Win some, lose most
So here's been the Vegas trip thus far:
I nearly had a heart attack at BWI because when I did the e-check in, I got a nice message which said, "There are no more seats for this flight." Nothing obvious that indicated my seat was confirmed, despite booking it a little over two weeks earlier, just that there were no seats left. Still, it printed off the ticket, so I figured, "That has to be good news."
At the gate, I went up to redeem my little e-ticket for an actual ticket, and I got a curious look from the attendant at the desk. She pondered for a moment and said, "Well, we'll call you up once seating begins."
Seating began, and I wasn't called up. I went up to the desk again and asked rather pointedly, "Am I on this flight or not?"
The attendant shuffled through some papers, and lo and behold, there was my official ticket.
It was a straight flight into Phoenix; and after seeing Fletcher's apartment, we went on a four hour drive to Vegas.
Which became an eight hour drive.
Fletcher's GPS decided that the shortest way to get to Vegas from Phoenix was to first go through Flagstaff. Let me save you the trip to Google Earth/Maps and assure you that going to Flagstaff first is NOT the shortest route. Not even close.
So that was +2 hours.
Then there was the Hoover Dam. First of all, the area around the dam is fuck ugly -- there are high voltage towers strewn about the hilltops, and Lake Meade's water table is incredibly low. Second, there was traffic EVERYWHERE as everybody and their mothers wanted to look at the dam, even though you couldn't see much of the dam itself from the road. Finally, even if people were in the mood to hurry the fuck up, there was no shortage of tourists who had paid the $7 to take a walking tour of the dam, and they were criss-crossing the road at every possible place.
So that was +1 hour.
Then we got to Vegas and managed to get turned around, thanks again to the GPS (+20 minutes), and then we got to the gated community where our hosts live. Unfortunately, they had forgotten to let the guards know that we were coming, and so they wouldn't let us in, despite many phone calls and arguing (+20 minutes).
Bear in mind, too, that at this point it was 10 p.m. Eastern, and I had been awake since 3:30 a.m. Eastern -- I was especially cranky.
We were, at this point, both ready to kill SOMEONE, so we just decided to get food. We found a sushi place and struck up small talk with a mother-daughter pair sitting next to us. It turned out that they lived in the same gated community and, appalled by the fact that we couldn't get in, decided to vouch for us and put in a call to the guards.
Around 11 p.m. Eastern, we finally got to our host's house and managed to relax for a bit.
Fletcher and I got in the car one more time to go drive the Strip at night, then turned back around and went to bed.
We woke up late this morning in much better spirits and headed over to the Top of the World restaurant for lunch. It was quite nice.
After that, we went Go Kart racing, then headed over to the Luxor to see the Bodies exhibit (awesome!) and then try our luck at some games.
Okay.
First we did slots, and we did them very briefly. I hate slot machines. They are the most obviously rigged casino game of all -- they won't give massive payouts until the payout is truly massive, and you won't ever get there unless you spend massive amounts of money. However, they are everywhere, so we tried them.
I lost $6, and the first machine ate Fletcher's money (which she recovered some time later). We roamed around a little bit, and decided to split up just so we didn't feel like we were hoovering around each other.
Then I went over to the blackjack table. After a bit of playing, I ended up about $10. I met back up with Fletcher, who wanted to try her hand at the game, and I ended up losing $25.
Then it was on to roulette, which is my favorite game. I sat down with my $85, and in the course of two spins of the wheel managed to lose $30. On the third spin, I had put $10 on 0/00, which turned out to be successful (although my primary bet of $20 on black & even was not), earning me $170. I left the table up $105 from when I walked in, and Fletcher and I decided that $105 would be enough for a good meal.
We went to a Japanese steakhouse at the Tropicana which was QUITE delicious, and also definitely adequate for the $105.
Fletcher wanted to try her hand at roulette, so we went to the Tropicana's floor to see how that would go.
I lost $135, she lost $100.
We went back to our host's place after that.
I nearly had a heart attack at BWI because when I did the e-check in, I got a nice message which said, "There are no more seats for this flight." Nothing obvious that indicated my seat was confirmed, despite booking it a little over two weeks earlier, just that there were no seats left. Still, it printed off the ticket, so I figured, "That has to be good news."
At the gate, I went up to redeem my little e-ticket for an actual ticket, and I got a curious look from the attendant at the desk. She pondered for a moment and said, "Well, we'll call you up once seating begins."
Seating began, and I wasn't called up. I went up to the desk again and asked rather pointedly, "Am I on this flight or not?"
The attendant shuffled through some papers, and lo and behold, there was my official ticket.
It was a straight flight into Phoenix; and after seeing Fletcher's apartment, we went on a four hour drive to Vegas.
Which became an eight hour drive.
Fletcher's GPS decided that the shortest way to get to Vegas from Phoenix was to first go through Flagstaff. Let me save you the trip to Google Earth/Maps and assure you that going to Flagstaff first is NOT the shortest route. Not even close.
So that was +2 hours.
Then there was the Hoover Dam. First of all, the area around the dam is fuck ugly -- there are high voltage towers strewn about the hilltops, and Lake Meade's water table is incredibly low. Second, there was traffic EVERYWHERE as everybody and their mothers wanted to look at the dam, even though you couldn't see much of the dam itself from the road. Finally, even if people were in the mood to hurry the fuck up, there was no shortage of tourists who had paid the $7 to take a walking tour of the dam, and they were criss-crossing the road at every possible place.
So that was +1 hour.
Then we got to Vegas and managed to get turned around, thanks again to the GPS (+20 minutes), and then we got to the gated community where our hosts live. Unfortunately, they had forgotten to let the guards know that we were coming, and so they wouldn't let us in, despite many phone calls and arguing (+20 minutes).
Bear in mind, too, that at this point it was 10 p.m. Eastern, and I had been awake since 3:30 a.m. Eastern -- I was especially cranky.
We were, at this point, both ready to kill SOMEONE, so we just decided to get food. We found a sushi place and struck up small talk with a mother-daughter pair sitting next to us. It turned out that they lived in the same gated community and, appalled by the fact that we couldn't get in, decided to vouch for us and put in a call to the guards.
Around 11 p.m. Eastern, we finally got to our host's house and managed to relax for a bit.
Fletcher and I got in the car one more time to go drive the Strip at night, then turned back around and went to bed.
We woke up late this morning in much better spirits and headed over to the Top of the World restaurant for lunch. It was quite nice.
After that, we went Go Kart racing, then headed over to the Luxor to see the Bodies exhibit (awesome!) and then try our luck at some games.
Okay.
First we did slots, and we did them very briefly. I hate slot machines. They are the most obviously rigged casino game of all -- they won't give massive payouts until the payout is truly massive, and you won't ever get there unless you spend massive amounts of money. However, they are everywhere, so we tried them.
I lost $6, and the first machine ate Fletcher's money (which she recovered some time later). We roamed around a little bit, and decided to split up just so we didn't feel like we were hoovering around each other.
Then I went over to the blackjack table. After a bit of playing, I ended up about $10. I met back up with Fletcher, who wanted to try her hand at the game, and I ended up losing $25.
Then it was on to roulette, which is my favorite game. I sat down with my $85, and in the course of two spins of the wheel managed to lose $30. On the third spin, I had put $10 on 0/00, which turned out to be successful (although my primary bet of $20 on black & even was not), earning me $170. I left the table up $105 from when I walked in, and Fletcher and I decided that $105 would be enough for a good meal.
We went to a Japanese steakhouse at the Tropicana which was QUITE delicious, and also definitely adequate for the $105.
Fletcher wanted to try her hand at roulette, so we went to the Tropicana's floor to see how that would go.
I lost $135, she lost $100.
We went back to our host's place after that.