Day Six...

What a great day. A day of firsts for both myself and Jimmie. More on that later...
We started off our day with a good meal. I haven't had so much bacon and eggs in such a short span of time as since we've been here, but the price is right and it's quite tasty. While we were eating breakfast, this guy kept on getting paged for a seat in the poker room. Each time he got paged, the guy doing it was getting more and more pissed off and you could hear it in his voice. :) After three calls, there was an open seat for anyone at the poker table. Heh. Today was a basically a local exploration day. After breakfast, we walked down towards the Fremont Street Experience so I could get my dollar coins from the casinos down there. We stopped in all of the ones along that stretch, down one side and up the other. Not too many of them stood out though and if you asked me details, I'd be hard pressed to give you any on most of them. There were a few exceptions though...
La Bayou. La Bayou is a tiny little casino tucked in at the end of a much larger one. It looks to be just a single large room with a bar and cashier at the back, but the waitresses were super friendly and always there with a refresh for your drink. It had a Louisiana/Cajun theme to it, which really worked for such a small venue. There was Zaideco (sp?) music playing in the background which was very nice. The hostess of the joint (she had a mic on and was calling out the names of the winners, etc.) came over to us and watched us play on a couple of Jackpot Party machines (Jimmie's first time gambling while in Vegas), but as Jimmie noted, she seemed to be a "cooler". Whenever she came close to us, we couldn't get a break. At the end of it all, I ended up going through quite a few bucks in there. I tried playing that $20 my mom wanted me to play on the machines she wins her money on. Yeah. I won too... if you count giving my $20 bill winning. :) Well, I guess I did win. That was 20 bucks less that would weigh me down as we walked around.
Binion's Horseshoe was another one that stood out. Not so much for the beauty of it ('cause it wasn't), but because that was where the World Series of Poker was being played. We had hoped to find Eric in there, but with how many people were at the tables, it was like looking for a needle in a needle factory. When we were back at the hotel room, I went online and ended up chatting with one of Eric's friends that I had met the last time I came down to Vegas. He mentioned that Eric would most likely be at Sam's Town playing some Deuces Wild poker machines as they paid out something like 100.78%. I know, it's like getting almost a full penny for every buck, but it means a profit if you know how to play poker. We'll see about going there in the next couple of days. He also told me that he heard that Binion's had been shut down by the feds for some tricky business and that Harrah's had taken it over. That would explain why I was only able to get Harrah's dollars out of the machines there.
As we continued our walk, we ended up by the Glitter Gulch. It was no longer a casino, but a bar with topless dancers. Free cover, hey, what a good idea! Beware the two drink minimum. The girl sat us at a table and we ordered our two drinks, Jimmie his two brown cows and me two cranberry juices. These were the most expensive glasses of juice that I've ever paid for. Yes, the cranberry juice was some of the tastiest that I'd had since coming here, but $8.25US a glass was a bit steep. As we were sitting there drinking (slowly) these drinks that must have been made by a master tender of the bar (due to the price), a dancer named Jenna came over and started to talk to us. She said she couldn't decide which one of us was cuter, blah, blah, blah. It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying because her boobies were quite large and threatening to fall out of the bra she was wearing. She asked several times if either of us wanted to go with her into one of the corner booths to "play" for awhile. Hmmm... Play. This is Vegas, that could mean many different things. She eventually moved on to find other prey. A little while later, this gorgeous brunette came over and talk to us. She didn't beat around the bush, she came out and asked if one of us would like a private dance. When I asked what it would entail, she rubbed her boobs all over my face then said, "This, only without my top." Sold! :) We went over to one of the darker corners and we talked for a bit before the next song started so I could get the benefit of a full song. I found out she was from a small town in Alabama. The next song started and it was time to get down to business. Now, let me explain things to those of you that don't know me, and to some of those that do. This is completely uncharacteristic for me and have never done anything like this before. I haven't even been in a strip club since 1988 (except for accidentally seeing those male strippers back in Ontario - but that's another story). Jimmie pointed out that this technically wasn't a strip club, but a club featuring topless dancers - no stripping involved. A minor point, but one I'm going to stick to. :) Back to my lapdance... It was awesome. It was like I had died and had gone to boobie heaven. I'm so glad that I'm near-sighted. Without my glasses everything was still in crystal clear view. Ahhh... To top things off, she smelled really good. I lucked out too. We were there at the beginning of her shift so she hadn't been rubbing up against a ton of other guys before me. Everyone after me though... they have Mark cooties. :P I also lucked out in another way... it was a fairly long song. :) I found out later that her name was Marie. I'd have to give my very first lapdance experience an enthusiastic three thumbs up. We stayed and watched more dancers go up on the center stage and dance around, shaking their money makers. One in particular stood out, a dancer called Nadia. She was a dark-haired Goth chick with glasses and had an awesome tattoo on her belly. Without exception, every single one of the dancers had really nice bums. :) Jimmie went to the washroom while we were there and he was gone for quite a long time. When he came back, he told me that someone had thrown up over all of the urinals and all three stalls in the bathroom. He spent 20 minutes cleaning up a spot where he could go without getting all over himself. We both agreed it was probably the large white guy that had staggered in there about an hour and a half earlier, then spent the next hour in the washroom. We finally left the boobies... uhhh.. dancers, and continued our walk down the road. I didn't want to go - boobies don't come visit me very often in my life - but it was time to move on.
We were able to witness the Fremont street experience again, and it was much better this time. The music was funky and rocking. We perused all the little booths set up under the lights and tried to find souvenirs to buy. We stopped at another casino called Mermaids. Jimmie sat down at another Jackpot Party machine and I went to the john. He ordered a drink and she ended up bringing him two. She looked like she was having fun doing her job too. I like to see that. Seeing as it had been a long time since breakfast, I bought myself a foot-long "Coney Dog" - basically a chili-cheese dog. Tasty. I sat down with Jimmie and threw some more money away. Was it ever hot where we were sitting. For his day of gambling, Jimmie pretty much broke even, what with tipping the waitresses and all. Me. Let's not talk about how I did.
We were planning on coming back to the hotel to freshen up, then go to the Hard Rock Cafe for something to eat. After that, we were going to go back to Mandalay Bay to check out what Inez was wearing tonight. Oh, and to listen to the band. Just as we were going to leave, I looked at the little flyer/advert for the Hard Rock and we found that it closed at 11pm. It being almost midnight, I don't think we could have snuck in. We decided to just go catch Joy Ride. What a good idea.
Even though we've only seen them like 4 times, three of those times we've walked in and they've been doing "Get this party started" by Pink. Odd. There weren't as many good dancers this time around, but there sure were some interesting ones. Jean Claude Van Dancer, who danced like... it's kind of hard to describe. His ass rotated like... a wrecking ball. His girlfriend danced normally and he gyrated around her like a coke-fueled maniac. Then there was Freaky Funky Dancer Man. He liked Jimmie. He spent probably two songs worth of "dancing", doing it just for Jimmie. Staring at him. He was dressed like a reject from clown school and danced like a wind-up toy. He'd walk away and your hopes would soar, then he'd walk back and start it all over again. It wouldn't have been so bad, but he was blocking our view of Inez... uhh.. the band. Speaking of Inez, she looked particularly hot tonight. She had this Moulin Rouge look going for her, with a silver bustier and a short black leather skirt. Her nice long curly brown hair flowed down her back. She looked like a not-so-skanky version of Christina Aguleluuerra (you know who she is - I think there's an I in there somewhere), only with dark hair. When she saw us sit down, she gave a wave. The band seemed to be having a great time up there on stage. When they came back for their last set, this trombone player named Steve joined them. Now, I'm sure everyone has heard songs with a trombone being played well in it. This was not the case tonight. Steve's timing left a lot to be desired. He overpowered a few of the solos and didn't quite take the hints and cues from the rest of the band. He had this obscenely long solo during Guantanamera that made the rest of the band look at him like he was on crack. What was kind of funny was that Carlos the bassist was making a joke about them playing some Latin music and Steve ended up coming back on stage. After that song, The band leader, the congo player, said to Steve as he was leaving the stage again, "Hey Steve, we've got one more song." When Steve turned around and came back up, the congo player bent over and twisted around to control his laughter. Jimmie thinks it looked like he was pantomiming the fact that Steve sounded like he was blowing it out of his ass. Inez dedicated a song (No Doubt - It's My Life) to us, her Canadian friends. That sure was nice. I've never had a song dedicated to me before. Their very last song turned out to be Happy Birthday to a girl (Tara) in the audience. When they started playing, she got up and started to dance all by herself. Hmmm... dance. We saw dancing like this earlier on today at the Glitter Gulch. We're pretty sure that she "works" for a living as she put on quite a show. In fact, I've never heard Happy Birthday go on that long. The band was quite in to it, especially Carlos. The lead guitar player even stepped to the front of the stage from the back corner, just to get a better view. She was hot and very good at what she was doing. Fortunately, Jimmie got pictures. When that ended, it was the end of the set. It also turned out to be their last gig at Mandalay Bay for another week. They opened tomorrow at the Venetian for an early show. We talked to the congo player for a bit, then cute little Inez. She gave us both hugs and invited us to see them at the Venetian. I don't think she likes it as much there because it's a bit smaller. Shook the lead guitarist's hand after the show and we joked around about their last song and the dance Tara did for everyone.
Our day ended just like it began, at Careful Kitty's Cafe at the El Cortez, staring at a plate of eggs, bacon and hash browns. We really have to eat some vegetables soon. :) Jimmie killed his third bottle of tabasco sauce while eating at the cafe, the second being this morning for breakfast. After we ate, we came back to the room to check our bank balances. Earlier on in the day, I had taken money out and it showed that I only have 600-odd dollars left in my bank account. That wasn't nice. It turned out to be some kind of translating error between the banks or something.