Las Vegas, baby

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I will start by saying that being in Vegas by yourself sounds as exciting as it was... Vegas is definitely a place you want to be with friends, but it was a nice pit-stop nevertheless.

Time to head off on to the strip! Of course, not even one block in some random guy started talking to me... this seems to be an American thing (“hey beauty – love yo’ smile”) ... I hate it because it’s not like back home where you can just smile and keep going when they say hi – I have to fight the Canadian urge to smile back ahaha.

Another great encounter: “Hey sweetie – do you smoke?” No. “Want to start?” ... smooth.

Anyway, back to the strip. I went to Circus Circus first – cool design (circus theme) and saw a good (for being free) show.I then walked the entire length just taking photos of the outside and to see what I had got myself into. The buildings are all amazing, although Caesar’s Palace and the Venetian were probably my favs. Bellagio looks lovely too.

First Casino I went into was Caesar’s and it didn’t disappoint. I actually started by roaming around the Forum Shops... holy cow. It has all the high-end stores you can think of, but I loved the look of the place when you first walk in – giant fountain, columns, painted ceilings, circular escalator – yeah, spiffy.

The Casino was of course tres chic as well. I figured I should play a little and spent quite some time on my $5 bill. I love the “Wolf Run” – you don’t win big but you can keep going on the same amount for a long time. Long enough that I got my free drink 😊 I was surprised that it was actually a good drink – I expected it to be weak, but nope. Yum.

(Total random note: I’m always surprised by the amount of French-Canadian I hear when I’m in the States... on est partout)

Anywho, back with my day. While walking by the Fashion Mall I noticed a big hub-bub going on – they were opening this new British store (TopShop) and Kristen Bell was there along with a big fashion show. That’s one nice thing about traveling alone – I wiggled my way into a great view point and watched the show from a pretty good view – Kristen didn’t talk or anything which was kind of weird, but her dress was lovely. I went to TopShop after the grand opening – nice stuff but crazy expensive... at least by my standards.

While coming out of the mall some guy tried to give me his CD. He autographed it and followed me for a bit telling me how he’s been playing shows in Canada (Ottawa funny enough – I hadn’t mentioned I was from there). I had to roll my eyes – the only reason he followed me is because I made the mistake to acknowledge his hello haha. He gave me the CD, asked for a donation, I told him no so he took it back. Could’ve saved you that trouble buddy. (Actually, his name was Iceberg)

It was fun seeing all the people dressed up – people in “mascot” costumes where you gave a tip to take a photo. I saw the usual Homer, Elvis, Mechanical Man, Mario/Luigi, Star Trooper etc but there were some good ones: Hound Dog (which was a dog dressed as Elvis), drunk Garfield and drunk Pooh Bear, Pikachu and a Frankenstein.

Just as it started to get dark, people were lining the roads – again I wiggled in, unsure what it was for. It was a parade of NASCAR trucks – guess there’s a race in town soon. As much as I don’t care about NASCAR, it was a fun environment – everyone cheering, and the trucks were all honking their horns. Loud, but fun!

Nightfall is when the crazy starts – but that’s normal. Actually, it wasn’t that bad – just the usual drunkness and people falling over and such. A bunch of girls debated playing “Drunk Frogger” across Las Vegas Blvd. Thankfully one of the five girls was sober enough to realize that would not end well.

Another great moment was a guy’s response to the escort service people (every 10 steps there is someone trying to give you a card for an escort – and they make this annoying FLICK noise. Ugh) This one guy apparently had enough and quite loudly announced: “WHY WOULD I FUCK THAT WHEN I CAN FUCK THIS” and gave his wife/fiance/gf a great big squeeze and kiss. How... endearing.

(To add to the escort business, there are those truck boards everywhere that say: “Hot Babes direct to you!” Ah Vegas.)

Rest of the night I just hopped around from casino to casino just to get a feel of the different building – Bally’s was pretty nice, as was Bellagio’s to no surprise there. It’s neat yet odd at the same time... so much gambling, so much money, and oh so much smoke! But the free drinks are lovely if you time things right. I stuck with my white russians – they were doing a good job.

The Mirage Volcano show was alright... it was a nice way to warm up at least haha.

Ended the night with the Fountain Show at Bellagio’s – it was to the tune of “Your Song” (or whatever it’s called) by Elton John – it was quite neat! They played “My Heart will go On” afterwards, and I had a front row view of a couple of drunken Aussie boys singing and acting out the song – that was a good laugh.

Actually, I do have to give Vegas that – there is good music (and a good mix of it) wherever you walk. Sure they belt out some old/romantic stuff, but they have a lot of live bands on patios and such. It’s a cool sound.

I then started my long walk back to the Stratosphere to grab all my goodies for my overnight ride to San Diego via Los Angeles. On y va!

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