Trip Diary 8-4-06 (1 of 20)
For the many of you at Las Vegas Advisor (LVA) who have been
reading my daily reports for the past many years, you know that I
tend to give a more detailed account than most to the disappoint to
those who like the short and to-the-point accounts.
However, there's been a bit of a wrench this trip. After
getting here to Las Vegas, I found that my laptop's AC adapter has
gone kaput, and in no time my battery died too. Therefore, as I
write this, I'm in a Kinko's, Inc. store writing this down. So, I'm
going to be a little more succinct than usual as I won't have the
time to write these in the morning over a cup of coffee.
Unfortunately, EMachines, which is the maker of the computer I own
has an adapter that can only be purchased through them. I called
them and being that I'm under warranty, they're sending me a new
one. The problem is that it will take about ten days with no
assurances. Being that I'm here for 20 days, I can't give them a
specific hotel to send it, so I thought I'd have them send it here to
Kinko's. I made all these arrangements, and now as I came here to
talk to the salesman, he told me they no longer accept packages.
GREAT! Now I don't know what to do. Oh well
on to the report.
I left San Diego at 3:00 AM and arrived in Las Vegas at
8:30. I made a stop at Nevada Landing to play my dimes. Every
August I take all the spare change I had over the previous year and
separate it into nickels, dimes, and quarters. The ONLY hotel left
in all of Las Vegas that still accepts dimes is the Nevada Landing in
Jean, NV. So, I fed them into a few of the slot machines, and slot
machines being what they are, gobbled up every one of them. I hit
something only twice. Oh well
spare change.
I then drove into town and made a stop at the South Coast for
breakfast. Their buffet is a typical breakfast buffet with the
omelet station and assorted breakfast items. It hit the spot. I
wanted to put some points on my card, so I played a nickel Double
Bonus machine. I managed to hit a few quads and my $50 investment
became $102. I took the profit and left.
My first hotel stay is at Terribles. They sent me a comp for
two nights, and considering it's the weekend, I was very pleased to
accept this one. Low-rollers, like me, tend to only get offers on
Sunday through Thursday. I checked in. The room is very nice,
though it's on the ground floor only about 50 yards from the casino.
After unpacking, I went up to their 9/6 Jacks or Better machines and
played quarters. Though I ran a little of a grand through the
machine, I only managed one quad, and so I finished down $100.00.
Many of you (that are might age) might remember Stephen
Bishop. He had a few big hits in the 70's ("On and On" "Separate
Lives"), and was nominated for an Academy Award twice and has
appeared on that show (he lost to "Hotel California" ripped off!).
Anyway, we've been good friends since high school, and it turns out
he was doing a concert at the Cannery tomorrow night.
We planned to spend some time catching up and seeing a show.
He had just gotten to Las Vegas and wanted to sleep for a couple of
hours before heading out. I really had nothing else to do, so I ran
on over to the Cannery a couple hours early. Their new Century
Theaters are now open, so I decided to catch the new Will Farrell
flick about NASCAR. I enjoyed it, but it's really a typical Will
Farrell movie pretty much like Old School and Anchorman.
I called Stephen after the movie and he was just getting up.
I told him to call me down in the casino when he was ready to meet,
and I would be playing some machines. The Cannery has a back of Full
Pay Deuces Wild (FPDW) in nickels, which they've moved from the Slot
Club booth to in front of the buffet where the old poker tables were
at. I began playing and was just tearing up the machine hitting all
kinds of premium hands. After about ten minutes, I hit the four
deuces for $50.00. About ten minutes later, I held three and hit the
other two diamonds for a $200 Royal Flush. I don't remember hitting
my first royal this early in a trip. Last April, I didn't hit one
until almost the last day of my trip. I called Stephen to hurry up
come down so I could show him the royal. Hopefully, this will be
only the first of many
right!
We decided to go see Anthony Cools, the hypnotist, who was playing at
the Excalibur.
I parked at NYNY, and we headed across the bridge to the
Excalibur. We purchased out tickets. The show was at 9:00 PM, and
our hopes for a nice dinner were dashed as we only had a half hour or
so. We decided to pick up a fast bite at Excalibur's buffet. It's
very much like Circus Circus. The food was a tad bland, but it
served its purpose.
If you haven't been to a hypnotist show before, and you
aren't easily offended by adult language and situations, Anthony
Cools is a great show to see. Stephen told me he laughed so hard at
times, he almost got sick. The audience was in complete hysteria
during most the show. We both liked it so much; we bought the "Best
of
" DVD as we left the theater.
We walked over to the Luxor hotel and on the way, Stephen
treated me to one of those water massages. It was wonderful, and I
almost fell asleep. We enjoyed the Luxor and Stephen picked up an
ice cream. It was now approaching midnight, I was about bushed. In
my younger days, staying up 24 hours was okay, but now
well
not so
easy. I ran Stephen back to the Cannery and I got back to Terribles
a little before 1:00 AM. Needless to say, sleep came fast.
More tomorrow.