Day 2
Saturday December 16, 2000
The Flight

Well 4am sure did roll around in a hurry. Normally I have to drag my ass out of bed for work at this hour of the morning. Not so today. Las Vegas awaits!

I left the house at about 5am. I had a 7:50 flight on Continental out of Newark. This flight was actually an America West flight that was a code share with Continental. My price for the round trip ticket back in September was $279. Not a great price but not too bad either. It was originally scheduled for 7:15 but there was a change. I got to Avis and returning the car was a breeze. The girl that did my return had my receipt in my hand before I was even out of the car. She didn't even bother to look and see if I filled the gas tank or not. Damn, if I only knew!

The monorail system was down so shuttle buses were running to take people to the terminals. While I was waiting for the bus some guy had to tell me how many parking spaces they took away when they built the monorail. He also had to tell me about how many spaces they lost when they built the hotel in the center of the airport. Now I had no problem with this. He was just trying to be friendly. But, he seemed it was necessary to tell every person that walked near him. What a PIA.

I got to the Continental counter and there was only 1 person in front of me. This shocked me. I got right up to the counter, was going through the normal procedures and the guy even has my boarding pass made up. Then he said, "you didn't pay for this ticket yet." I said, "sure I did". I bought it on the Internet. Then showed him my receipt. He then said I had to go to ticketing to fix it.

While I waited in ticketing an agent came over to help me. She checked my ticket and said she didn't know why he said that. She then sent me to the e-ticket check in. While I was here there were more problems. The computer was showing that I already checked in. Finally, that got all fixed and I was on my way to the gate.

When I got to the metal detectors there, as always was an ass wipe that had no clue. Usually it's the jerk off with a carry on that a family of 4 could live in. Today was different though. Today some dope decided she was going to take her carry on through the metal detector instead of putting it on the x-ray belt. Security swarmed her and she realized what she did. It was inadvertent, but still not too bright.

When I got to the gate boarding had already begun. They board 45 minutes early now instead of 25. I sat in the waiting area for a while I then tried to board. Again, there seemed to be a problem with my ticket. The lady at the gate had to run over to the lady at the desk to verify my ticket again. I was finally allowed to board the plane after standing there for 5 minutes. The gate agent apologized. It was actually the first apology I got all morning, even after 4 screw-ups on their part.

When I got to my row, there was an exit row behind me that was empty. I was eyeing up that extra space. The flight seemed to be only about 40% full so I thought there would be a great chance to move back to the empty seats. As luck would have it as soon as they closed the door to the plane I moved. I expected a mad dash for the seats but there wasn't. I grabbed the window seat and no one else moved. I've got the whole exit row to myself as I type this report.

It was now time to leave but we weren't going anywhere. The captain came on the PA and said they were waiting for more luggage. Another 10 minutes went by and he came on again. He announced the luggage was all loaded but now they were looking for a push bar so that we could push back. He didn't know how long it would take to locate one but he assured us we'd still arrive on time in Las Vegas. Now tell me this. How the eff can it be that they don't have a push bar and don't know where to locate one at a busy international airport? Well they finally got one about 10 minutes later and we were on our way. Take off went smooth and we were in the air on our way. This flight is on a Boeing 757-200. It has a capacity of 183 and cruises at 540 miles per hour. It has 6 seats in each row. There are 3 seats on each side of the aisle. It looks like a fairly new plane. It not all worn and seems rather clean.

After we reached our cruising altitude they tried to rent headsets for the movie. Today's movie is Woman on Top. I wasn't interested in it and don't really know what it is about.

After the movie started they served breakfast. Today's breakfast was a cold meal consisting of an apple/cinnamon muffin, a tiny bowl of Multi-Grain Cheerios and a banana. Good thing I wasn't counting on them to fill me up as I thought ahead and brought some candy bars with me!

So far the flight seems to be going smooth. We did hit a few bumps a few minutes ago, but now it seems to have smoothed out. As I type this there is a guy a few rows back snoring like crazy. It's really loud. You know everyone on the plane is looking at him and talking about him now! Hopefully the rest of this flight is uneventful and we make it to Las Vegas on time. I'm looking forward to getting back there.

It's now about 1/2 way through the flight and I'm ready for a nap. I slept ok for about 45 minutes and woke up to some more bumps. We were also starting get close to Vegas as I could feel the plane starting to lower. They handed out more beverages now and a snack. 2 small bags of Summer Harvest Pretzels from the King Nut Company.

We arrived in Las Vegas at about 10:30 local time. The temperature was 50 degrees. I was one of the first people off the plane and then headed to baggage. Baggage arrived in a decent amount of time and I was off to the Alamo shuttle. There were 2 of them totally packed and I ended up on the 3rd one. I was expecting a long wait but to my surprise there were only a few people ahead of me. I had reserved a full size car on their website a few months ago. I got a rate of $209 for 12 days. I also had a coupon for 15% off that. There was no hard sell for insurance but the agents use this slick method to try to sucker you into it without really knowing you did it. It goes like this. He'll say ok you have a full size car reserved, would you like any additional insurance or would you like just the basics. That's where the catch is. Just the basics means you want full coverage. I wonder how many people they screw into that scam.

My car was in space C-28. It was a new Buick Century. It only had about 4,000 miles on it. I got to the car, gave it a look over and was on my way. Just minutes later I was on the Strip.

Traffic was pretty light on the strip considering it was a Saturday afternoon. Of course this is the slowest weekend of the year in Las Vegas. I drove past all of the usual sights. It was strange driving past the old El Rancho and seeing it gone. It's about time. It was also a bit strange to see the Desert Inn all fenced in too. Also for those that might be wondering, or are fans of his, the guy in the wheel chair that sits in front of the Imperial Palace was there when I drove by. He's as much a part of Las Vegas as casinos and neon are.

I arrived at Main Street Station where I had reservations for three comped nights. It was a mail offer they sent that also included 2X points. It is a pretty good deal for the low amount of play I have here. Check in was smooth. There was only one person ahead of me. It was some old lady being a big pain in the ass. She was trying to swindle extra drawing tickets of some sort from the one of the clerks. They didn't give in to her though.

I was given room 1113. It has a view of the Plaza, Golden Gate, Las Vegas Club and the California. I can see a small section of the Fremont Street Experience. As I am sitting here typing this report it looks like the Country show is going on. I can see the bulls running! Now it looks like the part where they sing Happy Trails! Too bad I can't hear it! I can also see the north end of the strip from the Stratosphere Tower to the Venetian. I could also see the Rio and the Orleans on the other side of the Plaza.

The room was nice and looked to be refurbished not too long ago. It had 2 queen beds, a small round table and chairs, nightstand, dresser/TV cabinet and a huge gold framed mirror on the wall. The only thing that was wrong was where it looked like some loser was kicking the wall and there were black marks all over the wallpaper. The bathroom is split in 2 parts. The sink was in a small section with a decent sized counter. In the room next to it was the toilet and shower. This room is too small to move in though. Also the lighting was very dim. I fixed the problem a little bit by removing the frosted glass cover from it. It was much brighter like this.

After I got settled in I jumped into bed for a nap. I slept for about an hour and a half before I woke up. While I was deciding on what to do for the evening my friend Anne called. We decided to meet at the Silverton to gamble and eat. We started off playing blackjack. I usually play $25/hand but decided to start out slower today. I didn't want to blow through my bankroll too fast, especially on the first day. Things were pretty good here and I was betting $15/hand. I bumped up to $25 and got up by $100. I decided that was a pretty good win for a $200 buy in. I cashed out. Anne kept playing and finished out up by $350.

Got comped for the All-American Buffet. It was Steak and Brew night. You get a T-bone steak and beer as well as all of the other buffet items. This buffet is average at best. The food quality was pretty good but the selection was lacking. The desserts were poor. They looked kind of industrial or like they were served in an institution like a school cafeteria. The sugar free desserts appeared to be better than the regular ones. I tried a cherry cheesecake square and you wouldn't have known it was sugar free. The service was good. Our server removed plates as soon as we got up. The only problem was when I ordered a 7-up and she brought iced tea. I took the iced tea and she said she'd bring the 7-up next time. She kept my iced tea full but never did bring the 7-up though. We thought it was funny.

After dinner I tried some quarter deuces wild video poker. It started out ok, but then the machine turned into a vacuum and I lost my $50. I moved to $1 video poker. I don't normally play at the dollar level but figured why not. This machine was sucking in the 50's too so, I moved to the bonus poker machine next to it. I was doing ok, getting some play for my money. For the most part staying even. I was getting flushes one after another, but then getting dry spell in between. I couldn't pull a quad though. I did manage to get dealt 10, J, and K of hearts with a pair of 6's though. I dumped the 6's and up popped a royal flush. This was my first royal ever on a dollar machine and a nice $4,000 in my pocket along with, the dreaded W2G. I played the rest of my credits off with no luck and moved to blackjack again. I was again quickly up over $100, but ended up losing it and cashed out even.

Anne has to work tomorrow and I was tired so we decided to call it a night. I headed back to Main Street Station and called it a night.

As I am working on this I have the local news on. They just did a story about the vegas.com blimp. It's being removed from the sky. The report said they didn't give comment why other than what they called operational issues.

Total win/loss for the day $3850
Total comps for the day $90