July 4, 2005 I packed up the ’74 Ford Crestwood Wagon, added a quart of oil, filled the tank (I miss the leaded stuff), and rounded up the ankle biters and my live-in girlfriend (who pops kids out quicker than you can say “Trojan Man”). It was 4am and we had an additional 30 minute drive to pick up her mother who rarely ventures out of the 1 bedroom apartment she shares with six cats and 10 years of Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes envelopes. There were a total of seven of us going:
Me, Girlfriend Lulu, Girlfriend’s Mother Verna, Dusty (10), Daisy (Cool, Leroy and Laquicia (4yr old twins).

I had been anticipating this trip for a long time, and have been using the LVT board for ideas and tips while planning. I got a smoking deal on the strip at a Resort called Circus Circus. In addition to a Manor Room for $29 (who’d ever think I could afford to stay in a Manor!!), they gave us four 2f1 buffet coupons!! May not seem like much but when you think about it, this fed us for free for 4 days ‘cause Verna is on a tapioca and jello diet and Lulu is still breastfeeding the twins. Also, they only charged us an additional $10 for the crib and two rollaways. I know, I know, you’re saying to yourself, there’s one bed short…they did make a mistake and gave us a King instead of 2 dbls so Verna slept with me and Lulu. The bed was bigger than I’m used to, so it wasn’t a real big deal except Verna’s a little old fashioned and insisted on sleeping between us ‘cause were not “officially” married. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.

By 6 or 7am I’m in Wickenburg and we decide to grab a quick bite at this truck stop. Wouldn’t be much to note except while I was there this dude a couple tables away is eating a big old Tbone and egg plate, reading a romance novel, and mumbling to everyone (it was just us and the waitress) that he’s “The Real Mr Vegas”. And get this, he’s drinking some high fallutin’ fancy handcrafted ale…at 7am!!! Geez, it takes all kinds huh?! I figured he was headed to Vegas ‘cause he was wearin a “Don Ho Vegas 1980 Tour shirt, and I was gonna make small talk but about then is when Leroy dropped a load in his pull-ups that’d make Nagasaki run for cover. (more…)

Hubby and I had a great trip – a BIG thanks to everyone on this board. I learned so much info before this trip that I was in overload mode.

FLIGHTS: We flew out Tuesday on Southwest non-stop from Kansas City at 7:00 AM, on time with no problems. Trip home we were delayed several hours due to LV weather. Instead of landing at KC at 11:00 PM – it was 3:30 AM – slept all the way home anyway. Used the internet connection at Boardwalk to print out our boarding passes for our return flight – I think it cost $5 for 20 minutes.

CABS: Our main source of travel this trip since I had a small accident and fell on the night before we were leaving – which caused me a small panic attack since I didn’t know if I would be able to walk very far and would have to cancel the trip. My wonderful hubby said “don’t worry about it – cancel if you think you need to and we’ll reschedule or we will just use taxis”. Needless to say I made it fine. Didn’t get to see everything we planned but we had a great time anyway.

HOTEL: Booked directly with Barbary Cost website at a summer deal special of $45.00 per night. We were not able to check in until 2:00. I thought the rooms and the casino were just fine. The rooms are close so this was a great benefit for me since I had injured my leg the evening before we were to leave. I have read good & bad reviews for the Barbary but the staff was very responsive to anything we needed and I hope we get some offers from them in the future. I don’t think the location can be beat!

FOOD: Ate most of our meals in the Victoria Room and they were pretty good. We don’t do the super fancy meals and actually most of the time we forgot to eat anyway. Did have the Flamingo Brunch Buffet on our last day and it was okay.

GAMBLING: We stayed within our gambling budget for the three days – but we didn’t hit any big pots. I did hit enough small pots to keep me playing for the trip! Favorite ATM was the Rocky machine at the Flamingo (2nd from the right) which I cashed out on everyday! It was fun! Hubby hit his first Royal at Barbary Coast!

DOWNTOWN: We spent our first evening downtown. I really liked the lightshow – the one we saw was the NASCAR theme. Downtown casinos did not impress me much this trip and we probably won’t waste our time with it again.

SHOWS: Saw Penn & Teller on Wednesday evening and really enjoyed it! We also enjoyed “Big Elvis” in the Barbary Coast every afternoon we were there. He is a very big man but his voice is awesome.

ESPNZONE: We did join the MVP club and both received $20 vouchers to use in the gift shop or food. We used ours in the gift shop and they allowed us to combine them and they now have the little coolers back in stock. I encourage everyone to sign up for this – this is a great freebie!!

Hope I didn’t bore you with my first trip report.

Thanks to all
dmadms

Posted by dmadms on LVTalk