Day21 - Las Vegas - Friday

---

Hi Hi Hi

So same as always we slept in today, then off to the pool. Beautiful day at the pool. Not that much happening. I have finished one book, some magazines, etc. I spent part of day in the hot tub with Don as I thought it would help the dry heels I am getting from walking on flip flops since I am about a month past when I would normally still be wearing flip flops....

Except that I forgot to mention about pool days and how it's sooo weird but whenever Don & I are on vacation and he ends up talking to people in the pool or hot tub he always ends up talking to people that are racist - whether it was Florida, or California or now here... Wheverever we go across the US. Now it's not to say everyone in the US is racist that would be a crazy generalization, it just happens that we meet the ones that are. And it's obvious that people still joke about it and it exists because that comedy show we went to the host was making jokes about this caucasian couple in the audience from N. Carolina and he turns to them and he's like "Oh, N. Carolina - you realize the blacks are free now right?" ha ha ha. Anyway, the lady that Don was talking to in the hot tub last week was from Montana, I think. She was an ex-vet. She was blabbing away and actually used the "N" word. I was totally shocked. Then some other people talking along similar lines. And it's not just African Americans they are racist against -- many more than that. It's crazy. Ok, crazy on two levels -- that people are so racist but also that they would talk to total strangers about it and assume all of us (because we are caucasian?) must also be racist. Back home no one would dream of using the "N" word. So anyway, there is no point in saying anything to those people as you can't change them and we don't really care about them so we just let them blab away with their racist comments and go on their happy trails. But it is still disturbing. So since we aren't racist and support all people then we were out shopping and we bought Don this t-shirt "Barack is my Homeboy". We thought it was soo awesome. Don said he probably wouldn't wear it here / US in case it would affend African Americans, but we thought it would be funny to wear back home 😊 Not as a racist joke but just because we literally do support Barack. We thought he was coming to town next week and we were going to see him speak, but we actually missed him and he was here this past wed 😞 Don & I wanted to see him before he becomes president and the U.S. racist people shoot him..... Which is all over blogs and websites and people talk about and even the racist lady in the hot tub agreed that Barack would be shot if he became president. How very very sad and disturbing.

Then we left the pool early to get ready to then make it to Bill's Gambling by 6:30 pm to see Big Elvis. He is a literal big Elvis impersonator. And he kept sitting in the chair because he's too big to stand for long periods of time. So later in the show this other guy came out and was talking about Big Elvis and how he's like > 300 lbs right now but in the last 3 years he lost 500 lbs!! Can you imagine? Can a person even get up and walk around if they are like 800 or 900 lbs?? Good for him. He says his goal is to lose another 100 lbs. Anyway, his show was good. Singing along to Elvis and it was busy there in the lounge to see him, so he's very popular. Although he sang like 3-4 Elvis songs I didn't even know....

Then we went and had dinner at Ballys/Paris walkway at this sports grille. We had really good mushroom cheeseburgers and I had steak fries with mine.

Then we went back to the lounge in Bill's so I could watch the karaoke that is on 9 pm - 11 pm. Now I was thinking Karaoke in Vegas would be super fun and it would be all these travellers and drunk people getting up singing.... Nope. About half the people are people that are regulars and like live in Vegas and they bring their own music and they end up getting up like 2-3 times. And they are singing songs that are part of their repertoire but not really good songs. It was sooo weird. It was like these people were auditioning and I was thinking - to whom? You're singing at open karaoke in bill's gambling!!!... The picture I have is of a father and his daughter, I think, that are regulars and they brought their own music and had to keep starting it over as they didn't start right and they take this all very seriously. They sang some song from Phantom of the Opera. It was bad and no one at "fun" karaoke wants to hear that anyway. Then later they each individually sang songs as well -- again - bad. I think they both sang songs from musicals or something. There was like this 80 year old dude that pretends to be elvis and gets up 2-3 times and he is sooo bad. He just mumbles all the words and sings under his breath all the while thinking he's great. I couldn't understand him at all nor hear a single word from the actual song. Then there was this other regular dude that looked like Kenny Rogers (so you'd think he should be singing Kenny Rogers songs -- NOPE). He was bringing his own music and like singing Tim McGraw or something. The karaoke host kept saying his name and saying he's "famous" but obviously he isn't as we haven't heard of him and he doesn't appear to have his own show in vegas. Then he had his girlfriend and she looked like something out of x-men and she sang some terrible song no one had heard of. By this point Don had come back to join me as he was off playing poker (won $200). He was like "WTF?" with the karaoke. So then I had to explain to him about how most of the people are regulars that bring their own music. He thought it was also soooo terrible and how people go to this to have a good time and have some drinks and don't want to hear these people who sing badly AND sing songs no one has heard of or would want to hear. When that x-men type lady was singing her never heard of before song she was literally singing it like she was auditioning and was doing all the mouth movements and trying to sing from her diaphragm, etc. etc. etc. And a few people were clapping every once in a while and Don's like "They shouldn't be encouraging these people that are actually not good singers" ha ha ha.

Now on the other side, the people that were actually tourists to Vegas and got up and sang were actually VERY GOOD and better than the regulars. There was this one lady that sang "Crazy for you" and was sooo good. There was this awesome older lady that sang "Where the Boys Are" and another oldie song later and she was phenominal --- we gave her a standing ovation. Then there was this young guy that was singing Elvis songs and was phenominal. Then at the end these two guys came up and one sang "I just called to say I love you" and "Superstitious" and they were awesome. It's people like this that I wanted to see in the first place.

I told Don later that the host and DJ guy running the show and music should just keep pretending that it's not their turns and not let the regulars up and just keep using the tourists / rotating through the tourists. The regulars should stick to singing in the shower or -- I thought there were actual karaoke contests they could go to? -- they should stick to that.

so then this whole time I was waiting for Leah to arrive. She had text at the border saying that it was sooo busy and even nexxus was busy. So then I worried she had missed the flight and hadn't heard from her since and yet I kept texting her. But she finally made it at around 10:30 pm -- about 1/2 late. She almost didn't make it as got to the airport approx. 25 minutes before the flight and the flight had started giving away seats to standby. Anyway, they ended up giving Leah her ticket for a seat that they had booked twice!! So then Leah got on the flight and her seat was already taken. How does that happen when there is only one agent working the desk and giving away seats? Anyway, so then Leah had NO seat as the flight was full and she had to just stand at the front of the plane and wait for them to figure it out. The flight had let on two couples standby that had missed their earlier flight and also one girl that was standby. So the airline crew phoned their office and Leah ranks higher than them all as she was booked on the flight, the couples rank higher than the girl as they were pre-booked for the earlier flight they missed. So the standby girl ranks lowest and Leah said they actually had to drag her off the plane -- took two people -- as she was literally kicking and screaming. Guess you would be upset though if you missed the last flight to vegas that night AND they had no flights on Sat......

So then we picked up Leah at airport. Got her settled and then just walked the strip trying to show her some of the hotels since Leah hadn't ever been here before.

Then late night food at Lucky's and off to bed at around 4 am, I think.....

---