Day 1 … July 2, 2005
We flew out on Spirit Air from Detroit. Our flight was supposed to be a morning flight out to Vegas and an afternoon flight back. What we ended up getting was a night flight out and a red eye back. The original flight was totally cancelled. The good news is that we got an extra night out of the deal. The flight out was supposed to leave on time but there was a computer
malfunction on the plane after we were set to take off so we had to return to the gate to get the
screen cleared. Really. How about ctrl alt delete? So, we were an hour late to take off, I just hoped the pilot put the pedal to the metal and made up time. Our flight took off at about 9:30 so the sun was still up. We chased the sun for most of the flight. One really cool thing happened. My husband wanted a window seat and so did I so we were sitting in front of the other.
The sunset I saw was breathtaking and I was nudging my husband so he would take his eyes off the movie he brought to watch to see this spectacular sun set. I kept telling him to look or it’ll be gone. Well, this sunset lasted well over an hour, we were just keeping pace with the sun. Now here’s whats cool, the sun was finally a sliver on the horizon and it was almost totally gone. Here’s where I think the pilot tried to make up time because the sun rose again. I have never
seen that before and thought it was really cool.

We ran into a huge storm over Denver so whatever time that we gained we lost because we had to divert around this huge anvil shaped thundercloud. It was cool to watch it discharge the lightening and see it hit the ground.The anticipation was building as we got closer to Vegas. I had my face pressed to the window hoping to see the first glimmer of the lights in the valley. It
wasn’t too long before the desert ended and the lights began, I kept my face pressed to the glass and scanned the valley for the Strat or any other distingushable landmark. Finally I spotted the Strip, it is so beautiful to arrive at night. It just takes my breath away for the sheer beauty. I guess I am a neon lover.

Finally we arrived at McCarran. Welcome home! We had checked a couple of bags so we had to go and wait for the baggage to arrive. No problems there so off we went to get a car. National’s bus was waiting right outside so we hopped on and were at the Emerald Aisle picking our car out in no time at all. We got a white Chevy Malibu Maxx. It was fine our whole trip. In and out of the Aisle took maybe 5 minutes. It sure beats waiting forever at Alamo.

Now, we arrived on a Saturday night and my husband was so nice that he took the Strip to our hotel just to please me, even though it was moving at a crawl. I love seeing the welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. The Strip looks so awesome as you approach it from the
south end. It took us about an hour to drive maybe 3 miles. It was well worth it as far as I am concerned. I think it’s part of the fun to cruise the Strip. By the time we got to the IP and got checked in it was midnight, Vegas time. The IP was hopping, just a mad house. It was wall to wall people. I love it! The hootin and hollerin was contageous and we wanted to dump our stuff in our room so we could join the fun, all thoughts of calling it an early night (so we could get up fresh in the morning) had slipped out of our heads. This is Vegas baby, who needs sleep? It’s not easy navigating through the crowds with luggage though. Our room was on the 18th floor and even though it wasn’t the room we usually stay in it had a great view. It was only a few doors down from our usual room. I was surprised that we even got a room on the front, let alone on the 18th floor when we arrived on a Saturday and I knew the hotel was sold out for the
weekend. Our host takes good care of us. When I called to get a room I knew the hotel was already sold out and I also knew they didn’t allow Saturday check-ins. That’s where having a host pays off. Ok we stashed our stuff and went back to the elevators. I know lots of people say they have a hard time getting an elevator at the IP but really, I think those must be the ones at the back because we never had to wait more than a minute for one to get to our floor. Off we
went to the casino, money burning a hole in our pocket.

It was so wonderful to be in the casino and knowing that we could do whatever we wanted. I was raring to go! Making a decision of what to gamble at is not always easy for me. After we got down to the casino I had to figure out what I wanted to do. We both decided that wandering around was a good plan. Eventually we found ourselves in front of the Star Wars machines. My
husband really liked playing them. I can’t say I was terribly impressed. I always found Chewbaca’s whine to be annoying so whenever I got him on a line I made sure to hit the spin button so I wouldn’t have to hear him at all. This machine is so loud. The machines at the IP have the extra feature that whenever you win anything there is a light tube that runs around the perimeter of the screen. It lights up according to what you’ve won on a particular spin. I liked that feature. The first time I got the Death Star bonus round I almost leaped out of the seat it was SO loud. The hottest machine in the bank they have at the IP is on the far left as you come down the stairs of the entrence to the main casino. It’s the one furthest from the door. I left my husband and went in search of something better. I found a Jackpot Party Classic
machine. That is a good game and you can get enough bonus rounds to keep playing a long time on a little bit of money. I always play at least 2 coins per line and sometime I play full coin if I get way up. I found the BEST game! It’s called All That Glitters. It has gems like diamonds, ruby, opals etc. The gems cascade down and if 3 will connect you can have multiple wins
on one spin. I had one cascade that went down 5 times. There is a bonus round where you get to go to the jewelry shop and hope the jeweler cuts your stones without cracking them. Anyone who knows me, knows I love jewelry so this game was perfect for me. The graphics are really nice. I saw lots of guys playing this game. I did notice that next to this game was always a “manly” type machine like Pegasus. I figured they were placed that way so the wife could play and the hubby could play beside her. Just a theory of mine, nothing more. After what seemed like very little time we realized that it was 3am (6am our time)and knew we better get to bed. My husband had been up 24 hours by then. We went up and fell into bed. It’s nice to have our own pillows, we fell asleep really quickly in spite of the band playing 18 stories below our window.

Day 2
It sure is hard to stay in bed when the casino beckons. I can lay in bed and hear the slot music, it really is relentless! With no thoughts of food we decend back to the casino and hit the machines. I made a bee line for the video poker. I didn’t want to play when I was tired the night before, it’s always best to bring your brain along for the game. Our bartender friend Hector was at the bar so we had a nice chat. I played for quite a while with only a few quads, none big, nothing with a kicker. Eventually I realized that it would probably be a good idea to eat something. My husband got the car from the garage, a first for us, the valet was totally full when we arrived. One irritating thing happened, we were turned down for the valet because it was filled, but a car load of girls batted thier lashes and the valet told them ok. You should have seen the glares the valet got for that. There was a little crowd of us waiting for our husbands or SO to park the car so we were not amused that those girls got to leave their car. On the other
hand I can see how the valet would be swayed. We watched one guy pick up 4 girls. That was rather apalling. One of the girls was throwing herself at this guy. Have some self respect! She sure was desperate acting. She thought this guy had dough is all I can figure cuz there wasn’t anything special about him that I could see. He sure was happy he stumbled across the ladies though and called a friend to come down and join him. This all happened at the valet. It’s a regular little Peyton Place out there. I did see the same girls on the elevator the next day
and the pushy one was whining about the games men play. Oh well.

I was discussing going to eat when I went off on my tangent. We decided that we should go to In and Out Burger. It was pretty busy but we got our food, we ordered milk shakes and those were pretty disappointing. They weren’t frozen anymore, it was more like flavored milk. I never had a shake there before so maybe that’s how they make them. I wouldn’t get one again. The hamburgers- animal style, were great as usual.

We stopped in a couple of places to gamble after lunch. Nothing special happened, no winning to
announce. So we’ll just move on.

It was time to find some good gambling. We though maybe the Barbary Coast would be good. It wasn’t. Maybe the Aladdin..nope. How about Gold Coast? Well..it was marginally better. We played for a while and stayed pretty even. I am always happy if I can play for basically nothing. We spent a lot of time gambling. It was time to eat again. We decided to give the Gold Coast buffet a try. It was steak night so it cost $12.99. We had a get one free coupon from the American Casino Guide, so it was pretty cheap. My husband is a steak lover so he was happy. I sort of felt I had to have a steak also since I paid extra for it. It was actually pretty decent. After dinner we went back to gambling at the video poker. My husband was looking for ducks, he just couldn’t catch one to save his soul. Finally we decided to give BINGO a try. We never played in Vegas before. Well, it cost something like $25 each and it has to be one of the most boring hours we’ve ever spent in Vegas. We got one of the electronic machines for an extra buck. All we did was sit there and stare at the screen. No excitement at all, if I wanted to feel like that I’d have made an appointment for the gynecologist. Anyway after all that excitement we decided to go back to the IP. We really enjoy the Dealertainers. Elvis was especially good. They use 2 different Elvi at the IP. The day Elvis is really cheesy but a lot of fun. The night time Elvis is a better impersonater. He can really make the moves and looks a lot like the young
Elvis. All the Dealertainers are good. So after standing and watching for a while we drifted back to the slots. We both played more VP. Then we went and played our favorite penny machines and drug ourselves off to bed at 4am. Those slot machines continued to invade my dreams.

Day 3
Today is the 4th of July. We had hoped to visit with our host in the morning but he wasn’t going to be in so we just had the buffet and did some VP gambling and we played various penny slots. It seems the old favorites do not pay off as well as they used to. The hits seem less frequent. The worst one was the Beverly Hillbillies. I put $10 in and didn’t get a single hit of anything at all. Nothing. One good thing about playing the penny slots is that most people are friendly so conversations usually start up, especially when you get to a bonus round. People stop and watch
you play and vice cersa. I know I like to see how others do on their bonus rounds. There was one particular Classic Jackpot Party machine that gave me frequent bonus rounds. It was way in the back at the IP and it was a 2 cent machine. If anyone wants more specific locations, just ask.

We decided to head downtown to see what was new and exciting there. We valet parked at the Nugget. I like their valet, they are really friendly and will kill themselves running to opening your door. We went inside and looked for our favorite machines, just like several other places, things have been removed or moved to a new location. My husband found the Star Wars machines and played for a while. I played some video poker and a couple penny slots. We decided to move on. We headed over to the Plaza. This is where I discovered a really good All That Glitters machine. It paid and paid. I just never do well at the bonus rounds though. Eventually I gave back my profits and quit even. I hate when I do that. I guess I am an optimist and think the machine will come back to life and I’ll actually make some money. One of the reasons we went to the Plaza was to check out their bingo. I had heard that it was a good place to play.Somehow we got sidetracked and ended up back out on Fremont Street. There were a lot of street performers, the guy who played the piano on the semitruck bed was really good. We had dinner at the 4 Queens in the Magnolia room. I’ve never had a bad meal there. We opted for the prime rib special. They gave us so much food we couldn’t finish it. For $7.95 you get prime rib, salad, rolls, cauliflower with cheese sauce and a choice of potato. My husband got the mashed potatoes with gravy and the use real potatoes. The 4 Queens also has the hottest horseradish I’ve ever had. If you have any sinus problems you’ll be cured after the first bite. Wow.

After dinner we gambled here and there and saw a sign that said you could get a free Welcome To Las Vegas pin at the Lady Luck for signing up for a slot card. So….we went. It sure felt desolate on the side street. I even spun my diamond over to my palm so it wouldn’t show while we walked along. All we did was sign up for the card and then got our pin and left. That place just felt a little too creepy for me. I realize the El Cortez is worse, but nonetheless, we got out as fast as we could.

We didn’t go anywhere for fireworks earlier in the evening and instead enjoyed the various entertainers under the canopy. I really wish they’d tear that canopy off though. I don’t like it. You think Oscar is listening? The casinos we gambled at were the GN,4 Queens, Plaza, Freemont, Las Vegas Club, and Fitzgeralds. I just couldn’t bring myself to go into Binions after the desecration by Harrah’s. The place was pertty empty, which is sad, but maybe many felt like we did. It was totally sad to see the Horseshoe sign gone.

We went back to the IP and (surprise!) gambled some more. I found some good penny video poker machines on the back wall. Playing for a few cents just didn’t do it for me so I bumped it up until I at least got a little back for hitting something. I got a lot of quads but no royals. I ended the day even, which is just fine with me. My husband was down about $50. Not bad considering how much we gambled. As was usual we went up to bed at around 3 or 4am. The Dealertainers knock off at 4am and I know we left just shortly before they called it a night. The bed at the IP is nice and comfy. We had the airconditioning really cranked up. It was way too cold in our room. We found a way to warm up though.

Day 4

Time is flying by way too fast for us. A week just isn’t enough time to get all the necessary debauchery in while in Vegas. We made up our minds that we’d stay longer next time.

We got up late for us, around 10, so we got about 5 hours of sleep. We were out and ready to get back to gambling by 11. I hung out at the bar with Hector and talked real estate with him, he is an agent in his spare time so he told me some places to check out. I won and lost and won and lost at VP and finally gave in to my stomach and agreed that maybe lunch would be a good idea. My husband wanted to go to Lotus of Siam over on E. Sahara. It’s supposed to be the #1 Thai restaurant in the US. It is closed from 2:30 to 5. They have a buffet but we opted to order off the menu. I got some shrimp and vegetables thing and Mike ordered some beef and rice thing. We shared. It was all really good and we had to force ourselves to finish. I just made sure I polished off all the shrimp in my dish. I hate to waste something like that. Lotus of Siam is not in the greatest of locations but it’s nice inside and the food really is worth the trip. At least we can say we finally tried the place. We would go back.

It was time to go find somewhere to gamble. Big surprrise, eh? We thought the Palms might be a good place to go. We got sidetracked on the way and stopped at the Venetian instead. The V is so beautiful. I just love the Illusion floor and the frescoes on the ceiling. It’s all hand painted and just lovely. As for the gambling, we didn’t do much there. It was pertty much a break even thing, which is good. It beats losing everywhere. We were playing the same type of machine in most of the places we went, but we were on the look out for new machines. The newest were those obnoxious Star Wars machines. The guys love them and the banks of them were always full. We walked around outside and admired St. Mark’s Square and the other delights at the V. Then we retrieved our car and went back to the IP. The Dealertainers put on a show at 8 pm and it’s always good. It’s also free. I noticed the absence of Michael Jackson. It looks like he’s been removed from the show. I wonder why? Some of the Dealertainers were Dolly Pardon, Louis Armstrong, Shanina Twain, Elvis, Little Richard, Reba MacIntire and several more. Elvis was too cute and if he saw you taking his picture he’d pose for you. That was nice of him.

We had dinner in the Tea House. I had a BLT that must have had a half pound of bacon on it and Mike had a french dip. Both were excellent, I also had a cup of soup so I could warm up, it was corn chowder and quite good. I’d been freezing almost every moment I was inside. They keep those casinos so cold! I brought a sweater everywhere with me. As an aside, the filet mignon special isn’t on the menu anymore.

We decided that we wanted to go out walking, our friends were due to arrive soon so we thought a walk over to see the Bellagio fountains would be good. As soon as we got to the fountains, we got a call. Barb (Pinoch)and her family were at the Flamingo. It turns out we probably walked right by them. We both saw and commented on the same huge limo. Vegas is crawling with limos, this one was pretty distinctive so we all remembered it. Barb and her daughter, who is a beautiful girl, met us at the fountains for the next show. We had just seen the I’m proud to Be An American, one. That one always gets to me. None of us could identify the next song. We watched a couple of shows and chatted and decided to go back to the Flamingo and meet the guys. Barb has a great family. We went over to O’Shea’s so Barb’s bunch could get something to eat at the food court. After that we went over to the IP and went to our room so they could see the view. We, all 6 of us, stood out on the balcony and watched the people below and saw the volcano erupt at the Mirage. It was pretty hot on the balcony, the air conditioner discharges the hot air out there on one end of it, so we didn’t linger too long. We went downstairs and saw one of the Dealertainers do his thing. That was fun and free too. Barb’s family had been up for a long time so they called it a day and went back to the Flamingo. We made plans to meet the next day. Mike and I gambled some more and I even played the Star Wars machines. I finished the day up a little. Mike was down. There’s always tomorrow. Bed time was about 3am, as usual. Sure is cold in our room.

Day 5….moving day

Our host was back from his vacation so we spent time hanging out with him in the offices. He is such a nice guy, we’ve known him for many years and have gotten to be friends. He had lots of advice about real estate for us. I brough him a gift for his birthday, he doesn’t have to wear a suit anymore since Ralphie (the owner of the casino) died. Now it’s more casual and he wears Hawaiian shirts so I got him a silk Hawaiian shirt, he really liked it, so I was glad I got it for him. Usually we bring him a couple of dozen White Castles, but since it was a few days after we got there that we saw him, it wouldn’t have worked out. Next time I’ll bring the burgers. I did tell him we had some before our flight to Vegas.

We told him about our Vegas nights at the school our son used to attend and how awful the cards are and he said he’d send about 400 or 500 decks for us! They are going to be so surprised. We’ve been using the same cards for 5 years for sure. We checked out, everything was comped. We only ate 2 meals in the casino. Our host gave us some buffet coupons so we could have some more free meals there if we wanted without having to sign for anything since we had checked out. Cool. We went upstairs and had the lunch buffet Mike said the short ribs were better than the prime rib they serve, he thought they were excellent, I had my usual soup and tuna salad and some icecream with strawberries on top and then went back to the offices, our host wanted us to stop back in. He showed us his vacation pictures and pictures of his new patio and grandkids. We got a really late check out so we went and gambled for a while and then took off for the Aladdin, our home for the next 3 nights.

I really like the valet at the Aladdin, they are pretty fast for the most part. Since it was Wednesday we thought it would be a quick check in and it was. We got a room on the front of the casino but we were only on the 14th floor. I wanted to change rooms but Mike figured we wouldn’t be in the room that much anyway and it’s not like they have a balcony. I rearranged the furniture as soon as we got in the room. I always put the chair by the window. This room was right at the bend in the hallway so it was a few feet shorter than their usual rooms, everything was still there though and the bathroom was still huge. I like that they have a soaking tub and separate shower. We tossed our money in the safe and stashed our stuff and took off for the casino. We played a lot of our old favorites. The Twilight Zone kept us occupied for quite some time. Mike started to get hungry so we called Barb and they were already at Ellis Island so we met them there. We had some coupons from the American Casino Guide and one was for a free steak dinner or one free entree with the purchase of another. Since we had 2 coupons we gave Barb one of them. Their waitress was such a sour puss, she wouldn’t take the coupon without the card that goes with it, so Mike went back to the car and got the card, then she wouldn’t take it without a slot card. Barb gave up and we took the coupon in case we returned. We were seated after them, the valet at the Aladdin was really slow and they had almost finished by the time we arrived. We got seated and our waiter asked if we had any coupons right off the bat. Sure do! So we gave it to him. Then he asked if we had any more…well..yeah but it’s buy one get one free like the other one. Well, he took that too! Said he’d take care of us. Dinner ended up costing us $3.75. The waiter got a great tip. Now, why couldn’t Barb have had him? They had a match play coupon on the place mat so we took it and used it on the black jack table, we both lost. I should have taken a hit and I didn’t. I would have had 21 if I did. My crystal ball doesn’t work very well though. Oh well. Ellis Island is a funny place. You half expect to see Rock Paper Scissors as a game here. The roulette table wasn’t even open. Their entire pit area consisted of maybe 5 or 6 table games and only half were in use. They had slots but this is a small place. The food is decent though, so it’s worth the trip. Mike and Barb’s son went to play in the No Limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament at the IP. We went and gambled. I am glad we had the car with us because by the time we left it was really late and I was so tired I didn’t want to walk. Again the valet at the IP is a soap opera, this time there was a woman who had been injured in some way and a woman cop was talking to her. This woman was pretty beligerent, it turned out she was a hooker. She was bragging about how much money she’s made and swearing her head off. Finally she left. The cop apologized to us for having to hear all that. Actually we found it interesting. Just before our car arrived we saw a huge Hummer (not an H2, but the real deal) drive by, driven by none other than the hooker. Business must be good.

We went back to the Aladdin and used the valet and went to bed. One nice thing about the Aladdin is you do not have to go in the casino to get to the elevators to the rooms. You can get to the same elevators in the casino, it’s on the next floor up. Still it was easy to grab the elevator and go on up to our room and crash.

Today was our day to go to Pahrump and look at some property. Our host told us we would probaby like it better in Pahrump than Mesquite. Since he’s actually lived in Las Vegas and the surrounding area for 25 years, we took his word for it. I also consulted with Hector, our bartender friend at the IP. He concurred but said land in Utah was amazing too, especially a
couple of hours into the state.

We decided to have breakfast at Ellis Island, so we went there. The pit was just as desolate as it was the last time we went. The restaurant was hopping though but we got a seat right away. I got bacon and eggs and potatoes O’Brien. Everything was very good. They even gave us pancakes and toast. It cost $2.95 each.

We headed out the Strip to the Blue Diamond Highway. It’s easy to get to Pahrump, take the Strip to Blue Diamond Highway, turn right and drive until you get there. It takes about an hour. It’s pretty driving through the mountains. We saw some road construction that slowed everyone down a bit. We also saw something called a “cattle grid”, it was just a metal grid
that’s about 3 feet wide in the middle of the road. I don’t know what it’s for. Maybe cattle? It seemed odd to me since we never saw anything that remotely resembled anything bovine.

When we got to Pahrump we were surprised at all the real estate offices. They lined the main drag, there had to be dozens of them. When we got to the last one we turned around and just picked one. We actually got a good one. The lady was really helpful and gave us maps and directions to the good part of town. So, off we went armed with a little knowledge and a lot of
expectations. We did find some beautiful homes in the area the realtor thought we’d like. All the lots were an acre or more. I wrote down lot numbers and phone numbers. Then we went to explore Pahrump. There’s not much to see really. There was snow on Mt. Charlston
and the views from “our” lot, the one we liked best, were great. As we were leaving town we decided to stop and get a pop at a gas station.

As we got back to the car, I had one of my more brilliant ideas. I suggested we buy our son a shot glass while we were in town. He’s been collecting them from our travels for many years and has quite the collection. I knew just where I hoped to find a shot glass too. Who wouldn’t want one from a brothel? Well, my husband got out of the car and asked the lady at the gas station how far the brothels were from our location. How lucky for us, we were already on the right road, we just had to go about 6 miles and look to our left. We couldn’t miss them. Well, we drove down this road that was pretty much uninhabitated. But, lo and behold, there it was… The Chicken Ranch. It was a cute thing, gingerbread trim and pretty pastel paint with a white picket fence surrounding the house. We parked and went up to the gate, you had to ring the bell and they buzzed you in. After the fence buzzed we started up the walk and I noticed a sign that proclaimed that couples are welcome. Just great! Now they’re going to think we came for some expensive shennagins. The door was open and the Madam stood there, this is where I lost all ability to speak. I muttered to my husband that HE was the one who was talking to her, not me. So she eagerly asked us in, and how could she help us. Before we went in my husband asked if they had a gift shop. Well, yes they did and it wouldn’t be necessary for us to go into the house itself all we need to do was take a short detour to the right where a tiny bar was located. I am sure she was disappointed we weren’t there for fun and games. I did notice they have a menu and a sign proclaiming how healthy all their girls were. We scaddadled over to the bar, it sure was dark in there, they had a few souvenirs in a glass cabinet that hung on the wall. We didn’t see a single shot glass, but they had some that weren’t on display. What luck. They had some t-shirts that had snappy little sayings like “we bend over backwards to please our customers”, “our customers always come first”… stuff like that. Typical brothel merchandise. As if I would know. Anyway we made our purchase, grabbed a few books of matches and took our leave. The bag the gifts were in was a treasure in itself. Did you know that the Chicken Ranch won the coveted Brothel of The Year award? Well, you do now. We had to be buzzed out of the gate to get to our car. We took a couple of pictures of the place from across the street and my husband noticed that there was a second brothel next door. That was Sheri’s Ranch. Now sometimes my huband calls me by that name, I don’t know why, but he wanted to get something from there so off we went. This place was bigger and more corporate. They had a hotel and spa, free tours even. Being seasoned brothel visitors at this point we knew that they would probably have a gift shop and the bar was a good place to look. Sure enough, they had one. This one was an actual tiny room, not much bigger than a walk-in closet. Now this place had some really racy souvenirs, I’ll spare you the details, but trust me, they were something to behold. We found a shot glass and a coffee mug. My mom comes over for coffee every couple of days so I thought I’d see how long it took her to realize she was drinking out of a cup from a brothel. Not long, it turns out. We were getting our purchase rung up at the bar when I found someones elbow being dug into my side. It was attached to my huband and he was trying to get me to look to my right, so I did. OY VEY! One of the “ladies” had meandered over to the bar, perhaps business was slow in the house. There were maybe 4 or 5 men in the bar. Well…this lady was dressed or rather not dressed in a sheer white peignoir that as near as I could tell ended just below her rather large enhanced breasts. She was leaning way over the bar. Way, way over. As we rounded the bar I took a quick look and almost swallowed my tongue. She was wearing a thong and nothing else. You could see clear to China and the men at the table directly behind her were enjoying the view. My husband thought she was probably trolling for business. We hightailed it out of there and collapsed in a fit of giggles when we were safely in the car where no one was around to observe our behaviour. My husband did mention that the lady was actually very pretty, I didn’t notice. I was too engrossed in noticing her ummm outfit. I like to think I learned a trick or two from her.

After our adventure we drove back to Las Vegas. I was starving to death so we stopped just outside of town for some Mexican food. We got back to the hotel where we were promptly accosted by the time-share vultures. This lady was persistant. She spied my bag and asked what was in the pretty pink bag. Well, I chirped that it was some little thing I picked up at the brothel. Silence on her part. Finally she laughed and told me I was cute and must be kidding. Ummmm nope, went to a brothel, had a great time too. She then asked if were married, which is standard time share vulture speak. We said of course we were, but not to each other! Bwahahahaha. That was fun.

We spent the rest of the evening gambling. We met our friends and we went to Casino Royale and played 50 cent roulette for hours. We had a great time. While at the CR we joined their slot club, we joined so we could get the free slot play. What a joke, you have to play on old decrepit machines that haven’t paid out a jackpot since Jimmy Carter was in office. It’s a good thing they have good table games there or we’d never go in the place. My husband managed to triple his buy-in so he was happy. Eventually we went back to our hotel and gambled some more. I just love that Money Storm machine. It plays It’s Raining Men when you get to the bonus round. I love the poor skinny chicken on the roof of the barn, poor thing, those tornadoes really are hard on him. We finally decided that we should have a drink, we’d pretty much not had any alcohol since we arrived, so I got a frozen strawberry daiquiri and my hubby had a white zin. They make the best daiquiris at the Aladdin! I actually had 2 and my husband had one also. They have some slots that have probably 9 reels, I can’t remember the name, but they paid us for a long time, until we gave it all back, or at least most of it. My machine had lots of 7’s in various colors, they we located near the Desert Passage, I believe. If you get the chance, give them a try. I like to keep a little profit if I can. It doesn’t always happen though. As was our usual we went to bed at around 3 or 4am. We are really going to be in for it when we get home and try to readjust to our time.

Today we decided that we would go to the Rio and see if we could spot any WSOP stars. They had a convention that we decided to visit, my husband was reluctant, but once we were inside and he saw me getting free things, like hats he decided I had a good idea after all. As we wandered the show I saw someone who looked familiar. It’s was Scotty Nguyen. I got his autograph, he signed one of the hats I got. We had a little conversation with him, he had been eliminated from the WSOP. Too bad, he’s a good player. A little while later my husband saw Antonio “the Magician” Esfandiari. He was really friendly and we had a nice chit chat. He had also been eliminated from the tournament. After the convention ended we wandered over to the huge poker room. They had quite the nice set up, I don’t know how many tables there were but this room had to be the size of a couple of football fields. There were muted lights over every table and there were TV crews everywhere taking shots of players, probably just in case they won they would have some footage of them as they moved up in the standings. We walked right in the room and I proceeded to walk to the middle of the players area, my husband followed me. After we’d hung out there for a while I commented on how lucky we were to get such a good place to observe while many other ppeople were standing way far away on the outside. Well…it seems I just sauntered into the middle of the action, bold as you please. We were actuallly supposed to be with the great unwashed on the perimeter. Who knew? No one told us we couldn’t be hanging around in the middle of the room. My husband thought it wise that we remove ourselves from our prime location. I was reluctant to move but I did. Now we stood with the masses and tried to see what was going on. Oh well, we sure did have a choice location for a while. It got boring standing there, it’s not like you can see any cards. Poker is way better to watch on TV. It was fun seeing some of the big names playing though. We decided that we’d had enough of the WSOP and went and gambled a bit so we could wait for the Carnival in The Sky show. That show is always fun and I tried to get some beads. It’s funny how cut-throat everyone gets over some 25 cent beads. Nonetheless I was victorious and walked away with a self-satisified smirk and with 3 sets of new beads to go with my ensemble.

We retrieved our car from the valet and decided that we’d go play at the Palms. I had a coupon for free slot play if we joined their slot club. You have to play IGT machines only. I discovered some penny Blazing 7’s machines, but they weren’t IGT so we looked until we found some machines that called to us. We used our usual tactic of playing and cashing out. I ended up with more money than I started with and so did my husband. The Blazing 7’s were all occupied except for one, so I sat dwon and fed my $10 into it. I made sure I studied the pay table and realized that I had to play at least 2 coins per line if I wanted to get paid for getting 7’s of any kind. If you only played 1 coin you would not get paid. I was happily playing 2 coins when I hit the blazing 7’s. I won 7500 pennies, which is $75. I wish I’d have been playing full coin in, but I also realized that I would have been long out of money if I had been playing 3 coins per line. I was satisfyied with my win. We took off from the Palms and went looking for food. We had a couple of buffet tickets for the IP so we decided to use them before they expired. Our host had given us several when we checked out cuz he knew we were staying in town for a little while; he though we’d left the day we checked out but we didn’t tell him we were staying 3 more days at the Aladdin. Dinner was actually good, and free. It’s hard to beat that. We played at the IP, I went and found my favorite All That Glitters machine and my husband went and played in the no limit Hold ‘em tournament. I played every All That Glitters machines at the IP. Sometimes it was hard to get a machine. I watched one lady playing a penny at a time. She never won a thing. When you have 9 lines you have to play at least one coin per line, so if she’d have played 9 cents she would have won. Another lady was watching the machine with interest, but I had been there longer. I finally moved right behind the woman who didn’t have a clue how to play and waited until she lost the last of her money. I grabbed that machine and settled in and played for quite a long time. I struck up a conversation with the girl next to me, she was Australian and on her first visit to the states and she loved Las Vegas. I love to chat with people in the casino, I’ve met some interesting people through the years.

After my husband lost all his money at Texas Hold’em we went back to the Aladdin. We found a bank of machines that had Blazing 7’s and he played them. Stupid me, I told him maybe he should see if the machine was alive before playing full coin. Wouldn’t you know it, he hit the Blazing 7’s on the second pull. He won $80 which made him happy. We vowed we would find more Balzing 7’s to play tomorrow, which was also our last day. We went to bed at our usual late hour knowing we would have to pack and check out in the morning. I hate thinking about leaving Las Vegas.

We got up, checked out, got the car from the valet and took off for the Orleans. I had a buy one get one buffet free so we figured we’d eat there. They have a great buffet. They even had crayfish. I was really tempted to try one but I couldn’t figure out how to eat one, that and they had beady little eyes that were staring at me. I have a hard time eating anything that looks like it did before a contract was put out on its life. So, I passed on that and found lots of other things to eat. After lunch we decided that finding the Blazing 7’s was a priority so we headed out to have a look-see. We found a whole bank of the things. I think there were 8 of them. One side had 4 vacant so I let my husband have first pick as to which machine he wanted. I then took one of the left overs. We hadn’t been playing long when my credit meter started to climb. It said I had won 31155 in credits. I didn’t know what I’d won, the top jackpot was 20000. Well it turns out that I hit the progressive for over $300. I was a happy camper then. We played every machine there but nothing was hitting so we took our leave and went to the Barbary Coast. The fake Dean Martin was doing his thing, so we got a free drink from the bar with a coupon I had and settled at a Pagasus and Catch a Wave machines to watch and listen to the show. We didn’t see any Blazing 7’s. As we were leaving we saw some Blzzing 7’s tucked in a small alcove over by the entrance . Every one of them was empty. They had 6 machines. I gave my husband first choice and he took the 2 machine on the right and he told me to take the 2 on the left and we’d meet in the middle. I wasn’t playing long when I heard a crackling sound, like you hear from a fake fireplace. Sure enough, I’d hit for 20000 credits! I was pretty excited. I’d won $500 in a few hours, that meant I was even for the trip. We played the other 2 machines and didn’t get anything much, just credits enough to play for a while. We were more determined than ever to find more of these machines. They don’t have any at the Flamingo or O’Shea’s. We skipped the IP just cuz I didn’t want to run into our host and have him wonder why we didn’t stay at the IP the whole time. So we went to the hated Harrah’s. Luckily they didn’t have any because I didn’t want to give them any of my money. Next was Casino Royale. We didn’t see any Blazing 7’s there, but the roulette tables called to us, so we stopped. We were thirsty anyway. They had a 25 cent game on one side of the table and a $1 on the other. We picked the 25 cent side, but my husband played for 50 cents. I was wanting to preserve my winnings so I played for a quarter. Even if you’re playing for a quarter you still have to play 4 at a time on the inside and 4 at a time on the outside. We played a long time. It got so late I though we should be getting to the airport. My husband smiled and suggested we stay another night. How could he do this to me? Such torture. It would have cost us all of my winnings to stay, it was Saturday night and I knew rooms would be expensive, plus changing the plane tickets and extending the rental car. Someone had to an adult here, but why’d it have to be me? My husband was in such a cute mood, I’ve never seen him so reluctant to leave Las Vegas, it’s usually me who has to be dragged kicking and screaming off to the airport. He was winning at roulette and colored up with 3x what he started with. We finally had to leave. We had such a good time at that table we were all betting the same numbers so we cheered when we won and grumbled when we all lost. The dealers really appreciate any tips you toss them and they were fun also.

On the way to getting our car, which we left at the Barbary Coast we stopped in the IP and played the Blazing 7’s. I felt so pressed for time that I played 5 machines at once, without my card in! I know I should have used my card but I just wanted to get to the airport. I can not believe I just said that. If someone else had looked like they wanted to play I would have given up a machine or two or three. I hate when people hog all the machines, but since no one lingered I figured I may as well play them all. My husband played all of them on the other side. We didn’t win much, but we did win a little. I think we broke even for our little detour to the IP. Now it was getting later by the minute so we had to run.

We took the car back to National and hopped on the shuttle to the airport. Check in was a pain, it’s hard when you travel with someone whose name is on a terrorist list. We knew we’d have trouble in Vegas because we had so much trouble in Detroit. My husband has a common name like John Smith. They told us to use his middle initial or full middle name next time we flew. Ok. Finally we got that mess over with and then I realized I left my prized Aladdin Gold card and my American Casino Guide in the glove compartment. We tried to call National to ask them to grab it but no one answered the stupid phone. By the time we got ahold of them the car was already off the lot. I really regret losing my card. It was a collectible. Oh well. We got to the gate and the nice girl who checked us in at the desk earlier paged us and gave us seats in the front of the plane. We each had a row to ourselves. That was really nice of her to think of us. I hate taking the red eye home but it was easier having lots of room. We never have flights that aren’t totally full. This one was about 3/4 full. Lucky us! We landed in depressing Detriot at about 7am and collected our bags and went home and crawled into bed. It was only an hour later than we were used to going to sleep in Vegas by the time we got home.

This is just a list of observations.

Something that I totally loved was that we cruised the Strip when we arrived and one of our favorite songs played. Bye Bye Miss American Pie– it’s such a nice long song we sang along and just enjoyed being in our happy place.

It’s fun to drive around Las Vegas with the air blasting and the windows down. I would never do that at home.

When we visited Mainstreet Station I finally got a look at the Berlin Wall. My husband went in and made sure the coast was clear, since it is in the Men’s restroom. How nice for the guys to be able to relieve themselves on the Berlin Wall. It seems rather appropriate to me.

The weather at night was perfect, it was in the 90’s but with the sun down it felt great. I just love the low humidity.

They have single deck, hand pitch BJ at Ellis Island. You can get match play coupons off the placemats in the restaurant.

The bed at the Aladdin was hard as a rock. They also don’t have as good of water pressure as they do at the IP.

We saw some guys playing 3 Card Monte up on the overpass. We told the cop on a bicycle what was going on and he said it wasn’t their jurisdiction. Apparently people can take other people to the cleaners, as long as they do it on the overpass. I believe that the state police are the ones who have to enforce the laws there.

The pornslappers were out in full force. Now they’ll hand their smut to anyone, at least the group in front of the Flamingo did.

We saw a bunch of blind people with their dogs downtown. One person was playing blackjack. I kind of wonder if the dog was any help there? One woof for hold ‘em, two woofs to take a hit? Who knows? Nice looking dogs though.

I wanted to have our picture taken with Elvis in front of Harrah’s but he was totally drunk and obnoxious. There were plenty of Elvi around, this one wasn’t even very good looking.

A few words on the new Wynn. I liked it somewhat. I am glad we went and took a look. The colors are more vibrant than they are at the Bellagio, but Wynn just didn’t grab me. The people at the slot club are pretty off hand and treat you like you are an imposition for stopping by to get a card. For many people the slot club is their first impresion of a casino. In this case I wasn’t impressed. The mountain out front looks like a pile of dirt with trees growing out of it, something we can see here at home easily. The location of the Wynn is too far from the rest of the Strip casinos, when it’s 110 I don’t want to walk in the hot sun to get there. One thing I really liked was they had a hole in the table at the Roulette game and the dealer/croupier would just push all the chips that were collected into the hole and they would be sorted automatically according to color. I suppose we might go back to vist the Wynn on our next trip, but really, I can’t think of a single reason why I would want to. I was really wanting to be bowled over by the place. I wasn’t.

I did see something cute, the Venetian is adding on as we all know. There is a fence around the entire construction site and the fence is totally blocked off except for one little area. I saw a little boy and his grampa watching the huge earthmovers and other equipment work below in the hole that is going to be the foundation for the building. They were totally enthralled with what was happeing, it was nice to see them enjoying something together amist all the hustle and bustle of the Strip.

We went to the Forum shops to ride the spiral escalator. I saw a lady who won the ‘most inappropriately dressed old lady’ contest. I was holding the contest. She was the only entrant. You had to have seen her, she had a lot of silicone and was wearing a slip dress that barely covered any part of her body. She might have been the world’s oldest hooker, who knows. She was just one huge wrinkle. Remember the lady in There’s Something About Mary? Well she looked good in comparison. I tried to get my husband to let me take his picture, but he knew I actually wanted her picture. Why I wanted to preserve that image is beyond me. I did not take her picture.

Bingo has got to be the most boring activity we’ve ever been engaged in in Las Vegas. I am sure some people like it, but we didn’t. We’ll stick to the rinky dink church bingo we go to on Fridays at home.

I saw a lady at Arizona Charlies. I was playing next to her. She was feeding $100 dollar bills into a penny machine and I saw her lose time after time. I know I personally saw her put $400 into the same machine. Every time she’d hit the bonus round she’d turn to me and say, “we’re having fun now”..then she’s lose and the cycle would repeat itself. She finally got a bonus that actually gave her over $400, I wanted to drag her out of the casino by her hair and tell her to go home. I know she had a gambling problem and it was painful to watch. It was Friday so I am sure it was payday. I quit playing and just watched her and kept her company. She thought I was good luck. I didn’t want to be responsible for a downturn in fortunes so I finally got up, wished her luck and took off. I’ve been haunted by her since then though. Poor thing.

Last but not least, the planes we flew on Spirit were very new. They have cool headrests that adjust. You can pull the sides out so you can lean against it and take a nap, if you are so inclined. I would fly Spirit again just for the wider leather seats and the head rests. We saw the same people on the way home as we did coming out. It’s funny how you remember people you barely met from a week earlier.

The casinos we visited this trip were, Caesars Palace, Aladdin, Casino Royale, Imperial Palace, Harrah’s, Arizona Charlies, Gold Coast, Mainstreet Station, Orleans, Venetian, Bellagio, O’Shea’s, Golden Nugget, 4 Queens, Freemont, Las Vegas Club, Lady Luck, Plaza, Fitzgeralds, Wynn, Flamingo, Palms, and the Rio.

Thank you for letting me share my trip report. I had fun writing it.

Posted by Sharon_in_Mi on LVTalk