Louis Prima's daughter!
The Secret Garden
John and I met on the Strip outside Paris at 10 a.m. to go for a run. On my way over I stopped at Bally’s to make an appointment for a haircut. Neither Mark, who usually cut my hair, nor Richard, who gave Hunnybear a great cut, were working today so I signed up for a 4 p.m. cut with John, the owner.
I found my John waiting outside Paris and we ran up the Strip. The band Poi Dog Pondering says that things look better when you go by slow and, if this morning is any indication, they were right. Next door to Paris was Bally’s, with its garish neon-hooped moving walkway leading into the casino. Surrounding the walkway, unseen by practically everyone, was a beautiful garden with several paths to walk, or run, through it. Fragrant flowers were planted in pockets between manicured hedges punctuated by animal topiary. Chief among them were several hunnybears and a land shark. In a small town—for example, Canada—a garden like this would be one of the chief attractions for everyone to see when they visit. Here, however, it just existed, unnoticed by almost all.
John had to go fight some fires so I cleaned up, used the video checkout (good thing too: the line to check out was as long as the line to check in!) and stood in line to check my bags with the bellman. I was hungry so I decided to use my VIP pass at Harrah’s to jump the buffet line. It turned out there was no one in line anyway so I didn’t need the pass. I hate that. I’ll revise and extend my remarks of the previous day: there is a reason to set foot in Harrah’s and it’s the buffet. The food and service are consistently excellent here and at $9.99 for lunch it’s quite reasonable. It’s not quite as large as the Rio’s Carnival World Buffet but it’s close, with Chinese, Mexican, and a variety of other cuisines. They had small peeled shrimp with cocktail sauce and as always, bananas Foster among their large selection of desserts.
After lunch I went to the timeshare booth at Harrah’s to see how much hassle it would be to get the promised “no strings attached” $25 in gaming chips in exchange for presenting a flyer they mailed me at their counter. To my surprise there was no hassle at all other than filling in my address and a phone number. Unfortunately I think I inadvertently transposed two digits so they may have difficulty reaching me. They gave me a voucher for $25 in gaming chips. I took it to the cage and got a twenty-dollar bill and a five-dollar bill, which I pocketed.
I spent the afternoon holding my own at Pai Gow Poker at the Venetian until it was time for my haircut. The desert heat had soared to low blast furnace so I took a cab to Bally’s ($5). I got there a bit early so I played some nickel Monopoly. I landed on Boardwalk just before it was time for the haircut so I had to keep betting the max until I lost it all, otherwise I would have had to take time to cash in the nickels. They’ve really got you coming and going on these slot machines.
John gave me a fabulous haircut ($20 plus tip) and regaled me with stories of grooming-based leadership seminars that he leads. Since I do leadership seminars too, although they’re not grooming based, we swapped tips and had a great time. I suggested he go to the National Speakers Association annual convention in August in DC.
With my haircut I felt cooler so I walked back to the Venetian. Both Pai Gow Poker players already had big players doing what I like to do, banking every other hand, so instead I played some blackjack. They had some quarter tables with double decks, which I like because they deal the cards face down, so I played my usual four-stage reverse Martingale betting strategy. I hit a double Bubba on the last hand and cashed out ahead for the trip, even including the $100 or so I donated to the gorilla slot machine. I walked back to Harrah’s, retrieved my bags without incident and cabbed it over to the airport.
There were 10 people in line at the First Class/Premier check-in so I headed for the gates. On the way I passed Don Alejandro’s Texan Grill, where I remembered having a nice burger a few years ago, so I repeated the experience ($12 including tip). Then I lugged my luggage (no carts allowed in Terminal C or D) over to the United gate where I nearly missed my flight because I looked at the arrivals monitor and saw that the 8:05 flight
from Los Angeles was delayed. I was on the 8:05
toLos Angeles. I was going to check out the National Airlines lounge but wisely decided to check in first. Good thing! They had already given away my seat assignment but fortunately I got it back.
This was the best Shuttle flight I’ve ever had. Two great Shuttle flights in one trip! I think the LA and Vegas-based crews are just in a better mood than the Seattle and SF ones. It was another "real" 737 with twice as much leg room in seat 1C as the Shuttle configuration. The first flight attendant, Stacy was a beautiful and intelligent young woman with a smile that would melt a heart of ice. She took drink orders before takeoff and slapped those drinks down practically as soon as the seat-belt sign was off. She didn’t bother passing out the crappy snack mix until after everyone was served. Nobody wanted it anyway. I told her about FlyerTalk and she got very excited and asked if she could post stuff. Oh, yes, I said. I told her to fax me her schedule and I'd be on all her flights.
The flight took only 40 minutes and we were at the gate two minutes early after crossing through a pretty good wake turbulence pocket on final. I called my Hunnybear and she picked me up under the skybridge on the upstairs departures level where it’s much less crowded. I’ve got two more trips to Vegas coming up next month. Viva Las Vegas!
The end.