These Escapades started with an Allegiant flight to Las Vegas that was almost on time, which is very good for a mid-day Allegiant flight<g>. The delay was actually quite pleasant since there were nice folks to talk to in the boarding area and during the flight, but the flight home was very different. My seatmate seemed just fine as we were chatting about various travels, and we had both recently driven from Reno to Las Vegas – I made the mistake of mentioning that I had noted the names of the various brothels to post here, and I’ll only say that the conversation went south fast from that point – the woman was quite familiar with the amenities and shared entirely too much information.
Thank goodness the flight is only 75 minutes; I wanted to ride on the wing or try my first parachute jump! LOL, one other thing – if you pack a corkscrew in a carry-on, I’d suggest you pull it out for the security scan<g>. I assumed that I was caught in a random bag check when leaving home, but, after tearing through everything in my tote bag, the security guy finally told me he was looking for the corkscrew. It would have been nice if he had mentioned it earlier, but I told him where to find it and tried to get all my stuff back into some semblance of order when he was through.
GAMBLING: went in the other direction – I started out losing at Sam’s Town but changed my luck when I moved into the Flamingo. That speaks volumes for the theoretical advantage of full-pay video poker – NOT! This has been a very lucky year for me, but the luck has been consistently bad at Coast casinos all year and consistently good at Harrah’s – go figure that one! Even a great football Sunday session at the StageCoach Bar couldn’t pull me into positive territory at Sam’s, but I watch most of the first two games there and kept hitting quad after quad – while sipping coffee and/or diet coke<g>. That was by far the best session until Tuesday morning at Bally’s – didn’t hit many quads at Bally’s but Aces finally popped up there.
HOTELS: I spent the first two nights at Sam’s and was double-booked at both Sam’s and the Flamingo on Sunday – that allowed me a late checkout after the football games. I tried the late night check-in trick at Sam’s but still ended up with the standard king room, where I got much better rest than in my upgraded Go Suite at the Flamingo. The first night at the Flamingo was a repeat of an earlier trip, with drunks rolling down the hall all night long.
This time, I was at least awake enough on Monday to get my room switched to one at the end of the hall, so the last two nights were much better! The Go rooms are really quite nice, and I made good use of the fridge this time, and I really enjoyed the CD player in the room.
RENTAL CAR: a Toyota Yaris from PayLess – that was an interesting experience. As Kestral once mentioned, they do try to intimidate you into every type of insurance and to buy a tank of gas too. The Yaris has an unusual instrument panel with a center console location of the speedometer & other gauges normally found in front in front of the driver, and this does take a little time to get used to, but was actually a rather peppy little car once I got used to the steering. I can’t tell you the mileage since PayLess did succeed in stiffing me on a full gas tank – I was in a hurry to meet friends and didn’t check the fuel gauge – my bad! It really wasn’t a painful mistake because it only took 3 gallons to fill it up before I left<g>. The price also went up from the estimate on my reservation, but I can’t blame PayLess for that – Nevada actually increased the taxes on rental cars even further on November 1st! My five day base rate of $78 jumped up to $143 – I’ll let you figure the tax percentage because I won’t finish this report if I start growling again!
SHOWS and R&R: I caught the Big Elvis show (more fun with Kestral & Lark), and I also caught David Van Such at Brendan’s Pub –only for the first hour since that was my arrival day, but totally mellow and enjoyable sax was a nice way to start the trip.  One other show I wanted to see was dark, so I hung out by the piano bar in Paris for a short while – good music but not quite as good as previous trips. LOL, I wasn’t about to pay Allegiant $30-50 to bring my bowling gear, and exercise duds didn’t fit in the tote bag either, so my only exercise this time was rather pleasant walking on the strip most evenings. I spent a fun afternoon watching my first live rugby game and enjoyed it so much that I know I’ll be back – it was both fascinating and confusing, since I don’t know much about the game, either rules or strategy, but there’s a friend that coaches rugby and is pretty patient with dumb questions<g>, so that ignorance is curable. I finally made it out to the Ethel M gardens to see the Christmas decorations – fascinating!
GATHERINGS OF THE CLAN: The highlight was Lee & Sharon’s wedding, which I will let them describe – I was just happy that I could be there.. The Senator was in his usual form – claimed he really flew out just to see me in a dress and approved of the outfit – then blew any brownie points by asking me what time it was due back. I wish I had thought of renting an outfit; then, there would have been tote bag room for those exercise duds<g>. Dinner afterward at Texas de Brazil was fantastic – both the food, the company and the entertainment.
This was a wonderful afternoon & evening with very good friends, and it just don’t get better than that!
The same friends (plus one Cajun and minus one Senator) gathered at Brendan’s Pub the next day, and I really did stroll into the meet in my pink kimono – which generated some interesting looks along the way, especially from the bartender that obviously thought he had looney tunes on his hand. I really didn’t care what the bartender thought, because I know Wendell was laughing when I took off the kimono to reveal a Raiders t-shirt for my toast to “Wendell and his #$@%!! Raiders!”
FOOD: just hasn’t been a priority lately. The highlight was dinner at Texas de Brazil, and the low end was probably the white chocolate mochas for breakfast more than once<g>. There was a Saturday brunch at Sam’s Town, dinner from the Panda Express and the Diamond Lounge, a good sandwich from the Sports Deli at Sam’s, a muffin & fruit bowl at the Flamingo – and a bottle of wine in my room that was just right for a 5-night trip.
LOL, those are the meals I remember, and I guess low priority was a great description because I didn’t even list meals in my trip notes. I’m sure I’ll get my appetite back when my diet is over<g>.
As usual, it was the people that made this trip special – good friends are hard to find, and this is certainly the time of year to be thankful for my Las Vegas friends, those that fly in and those that live there. I didn’t come home with winnings this time, but it was another great trip.
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