare and quality of life to make Asia a better place and to improve our quality of life in the west as well.
Guys, don't be ashamed to stick a big Fuck You to the White Man's capital exploitation system and slavery of our peoples back in Asia. We must rebel. If it means taking welfare and gaming the system and opening up gambling houses everywhere and forming our own mini governments and societies or ''Chinatowns" out here and having our own economies then so be it. It will only be a bigger FUCK YOU to the White man and his pawns.
We need to go back to electing Chinese mayors, local officials, and making sure the Hong Men do their jobs to keep our local economies running, petty crime off the streets, and keeping our communities safe from outsiders or making it known they can't mess around in our territories. We can start building Asia within the West and turn White supremacy upside down and on its knees and elect Triad members into government (just kidding although I think that would be a good thing as it would be a greater threat to the White devils).

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/pokecomments/bfr2pf/inside_boston_underground_poker_part_1/
Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/pokecomments/bfvdp3/inside_boston_underground_poker_part_2/
Interlude: https://www.reddit.com/userobswins/comments/bfyehh/inside_boston_underground_poker_interlude/
So now my apartment had been robbed for the 2nd time within a few months, I had a regular gig dealing 2 nights a week at Andy's game outside of Chinatown, and I was playing 3 or 4 nights a week at Moon's game in Back Bay. Moon and I had gotten to be pretty close friends, I tended to hang out until the game broke and then we'd go out and grab breakfast after. He was a really interesting guy, and super smart, but with really strange ways of looking at things. I was told later that his mom had killed herself after some huge gambling losses, so maybe that explains some of his erratic thoughts.
I liked the rhythm I was in, I was making great money and enjoying myself a decent amount, but I realized some people at Moon's game were a little annoyed with my style. As I mentioned in part 1, I was known for hitting and running games. If I made a certain amount for the night, I'd usually stop playing and just hang out talking with Moon or other people who were waiting to get in the game. Moon had some game system in the side room with a big screen TV, so I'd mess around on there, smoke with Moon, etc.
I decided maybe people wouldn't be so pissed about that if I wasn't there so often, so I started diversifying my games a bit. Ron had connections all over, so one day he took me over to a game in South Boston. For those who haven't seen movies like The Departed, Southie is known for a huge Irish population. The game in question was held at a VFW and was run by the Irish mob. Now if you haven't played in underground games you might be thinking to yourself, if you can play in games like Moon's game where the guy running it is just some goofy libertarian conspiracy nut stoner, why would you play with dangerous people like the Irish mob?
The answer is that the mob game was the safest in town, even safer than Andy's game. No Boston cop is going into Southie to bust up an Irish mob game. No one is stupid enough to try to rob an Irish mob game. It really was a good place to play. It wasn't as plush as some of the other places since it was inside a VFW, but the mob guys were as friendly as can be, we were their customers! There's nothing quite like some mob lackey coming over and asking if you want them to make you another sandwich or bring you another beer. It was a bit surreal.
My favorite character from the VFW game was this short Irish guy whose name I can't remember. He talked CONSTANTLY, nervous little chatter, always complaining about "flop lag" (that his cards from the previous hand would have been good on the current flop) or commenting about how he'd have made a big hand if he'd have called preflop. He was a really good poker player, very astute. He'd constantly come up with great reads on players and make impressive calls. I once asked why he didn't play at Foxwoods which was the closest casino to Boston at the time so that he could play bigger games. It turns out that on top of being a great poker player, the guy was also a compulsive thief. He was banned from casinos and games far and wide for stealing chips off of people's stacks while they were in the bathroom, or just had their backs turned. Imagine having the skill to win hundreds of thousands of dollars a year playing poker, and being relegated to a $1/3 game because you can't help but steal $5 from your neighbor's stack while he's pissing. The guy was insane.
Speaking of Foxwoods, one night Moon's game was breaking early for some reason and a guy asked if I wanted to go with him to Foxwoods. I was hesitant, because it's a 21 year old casino, but he insisted that they never card people if you go in through the poker room entrance. I decided to give it a shot, and it turned out he was right, I never got carded coming in that way. I found that the $2/5 game there was a nitfest, but the $5/10 $2k max buyin game was full of maniacs and drunks on the weekend. I had found a new place to diversify my play.
It turned out that Ron and his friend who was solid too would go to Foxwoods pretty often, so we started going there every couple of weeks. I'd go out there alone sometimes as well, the action was just insane. One Friday I bought in for $1k on the $5/10 game and had the session of a lifetime. This drunk guy kept buying in for $2k, running it up to $5k by sucking out on people and playing like a maniac, and then would dump it to me. I ended up playing for 36 hours straight at the table, from 8pm Friday night until 8am Sunday morning (obviously with some bathroom and food breaks, but mostly eating at the table). I left with a bit over $21k.
I actually never played legally at Foxwoods, I only went there when I was underage. It was only an issue a couple of times. To get to the food areas besides the poker cafe, you had to walk out the casino exit. Usually after eating if I walked in like I was supposed to be there, they wouldn't question me. Once a security guard ID'd me and I turned around and walked away, then went outside and back through the poker entrance.
The major issue came one time when I was gone for more than 40 minutes and they picked up my stack. They acknowledged that it was my stack, but said I had to show ID to confirm it for some reason. I ended up bullshitting my way out of it by saying I had left my ID in Boston, and I didn't think it was reasonable for them to ask me to drive 2 hours each way to get my $3k back. In the end a few dealers spoke up and said I was there multiple times a month, and my logic that if I was under 21 they'd be in so much trouble with the gaming commission convinced them to give the chips back and make me go home until I brought my ID. Of course I was back the next week without ID as usual and never had any issue again.
I started getting more into online poker around this time as well. Back in high school I had played online some, and my first big bink came online as I talked about in Part 1 of this story, but between leaving Boston in 2006 and early 2008 where we are at in the story now, I had barely played online, instead focusing on live. I deposited $600 on Full Tilt and played a few tables of 200nl. I was playing like a total maniac, so far from my normal style live, but I was crushing it! I lost the first 2 $600 deposits, but the 3rd one I ran up to $18k, rising in stakes to $400nl and 600nl. I was turning 21 in May, so my dream was to win a seat into the WSOP Main and be the youngest ever to win. One day in March or April, both Stars and Full Tilt were having crazy satellites to the Main, I believe the FTP one paid like 250 seats and the Stars paid 100 seats, both with buyins of like $600. I bombed out of the Stars tourney, but made a deep run on Full Tilt. It was down to 10 people until the bubble, so everyone was just folding until forced all in pretty much. I was down to about 4bb and picked up AQs, and knowing I couldn't just fold my way in I shoved from the cutoff. The button was sitting on about 7bbs and most likely could have folded his way in, but for some reason he called over half his stack with A6o and nailed the 6 right on the flop, crushing my dreams.
I cashed out $12k and left $5k to play with, but ended up donking that off playing $1000nl against actual good players and running into big hands. I decided to put e-checks on my account so I didn't have the $600 max daily deposit that the other options gave. Instead I could now deposit $2500/day if I wanted to, and I lost $2500 the first day, then won $3000 the 2nd day and decided I was playing too gambly and cashed out the $5500 I had on there. Once again I had cooled on online poker and was grinding live, and mostly forgot about my Full Tilt account for the time being.
It was now late April, our lease was up at the end of May, and I decided I would move out to Las Vegas for the summer and grind cash at the WSOP. I said my goodbyes to everyone in the scene, I had no plans to move back to Boston. I had some good times there, but overall I was ready for a change of scenery. I had around $150k at this point, I had made a ton of money over the past year, but also spent tens of thousands on bullshit, and gambled away a ton in the pits at Foxwoods and Turning Stone. Back before I moved to Israel in 2006, I had decided to open up a Charles Schwab account to put my money in and invest it. I kept most of my money in the market, making some aggressive plays and investing on margins, but doing well as the market rose. In 2008 the market started doing poorly, but I was making enough in poker to make up for it, and I made some profitable moves shorting airline stocks. I left Boston for Vegas feeling pretty good and wondering where life would go next.
When I arrived in Vegas, I looked at my Schwab account which was the account I had connected to FTP for e-checks. There were 5 deposits for $2500 each, one each day for the 5 days I had been driving from Boston to Vegas. I was confused as I hadn't deposited for over a month at this point. I called FTP support and the person on the line would only tell me that the IP address I had deposited from was the same I had deposited from the month before, but a different computer was used. Still a bit confused, but with a suspicion of what may have happened, I called Rich. Before I could even really ask, Rich made some comment about how his laptop had been stolen the past week from his girlfriend's apartment. I then called FTP support back and said I believed the transactions had been fraudulent. I asked if since they could tell which computer had logged in with my account, could they also tell me if other accounts had ever logged in from that computer. They told me they weren't supposed to, but they basically confirmed that the laptop that logged in and made the deposits on my account was the laptop regularly used to log in on Rich's account. They also confirmed yet again that the deposits were made from the same IP we both regularly logged in from. For Rich's story to be believable, someone had stolen his laptop from his girlfriend's place miles away, taken it to our apartment and logged in from there. I finally realized what a lying piece of shit Rich was, and some things he had done in the past clicked for me. I realized the 2nd burglary of our apartment was completely fabricated, he had taken my PS3, PSP, games and DVDs and probably pawned them all.
I called the number on the back of my Schwab debit card and told them the transactions were fraudulent. They required me to get a police report, so I had a fun few hours with LVPD explaining that my roommate in Boston had stolen money from me through my online poker account while I was driving. I sent the police report over, and about a month later Visa refunded my $12,500. They said they would do an investigation into Rich, but never gave me any updates about what happened. I brought this story up on this forum once before and someone who knew Rich growing up responded, and they think he was never arrested for it, so I guess he got away with the scam and Visa ate the $12,500 loss. The person from /poker did say they think they last heard he was homeless in San Francisco, so that's a bit of justice I suppose.
I could continue this story, but it would no longer be about Boston underground poker, it would be about Vegas live poker.

Warrior is set in 1870s San Francisco. Parallels to Ankh-Morpork that I've observed:

1. Conflict between the Chinese and the Irish over employment and crime, lorded over by the Americans. Somewhat similar to the Dwarves and Trolls fighting each other and being considered inferior by the native Morporkians.
   
2. Due to rising crime rates, a special Chinatown squad was formed, including one cynical veteran and one by-the-book newbie cop. Allusions to Vimes and Carrot. The "Vimes" here is not an alcoholic but has a gambling habit which gets him into trouble.
   

Aside from the gratuitous violence and nudity and the lack of fantasy elements, I feel it's a pretty realistic portrayal of what Ankh-Morpork would be like during the events of Night Watch in regards to the power plays between the various factions.

I know Reddit is known for not censoring its users, which I think is a positive thing. But for certain city subreddits which serve as the unofficial forum for its residents and usually boast a large membership, I am appalled that this can happen in the SF reddit when 1/3 of our population of the city is Chinese.
There is one recent thread that discusses a flyer posted in San Francisco Chinatown protesting AirBnb for driving out the elderly and low-income immigrant families and grossly changing the social fabric of Chinatown. It's a legitimate concern. Rather than addressing this with relevant points, the post has turned into Chinese-bashing and a discussion of how overseas Chinese have come in to buy property and drive up rental prices. As we all know, this type of conflation is exactly what happened to Japanese Americans when they were interned. This situation is hardly as severe but reflects the mindset of these individuals.
There's another discussion posted yesterday about how Chinatown residents oppose pot dispensaries in their neighborhoods. Again, this had led to more Chinese bashing. "Fix your problem with brothels and gambling dens, then worry about dispensaries," one poster wrote. SF Chinatown is filled with new immigrant families with young children and has at least two large elementary schools within its borders. People live here. It's densely populated. But more importantly, this debate could have been had without the Chinese-bashing and resort to negative stereotypes.
If this were a regular subreddit, I'd let it go. But this is in the SF subreddit, and Chinese-Americans played an integral part in building this city. While it's nice to have an insular haven in asian subreddits, I think there is a need to venture out to these other subreddits, to be the unpopular voice but to serve as that counter-voice, the counter-narrative to the racism that is being spewed. Even if this is just online, this spills over to real life.
It's sanfrancisco

Hi. I'm in the later stages of planning a 4-week road trip holiday around California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. I've managed to come up with an itinerary for it based on guidebooks and photos, but because of the probably quite frightening amount of money which this is going to cost, I want to make 100% sure I'm not making any major mistakes or missing any obvious opportunities - this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime trip with the wife (or, as we're planning kids in the next couple of years, once in until-the-kids-sod-off-and-moveout-time), so I want it to be as good as possible. We went to New Zealand this time last year on a similar trip and the advice I got from the /newzealand sub made it much better than my original plan, so I'm really hoping for the same here. I'd be especially grateful for any essential side trips or what-have-you that the itinerary says we're just blowing right by.
We're planning to travel in early September (probably arriving the second weekend in Sept, just to avoid Labor Day, as prices seem cheaper then).
General information: we are English and both in our early 30s. I've previously been to SF, LA, Vegas a couple of times (on Coachella-related trips), the wife hasn't been to the west coast. We like cool sights more than crowded cities (Milford Sound was probably the highlight of New Zealand - in Mexico we hated Mexico City by love Teotihuacan) and while we're ok with walking, we much prefer relatively flat walks (or walks with rolling hills) to walks that have one big ascent and big descent (in NZ, we much preferred the Abel Tasman Trail than the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Apart from the sandflies. Fuck the sandflies). We are comfortable money-wise (because we are hella cheap generally), so money isn't a massive object, but we'd prefer to avoid unnecessary spending. We are definitely planning to spend all our nights in hotels/motels etc, rather than camping out (although I have previously enjoyed the shenanigans involved in buying camping supplies from Walmart, using them, then packing them back up and returning them for a full refund). I think that's all the personal info you need?
So here's the plan:

• Day 1 - Fly to San Francisco and enjoy the jetlag.
  
• Day 2 - Have wander around Golden Gate Park and hopefully the Legion of Honor because we like Rodin.
  
• Day 3 - Alcatraz, then Lombard Street, Coit Tower, maybe Chinatown. Possibly also Mission Dolores park (with a stop for a sandwich from Ike's) because that's a great view.
  
• Day 4 - Bike ride across Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito (including stopping by the Army Engineers' bay model thing).
  
• Day 5 - pick up a hire car who will be our trusty steed for the next 23 days and drive out to Yosemite Valley.
  
• Day 6 - Hang around in Yosemite. I definitely want to experience the classic view from Glacier Point, but beyond that any advice on good walks which don't involve scaling massive heights would be much appreciated.
  
• Day 7 - Head out of Yosemite Valley (probably via a stop around Tuolomne Meadows) and down to Mono Lake (and probably stay in Lee Vining). I'm not sure if this will be cutting Yosemite too short. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
  
• Day 8 - Drive through Death Valley towards Vegas. The plan would be to drive down to Badwater to get to Dante's View, but beyond that, I'm not certain what major stopping points there are on this drive. The current schedule would have this as a Saturday, which I understand is not the best time to arrive in Vegas, so maybe an extra day in Yosemite would be good, then arriving in Vegas on a Sunday?
  
• Day 9 - Vegas - Basically would plan to see the Venetian (I missed that last time), Bellagio Fountains, a buffet and a show. We've no interest in gambling.
  
• Day 10 - Drive to Zion National Park (maybe with a stop at Snow Canyon). Enjoy the views.
  
• Day 11 - Walk around Zion. We have very much decided against climbing up to Angel's Landing because we like being alive, so we'll probably stay on the valley floor (Emerald Pools, Watchman Trail seem nice). This will probably be a fairly relaxing day, just enjoying the scenery. If we felt like we'd seen enough of Zion early on, we could consider a day trip to Bryce.
  
• Day 12 - A big question mark here. I would like to go to Toroweap Overlook because it looks amazing (I've been to Pulpit Rock in Norway, Toroweap looks like a slightly more extreme version of that), but it is so incredibly out of the way (and we'd be in a hire car, not a 4x4, so we'd probably either need to hire a new car or go on a proper excursion). Given that the itinerary includes the North Rim and South Rim, is Toroweap missable? Regardless, the plan would be to drive from Zion (either via Toroweap or not) to the North Rim and stay there. If we didn't go to Toroweap, we might consider the Coral Pink Sand Dunes.
  
• Day 13 - enjoy the views of the North Rim. We'd probably head to Cape Royal, Angel's Window and Point Imperial.
  
• Day 14 - Drive to Monument Valley with a stop at Horseshoe Bend on the way. I think we'd probably aim to stay pretty near to the Valley and enjoy it during the evening and morning of Day 15, rather than dedicating a full day to it. Depending on time, we might also stop at Navajo National Monument on the way.
  
• Day 15 This will be a long day. The aim would be to drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, probably to Desert View and the viewpoints between there and Grand Canyon Village. We'd then aim to drive to Flagstaff to stay the night and do some stargazing (we loved doing this in Tekapo in NZ, it'd be great to do another International Dark Sky Reserve).
  
• Day 16 - This would probably be a relatively quiet day, just driving to Vegas via the Hoover Dam. If we fancied, I guess we could pop up to the Canyon again. Otherwise, we might nip down to Oak Canyon. Then we'd have the night in Vegas, for more food or another show (or sleep in a nice comfy bed!).
  
• Day 17 Drive down to Palm Springs via either the Mojave Reserve or Havasu City, and definitely through Joshua Tree. I imagine we'd prefer Havasu, just because of London Bridge (we used to work for the council which sold London Bridge, and used to walk across the new one to work, so I think we'd get nerdy delight out of it. I'm not sure that we'd get anything out of the Mojave that we wouldn't have got out of the various deserts of Utah, Nevada and Arizona. Depending on how we're feeling and accommodation options, we might just push on straight to LA instead.
  
• Day 18 Drive to LA. Not quite sure where to stay in LA (I've stayed in Santa Monica and West Hollywood before), so any advice would be good. On this day, we'd probably try to do the classic Hollywood, Rodeo, Sunset Strip, Malibu, Venice Beach thing (and we'd try to fit in seeing the Space Shuttle too).
  
• Day 19 - Disney. This is non-negotiable (although we can change the date to make sure we don't hit a weekend).
  
• Day 20 - Universal Studios. This is slightly more negotiable, but still something we very much want to do.
  
• Day 21 - Drive to Sequoia National Forest. Not quite sure where to stay here, maybe Visalia?
  
• Day 22 - Take a walk among the giant trees in Sequoia. Any specific recommendations for walks (I've got Trail of 100 Giants written down) would be greatly appreciated.
  
• Day 23 - Drive over to the 101/Highway 1 and probably stay in San Luis Obispo (unless there's somewhere better?).
  
• Day 24 - Drive up the Hearst Castle and enjoy that. If Highway 1 is open, we'd drive up that. If not, we'll have no choice (I think?) but to head but to SLO and up the 101 to Monterey (that'd be our destination whichever road we're going up).
  
• Day 25 - Whale Watching in Monterey - This would take us to the start of October, which from what I read online is a good time for whale watching (as you've got a shot at greys, blues and humpbacks).
  
• Day 26 - Drive to San Francisco/San Jose and enjoy our final evening.
  
• Day 27 - Fly Home.
  
• Day 28 - Due to the flight length and time difference, we're probably still flying home, but we'll eventually get there.
  

So there we go. Any thoughts, questions or comments will be greatly appreciated (read: I'll give you my upvote). We can probably add one or two days of float to the trip (currently its scheduled with us leaving on a Saturday and arriving back on a Friday, we could arrive home on the Saturday or (possibly) Sunday and still be back in work on the Monday.
One particular outstanding question is whether we get a car or an RV. Car is obviously cheaper, but the RV would probably be pretty helpful for what I'm calling the Vegas-Vegas Loop (days 10 to 16) - we'd be more comfortable for the long drives, have fewer worries about getting to motels and so on. Then we could pick up a hire car in Vegas again for the final 12 days. Is that something which might be reasonable? I have zero experience of RVs, so I don't know how user friendly they are for someone as clueless as I am.
Sorry for the utterly drastic length of this by the way...

First post, I'll edit as necessary once I see how it comes out. Really just using this as an opportunity to test the waters with Reddit storytelling. Hoping the rest of the story stays interesting.

Be me, Nils Thorsson: Minnesotan lumberjack of Norwegian descent who also plays harmonica in 1901 alternate history (simple d6 system).

Alternate history: American Civil War ended in stalemate, Union lost too many resources to control the west. Russia came in from the north and Mexico came in from the south; unofficial line of demarcation runs somewhere south of San Francisco.

Meet Russian girlfriend, follow her back to California to see redwoods. ...And to meet her family, I guess. Family didn't approve of my non-Russian blood and tried to spill it. I didn't approve of that and introduced them to the dangers of a lumber mill. Russian mafia had a hit out on them, so I technically did them a favor; they responded by offering me another job.
Campaign: Take on job to deliver a letter. Yawn.
Ohwait: Kill a Russian nobleman, then put this letter on his body.
Ohwaitwait: Kill a Russian nobleman on a train, rob the train, leave no witnesses, recover any Russian government-related documentation, and leave this sealed letter on his body.
I chop trees. ...And I guess Russians, now, technically, so sure, let's do this.
Introduce washed up Pony Express rider who has no job.
Introduce rich (and bored) detective who can't even vote because she's female, and, y'know, suffrage history.
Introduce French runaway whose parents failed at the fur trading business. I...don't have anything else on this one.
Go to target area four days before target's travel date to get some intel.
Pony Express: "I'll scout the railroad for the best ambush spot."
+1 logic and +1 staying on topic.
French trader: "I want to illegally gamble; I look for Chinatown."
...ok.
Buxom detective: "I want to go to a high society party."
This train's gone off its tracks before we even get to it, so let's roll with it.
Nils: "I want to go to a party!"
Flapper Snoop: "No, you're too manly." (I think she used other words, but that's what Nils interpreted.)
Nils: "I go to a barber and get my beard trimmed. Then I find a tuxedo in my size and crash this party."
Beard trimmed, tux found, show up in time to see my coworker see me. She seems to be wearing a natural shade of red on her cheeks.
Nils: "You can't show up to this kind of thing without a date. You'll thank me later."
Inside, bartender gets our attention.
Nils: "I'll have some alcohol."
Bartender: "...We have several different kinds."
Nils: Smiles; "I'm OK with that."
igotthiswink.gif
See string quartet performing. No harmonica present. Begin stealthily removing harmonica from tux pocket.
Private Eye spies this and suspects the worst--convinces me to wait until the band takes a break.
See two guys at the bar and decide to get back on track.
Put my arms around both of them: "Gentlemen, let's talk about WOOD! Did you know wood is replenishable and near unlimited? It's the new gold! It's even used on railroad tracks! Say, do either of you know anything about the trains that run through here?
smoothcriminal.mov
Bar guy: "Yeah, the nice ones have these new-fangled machine guns protectin' 'em!"
Nils: "Thanks, friend! Say, ever heard of a harmonica...?"

At this point, our GM decided he was ill-prepared and an old man, and would call it quits at 6 p.m.