After a long ride on a tiny America West airplane, we greeted Las Vegas. Elise got all giddy when she saw the strip from the airplane as we were taxiing as this is her first time to Sin City.
We took a Lincoln to Bally’s, checked in and had our bags brought to our room. Kevin and Amy turned in early as Kevin had to be at a continuing education seminar at 6:30 a.m. the next morning. It was only 11 p.m. in Vegas but it was 1 a.m. our time. And it was hot. 103 degrees.
Our room is on the 17th floor overlooking Las Vegas Blvd and Flamingo. We can see the Flamingo and Barbary Coast directly across the street. We can plainly see Caesars Palace, The Mirage, Rio, Paris and the gorgeous Nevada mountain backdrop.
We neglected to eat dinner and the 6 oz. of peanuts provided by the airline wasn’t going to tide us over until morning.
Elise and I set out to find an early morning dinner. We walked past the Flamingo and across the strip to Caesars Palace. The casino and nightclubs were hopping, but no grub. We were hungry, exhausted and cranky. We decided to walk back to Bally’s to try dinner at the little sandwich shop we passed on the way out.
One thing that has change since I was last in Vegas over a decade ago. The thugs. There are teams of black male pick pockets that work individually and have their check points where they stop for a moment to eye prey. It’s obvious, annoying and scary. One got up so close behind me that he stepped on my flip flop. I turned around, eyed him and he said, with a shoulder shrug and a cigarette dangling from his lips, “‘sup?”
I ignored him and moved my wallet to my front pocket.
So we finally made our way back to the casino floor of Bally’s and had dinner at Nosh. I had The Highroller, a six inch roast beef sandwich with grilled onions and horseradish sauce. Elise had the pastrami. Both sandwiches were pre-portioned and would have otherwise been sent back had it not been 3 a.m. our time and hungry enough to eat cigarette butts. The grilled onions on The Highroller tasted like soap and the bread on both of our sandwiches left us with sore gums when we woke up this morning.
I woke up with the sun this morning. I showered, shaved, strapped the iBook to my back and headed out. I took the elevator down to the casino, turned around, went back up to our room and put on my clothes.
I went back down to the casino and found the Business Center in the tunnel between Paris and Bally’s. The placard on the wall read, “Internet access: Up to 5 minutes for $5”. I walked up to the desk and asked, “Are there any wireless access points in the hotel?”
“No, there are no wireless access points on the Strip?”
“Why?”
“Because they want you in the casinos, not on the Internet.”
“Ahhh… Is there a freestanding Starbucks anywhere near?”
“There’ s one a mile east of here, but I don’t think they have wireless.”
I said thank you and made my way back to our room.
I spent a minute or so seeing if I could setup some sort of dial-up account on my iBook. Couldn’t. I thumbed through the Yellow Pages for an ISP. I decided that my getting online would either 1) take all day if I wanted to try to setup a dial-up account or 2) cost an arm and a leg at $1/minute. I then opted to go unconnected for the majority of our trip.
I called the office and let the girls know that they’ll need to handle most of my e-mail & web-based affairs.
It was recently noted that Austin is the most wired city. I guess I’ve gotten used to that.
[Update: Elise and I walked over to Paris to check in at the convention. We talked with a couple reps from AmerisourceBergen and were informed that there should be a CAT5 cable hidden in our room. We came back to the room and I found said cable]