Day 1
Tuesday March 20, 2007

I had the rental car loaded up last night and ready to make the trip to Newark. As I’ve done many times in the past I rented a car locally at Stewart-Newburgh from Avis. I reserved a full size and was given a brand new Ford Fusion with only 1800 miles on it. Thanks to my buddy I got this at a great rate of $42 which is quite a savings since rates from here have nearly doubled over the last year.

I pulled out of the driveway at about 4:45am. I really hate getting up this early but it’s worth it. The ride to was pretty uneventful since there isn’t much happening at this hour. I gassed up at my usual station just outside the Meadowlands and continued on to Newark.

Returning the car was a bit of a pain in the ass because they didn’t have a lot attendant and I had to go inside to make the return. Luckily there were no issues. In just a few minutes I was on the monorail on my way to terminal c and my flight on Continental.

Check in was a little slow but things went smoothly. In a few minutes I was on my way to security. Things here went ok. Things would of course go much better if people would give up with their carry on luggage, especially those giant suitcases. People, CHECK YOUR BAGS! Security is getting to be a real pain in the ass these days between the ignorant employees and the passengers that think they are exempt from the rules. Some of the stuff required anymore is a waste and does nothing but provide a false sense of security.

I booked this ticket back on January 2nd and got a great fare of $258 plus tax. That’s about as good as it gets these days from the East Coast. Today I’m on flight 768 and it’s supposed to leave at 7:30am and arrive in Las Vegas at 10:15am.

The flight was very smooth and the seat belt sign was off for most of the flight. Today’s movie was Casino Royale the latest James Bond film. I thought it sucked like I usually think about all of the Bond movies.

For our meal we got a light breakfast consisting of a bowl of Cheerios, banana, and a small muffin. It’s not a lot but it is nice to get a meal on a flight since most airlines have eliminated food.

We actually arrived in Vegas at 10:10am. I made my way to baggage claim in about 15 minutes my stuff was out and I was on my way to the Avis shuttle. I got a great rate of $125 for the week and I used an e-coupon for $30 off a weekly rental and got a full sized car for just $95 for the week. I think this is the cheapest rate I’ve ever had. I was given a Nissan Altima with only 2000 miles on it. After a quick look over it was covered with scratches right down to the metal. I had the booth attendant fill out a damage report. Apparently the car wash causes this. It’s a real shame that a car with 2000 miles on it was already destroyed.

My first stop after getting the car was off to Terrible’s to play on the gas card promo. For every 1000 points earned you get a $5 gas card, up to 3, and you get to keep the points. I played $1 8/5 bonus. This machine was pretty good and I was getting full houses quite often. I eventually hit a few quads to get the meter up there. After I hit my 3000 points to max out on the promo I cashed out with a $400 win. After a long wait in the slot club I got my gas cards and then hit the buffet for lunch. This buffet pretty much sucks but they are running a ½ point special on it so for 350 points it’s a decent deal. That works out to like 35c worth of comps. When I was done with lunch I hit their gift shop for some snacks and sodas for the room and used points for this too. All in all it was a good day at Terrible’s to start the trip. This is how promos are supposed to work!!

Now I was on my way to the Hard Rock where I’ll actually be parking my ass for the whole trip, other then for a night downtown at Main Street Station. I’m actually looking forward to not moving 3-4 times this trip. I checked in at the VIP room but my room wasn’t ready yet. They told m to check back in about an hour. For the next hour I just wandered around and went out to the car and listened to the radio. An hour later my room was ready.

I was given room 1136 with a pool view in the older portion of the tower. All the rooms here are pretty much the same with exception of the bathrooms. In the older tower the bathroom is split into 2 rooms and in the newer tower it’s all 1 room. Other than that the room has a king bed with 2 nightstands, work desk, dresser, and plasma TV, coffee table and chair.

One I got settled into the room I took a short break but really couldn’t seem to sleep. I decided to hit the casino and play some craps but the one table that was open was packed. Instead I took a ride out to the Pinball Hall of Fame. As always I had a good time here and spend little money!

I got back to the Hard Rock and they had opened up more tables so I got into the game. They fixed my credit line since last visit so I was able to draw a marker to start off with. This table started off hot and I was ahead a few bucks right off the start. Unfortunately things went down hill from here. It seemed like every shooter was going number, number out. This was killing me since I was making come bets. Few pay offs and lots of chips getting scooped off of the table makes for an awful time at a craps table!

I switched tables and things were just as bad at the second table as they were at the first. There were very few numbers hitting and lots of chips being scooped up off the table. Dealer Ron said he couldn’t believe how bad it was and it’s been a while since he saw a table like this. Great timing on my part I guess. After a few hours I quit after dropping 3k and taking the worst loss out here in Las Vegas I’ve had in over a year.

It was now about 4am and I was hungry so I hit Mr. Lucky’s 24/7 and got an order of $3000 chicken fingers. You know, they just don’t taste as good as the regular ones!

I finally got to bed at about 5am and put an end to a really rotten day here at the Hard Rock. I just hope the rest of the trip levels out a little bit!

Total win/loss for the day -$2600
Total comps for the day $197