Trip Diary 8-18-06 (15 of 20)
Ahh! Moving day again. It seems I just got here at MSS,
and now I'm packing up to leave. The cold hasn't gotten a lot
better, but it also hasn't gotten much worse; however, to add to my
small string of bad luck, yesterday I had one of those
uncontrollable sneezes, the type that you just can't seem to ream
in. Anyway, when that happened, I bit on the back of my tongue.
It's bruised pretty badly and now it hurts to eat. Actually, that
could be a good thing the way I've been wolfing down the food as of
late.
It's too early to move into my next hotel, Vegas Club, for
my second stay there this trip. I hadn't eaten since yesterday
afternoon, so I decided to have the MSS breakfast buffet. It's your
standard breakfast buffet and for $5.99 (which would be the cost of
just orange juice and coffee somewhere else); it's a good bargain.
A few of you on the board have written about the omelet chef here.
He was on duty, and I can see what you were saying. Either he's a
great actor, or he simply loves his job. He's personable fun and
loves to chat with the customers as he makes their omelets. I
enjoyed the breakfast (I have to keep reminding myself to take my
timeI'm can't seem to shake the usual work day grind where you need
to think about your next stop or appointment). Eggs with ham, and
some peach cobbler, and I was good to go (3 ½ forks).
I drove to the Starbucks on Charleston and Decatur to turn
in yesterday's report and answer a few IMs left for me. I called
Shari (LVA member) who left me her number, so we could hook up with
some other members at the Hamburger Bar at Mandalay Bay. I'm afraid
I may have woken her up, but she said it was okay, and we set up the
meet. I finished my Internet work and headed back to downtown.
Vegas Club wasn't accepting check-ins just yet (11:00 AM), so I
walked across the street to the Golden Nugget. After getting a
phone call that put me in a good mood, I hunted down the penny
Pharaoh machines that I've had a little luck on of late. However,
both were occupied. About half of the Golden Nugget is roped off as
they're doing some major construction work around the place.
I walked down to the Four Queens. I had some time to kill
before checking in and they have a few nickel 9/6 JOB machines. I
played for quite awhile before hitting my first quad (deucessee
yesterday's diary). I just shook my head, looked at the deuces
schedule on this machine and to my surprise, they were Uglynot
great, but a game I like to play. I knew the likelihood of catching
quad deuces twice on the same machine so soon would be highly
unlikely, but I plugged away anyway (I find Jacks or Better a rather
boring game after awhile). Surprisingly, holding two deuces, the
other two appeared for a nice, little $50.00 win. I still had a
little more than my original $20 to boot. I played it down to $70
and so for about an hour and a half of playing, I walked with a tidy
little profitfinally!
I walked back to the Vegas Club and the girl took my
reservation. I'm back here because, once again, they've offered me
a weekend for free. For a low roller like me, this is sweet. I
once again ask for the North tower and she obliges. I'm placed
again on the 11th floor overlooking the pool at the California
Hotel. Again, the room is spacious, clean, and comfortable (3
sheets).
I have a couple of hours before my meeting today with some
LVA members. Vegas club gives you a small booklet of coupons when
you check in that are fairly worthless, but one of them is for two
free drinks at the casino bar. I decided to have a beer and watch
the baseball game in Casey's Lounge, which is located in the back of
the building on the first floor. I get my drinks (the bartender
tells me he's required to give both at the same time even though I'm
alone), and I'm sitting there with two beers in front of me. I
notice that the bar-top video poker machines are penny, nickel, and
quarter machines. This is very unusual for bar-top VP machines;
they're usually a quarter and up. I go through the pay schedules
and am pleased to notice they have NSUD (a decent version of deuces
wild) on them. This is terrific considering I'm a nickel player.
I've discovered a playable low-roller deuces machine on a bar-top
(for my VPFree members, please note the actual pay is
1,3,4,4,9,15,25 slightly less than full NSUD).
I put in a twenty and slowly begin to down the beers. Up to
now while I played the Vegas Club, I had to wait for the 10-coin
very ugly deuces progressive to get high enough to be worthy of
play, but now I've found a couple of machines that are, for me,
completely playable, and I can enjoy watching the ball games (a
favorite past time in Vegas) while doing soI'm thrilled. As usual,
I have many, many close calls and was being dealt some really good
hands (twice Wild Royals and three times five-of-a-kinds), but alas,
the two cash-out hands never materialized (quad deuces or the
Royal). I eventually lost my twenty but it took over 1100 hands and
almost two hours to do it.
It was time to head over to Mandalay Bay. I took the back
way (Rancho to Arville, to Tropicana, to Valley View, to Hacienda
right into the back of the parking garage of Mandalay Bay). Even at
rush hour, I got from downtown to the farthest end of the Strip in
only 20 minutes. Had I taken the Strip, I'd have gotten about three
blocks.
I was still a tad early for our 5:30 PM meet. I activated
my MGM card (required now as they just turned over from using the
One Card). I don't play here much at all; however, I did see the
newest Men In Black penny machine (this is the fourth version of the
machine, and they're all fun to play). I hit both bonuses but still
managed to lose five bucks. These are fun machines and worth a play.
I walked up to the Burger Bar, which is located in Mandalay
Place, the shopping mall the bridges the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. I
see Mare (justmare) and she introduces me to her husband, Scott.
Then Alice (jackalope) arrives as does Shari (eharas), who
introduces me to her friend Jeff. The Burger Bar, though none of us
had eaten here, was selected because it's been raved about by others
on the board. However, there's a 45 minute wait and Mare and Scott
have comped tickets to Def Leopard and Journey tonight, so we can't
wait. We finally decided on the buffet at Mandalay Bay. So,
instead of a $60 burger, we have the $25 seafood buffet.
The food was very good with mountains of crab and large
shrimp. I also went for a slice of prime rib (excellent) and a
slice of pepperoni pizza (only in Vegas will you see someone walking
along with prime rib and pizza on the same plate). There were many
selections of excellently prepared salads and a chef prepared any
pasta for you while you waited, fresh off the skillet. Everyone
seemed to enjoy the food and the service was excellent. While Jeff,
who obviously LOVES his job as a bank facilitator, informed the
girls of the evil of using debit cards; Scott and I found that we
had a lot in common and had a wonderful conversation about music,
recording, and musicians.
This is the second time I've eaten at the Mandalay Bay
buffet and both times I was very happy with the selection, quality,
and service (4 forks). It was time for the concert so we all said
our goodbyes. There's going to be another meet with a few more
members on Sunday, and I told them I'd be there; however, it is
going to be in the Diamond Lounge at Caesars, which everyone else is
a member
except little ol' low-roller me, but they assured me they'd
get me in as long as I behave myself and don't bother the other
diamond club members.
On the way back to downtown, I pass by the Premium Outlet
Mall. Now this place opened about a year ago to a lot of ballyhoo,
and I noticed every time I drove by, the parking lot was full of
cars. So, I had a bit of time and decided to check it out. What I
found was that this is really nothing more or less than any other
outlet mall. Yes, there were some outlets that had the requisite
Italian named clothing lines and many seemed to believe that if they
write New York and London on the window somewhere that this gives
some kind of pedigree. However, all the other usual stores were
there too: The Gap, Banana Republic, and all the tennis shoe stores
that pay royalties to ball players. I found the whole place quite
ordinary. It's an open mall, which in Vegas means sizzling, hot
summers, and freezing winters, so just why it's so popular can only
be attributed to some snazzy advertising. Now, that being said, I
did fine a couple of things that were good to know. I bought a new
watch from the Timex store (excuse meoutlet), and low and behold,
there's a Starbucks here with the Hot Spot sticker, which means when
I stay downtown, there's a place I can get on the Internet only five
minutes away, not all the way down to Decatur where I have been
going. It's all good!
I headed back to the Vegas Club. I decided to give the
deuces at Casey's Lounge one more shot. Another $20 down but
another very long session enjoying drinks and watching the Dodgers
lose (yea!). I finally made it back to my room by 11:00 and watched
Letterman before falling asleep. I didn't gamble very much, and
pretty much broke even. I now have a watch that might actually keep
time. My cold is getting better, and I enjoyed my time with the LVA
members over a good dinner. It was a good day.
More tomorrow.