Las Vegas -- it's still there

Norm (The McCook Chef) and I pulled out of McCook at 5 a.m. last Saturday, driving to Denver to catch a plane for our annual World Series trek to Las Vegas. This year, in addition to the World Series, college football and pro football, there was also The Breeder's Cup Horse Races being run, plus the ever-present and always open blackjack tables so we were pumped up about the weekend and anxious to get there.

We flew Ted Airlines, a subsidiary of United, out of Denver and arrived at Caesar's Palace a little after noon, Vegas time. Since check-in wasn't until three, we headed for the Sports Book at Caesar's but because of all the action going on, there wasn't a seat to be found so we went back to one of the 12 bars they have on premises and found a table fairly close to one of the big screen televisions. Norm's a Coors Light guy and I'm a Vodka tonic man so we placed our orders. The waitress asked if I wanted an extra shot for four dollars more and even though that sounded a bit high since Vodka tonics in McCook run between $2.50 and $3.00 on average, I said "sure" anyway. After all, we were in Vegas and we came to have a good time. When she came back with our drinks, she handed me the bill and it was $22.50. $12.50 for a Stoli Vodka and tonic, $4 for the extra shot and $6 for the Coors Light beer. Over the next two days, we found those kinds of prices to be the rule rather than the exception.

After we checked in, we went over to a Jimmy Buffet street dance, celebrating the concert he was giving at the MGM that night. The street adjacent to Buffet's bar, Margaritaville, was blocked off and we estimated two to three thousand people were packed in there, almost all in their Jimmy Buffet costumes, most drinking, several dancing and EVERYONE having a good time. A really good Jimmy Buffet Tribute band was playing the event and everybody was really into the music. There were no police officers at the site and one security guard. As we walked past him, he was telling a couple that the margaritas were being sold on the right hand side of the street and beer was being sold on the left. We saw no arguments, no fights, no trouble of any kind and we were there for a couple of hours.

It reminded me, in a totally different way, of the one beer-garden outside event we've had in McCook in the last several years. This was a couple of years ago when C Street was blocked off. The bandstand was at the west end of the street and the beer garden was at the east end of the street, so far away it was hard to hear the music. The "drinkers" were separated from the "non-drinkers" by two huge fences, you had to show your ID to gain entrance, and several police officers were standing around the perimeter of the fences just in case trouble broke out I guess. There were probably a couple of hundred people in attendance. Totally different attitude, totally different experience.

We didn't spend much time in our room. We figured out we were there for 42 hours and slept for about four but who goes to Vegas to sleep? At 3 a.m. on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I decided to grab a nap and had been asleep for a little more than an hour when I was awakened by an intimate encounter in the room adjacent to ours; a very noisy intimate encounter in fact. I immediately became depressed because I was in Vegas with Norm instead of the woman I would have taken if I could have, so I got up and went back to the casino, wishing I hadn't of gone to bed to begin with.

We spent most of Sunday watching football games at Harrah's, across the street from Caesar's Palace and then went to Carnaval Court at Harrah's, an open-air bar that sits adjacent to the hotel. There was a great band playing in the middle of the afternoon and the bartenders were the ones who throw bottles, glasses, ice and lime in the air, behind their backs and any other direction they can think of and it was an enjoyable thing to watch.

There were only a few misfires and the crowd around the bar was very appreciative of the show that was being put on. In addition to that, one of the female bartenders would stand on the circular bar and walk all the way around it with a bottle full of Kamikaze's, pouring eight second shots into the mouths of whoever wanted to spend two dollars. Cheapest drink I had in Vegas by far.

We played blackjack most of Sunday night and came out OK. We left Caesar's at 4 a.m. because our plane was leaving at 6 a.m. The plane was full on the way out and full on the way back and there seemed to be just as many people there this time as there has been in the past so either the economic downturn isn't affecting everyone or there were a lot of people out there hoping to get lucky and strike it rich because they ARE begin affected.

Norm and I always have a good time on the trips we take together and this was no different. Nothing against Norm, but I just hope that next year I can go with her instead of him.