Clowning Around

 When it comes to detail-rich builds with an authentic feel of the real place and a quick rez, they aren't clowning around on Groovyverse our first stop for this week's Safari. About seven or eight of us joined the locals in a parking lot in central Nevada, which is a really good copy of a real life place in the town of Tonopah in Nevada, USA. It's called the Clown Motel

The inworld version is part of a multi region build representing the desert lands east of California, and if those gloriously alien looking mountains in the distance remind you of a previous Safari it's because we came to this general area three years ago to learn much about Burning Man, the virtual and the real celebrations. 

Doctor Dave at the Clown Motel

Much has happened since that memorable visit (people still talk about the amazing train ride!) and we were ready to be guided by Doctor Dave around the whole darn place and to learn a lot, including art, rl crossover, travel, ghosts, and of course, clowns. You can't be burning if you're not learning. 

Hyacinth Jean

Grid owner Hyacinth Jean was there to support the tour and to welcome the Safari crew too - and in appropriate costume, since Hya's heritage includes First Peoples' blood.
Hyacinth Jean: Hi Thirza and Dave

Doctor Dave: Hi Chief

Hyacinth Jean: Ogimaa  :)

Taarna Welles: Hello Dr. Dave

Doctor Dave: Any stragglers?

Forest Azure: what are stragglers?

Thirza Ember: great, I think we have everyone! a smallish group of hard bitten safarians

Neko Littlepaws: im new here grins not

Doctor Dave: Welcome everyone to the World Famous CLOWN MOTEL. This build is based on a RL motel located in Tonopah, Nevada.

Sven Ingersoll: grins... yikes

James Atlloud: oh

Doctor Dave: It's halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, just outside the Government testing grounds near Area 51. So basically, out in the middle of Nowhere, some wild genius built a CLOWN themed motel about 40 years ago in a small mining town.  Each room is uniquely decorated with clowns.  The Lobby is a clown museum filled with clowns.

Thirza Ember: wow the perfect place for clowns!

Dings Digital: I am curious to see

Doctor Dave: And the Motel is located right next to an old miner's cemetery.  Tonopah started during the silver rush in the late 1800s and still has several historical buildings and sites from that era. 

James Atlloud: saw the ghost

Sheriff Tom walks past a modern motorbike,
which you can 'borrow' for a ride around the desert wilderness

Doctor Dave: That was Sheriff Tom walking past.  Yep, Clowns right next to a graveyard.  What could possibly go wrong. And they are both reported to be HAUNTED. Our version of the Motel has 18 guest rooms, a lobby run by and filled with clowns, and a clown bar across the street.

Thirza Ember: /me shrieks quietly

Doctor Dave:  I say "our" version because I had 6 guest artists contributing rooms to the Motel.  The room shell is modular and can be swapped out.

James Atlloud: Accidentally cammed inside a hotel room and saw Pennywise!! eek

Taarna Welles: IT!

Doctor Dave: One of our guest artists is here with us - Neko Littlepaws. That's her streaming playing now. Neko has been very helpful in getting the Motel started. 

Sven Ingersoll: great tune

Hyacinth Jean: \O/ 

Neko Littlepaws: i love building this for you Dr D

Doctor Dave: Of the 18 rooms, currently two room slots are open, waiting for a fun clown theme to fill them.  We avoid Killer Clown themes because they are done to death, pardon the pun.

Neko Littlepaws one of the builders and artists involved in the build

Along with Neko Littlepaws, the artists involved in designing rooms for this virtual version of the clown motel include Cuga Rajal, Giggles DeClown, shown here who briefly joined us on our Safari, plus Grid Nomad who also helped out with the cemetery, Laurelle Nightfire, Lily VonMagic, and long time friend of the Safari Youca Godel. Youca also made the Clown Bar, just over the street.

Doctor Dave: Everyone, Giggles runs the Madame Giggles Lounge, under the stairs behind the green door.

Giggles DeClown

Hyacinth Jean: GIGGLES!!  :)

Giggles DeClown: Good ta see you all but I am having connection issues

Doctor Dave: Take a moment to wander around, peek into rooms. Themes include - Jungle, rodeo, hobo, space, McDonalds, a Doctor's office and others.

Doctor Dave: To keep the Killer Clowns away we have 2 deterrents.  The ghost of Sheriff Tom Logan patrols the cemetery and the Motel.  And We have Giggles, our attack clown, and owner of the Giggles Lounge located under the stairs behind the green door.

Thirza Ember: I would make one where the bed fell apart when you tried to lie on it

Doctor Dave: Follow me.  You don't have time on this trip to explore every room.

Forest Azure: oohh.. adult clowns too!

Doctor Dave: Each room has a unique clown theme. This is an Adult sim.  Clowns like to have fun too.

Doctor Dave: shouts: We will eventually have dances here.  The dance machine is being loaded with NPC cowboys, cowgirls, and clowns for dance partners.

Dings Digital: quite an atmosphere

Forest Azure:...oh,  a teapot shower! just what i always wanted!

Thirza Ember: it's amazing - lots of different imaginations here

James Atlloud: Do the rooms here correspond to the rooms in RL?

Doctor Dave: No, the RL rooms don't follow themes.  Just random clowns.

Forest Azure: interesting wallpaper! ...oh, is that fighting... this is really great!

Doc Indy: Clown-a-sutra..

Thirza Ember: really interesting and unique, each one

James Atlloud: Oh wow - guitar bear from old Inworld Reviews in SL.  lolololol

Doctor Dave: Most of the toys in the Lobby should be copyable.  I hope.

Forest Azure: so this clown here with the balloons is harmless?

Doctor Dave: He should be or Giggles will hit him with a crowbar.

Forest.Azure: /me tries a cautious kick in the balloons

Doctor Dave: Follow me to the cemetery.  Some of the tombstones are RL inscriptions from Tonopah.  Some are RL tombstones from other graveyards.  You will find the grave of Wyatt Earp.  That is a joke, After the OK Corral shootout in Tombstone, Arizona, Wyatt lived in Tonopah for a year or so but he died elsewhere many years later.

Doctor Dave: Part of the graveyard is filled with miners from the Belmont Mine accident. Some are just residents of Tonopah. Sheriff Tom Logan was a historical figure.  Everybody liked him except the rat bastard that shot him outside the brothel. He's buried next to Bina Verrault, who he was rumored to be with the night he was shot.

Thirza Ember: that's a great touch of authenticity!

Doctor Dave: I direction your attention to the one large stone tomb in the cemetery. It reads "Underneath this house of stones,  Lie all that's left of Dinah Jones.  Her name was Sohr, it was not Jones.  But Jones was used to rhyme with stones."

Forest Azure: lol good poetry policy

In the cemetery there's a 'tomb' that opens and a flight of stairs take you down to the train station. In a few minutes we were all on board two of these trains, a green and red, one with Doctor Dave in the driver's seat, the other Neko.

Doctor Dave: Watch your head as we go down and board the trains.  This railroad wraps around three large hex-sims.

Neko Littlepaws: dont trust me driving grins

Doctor Dave: Everybody seated?

Nightshade Ceres: hope i am

James Atlloud: hope.. me too

Doctor Dave: it's about a 10 minute trip to Reno.

James Atlloud: who0osh

Cherry Manga: weeeeee

Dings Digital: yay

Forest Azure: we safari people loooove trains

Doctor Dave: The  Exodus sim is part of a 3 sim region focusing on Northern Nevada.  HugeBurn and Desert Rose are to the north. HugeBurn is the Burning Man sim that HG Safari visited the three years ago.  "Exodus" is the name given to the Long LOOONG ride from Black Rock City back to Reno and home.  Hyacinth, our Earth Goddess and grid owner, joked about adding a sim just to make that lonely ride in the desert.  And then she actually gave me the land to do it.

Hyacinth Jean: We have trains that run pretty much everywhere all over the mainland... 1500 kilometers now?

Rushing through the underground

Doctor Dave: Grand Funk Railroad spans the mainland several times. This smaller railroad encircles all three Nevada sims in a loop.  It will go up thru Donner Pass and back down into Reno.  If we had gone the other way, it would have taken you to Hidden Valley Dinosaur Preserve.   A subtle nod from the tomb's inscription.

Thirza Ember: Neko is a better driver than Xenon

Neko Littlepaws: hehe ty

Dings Digital: nice landscaping. I like that

Doctor Dave: One of the inspirations for this part of the journey was the rides at Disneyland when I was a kid.

Forest Azure: ah yes!

Thirza Ember: spooky tunnel...

Forest Azure: /me shouts something for the echo

Doctor Dave: Let your eyes adjust and the colors will pop when we hit the cavern.

James Atlloud: it got light in the tunnel after it got dark... very smooth - no rubber-banding at all

Forest Azure: de koning van Ezel!

Taarna Welles: ...zel...zel...zel...

Dings Digital: great train ride

Doctor Dave: The Donner Pass railroad was a major part of the Transcontinental Railroad.  In the early 1900s, the engineers got tired of dealing with avalanches and built snow tunnels, concrete shells to cover the tracks.  When they finally built a tunnel thru the mountain instead of going around it, those tunnels were abandoned, and abandoned tunnels with large flat concrete surfaces are loved and adored by Graffiti Artists.  The Donner Snow Tunnels are a 3 mile long stretch of concrete tunnels filled with art.

James Atlloud: wow

Forest Azure: a shooting monalisa...

Doctor Dave: Some of this art is actually taken from the walls of Reno.

 Cherry Manga: spotted Obey Giant

Hyacinth Jean: This is really cool :)

James Atlloud: luv it

Tina Bey: yes!!

Thirza Ember: this is a really amazing achievement Dave

Doctor Dave: Thanks.  It's been in production a long time. The Safari helped force me to finish this stretch.

Cherry Manga: oh Frida with Daft Punk's Tshirt ♥

James Atlloud: the default camera view behind the train is working great for me.

Doctor Dave: This is Donner Pass coming up. Donner Lake below us. This whole mountain range is being reworked to include trails, campgrounds, and so on.  It's a work in progress.

James Atlloud: beautiful

Tina Bey: What vertigo!

Cherry Manga: does water comes from Colorado river?

Tina Bey: beautiful...!!!

Cherry Manga: no wonders why humans want to conquer Mars planet after living in such landscapes

Doctor Dave: The winding canyon path was needed to bring the train down gradually and it still feels a bit like a rollercoaster ride.

Tina Bey: This is a brilliant route! Congratulations!

Nightshade Ceres: what a great work, doctor Dave!

Thirza Ember: whispers: these curves are delicious!

Forest Azure: whispers: tries to taste them

Doctor Dave: First time someone has told me my curves were delicious. Thank you :)

Doctor Dave: Welcome to Reno, Nevada. Please walk out of the station and turn left.

James Atlloud: ding ding ding - off the train.

Neko Littlepaws: was my driving ok grins

Thirza Ember: Perfect!

Dings Digital: rides are the best

Doctor Dave: shouts: This represents a small sample of Reno so only one hotel, one casino, one strip club.  Just a taste.  The Sierra Club hotel has several suites embedded in the building

Doctor Dave: Head to the arch for group photo. This is the famous Reno Arch.  Reproduced with mesh at the costs of several thousand brain cells.  The Arch lights up for nighttime photos. This is the famous Reno Arch.  Reproduced with mesh at the costs of several thousand brain cells.  The Arch lights up for nighttime photos.

Doctor Dave: Across the street is the Burning Man Gallery built by Doctor Indy. long time burner and RL friend.

Doc Indy: Welcome to my gallery and museum about 'That 'Thing' in the desert': Burning Man. This gallery is a work in progress and the images and displays will be constantly updated. The first floor is general information about Burning Man itself and the virtual versions found here on Groovyverse and on Second Life. The upper floors are images I've taken over the years that I've been going to 'The Burn'. Currently, only the 2nd floor displays are installed. So please pardon the dust!

Hyacinth Jean: We are all RL friends :)

Thirza Ember: waiting for the pics to rez

Doc Indy: That might take a bit. All of the photos on the 2nd floor are clickable slideshows with about 5 images each. I have thousands

Doctor Dave: There are enough photos here to need hours to view.  You have a few minutes so Don't Lose the LM.

Dorena Bree: How long have you been going to Burning Man?

Doc Indy: I started going to Burning Man in 2007 and went every year it was held through 2025. During the two covid years the event was not held (2020 and 2021), the event moved to various on-line platforms

Thirza Ember: how long has Burning Man been going on?

Doctor Dave: over 30 years

Doc Indy: Since about 1986, but really in the mid 1990's

Cherry Manga: is the spirit of early Burning Man still exist, freedom, creativity, no capitalism?

Doctor Dave: BM is trying to stay faithful to the original roots.

Doc Indy: They try. It's getting harder to keep the 'default world' from encroaching

Doc Indy: Second Life already had an official Burning Man region and many of us went there to build and mingle. The Burning Man Organization also supported a platform called BRCvr. While BRCvr supported desktop computers, it was optimized for VR headsets.

Dorena Bree: It must be really special.

Doc Indy: So, Second Life already had an official Burning Man region and many of us went there to build and mingle. The Burning Man Organization also supported a platform called BRCvr. While BRCvr supported desktop computers, it was optimized for VR headsets.

Doctor Dave: We need to keep moving.  Get a LM so you can come back and explore the museum later with lots of time.

Cherry Manga: some photos are masterpiece

Next stop, the casino!

Doctor Dave: The Space Whales are RL Burner art installed now in Reno. The Silver Nugget Casino is based on several RL casinos.  The Reno skyline has the signature geodome on the roof on the roof of the Silver Legacy Casino.  Lots of working slot machines, some working Blackjack machines and video poker.  I'm looking for roulette tables and craps tables that work.  No money transfers involved. The Landing Strip is the exotic dance club by the airport.  You can explore it later if you like but we are heading to the Burner Cafe and Art Gallery.

Doctor Dave: The cafe art gallery houses more Burning Man artwork.  It was made by Neko Littlepaws, a burner in SL who came to Groovy to create things without going broke. Neko also made the Twin Creeks Silver Mine east of town.  We are not going there because you don't have time to get lost in the tunnels. 

Forest Azure: a shame!

Doctor Dave: Next to the Burner Cafe is the Pour Decisions Wine Shop.  They offer a selection of Chateau de Brebis Perdue, a winery found in the mainland of GV.  Sheep Dip is a red blend and their best seller.

Doctor Dave: Working our way thru the cafe to the street, turn left and you will see the MONET Experience, an immersive Monet exhibit That is just finished enough to show off.  The Monet Experience was made by Youca Godel, the first Burner to be attracted to GV.  All the Burner community has built and accomplished her is due to her inviting us along.

Doctor Dave: shouts: Working our way thru the cafe to the street, turn left and you will see the MONET Experience, an immersive Monet exhibit That is just finished enough to show off.  The Monet Experience was made by Youca Godel, the first Burner to be attracted to GV.  All the Burner community has built and accomplished her is due to her inviting us along.

Cherry relaxes in the Monet exhibit by Youca Goudel

Cherry Manga: refreshing to end near a water pond after this wonderful desert trip

Doctor Dave: Cherry, a lot of your art is showcased in the Art Building at Lavendel College in Groovyverse.

Cherry Manga: really? wow thank you , I am honored

Dings Digital: This Reno is a great place to visit

Doctor Dave: When she learned the Safari was coming to Reno, Youca wanted to make something for you all. She finished this 2 nights ago.

Thirza Ember: it is really awesome - wow!! Dave tell us how you found Groovyverse grid

Doctor Dave: Hya saw what we were doing for Burning Man in SL and offered Youca some land. Youca brought the rest of us over. GV had 80 members when I arrived. It's grown since then.

Hyacinth Jean: I think Dave was one of our first users the first week or so we were open

Cherry Manga: not surprised Burning Man lovers found in love with opensim's freedom!

James.Atlloud: Wow, what a trip!! Are these regions always running?

Dorena Bree: That makes sense Cherry

Doctor Dave: Come back and explore when you have time... I would like to host a future Safari in the Dinosaur Park when it's ready. We've built so many amazing regions here. Hats off to Hyacinth!

Hyacinth Jean: aww.  You guys build everything here.  i just restart sims :)

Cherry Manga: yay! dinosaurs are less scary than clowns! :)))

Doctor Dave: And we are slowly talking Pauline into offering a tour of Lavendel College as a Safari.

Thirza Ember: this has been a real delight

Dorena Bree: Thanks for sharing all of this with us

Taarna Welles: <<<<<< APPLAUSE>>>>>>

Forest Azure: this was such a great tour! thank you!

Thirza Ember: a great grid and some impressive builds - applause to all!

Hyacinth Jean: Thank you everyone for coming

Tina Bey: <<<<<< APPLAUSE>>>>>>

Sven Ingersoll: thanks Dave and Hyacinth

Neko Littlepaws: come back any time

Cherry Manga: thank you for this delicious curvy time! :)

Thirza Ember: do you have events here?

Doctor Dave: Yes, we do.  Music every other week and one off dances when we feel spontaneous.

Hyacinth Jean: We had 3 performers this week, Khiron, Acidic Loop and Donn Devore

Doctor Dave: Neko is one of our resident DJs.

Our wonderful guide Doctor Dave, and James Atlloud, esteemed croc wearer 

Cherry Manga: I have a question that can sound stupid but because I'm not english native, my only reference to Groovy is from Jimi Hendrix's lyrics, any chance it has a meaning with the grid name?

Nightshade Ceres: Cherry Manga: I always translate 'groovy' as something very cool and a bit odd and artisty for me (also not native English)

Doctor Dave: Ceres, you are not wrong.

Hyacinth Jean: We are very cool and very odd.  lol

HG Address: 

Both parts of this tour were on the same sim, Exodus, and the other attractions are just a short walk from these landing points.

Clown Motel  hop://groovyverse.com:8002/Exodus/947/538/32

Reno Burner's cafe hop://groovyverse.com:8002/Exodus/217/662/27