Fremont Street Experiences

by Lori Gebbie

Robert and I were asked to help out a friend with her business. She runs a “spotter” company, watching a parking lot and having vehicles towed that park there without permits. It was an interesting experience, sitting in that cold parking lot throughout the night, watching the neon burn until morning. I was glad we were able to do it together; it allowed us to sleep in shifts and still capture a slice of life that one normally would not see.


Tourists park on this lot, for a fee, and walk across to the hub attraction area of Fremont, the Experience. They see the fancy lights, hear the barkers calling for them to enter their casinos for a “sure win” or a “safe bet”, the street vendors and the street performers with hats in front, collecting donations for their performances, the old neon signs from old Las Vegas, revamped with a new life here in this small museum area. But if you ask me, they are missing the real experience, the true to life experience, of the broken, the scared, the hungry, the homeless. This is where the real story is at. This is the true hustle and grind of the city, where the “real” people are at, the “bad” side of town. And for all that we are warned to keep away from here, to not be around the vagrancy, the crime, the poor and pitiful, we see a huge slice of humanity, as the homeless stop and offer a good word to each other, often sharing their meager possessions with those who are more in need than they are. A clean tissue, a sip of water, a smile. Once in a while, one will be fortunate enough to afford a cup of steaming hot coffee, and they eagerly approach their friends and everyone gets a sip. A shred of warmth, of kindness, reminding themselves that they are still human and have dignity. This is the part that is hardest for us to watch, as we put ourselves in their place, and wonder where our life would be if we were forced into such circumstances. How would we be faring, in a cold city, living on the streets, under a pile of newspapers we were fortunate enough to find? Where would we find the strength to continue going, to keep moving for warmth, to hope that, one day, we would once again be able to live like “real people” again?


I can only wonder at how they got here, got to this dismal place in their lives, where they lost their way in “normal” society and had to take to the streets. What drove them from leading productive lives into the madness of street wandering and scrounging for a slice of the sanity they once knew? In this city, it is easy to imagine a few of them took a chance in the casinos and gambled away their lives, pushing themselves into an unrecoverable amount of debt, fourth and fifth mortgages on their homes, pushing their families and loved ones aside as they risked it all in hopes of hitting the jackpot, pawning and selling pieces of their lives to finance their next parlay, their next hand at the table, that last quarter into the machine. And one day, they look around them and realize they’ve lost their jobs, their families, and all they have left are the clothes on their backs as they are left to wander the streets aimlessly. But some were put here for other reasons. Some are returned veterans, so disturbed by the combat and stresses they endured while fighting for our Country, that they can no longer fit into a normal society, having seen too much and lived too hard. Night terrors, horrid flashes of the realities they faced while in the service, disconnected from the façade that most of us live our lives in. Misunderstood, they have snapped and found solace in their own little worlds, where they can create their own boundaries, yet still chained to the nightmares they endured. Some have also been hit by hard economic times, the rising levels of layoffs and spiraling interest rates. Credit cards offered like candy with huge ballooning interest rates, forcing a level of debt upon them that could never be caught up to.


We live in a very twisted society right now. There are so many people who feel they are owed things, and so they live that way, always taking but never returning. They run up their credit cards to the maximum limits, then apply for another to feel like they have money again, never worrying about the consequences they are forcing themselves into, always imagining they deserve to have the latest and greatest out on the market.


I wonder where people are going to land in the next few years, as our Nation continues to struggle and grow under the recession we are in. But, this is part of living, our experiences giving us hope and direction, if we keep focused. For most, these are just stories to be read and acknowledged, but for others, there is no way to go but up. We wish everyone well in their own personal journey, and hope we all come out of it on top.

New Faces @RGebbiePhoto

by Lori Gebbie


We would like to introduce you to two new faces!

Robyn Cooperman has been a friend of mine for several years. We met in College and sang together in the choir. Robyn is still singing, and is trying to get out there as a model/actress. She’s got such a great outgoing personality, and has a real positive outlook! We’ve hired her as our Outside Sales person, and she’s helping us get going on our portrait work here in Las Vegas.

Albert Carinio is someone we met since we’ve been in town. He’s got a great outlook, and a great sense of humor, and we’re looking forward to working with him in our stock photography. We’ve got some real fun things planned for him, and are going to draw on his ethnic background for several of our shots!

We’re looking forward to bringing our brand of photography to the Las Vegas area, and already have received quite a reception! Unfortunately, due to ethical issues, we had to pull out of the WAF/Humiliated Angels gallery exhibit we were going to be a part of, but we’ve made new connections with the art community here, and look forward to displaying our work with them.

Due to our issues with our vehicle, we will be staying close to the Las Vegas area for a while. We still plan on visiting a lot of the scenery in the area, and since Robert isn’t from this part of the country, it will be nice to see his fresh view on the local terrain. The journey continues as we sort through our view of life, and reminding ourselves, that, even in the face of adversity, we can still focus on the positive and remain inspired to carry on!

Leaving God’s Country for Sin City

By Lori Gebbie

Sorry it’s taken a bit to write this next part, but it was one of the harder parts we had to deal with. So, here goes…

The neighbor fixed the van, but we still felt a little iffy on it. We pulled our trailer out that evening and took it to the Circle L Campground in Layton overnight to dump it and prepare for the journey out. We are SO glad we stopped there. The park managers were such great people! So friendly, and very welcoming! Once we were settled in, they stopped by to chat. I guess they saw the rugged shape we were in, and spent some time with us, letting us unload about our journey so far. They left us with some good meditation techniques and some wonderful prayers for a continued safe journey. And we left with 2 new friends who we will keep in contact with for years to come!

But after talking to family, we decided it would be safer to have the trailer pulled by someone else and follow in the van. Well, we’re glad we did, because only 20 miles down the road, we threw a valve rod in the engine. We pulled into Lehi, Utah at a gas station there, offloaded our things into the trailer, and left it parked while we continued on with our hired driver. I rode in the vehicle pulling the trailer, and Robert followed with the other driver and the kitties. My drive was real interesting, I rode with Trevor, the owner of the towing company, and we had a great conversation. He tows up and down the state of Utah, and has several trucks in his fleet. He is also an EMT, so we were listening to the police scanner the entire ride. One of the calls that came through was a man who had been struck by lightning. I told him if he needed to stop anywhere, to please do, we’d already been on the road for a month, what was one more day? But the crew was already there and dealing with the poor gentleman, who was still alive but in shock. We listened to the updates for the next half hour, until another call came through that had almost the entire state in a tizzy. Apparently a car tried to pass a semi, and got sucked underneath it. When they finally stopped, the car was T-boned underneath the back tires. What an awful site, but by the time we got on scene, there were fire, cops, paramedics and ambulances there, so Trevor kept going.

We got to where the 2nd truck had to be dropped off at, and Robert and the other driver climbed into the cab for the last 40 miles or so to St. George. Right as we were passing Zion National Park, there was road construction on the 15 southbound, and without warning, we hit a HUGE drop in the pavement. The new road dropped close to 8 inches back to the old road underneath. There was no signage, it was just a sudden drop, and we found ourselves airborne for a few moments after the bounce. HOLY HELL!!! I was sure the trailer was going to snap off on the bounce, but Trevor was an excellent driver with several years of towing under his belt, and he was able to keep it all under control. I don’t know how he did it, but we settled straight away and kept going, intact. That happened about 5pm on 7/18. And we were lucky, because about two minutes later, a truck went airborne and crashed into a Semi, and the accident stopped traffic for a while. All I can say is, Wow. I still am highly emotional over the incident, and grateful we made it through in once piece. We pulled off at Mesquite to check out the trailer, check on the birds, and to calm nerves. Everything was fine, we didn’t even break a dish! Trevor had another driver take us from there, he had an evening planned, so we proceeded with his assistant, slowly off again to Vegas.

We hit town at 10pm, and once we hit the streets, I noticed that the trailer lights weren’t working. But it was just a short jaunt to my Dad’s house, and within a few minutes we were pulling up. We unhitched and off they went, back to St. George. I highly recommend Trevor and his crew. I wish I had got a card from them, but if you EVER have a towing need in this part of the country, please call them first. (1-435-979-5909)

It was in the high 90s when we got here, so Dad pulled an extension cord to the trailer and we put the fan on for the birds overnight as we settled inside. Boy, it was GREAT to be home again! I hadn’t been back for a visit in about five years. Wow, had Vegas changed! My father moved here back in ’89, when Sahara dead-ended at The Lakes area, but now the Valley had extended miles past his house, the commerce area booming with new retail outlets peppering the streets.

Over the next few days, we unloaded the birds and the bulk of our things, and put the trailer in dry storage for a month or two while we figure out what we are going to do about replacing our vehicle. So for the last 2 weeks, we’ve stayed close to home, healing our broken bodies and resting our worn nerves. I was wondering how Mom and Dad would handle having our small family invade their home. I’d brought cats home before, Bijou lived with them for a while when I was single between marriages, and that seemed ok, but now I was bringing my husband, 2 cats AND 2 parrots into their very quiet home. But they welcomed us with open arms, and so far, things are going fine. I actually think they like the extra company, and the cats have been extremely well behaved. Prinnie still gets loud, and her and Tye go at it in the back room once in a while, but for the most part, we’ve all settled together pretty seamlessly. Robert and I are set up in the front living room, we set up our office areas, and spend the bulk of our time there, drumming up local networking contacts, and reconnecting with old friends in the area.

So here we are, stuck again, but this time we’re home, and we can settle for a bit before we have to worry about taking off again. We had planned on staying here a month or two, anyway, the dry climate is healing my asthma, and it’s so much better on Robert’s back. I had to laugh, this morning it was muggy outside, the humidity had hit a staggering 38%!! (I just checked, in Vancouver WA, it’s 83% humidity today.) My parents have been extremely supportive through our journey, and we are so grateful they opened their home to us.

But enough relaxing, it’s time to seriously get back to work, so we are scheduling shoots now, and contacting local art galleries. We feel that this town is where we need to be right now, the art district is booming, and people are already recognizing our work as quality. Our day trips out to see the local attractions are limited without a vehicle, but Dad has been quite generous with his car, so I’m sure in the next week or so we’ll be able to hit Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon.

So, for now, here we are! Safe and (now) sane in Las Vegas, NV. We are starting to go through the images we took along the way, and as they get finished, I will be posting some of the gorgeous scenery we saw along the way. Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes, they really mean a lot to us.