I woke up a few times during the night because of a very noisy air conditioner. Whenever the cooling part of the machine kicked on it made a clunk and loud rumbling noise. Annoying.
Got moving around 9am. Had some breakfast in the room and watched some television while I reorganized the suitcases and put away what I had taken out.
The shower was quite an experience. First, like I said, the shower had these weird seat things so they took up part of your standing room. Then the sliding door didn't close all the way so I expected a little water on the floor. But standing in front of this shower was like standing in front of a fire hose! I don't think I got clean just from soap and water… but more from just the mere force of the water. The dirt was blown off my body along with several layers of flesh. :)
Also the ceilings are low in the bathroom. Standing in the shower, if I touched the top of my head with my thumb and spread my fingers as wide as I could, I could touch the ceiling with my pinky finger. I'm about 6' tall and I'd expect that the ceiling is about 6'7" or so. Watch out if you're a tall person (Matt!)
I called the bell desk and left a message again asking to have my bags picked up. This time it took a little longer for someone to arrive. I would guess that someone showed up about 6-7 minutes after I called. Still not a very long wait. The bellman took my 4 bags down to the valet while I checked the room for belongings and checked out through the TV. Total charges for the stay, including tax and phone charges, was $24.98. I didn't gamble very much so I didn't bother asking a host for some money off my room. I figure I'll save the points for another visit.
I got my car and luggage at the valet, trying to juggle the tips for everyone. I drove around the other side of the hotel and shot a few minutes of videotape of the Desperado coaster and then I was on my way to Las Vegas.
Click Here to Download Desperado MPG file - 1.6 mb - 38 seconds
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Much better weather for driving from Primm to Las Vegas
today!
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Traffic was streaming out of Las Vegas as it's time for expensive rooms on the strip. Traffic wasn't too bad in my direction. I hadn't noticed it before, but there's a prison right behind the Gold Strike in Jean. I never see mention of that in the brochure. :-)
Dan called me on my cell phone somewhere between Jean and Las Vegas. I lost his signal and was unable to call him back. I don't know if it's my phone breaking, freaky coverage in that area, or sun spot interference that I was hearing about on the news the other night.
I got off the freeway at Tropicana thinking I'd find a place with a payphone I could pull into. I should know Vegas better than that. :-) I got back on the freeway about 20 minutes later at Flamingo Road. (groan) and then after a short distance traffic ground to a halt as there was a pretty big accident in the middle of the road. Three cars were pointing in all directions and one was leaking something onto the freeway. What a mess. I see accidents on that stretch of highway on almost every visit. Be careful when driving in Vegas. Watch the road, not the big buildings on the Strip.
Things opened up quite a bit after that and I was surprised to see how smoothly the transition at the I-15/95/93 Spaghetti Bowl was. It was easy to determine where I wanted to go and how to get there. Not at all like the last time I was here.
I was off the freeway at the downtown exit and quickly to Main Street Station. There was no parking in the "Check In" parking area. I pulled into the garage through the back "secret" way into the garage. There was NOTHING available. I had to drive all the way to the top until I found a space. Make a note not to tell people about the free parking at MSS anymore, as enough people know about it now. :-)
I was surprised to get inside and find no line at check in and relatively few people in the casino. From the looks of the parking lot, I expected it to be jammed. Checked in and was assigned room 1009. I wanted something on a fairly high floor with a view towards the Plaza and the Strip. I got up to the room and found it had 2 queen beds. I called Dan from the payphones and even though he'll only be here for one night, he wanted me to try to get a King room.
I walked right up to the check in desk again and asked for a King. In 1 minute they had me switched to room 1001. It's still on the 10th floor, with the same view, but this time all the way at the end of the hall.
I brought the car back down and parked it on the curb. I handed over 5 bags (this time including the computer bag) and asked the bellman to bring it up to 1001 and leave them in the room. I gave him $5 and he was off. I went back into the parking lot to find a space again. This time I had to drive up and down a couple times until something opened up. There were spaces available on the very top floor, but I didn't think Dan would appreciate his new truck being parked in the hot Vegas sun for 3 days. :-)
After parking, I headed straight up to the room. The room is the standard King room I'm used to here. Table and chairs by the shuttered windows. Big mirror on the wall, armoire hiding a TV, closet area behind the door and small bathroom. Everything was clean, but a little worn. Exactly what I expected. I was happy with the room and spent a few minutes unpacking and trying to give our wrinkled clothes some time to smooth out on the hanger. (To see photos of the rooms at Main Street Station, go to the Photo Page here - http://www.travel2vegas.com/noind/mainst.html
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Here's the view from room #1001.
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The new slot club location. |
As part of my check-in they gave me an envelope. Apparently part of the offer I'm here on includes double slot club points for the duration of my stay. I needed to take the coupon they gave me to the slot club desk and I also needed to change the address on my account. I was surprised to see a sign across from registration that indicated the slot club desk was inside.
They have set up a really nice area inside those gorgeous bronze doors from the Kuwait Royal Bank. There's a slot club desk as well as a nice little keno lounge. I'm sorry to see the Cascade Café is gone, but it was never open when I wanted to eat anyway.
Now the Triple 7 Brewpub is open from 11am to 7am. They serve Lunch from 11am to 4pm and then dinner from 4pm to 2am and breakfast from 2am to 7am. The buffet is the only food option in Main Street Station from 7am -11am, but there are a number of restaurants in the California that are open and where you can pick up something for breakfast. Also, you can use your room charge slip at California.
I played a little bit and when hunger got to be too much, I went to the Triple 7 Brew Pub and got one of those excellent Chicken Foccacia sandwiches I've talked about before. It's a grilled breast of chicken with roasted red bell pepper and assorted greens covered in balsamic vinegar all on foccacia bread. YUMMY!! And under $7. I took the sandwich up to my room and did some e-mail and got a little work done while I ate.
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The Main Street Station Triple Seven Brewpub
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Later in the afternoon I loaded up my bag with cameras and headed out to explore. I walked through Main Street Station playing machines here and there, pretty much staying even. Then I went over the walkway to The California and down into their casino. This place really works hard to get the Hawaiian market. All the machines are renamed to island themed names. It's sort of fun. From there I crossed the street and decided to cut through Las Vegas Club.
I have to confess that I've never been in the casino before. I've always assumed the place was a dump and I wanted nothing to do with it. I hear lots of people talk about playing there and staying there, so I figured I owed it to myself to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.
It's not Bellagio, but it's pretty clean and they have a decent selection of machines in their little casino. I even found a nickel version of that Multi draw poker I love so much. And I'm much more likely to play it at $1 a pull versus $5 a pull! I played that for about an hour going up and down, but pretty much staying even. I cashed out the same $10 I put into it. Too bad they don't have a slot club… that would have been a decent pile of points.
From LVC, I walked out onto Fremont Street. This is a pretty good way to get to FSE if the weather is bad or if you're concerned about walking on the street late at night alone. You're really only outside as you cross the street between LVC and The Cal.
It was warm outside, but not too bad. In the mid-80's or so. Certainly not the 105-107 I was hearing about last week! I walked down Fremont Street looking at the hoards of people and noticing the new façade on Mermaids and The Bayou. They may be calling it Mermaids now, but the women are still out front screaming at you to come try the free pull and get your free picture.
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The new facade at Mermaids - formerly Sassy Sally's
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I walked into Binions to change my address on the slot club and put in a little bit of play. I couldn't find any machines that I was looking for. I used to play Double Down Stud at Binions, but I couldn't find it. I quickly lost $20 into a Bonus Poker machine and decided I'd be better off trying a new location.
I went across the street and signed up for the slot club at Golden Nugget. Now that they'll track my $0.25 play, I was anxious to join. I was told that it would take 30 points to activate my card. One point is earned for approximately ever $75 of play. I asked about Video Poker and was told that it takes about $150 for a point while playing VP. That's a lot more VP than I had planned on playing on Friday night.
I played for about an hour or so at a few machines in Golden Nugget. I was playing some machines up by the sports book and when the basketball game started, it got REALLY loud in there. Once the noise started to get to me, I cashed out and headed back out towards FSE. On my way out I spotted a Spin Poker machine. I discovered this new game in Reno and became hopelessly addicted. I put in $20 and played on it for awhile, going up and down.
Once my $20 was gone, I headed back out to FSE. I started to walk down towards Race Rock to see what it was all about. I got down there and took some pictures and started to go inside what looked to be another themed restaurant (this time race cars) when I heard the music for the FSE start. I briskly walked the block back to the canopy area and watched the show, Odyssey.
Click Here to Download an MPG file of Odyssey - 1.4 mg - 35 seconds
I was surprised they ran a show at 8:30 and then they announced that at 9pm they would show the Motown theme show. I wandered around Fremont Street watching some performers during the 25 minutes between shows.
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This is Barry Van Wie performing.
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Race Rock restaurant at the far end of the street.
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Race Rock had some "tricked out" flatbed pickup trucks on the street. On the backs of the one by Golden Nugget was a guy with some keyboards and saxophones. The banners advertising the entertainment introduced him simply as "Safe Sax". He was pretty good, but after one song, the truck drove off across 3rd Street and down Fremont Street. I walked back towards the Pioneer and found another truck. This one had a young man with a very weird looking violin. Turned out it was an electric violin (or fiddle, depending on what part of the country you're from :-)). I was really impressed with him. His name is Barry Van Wie and he has a website at http://www.barryvanwie.com - surprise! :) I wouldn't call this my kind of music, but it was fun to listen to and watch. I've found myself thinking about the performance since I've been home and I realize that I really enjoyed it. It was a great way to fill up the remainder of the time between shows.
Click Here to Download an MPG file of Barry Van Wie playing 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' - 1.0 mg - 23 seconds
The Motown show was pretty good. It had this radio DJ voice over thing that I found to be annoying, but I love Motown music. I thought that the images in the show seemed more "advanced" than the early shows like Odyssey. It wasn't my favorite of the shows, but I thought it was good.
What I didn't like was the 3 minute commercial for the Main Street Station that followed it. "Follow the train to Main Street Station… good food…. Good beer…. Good prices…. " SHUT UP!! You're wrecking my secret place. Now I know why parking is so hard to come by here now. :-)
They announced that at 10pm there would be another show I hadn't seen before, but my back was starting to hurt. I've been having some health problems and one of them has been with my back. All that standing around wasn't good apparently and I was feeling sore. I thought it was best that I got back up to the room and spent some time on the heating pad before it got too bad.
I made my way back the way I came… through Las Vegas Club and The California. Just before going back over the bridge to MSS, I stopped at the ice cream shop in the Cal. If you're ever in the neighborhood, be sure to stop here. They have some excellent ice cream. Much better than the Baskin Robbins on Fremont Street. I got a scoop of Chocolate Chip with some hot fudge sauce and headed up to the room.
I watched a little bit of tv while I ate my ice cream and then called Dan at home. I sent him some e-mail earlier to make him jealous and wanted to know if he saw it. The e-mail was effective and I think he got even more jealous hearing about my time on Fremont Street. I'm sure he'd rather have been with me than working out the bugs in our new home network.
We talked a little bit about his plans for Saturday to see his sister's band perform in San Francisco and doing some stuff around the house to help me out. I told him about my back and my plans to take it easy on Saturday and then head out to the Boulder Strip in the evening. He insisted I take it easy and not re-injure my back.
I watched the 11pm news and decided to head out to try to get some pictures of the strip. I drove down Stewart to Eastern - a route I don't recommend as it goes through a rough neighborhood. I saw a couple of scenes I was pretty sure were from an upcoming episode of Cops. I drove down Eastern hoping to get a good view of the Strip that never really happened. I did get some amazing views from Sunset Road by the airport, but there's no parking along the fence by the airport. There is one parking area where you can watch planes take off and land with the strip in the background, but there were people waiting to park there when I went by.
I took some photos and video from the road as best I could and then cut over to the other side of the freeway. I got to Decatur road and my back started to do that familiar twinge of pain. I knew it was time to head back to my room. I cut down to Charleston and then to Main Street.
This time there was plenty of parking in the garage as it was 1am. I parked on the 2nd floor and as I got out of the car, I felt some bad things going on in my back. I knew it was time to lay down and stay down for awhile.
Got to my room and caught some of an interview with Andre-Phillippe Gangon whom Dan is going to see on Sunday night. I'm sure he's going to love it.
