Vegas 2012 - Part 3: I Took A Walk

Good morning everyone.  Although the temperature is only 36 degrees right now in San Marcos, America, today is the first day of what is going to be a beautiful week in this currently sleepy college town...  The forecast has the mercury rising during the next seven days, and the Bobcats will be returning to the campus of Texas State University as classes resume exactly a week from now.  The return of the Bobcats is great news for me as complete and utter silence annoys me just a bit - you probably realize this if you have stumbled upon this blog anytime during the past month.

You may also realize if you have stumbled upon 'Bikini Hill' during the past month that this series of entries about my recent trip to Las Vegas is going to proceed about as slowly as a t.v. miniseries, or a complete season of a show for that matter...  It is now the morning of Wednesday, December 19th, my first time waking up at The Quad after my adventurous trip from San Marcos to San Francisco to Las Vegas the previous day.  After cleaning up, I started walking, and walking, and walking..., AND WALKING...  And yes, I was wearing a pair of my new sweatpants, and no, I did not get mugged...  ;)  For those of you who have had the misfortune of spending any length of time with me in the last few years, you are likely well aware of my habit of manipulating three poker chips in my hand, CONSTANTLY, to the point that I actually wear down the clay on these casino chips.  Well, I returned to the desert with a bag FULL of these worn chips, and now it was time to do some sightseeing.  Leaving The Quad, which is across the street from Caesars Palace, and in-between the Flamingo and The Mirage if that helps you out, I embarked on my journey north up the Strip.  I stopped at every casino on my side of the Strip where I needed to cash in some of these older chips, all the way down to and including The Riviera.  The Riviera is where I used to deal poker just over five years ago, and upon finding the poker room, I was greeted with signs on the poker tables which read, "The Riviera Poker Room will be closed from December 19th - December 26th."  Hmmph...  So much for seeing my old friends...  This is now about five hours after I woke up and I'm ready to eat lunch.

My plan all along had been to eat lunch at The Riv with the comp dollars that I had earned during August.  At this point let me emphasize that my old workplace was very slow on this December afternoon.  I only say that to say that I had to go to a pit boss, who then sent me to the VIP Services at the back of the hotel, who proceeded to send me to Guest Services, who then TRIED to send me BACK to the VIP Services area to receive my comp.  So, about 30 minutes after I began, I procured my $13.00 and ate some Banana Leaf (Asian food) for lunch.  After lunch I trekked across the street behind The Riv to the LVH (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton - and no, LVH is not an abbreviation for Las Vegas Hilton)...  :)  I cashed a parlay ticket from August and returned to the Riv.  I had given up hope on seeing anyone that I knew because business was so slow, and as I headed for the front doors facing the Strip, I ran into my favorite cocktail waitress.  I worked the graveyard shift when I dealt poker, and Maly would usually work 3 of the 5 shifts that I did during the week.  Eventually the two of us managed to get the same one-hour break so that we could eat our meals together in the Employee Dining Room (most, if not all Las Vegas casinos feed their employees once per shift), and more importantly, me and my poker-dealing buddies got Maly into football betting.  Unfortunately, she started cashing in more winning parlay tickets than we did (I'm just kidding - not about Maly winning more, but none of us harbored any ill will)...  :)  I enjoyed about an hour chatting with Maly between her trips around her section of the casino, and then I headed south down the Strip.

I crossed the street and ventured all the way down to The Excalibur.  For those of you familiar with Las Vegas, I did A LOT OF WALKING cashing in my old poker chips.  I started this "walk" sometime shortly after noon, and now it was dark.  As I made my way back toward The Quad, I got as far as The Flamingo.  At this point I decided to see how many comp dollars I had built up there during August.  When I found out that the total was just over $17.00, I made my way to the buffet.  After paying $8.64 out of pocket, I found 2 slices of prime rib (hey, the person in line in front of me got 2 slices before I did), then I LOADED the rest of my plate with cold cocktail shrimp, and I SCARFED DOWN food for the better part of an hour.  Yes, there were more trips to the buffet, but we won't concern ourselves with that...  After managing the short walk back the The Quad, I rolled into bed (yes, literally and figuratively speaking), and that was pretty much the end of my first full day back in the desert...

When we get to the fourth installment of this spellbinding miniseries, I PROMISE that there will be some sort of gambling covered in my writing...  :)  I hope that all of you have a great day and I will see you again tomorrow, when I will be lamenting the football bets that I made during this trip - DO NOT miss tomorrow's entry if you enjoy trainwrecks...  Have a good one!