This September, myself and fellow travel writer Mary Herczog (Frommer's, Dummies) will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of our friendship by taking to the open road once again for the fourth annual "Plucky Survivors See America."

"Red, White, and Plucky" is the name of this year's adventure as we offer a thematic toast to America by traveling more than 1,800 miles through the cradle of the nation, beginning and ending the trip in Washington DC. There, we’ss see the Lincoln Memorial and climb the Washington Monument plus make a stop at the International Spy Museum; in Maryland we’ll pay homage to the late, great Divine and perhaps get a tattoo; in Pennsylvania we’ll ring the Liberty Bell, visit Amish country, and hit a garlic festival, a hamburger festival, and a chocolate factory all in one day; we’ll rock out in Ohio; and we’ll probably wind up gorging ourselves on Virginia ham.

Once again, we will be uploading daily updates and posting pictures from the road for PluckySurvivors.com, allowing readers to travel with us as cyberspace passengers. From the first packing meltdown to the final Cow score, ratings for barbeque and meditations on fame and fate, readers are involved in every step of the PSSA odyssey. Visitors to the site can subscribe to a free RSS feed to get alerts on services like My Yahoo! when updates have been posted or sign up to receive e-mail alerts.

In 2006 the first Plucky Survivors road trip covered more than 2,300 miles in 10 days across the southern part of the United States including Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. From the halls of Graceland to the Britney Spears Museum, from the Bonnie & Clyde death site to the place where four little girls were killed by a racist's bomb in 1963, from giant statues of Christ to crumbling statues of dinosaurs, from the library of a president to the library of a woman who wouldn't sit at the back of a bus, and, of course, the spiritual impetus for the trip, the Biggest Ball of Twine, we saw parts of the country that delighted us in ways both big and small, opening our eyes to the people, passions, and pastimes that make us uniquely American. Along the way, we ate a lot of barbeque and not enough pie.

In 2007, we embarked on “The Midwest Express,” covering more than 2,500 miles across Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Another eclectic itinerary included Hog Fest 2007, billed as the biggest outdoor pork barbecue in the world; the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library; the Hobo Museum; the Spam Museum; the Negro League Baseball Museum; the Museum of Funeral Customs; and the biggest ball of popcorn because we have decided every PSSA trip needs to have a stop to see the biggest ball of something. There was more barbeque consumption, more donuts and, of course, a rematch of the PSSA official road game, Cow.

We returned to the south in 2008 for "The Plucky Shall Rise Again," traveling 2,400 miles through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennesse. Oh, and then there was the part where we drove to West Virginia for a hot dog. But mostly we stayed in those other states where we visited the scene of a murder in Savannah; took a horse drawn carriage through Charleston; dreamed big at Churchill Downs; acted as judges in the South Carolina Barbecue Championships; got spicy at The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum; played a few holes at the bible themed mini-golf course; and saw the World's Largest Bats (baseball and vampire). We couldn't find a World's Largest Ball of something but thematically, bats aren't too far off.

Our road trip series started as a lark when I was staring down the barrel of my 40th birthday and we both needed something to distract ourselves from ongoing serious health issues. Mary has been dealing with breast cancer on and off for the last decade (currently on) and I am facing two potentially life-threatening illnesses (because I’m competitive that way) but both of us view our conditions more as inconveniences than matters of central concern. There is too much to see and too much to eat and too make jokes to make. Hence the at once self deprecating and self-revealing moniker Plucky Survivors.

"Plucky Survivors See America 4: Red, White, and Plucky" starts September 2, 2009.

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Could those days be coming to an end?

A crackdown seems to be underway on the city’s hotspots and the results have been dramatic to say the least.

A couple of weeks ago, Planet Hollywood was socked with a $500,000 fine for failing to adequately police what was going on in their nightclubs Prive and The Living Room. The clubs had their liquor licenses pulled and have closed while the hotel’s management tries (but so far has failed) to appeal the decision and get the booze flowing again. Although the details of what was happening inside have not been released, it is rumored to be everything from underage drinking to lewd behavior.

Last week another club got socked, this time at The Rio. The hotel’s Sapphire Pool club was closed after nine women were arrested for charges ranging from prostitution to drugs. Done in partnership with a local strip club, the daytime pool club was the subject of an undercover police investigation that Rio owner Harrah’s Entertainment asked them to do.

Word on the streets is that these incidents have scared the hell out of the Vegas casinos that house these clubs, less for the impact on their food and beverage revenue and more for the danger to their gaming revenue. That half-million dollar fine that Planet Hollywood paid was levied by the Gaming Control Board, the state agency that regulates gambling licenses. This very powerful agency has the power to shut down casinos if the offenses are egregious enough and none of the owners want to mess with them.

So things could be getting a little more buttoned up at the Vegas party spots, which couldn’t be more overdue if you ask me.

I’ve been to almost every nightclub in town to review them for this site and the things that I’ve seen have shocked me. Mind you, I’m not easily shocked. I worked in nightclubs in Los Angeles for more than a decade but back in my day the drugs and sex happened in the bathrooms where they belong (that’s a joke, by the way). I’ve been to clubs in Vegas where I saw people openly doing lines of cocaine on their bottle service tables and various *ahem* “adult activities” happening right out on the dance floor. And let’s not even get started about the men and women I’ve seen who were so drunk that they didn’t even bother to go all the way to the bathroom to throw up. Apparently the hallway is good for that sort of thing too.

Now, I’m all for having a good time. God knows, I have a drink or 12 every now and then and I certainly have done things in bars that I shouldn’t have, but the difference is in Vegas clubs the behavior seems to be tolerated and even endorsed.

How much of an effect this recent crackdown will have on the Vegas nightclub scene is yet to be, uh, seen. But all you party people should be on notice that things may not be as freewheeling as they used to be.

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