Day Two - The first full day in Vegas...
I was awake by 8am. After tossing and turning for 45 more minutes. I decided to get up to write this journal. Jimmie slept until noon. :) After showers all around, we decide to walk to the Walgreens (pharmacy) to buy a street map (and some shaving cream and Dove unscented - couldn't find the soap and my shaving cream has a broken lid), then back to the parking garage at the El Cortez to get the car. Just on the way back, we were witness to two separate "living room" type dramas. One guy telling his woman to "listen you stupid cunt, I said we're doing it and that's final," and some woman named Sherry being told to fuck off from across the street by what I can only assume was a now ex-friend.
We go to the Stratosphere, planning on taking the High Roller (the world's highest roller coaster) and whatever else we could see. The trip up the elevator (which cost 9 bucks) underscored just how slow the elevator is in our hotel. The trip up to the top of the tower took only seconds and popped our ears. The view from the observation area was fantastic. Just as we got there, the people on the X-Scream ride (where they strap you into seats, then hang you over the edge of the tower) came into view. That'd be quite the rush. The looks on some of their faces were great. We tour around the top, then decide to take the High Roller. I can honestly say that I was on the roller coaster. I couldn't stay on it though. The safety bar thingie that comes down over your head and locks into place over your chest wouldn't click into place for me. I was too thick. I watched Jimmie take the ride and apart from it being so high up, it didn't look all that exciting, just a few loops around the top of the building. After the ride, we buy a couple of really expensive drinks (quite possibly the most expensive pop I've ever had - even then it was mostly ice) and hang out at the top for some time just looking at things. Jimmie uses one of the telescopes to check out the signs on the Strip and wants to check out the Frontier tonight as there'll be mud wrestling. Hehehe... I'm still feeling super-tired and hungry (we hadn't eaten yet), so we head back to our neck of the woods. We walk over to the Golden Spike (cheap pie place) and go into the diner there. While I'm getting a couple of dogs for myself, Jimmie goes and gets himself this 40oz glass of beer for two bucks. This thing is frigging huge! When we're sitting there, this guy comes up to us and starts talking to us. Asks us where we're from and when we say, "Canada," he waves it off and says, "So you're American then." He sits at a table just over from us and after he eats his jello (he seemed to have a craving... he had about 3 or 4 of them in the time we were there), he continues to talk to us. He asks about the job situation and what the pay is like in Canada. Before we even say anything, he says, "I'm not Mexican, I'm Hawaiian." Hmmm... don't know about that. He sure looked Mexican to me. :) Then he tells us, "I have skills. I'm a really hard worker. The best."
A short nap at the hotel (for me anyway, Jimmie was reading the journal so far), then we get our asses back to the Mandalay Bay for the Yes concert. We meet this older guy with long hair, shades and more than one missing tooth in the elevator. He asks what we're doing there and as we're saying, "We're here for the..." He shouts out, "YES!!!!" "Where's your seats? No no no, don't tell me, show me." Jimmie pulls out the envelope and the guy grabs it. He holds it in his hands and says, pointing to one end, "This is the stage. Where are you?" We could have said anything, 'cause he said before we really got our point across, "Yeah, those are good seats." After we exit the elevator, he speeds off to the concert. I mean, fast. Jimmie thought he looked a lot like the guy from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. "This is bat country."
We get to our seats just mere minutes before the concert starts. Our seats, unlike the speedy guy in the elevator said, aren't that good. There's a railing just in front of us, blocking part of our view. There's a lot of empty seats up in the nosebleed area where we were, so we just shifted around until we found the best of the lot. I really should have brought my Yes CD with us on the trip so we could have been familiar with some of the songs. For a bunch of guys in their late fifties, they really rocked. Jimmie taps me on the shoulder and says to me, "I think that chick is a lesbian." It took me awhile to figure out that he meant the lead singer, JOHN Anderson. Hehehe... When Jimmie went out to the bar to get himself a drink, he witnessed a guy having an epileptic seizure. Yeah, all the flashing lights and loud noise - not a good mix. From our now more great seats, we had quite the view of the entire audience. Right at the front center, there was this huge steroid king who kept jumping up and pumping his massive (I mean MASSIVE) arm in the air.
During the band's "tea break" Jimmie went for a pee break. He was the youngest guy in the washroom and jumped the queue for the urinals and hopped into a stall and used the toilet for the longest pee ever. There were guys arguing about esoteric Yes trivia that Jimmie had no idea about. There was a guy in there trying to sell his ticket near the front. The concert was half over and he was trying to sell his ticket... he really needs to go back to marketing school. When Jimmie left the bathroom, the guy that he would have been standing behind was still standing there and looked like he was going to be there for some time yet.
The second half of the concert started off a little more cozy. They got out from behind their big instruments and sat on chairs at the front of the stage, using only acoustic guitars, simple drum set and a piano. Very nice. After a reworked version of Roundabout, they reset the stage and started to rock. There was a "duel" between the guy on the keyboards and the lead guitarist. There was this massive drum/percussion number that was very neat. They ended the concert with a nice mellow, relaxing song.
Jimmie and I are heading back to the car to see if we can catch the last of the mud wrestling at the Frontier and Joy Ride is playing at the lounge again. At this point, we'd already missed most of the wrestling, so we go into the lounge and sit along the wall. We see that sketchy old guy from the elevator there (he must have nearly ran there to beat us to the lounge) and Jimmie goes up and talks to him on the way to the bar. He's still sketchy and a bit paranoid. When the band finishes their set and go on break, he jumps up and bolts off. :) I talk to the female singer and ask her about that No Doubt song she sang last night. They had just done it before we got there, but she said they'd try to work it in to the end of their next set. Geez, but she's hot. I go to the bar to find Jimmie, and he's there talking to Steroid King. Turns out this guy was sitting two seats away from "that lesbian's" wife, and has for the last three concerts that he's gone to. He's a major fan of Yes... and steroids. We look around the tables close to the dance floor and see one that has just this one guy sitting alone at it with what looked like his bill on the table. Jimmie approaches him and we end up sitting with him. He's this older guy (early 50's) named John from New Orleans that likes to watch the dancers. Speaking of dancers, there were quite a few of them up on the dance floor. Some of them looked like they were very well trained. One lady that Jimmie talked to said that she's been here since 1978 and comes to this lounge because it has the best salsa dancing in town.
We stay for the rest of the show, closing the lounge for the second night running. Jimmie and John drank and smoked and drank and smoked and drank and smoked and I had a pop, then a cranberry juice. After the band packed up and John staggered off to his room, leaving the last of his pack of Dunhills for Jimmie, the female singer came over to our table and talked to us for a bit. Her name is Inez. Jimmie used his, "I've got a secret crush on you" line and she said, "not so secret anymore." She seemed like a genuinely nice person and we talked to her for a few minutes. I'd have to say, the pants she wore tonight and the shirt she wore last night would have been a great combination. I'm not saying that she didn't look hot just the same.
Jimmie ate his third olive of the night (which amounted to 1/4 of his entire solid food intake for the day) and we left in search of the car. It didn't help that we used the wrong elevator to go up to the parking garage. When we were wandering around (both of us at this point wished that we had used the washroom beforehand), we met this young couple (he was horny, she was hungry) also lost and searching for their red car. We met them again on the other level of the parking lot. Finally found found the car. It didn't look the right color because of how dirty it was. Jimmie stowed his stolen wine glass in the trunk then we headed for the Frontier.
The Frontier at 4 in the morning was dead. Literally. The only thing it was missing was a tumbleweed going through the casino. We saw maybe two people playing and the staff just standing around. Whoo Hoo! Let's party. I get my dollar coin and play some slots for a bit, using up about 5 bucks in nickels. On the way out of the Frontier we take advantage of two massage chairs. One buck for about 2 minutes of ecstasy. We decide to go get some breakfast and drive back to the El Cortez and park. We wander around the El Cortez for some time trying to find the coffee shop that I know is in there somewhere. Compared to the Frontier, the El Cortez was packed. Several of the gaming tables were in in action and many people at the slots. We tried to see if Eric was playing there (he flew in today sometime), but found the coffee shop instead. They had a graveyard shift special going on until 5am. Just in time. Two eggs any way, 2 slices of toast, hash browns and 2 pieces of bacon all for 99 cents. There was also two large pancakes and bacon for a buck 50. We both get both. (Thank you Lolita from the Philippines and Connie from Oklahoma) Jimmie wimps out near of the of his plate of eggs and bacon and I eat all of the pancakes. It was so good. The bacon was the best tasting bacon I've had in years.
When we left the El Cortez to cross the street to our hotel, the sky was already starting to lighten in the east. Within minutes of arriving in our not-so-smelly (anymore - at least to our sense of smell) hotel room, we both crashed. I woke up several times during the night and noted that Jimmie did not move at all. At ALL. He might have been dead, but I was too tired to check.
<< Home