Day 15 Tuesday April 8, 2003
Got up around 11am this morning and dreaded the day. Today is my last day in town. I always have a miserable last day. Not just because vacation is over but because I know that 12 hours from now I have to sit on the plane for 5 hours to get home.
I started packing up some of my stuff and then headed out. I went to the strip to spend some of my last day down there. My first stop was the Sahara. I usually get a fun book here and play VP but I wasn’t really in the mood. Instead I just jumped onto the craps game and instantly lost $40 only getting paid on 2 numbers the whole time.
From here I went over to the Riviera. The craps game was dead so I went across the street and played over at Slots-a-Fun for a while. This table was a much better than the game at the Sahara. I was placing the inside numbers here and betting the pass line. I had a great roll and hit a few points and some numbers and a shooter on the other side of the table did too. I walked out of here with about a $40 profit and then went back over to the Riviera.
I got onto the game here and started with placing the inside numbers but everyone was going out too fast so I changed to come bets instead. This didn’t work much better but I lasted a little longer. I eventually quit after dropping $140.
When I left the Riviera I didn’t know where to go but for something different I decided to go out to Jean and hit Nevada Landing and Gold Strike. I’ve never been in either one of these places before so I thought it would be a good change of pace. These places are about 25 miles south of the strip on I-15. They are owned by Mandalay Resort Group and have cheap written all over them.
My first stop was Nevada Landing. I got onto the craps game. It’s a $2 game but only with double odds. This is a break in place for MRG and the dealers are super slow. This is good for saving money if the table is cold but makes the game pretty boring. This combined with some asshole that was buying all of the numbers and adding a $1 or 2 each roll until one hit or he had a feeling. Then he’d take everything down for a roll or two and then do it all over again. I think he was a scam artist that was just trying to confuse the hell out of a few new dealers. To make things worse they run this game without a box man so there is no one there to help things move along. I got bored playing on this game and quit with about a $20 win.
I was hungry now and unfortunately I was in Nevada Landing. I used the coupon from the POV for a free buffet. This buffet is really a joke. It had a soup and salad bar and about 6 hot foods to choose from. The foods weren’t that bad but were pretty bland other than the use of peppers in everything they offered. I hate peppers! There were even peppers in the macaroni and cheese. The desserts were weak with 3 or 4 types of cake and pastries. They had some napoleons that had absolutely no taste at all. Even the self serve ice cream was tasteless. I guess for free it wasn’t bad and it filled the void. This buffet definitely isn’t worth the trip from Las Vegas but if you’re in the area and hungry and aren’t expecting much it’ll do. Of all of the people that were coming in I didn’t see one of them pay. Everyone had some sort of coupon to eat for free. The funny thing is they don’t even ring up on the register if it’s free. Instead they use a note pad to write ok on to give to the server. The scary thing is if you don’t have a coupon for this buffet they charge $8.03 for this meal.
After the fine dining experience I went over to the other side of the 15 and checked out the Gold Strike. If you closed your eyes and didn’t know you drove across the street you wouldn’t know the difference between the 2 places. They are almost identical in look and cheapness! I got on the craps game here and once again there was a dark side player at the far end. He was betting $25 on the line and taking full odds (2X). I took great pride in wiping his ass out rolling 2 7’s and an 11 on the come out. I followed these by making 3 points. He ran away broke and another guy walked up. He made a lay bet on the 5. This means he’s betting I’ll 7 out before the 5 rolls. Well just his luck my next roll was a 5! That was $20 down the drain for him. He ran away and I finally went out. I left here with about $30 in profit and headed back to Henderson to finish packing up and to get ready to leave.
After I got packed up I loaded the car and had a quick snack before I left the Fiesta. I didn’t realize it but it was way too early to head to the airport. After I gassed up the car I took a final drive down the strip and stopped off at the Hard Rock for one last session of craps. They had just opened a new $5 game so I got on this table. Things were up and down here and after the one hour I had to play I left with a $100 win. Not a bad way to end the trip.
From the Hard Rock I went back up to the strip and then up to Sunset road to drop off the car at Alamo. There was no wait and the shuttle bus was waiting to go. In a few minutes I was at the airport. There was no line at check in and in just a few minutes I was checked in and ready to go. After dropping my suitcases off at the x-ray station it was up the escalator to the security check point. As I expected my bag full of chips cause havoc and had to be hand inspected. Just a few minutes later I was in the terminal.
The plane boarded and what did I see in the seat on the aisle. It was a mother with a new born. I heard her tell someone else that she was 5 weeks old. Ugh! All I could think of was how this little baby was going to scream and cry for the next 5 hours.
We left pretty much on time. The flight is going to be 4 hours and 44 minutes. On America West there is of course no meal so I stopped off at Burger King and got some of priced crap to eat on the way home. They did hand out energy bars again and of course a can of soda.
The movie on tonight’s flight is 2 Weeks Notice with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. This movie bored me to sleep. I only slept for about 20 minutes but thankfully when I woke up it was almost over. The rest of the flight was uneventful and we landed in Newark at 8:05am to a temperature of 33 degrees. Yes, that’s 33 degrees. With rain and light sleet mixed in. What a way to be greeted.
When we were getting off the plane I realized that the little baby slept through the whole flight. She didn’t make a sound. I was actually amazed by this!
After getting off the plane I was expecting a long wait at baggage claim but to my surprise just a few minutes after I got there the bags were coming out already. My bags actually came out together and I saw my larger bag had blue zip ties on it. I later found out they had searched my larger suitcase but they didn’t look in my smaller one. Shortly after I my bags arrived was on my way to the tram and to Avis.
I had reserved a luxury car to get back to my house with. Normally I would only rent a mid sized to get home but the Cadillac was the same price. I’ve seen this happen before when I made reservation to get home from Newark. I’m not sure if it’s a mistake or a sale. If only I could get a deal like this for the 2 weeks I’m out in Las Vegas! After getting an agent that was dumber than a rock I was on my way about 15 minutes later. I don’t know why I always get the dumb ones. They agent next to her was able to move 4 people out the door in the time it took me to get out of there. I had a 2003 Cadillac Deville with 16,000 miles on it. The ride home was uneventful and I pulled into the driveway with the feeling that I had never even left. As I was unloading the car I realized I hadn’t checked out of the Fiesta Henderson and I was still technically a registered guest there for about 4 more hours. I thought this was neat considering I was 2500 miles away with my trip officially over.
Total win/loss for the day $100
Total comps for the day $47
Total out of pocket expenses $5
Final Thoughts