Vegas

     Friday night after Jim was finished with his meetings, we were hungry and decided to walk down the strip to find a place to eat.  It was hot, close to 100 degrees, even after dark.  We weren't sure where we were going, just browsing for food.  It was so crowded with people; drunk people, smoking people, yelling people, scantily clad people, foul mouthed people.  We just kept walking and couldn't find anywhere that wasn't so crowded.  Then we hit the gauntlet:  the place where all the slimeballs hard working citizens were passing out their crap.  It used to be that it was only men who were passing things out, but there were several women, too.  They have this annoying way that they slap the cards they are trying to give you against the stack they have in their other hand.  Then they snap the two or three cards they have in their other hand against each other.  Slap, snap, slap, snap, "Hey, we got girls for you!", slap, snap.  Don't look them in the eye, don't look at what they are holding, don't look down at the ground littered with discards.  But where can I look?  Not at the billboards advertising peepshows.  Not at the signs advertising topless girls for "rent". (They'll come right to your room for 20 minutes!! Woohoo!!) Maybe at the Elvis impersonators.  Whoa!  They were pretty disgusting for their own particular reasons.  So we turned around and went back to our room and ate granola bars for dinner. 
     It was obvious by the end of Jim's Friday meeting that things were winding up sooner than expected.  Everyone was scrambling to change their flights out to Saturday afternoon or evening instead of Sunday.   While Jim was in the Saturday morning meeting, I walked a short way down the strip again.  It was still hot.  It wasn't very crowded and the card slappers weren't there.  I got a few pictures of things that interested me.

 

The fountains at the Bellagio.

 

 The Eiffel Tower

 

The Harley Davidson Cafe

     The Bellagio was right across the street from our hotel.  We could see the fountains from our window.  We couldn't hear the music, but I can tell you that the water cannons go off pretty much the whole night.  Our hotel shared a parking garage and underground stores with The Paris.  Some of the stores and shops were pretty cool.  The base of their Eiffel Tower was in a restaurant on this level.  There is a ride you can take to the top of the tower, for a price, of course.  And then there is the Harley Cafe.  This picture is for Janae.  There was also a store in one of the underground walkways.  They wanted $52.95 for a little t-shirt with the Harley logo on it.  I got her a poker chip with the logo for $1.

     We left town at about 2:30 and got home a little after 8:00.  It was an uneventful drive.  We found a gas station in Scipio that has the good pebble ice.  We will stop there again.  Came home, went grocery shopping, watched a movie with the girls, went to bed early.  Toto, there's no place like home.