Wednesday, August 29thI woke up the following morning, and went downstairs. We all had a great breakfast at the Cafe in Harrah's and played Keno. We discussed how none of us had really "won" thus far. This was in contrast to a year ago when my mother and her husband won $4000 between the two of them. The vouchers last year were huge. $400, $600, $300, ect ect. This year they were $100 or less. Even my mother's husband, who had struck $500 on Wizard of Oz on Monday, was now down, having played most of the winnings. I still had more money tucked away in my hotel room safe, but I was cautious.
My grandmother was irritating because she still had an un-cashed voucher for $725 from Monday from winning at Harrah's but was acting like she hadn't won a thing! This could get irritating, believe me.
After breakfast, we decided to try our luck a little at Casino Royale next door. Looks can be deceiving, but Casino Royale was actually not that tight. I played Elvis twice and printed out two $80 vouchers, which doesn't seem big, but when you keep losing, winning $60 bucks on a $20 dollar bill is fun.
We grabbed a cheap lunch at Subway (Eat Fresh), and then sashayed over to Flamingo. By this time, I had drank quite a few drinks in the casino even though I did not feel drunk at all. While at Flamingo Margaritaville, I played and lost more on the Elvis slot machine, the same one I had just done well on at Casino Royale. I decided to have some waters and sober up at the bar there in the casino, and a beautiful young woman who was there with her girlfriend sat down next to me and struck up a conversation. I bought her a couple Cosmos, and after talking long enough to find out she wasn't a working girl, I asked if she would like to have dinner with me that night. She accepted and we discovered we both were staying in the same hotel and leaving on the same day.
I went back to my hotel room, turned on some TV and watched a bit of the Republican National Convention while I showered and rested before getting dressed up and heading downstairs. I met my date and we were both starving. We went into the Piano Bar but it was crowded, noisy (which I hate) and they were not serving food. We decided to leave and we ate at a gourmet burger restaurant there at Harrah's where I had a Thanksgiving Dinner Burger, complete with gravy, dressing and cranberry sauce. She had the pulled pork burger. It was all delicious and surprisingly quite affordable.
After dinner, we went outside Harrah's to the Carnival Court and had drinks and watched a band perform. The crowd was very rowdy and festive and I felt a bit more like I was in "Vegas" and not just some Nevada tourist attraction.
We retired back to the hotel shortly after that, both exhausted. I will not disclose exactly what occurred, but needless to say we had a good, slightly risqué time.
Thursday, August 30thI woke up at around 9am to a text message from my mother telling me that her and her husband were both in a cab headed for the medical urgent care because he was violently ill. It turns out it was kidney stones that had plagued him in the past. As my grandmother wandered from the Harrah's casino and to her room and back, I stayed in the casino and played a little Alice and Wonderland while sipping coffee and receiving updates from my mother via texts. After giving him IV fluids and strong painkillers, he was allowed to leave the urgent care with the caveat that he did not drink anymore alcohol on the trip. I went to Flamingo and Margaritaville briefly and lost a tiny bit on the Elvis machine while sipping a Bloody Mary.
We returned to the rooms and decided to grab lunch at Subway again and I lost about $40 on Elvis there at Casino Royale but then won back pretty much all of it once again. Breaking even but not enough to make a significant difference. My mother's husband decided to go rest in his room and my grandmother was going to go do her own thing.
My mom and I headed a little down the strip towards Venetian to go to Madam Tussaud's Wax museum. It was awesome. I got to take pictures with DeNiro, Bush, Obama, and even John Wayne. My mother even got a picture with her charming icon, Bradley Cooper.
Buffy and I
"STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT..."
"I'm telling you, sir...invade Cuba!"
Don't worry Barry, if the red phone rings, I'll pick it up!
"Since Tom Hagan's dead, I'll be here as your new consigliare."
Afterwards, my mother and I played a bit at Venetian again, and I did okay on Lil' Red and Sex and the City. We then returned to the hotel room, and rested a bit.
Later that night, we met downstairs and decided to catch a taxi to take us downtown. This was the old-style Las Vegas. This was the Las Vegas I always pictured and what you saw in older films. We went to the Golden Nugget casino where I won a little bit on Wheel of Fortune, and also had a brief conversation with a woman who was clearly a working girl. She had a stripper name, said she lived in Las Vegas and was in "intimate private gentleman's entertainment". She quickly sensed that I wasn't going to pay a hooker, so she said goodbye. As I was exiting the casino a few minutes later, I heard her telling a guy at the bar the same conversation she told me verbatim. I got a kick outta that. Funny. Hardy har.
My family and I walked outside and watched a Bon Jovi concert on the huge ceiling screen above our heads. It was very cool. We then stepped into the Mermaid casino which looked as authentic as can be, as if it hadn't been cleaned since the late 1980s. They had cups for coins that are dispensed, and even had a payphone! We ate a very cheap and unhealthy meal and then headed to a few more casinos. I ended up losing until I was out of the money I had brought for the night. We then returned to the hotel room while my mother and her husband went to The Mirage and MGM and won some money. I went to my room and fell asleep.
Friday, August 31stI packed up the last morning around 11am, and headed downstairs to Harrah's casino. I grabbed a coffee at Starbucks and had my morning cigarette. While there, I won a small bit on Alice and Wonderland but not much luck. I was down to roughly $120 or so. I then mosied over to the Aladdin slot which I had done minimal on at the Mirage casino on Monday night. I put in a $20 and cashed out a $70 voucher. I ordered a coffee and decided to continue playing. I put in a $100. My last $100. I did a $2 bet (the second highest possible bet) and as my money ticked from $100 to about $80, I hit the bonus feature. I then got the "Clash of the Genies" bonus where you pick random gems and hope to win money and continue the bonus.
I quickly selected gems. $10. $15. $30. $25. I moved on and repeated twice and then had a chance to find the princess, which I did. I cashed out a $250 voucher. I sipped my coffee and stuck in another $20 and ended up cashing out a $150 voucher. Later on, I played a $100 bill again and lost doing high bets...but I just had to try.
We left for the airport 15 minutes later, and it was back off to Ohio. But of course, I had a few hundred dollars more than I had just before leaving, which made me feel a bit better. We flew back through the remnants of Hurricane Isaac, causing a bumpy flight, but a hell of a tailwind. We ended up landing 50 minutes early in Cleveland. By the time we got home it was late Friday night/early Saturday morning...and I began typing this trip report.
My mother and others insisted that when I returned from Las Vegas, I would want to go back immediately. I was skeptical of this at first, but by the third day there, I wish I lived there.
