It’s Not You, It’s Me
Las Vegas seems to be bringing some of the grouchiness out in both of us today. It has been a fun day so far but I think all the walking without purpose in the heat is getting to both of us. Currently writing this sitting in the Hash House a Go Go waiting on a PBR, for it was less expensive than the iced tea. Their menu states everything is made from scratch to order, hope they aren’t waiting to brew this freakin’ beer! The only plus to the beer is it’s what I imagine my older relatives may have drank if they had or when they did come to Vegas, bar a vintage scotch or something a bit more high brow. It may be a bit of an idealogical thought, but it makes me feel a bit better if nothing else.
After an awful tasty BLT and Chicken and Waffles we went upstairs to the Auto Collection at the Imperial Palace. It is a must see for the auto enthusiast. Although it is not as impressive as the Barber Museum it is still definitely worthwhile! There are some racing automobiles here as well as a plethora of Rollers. The kicker, they’re all for sale, dunno how much haggling one could expect, but I’m pretty sure $100k for a Ferarri 308 leaves a ton of room… Haha…. The rest might be an ,“if you have to ask” situation, however, I’m not by any means an expert car appraiser, I’d say only a few looked like there were not well padded. I’d say it was good for me, I did see the XJ 220 for the first time in person. Probably the funniest part of the whole experience was the fact that past the Rolls Royce Phantom Concept Car, the Group B Rally Cars, the Jaguar 120 (?) Roadster, and the Porsche 550 Spyder Replica Misty picked out the Teal and White Restored Nash Metropolitan for her “cutest” car there prize. Let’s just say I don’t think she’ll be handing out blue ribbons at the Concours D'Elegance anytime soon.
Ok, let me just say this, the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef is pretty cool, but it is exactly that, a shark reef. Do not expect any coral, I did a little extrapolating with the name and figured there would be some there, however, there was not.
Next on my list of things to inform the general pubic about are the guys with the call girl cards. Way to get creative with your marketing! Why don’t you try something more attractive than a dirty looking guy handing out business cards with smut on them? I tell you what, if you want to get your message out, do a custom water bottle label and hand out bottles of water with girls and you number on them, before long you’ll have the kids wanting to go to 866hotcallgirls.com on their way to Disneyland.
One more thing for the evening is that I have found out is that thy even though everyone complains about the drivers in Oklahoma, they’re not that bad, remember this next time you get in a Mexican standoff at a stop sign. The drivers here are worse, but they are committed, they will pull out in front of you and not care as well as cut you off and commit. I have obliged many of these people as they were in the usual soccer mom vehicle that would have probably pulled some monster truck action over the hood of the little Miata had I not stopped. Just an update, the Miata seems to be doing well, I did finally get to take it to get all the bugs off the windshield while Misty was playing slots and it seems to have survived well save for one chip in the hood and one chip in the windshield. No damage from some old guy that should have been in a hoverround that bumped my front fender with his water bottle while he walked across in front of us at an intersection. I guess on second thought, the hoverround would have most likely caused more damage than the water bottle, but put a koozie on that thing or something!
Last thing, still not sure what all the hoopla with Vegas is about. It seems kind of like the Paris Hilton of cities, famous for being famous. There’s lots of lights, a little action, but it seems to me that nothing important happens save for falling real estate values and destinations for conventions. I really want to like this city like everyone else and it has grown on me a little, but I’m still not totally convinced that it’s all that great. I’m sure that it would be a lot of fun to be in construction here as the materials seem they use are pretty neAt and he architecture is pretty wild, but as far as a destination, i don’t know that it will be on my top ten in the near future. I was under the impression that a Vegas vacation would be relatively inexpensive, however, I think the only cheap things here are the hotel rooms and the gas. I really do hate to be a bit of a miser on vacation as I’d say it’s totally out of character for me, however, $50 for what Misty and I could have gotten at Chili’s for $19 is fleecing, plain and simple. I guess I’m just not catching the value, or my expectaions of Las Vegas were way to high. I’ve hard Cuba and it’s tourist district are very nice though, maybe we’ll try this next? I do understand that all the cool free things like the fountains at the Bellagio and the Chihuly glass in the entryway, etc aren’t free to the casino owners, but I’d think the one armed bandits have plenty of margin. I really do hate to even complain, if they’re selling it, it’s properly valued in my opinion most of the time, but some things here seem a bit ridiculous. I’ll leave it at this, I would definitely not have all the caveats to my complaining of the pricing in Las Vegas if I were just cheap in general.
Leaving Las Vegas is now the name of an song and what we will be doing in the morning! To Los Angeles we go!
PS. At the very least, I can say I gambled a bit here, $20 down @ the roulette table and I think I’ve had enough of that, just can’t dig the here’s my money, take it if you’d like thing. I’d be much more happy if we could switch spots.
PSS. If the chronology of this post seems a little odd, I wrote it throughout the day while waiting, watching, and sitting, so it’s a bit of a hodge podge.
