(This reporter's latest encounter with the Belly
of the Beast - Las Vegas, 7-9 Oct. 2000)
10 Oct.
Another weekend, another manic
trip. Would have made the above tour a 3-day affair, but my personal
holiday was already spoken for here. A friend from Ohio came to town,
but only as a brief stopover on the way to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles,
San Diego, and assorted other points. I went along on the Vega$ adventure,
as I thought it would help to tackle it with someone who knew and respected
it better than I did (or would want to, ha).
George was flying into Ontario
airport, and I met him there, taking the opportunity to check out the layout
in case I ever needed to use it in the future. George’s trip did
not start out well, thanks to one of his original flights being cancelled,
then having to wait an extra hour for his rental car as previous customers
were taking their time bringing them back in. This despite the typical
extra charges for bringing a car back late…George’s 10% added discount
for his trouble came out of some other customer’s hide, not from Budget.
After a quick stop at a mutual friend’s in Riverside, we were finally on
the road just past 3pm. Quick stop for lunch at the Victorville Baker’s
(Riverside-San Bernardino’s local burger and taco chain), the non-stop
to reach Las Vegas just past sunset.
This would be my first hotel-casino
stay, this at George’s “usual” spot the Fiesta in North Las Vegas.
Tis much quieter away from the Strip, and this area northwest of town is
still undeveloped enough to still have a drive-in movieplex. FM reception
was crummy, for reasons unknown until I hit some frequencies with what
sounded like movie dialogue…yep, was picking up the drive-in audio, in
reasonably clean stereo. Reception of the real stations was much
better in the daytime.
Was pleasantly surprised by
the radio in Las Vegas, especially considering how the commercial action
is dominated by the mega-chains. 1140 actually throws in the occasional
oldie I’d either never heard before or not in years, 93.1 has some worthy
specialty oldies programs (including a syndicated doo-wop show), 97.1 has
a good Sunday jazz show (even if it’s jolting to come out of that with
a typical classic rot burnout), and only two of the 4 local non-commercial
stations are plugged into a network.
Being late and after a late
lunch, dinner was simple, just a standard Double-Double combo at the In
& Out Burger out on what some locals call “I-95” (US 95 to you and
me, ha!). We then drove down to the traffic jam that is the Strip
(another “But I go on vacation to get AWAY from…” moment), soon deciding
we’d best come back early on Sunday for any photo ops.
After said photo session,
we headed back northwest for a film and tape run to Wal-Mart, then lunch
in the same Kenny Rogers’ Roaster I used on my brief 1993 visit.
A sure sign the metro area has grown…in ’93 this was a ½-mile beyond
the furthest reach of the Citizen’s Area Transit, but today several routes
go far to the north and west of there. CAT has also gone the route
of many southern Cal transit districts on two counts, putting all their
schedules in one book, with a too-small map in the book instead of a larger
separate one.
George bounced around the
northwest side a bit more, for more casino pictures, then we headed for
the Red Rocks State Park west of town. One of the maps noted a “vista
point”, which we guessed was for a good view of Las Vegas, but no there
was a hill in the way to the east…the vista was for the red hills for which
the park is named.
Our next mini-adventure was
down to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, southeast of Vegas on the watery border
with Arizona. Security was a bitch at the dam, with restrictions
on where to walk (without paying a fee anyway) and on what one can carry
things in (you’d think you couldn’t fit enough explosives in a fanny-pack
to bring down a dam, but what do I know?) We then rushed back up
to the Strip to get there while it was still daylight.
Some folks may be confused
a bit…when they think “Strip”, they really picture the Fremont St. casino
lights cluster downtown. While impressive in its own right, for years
it has been no match for the stretch of Las Vegas Blvd. South which (not
coincidentally) does not begin until just south of the Las Vegas city limits.
Folks familiar with the Rat Pack-era Strip will also be surprised and/or
disappointed, as the Sands and Thunderbird have since Blowed Up Real Good,
the started-it-all Flamingo is hidden from view, and the Aladdin is getting
a serious face-lift. The Strip may have already been blown all out
of proportion by the late 1950s (inspiring a wonderfully funny if in turn
overblown record by Stan Freberg), but 50s Vegas is no match for the mega-casinos
today. What is it, something like 7 or 8 of the world’s largest hotels,
all within about a 45-minute walk or 10-to-75-minute drive?
Of course, for weirdo me,
two of the 3 stops I wanted to make most that evening had no direct connection
to a hotel or a casino. #1 was the “World of M&Ms” store.
Another member of APA Centauri had mentioned it a few mailings back.
Even at $8 a pound, the 21 different colors of M&Ms (in plain or peanut…but
NO TAN!?!?!) were worthy of purchase, as was a neat dispenser (though from
this angle it looks eerily like the head of Tom Servo!). The “Everything
Coca-Cola” store next door was a waste…apparently at one time it was more
like the “World of Coca-Cola” in Atlanta, complete with the “Drinks of
the World” room upstairs with about 30 flavors they sell in other countries.
Guess an all-you-can-drink place was TOO popular during the scorcher Lost
Wages summers? These two stores were conveniently next to the MGM
Grand, where we parked for the first of our two walk-and-ride loop tours
of the major Strip action. It was a serious walk from the car to
the street, through a large touristy mall and then not one but two huge
casino rooms. Yeek, one can spend and/or lose all their money without
ever having to venture outside, ha!
On up the street, past some
trashy tourist trinket shops, at least one hotel in the midst of serious
renovation (the Aladdin?), then into the new Paris casino. The outside
façade looked nominally authentic, especially in comparison to the
plain (yet vaguely cartoonish) rendering of midtown Manhattan at the New
York New York casino across the way. The inside mall/casino combo,
well in thinking about it now, the designs could have been lifted directly
from the background of a Pepe LePew cartoon. The half-scale “Eiffel
Tour” was fun, especially the ride to the top at sunset. Will be
surprised if most of my photos turn out.
We then went “next door” to
the Bally’s casino, where George got a rundown of the day’s football action
at the sports book, and eventually we got to the back of the building for
the monorail back down to MGM. This is one of the several conveyances now
running between Strip casinos. Another monorail was noted around
the Luxor pyramid. Supposedly there will eventually be a monorail
network, though it’s only slowly growing as it is a private endeavor (guess
too many taxpayers remember a certain Simpsons episode, ha!)
Strip loop 2 started at the
Treasure Island parking lot. We got there way too early for their
Navy vs. Pirates lagoon battle, but just as well since all the good view
spots would be gone long before showtime. Once again, the pirates
won the battle in the Treasure Island lagoon…I smell fix, especially as
it was not up on the board at their sports book, ha!
The Mirage volcano display
next door was larger, and goes off more often, than it did in 1993.
One of the Siegfried und Roy white tigers was napping in a much-too-clean
enclosure just inside the Mirage front door, which we walked through to
reach the cable car that runs from this hotel back to the Treasure Island.
Our casino buffet of choice was the Circus Circus, which I gather caters
to the budget-minded and/or stuff-one’s-face-regardless-of-food-quality
crowds? Next time through town, I plan to invest in one of the better
buffets (such as the Rio or the Fiesta), or just stick with one of the
area’s Furr’s Cafeterias or soup&salad bars. From there, it was
a quick shot up to the downtown Las Vegas “Glitter Gulch” casino area,
where I got to see what they did to the formerly scenic Fremont Street.
On the one hand, I enjoyed the look of the old street, much more intimate
than the wide, sprawled Strip south of the city limits. On the other
hand, the light-show canopy now covering the street has become a major
tourist attraction all its own, so the foot traffic is much busier than
it was in 1993. Especially at the top of every hour when they roll
out a light and music show. I don’t know how many different “Fremont
St. Experience” shows there are, but one I saw from a distance was Star
Wars-ish, while the one we saw/heard up close had a country & western
theme, quite entertaining actually.
Monday, well it being a business
day with George, you guessed it…radio stations! Perhaps the only
benefit of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was to minimize the number
of stops one needs to make to get to most of the major stations.
One group was in three suites in the same Motel 6-style business building,
and another (Clear Channel) group was squeezed into a former branch bank
(the “10 Minute Listener Parking” signs near the front were more appropriate
than they would want to know, ha).
Was refreshingly cool Monday
afternoon (George grumbled, but the Souper Salad clerk and I welcomed the
break from the summer heat) for the drive back, though we did have some
rain to contend with in the desert between Baker (“only” 91° this time,
vs. the 113 in July) and Barstow. Dinner stop was at the Del Taco
near Ontario Mills Mall.
Oh yeah, I played maybe only
50¢ in nickels all told. Nope, not a big casino fan. It
takes a rare combination of timing, mood and a spare $5 bill for me to
even play a big-jackpot lotto. (The odds are tougher in California
anyway, almost guaranteeing frequent 8-digit payouts).