Saturday, December 24, 2005 – Day Twelve – Last Day!
Despite having gone to bed at 4:00, I am up at 6:00 at the Fremont Hotel in Las Fucking Vegas. We have to leave for the airport at noon and damned if I’m going to waste any time sleeping! I shower, repack. I pack a backpack full of crap I’ll need to get ready for Christmas at my mothers, so I don’t have to lug my suitcase up her stairs. I check out, check my bags with the Bell Desk and go.
I stop at Starbucks and thank it for being open 24 hours. I hit some slots at Golden Nugget and lose like crazy. At 8:00 I head to the Golden Nugget buffet for my last meal in Vegas. I hate that.
Then I just go all around. I hit the Plaza nickel video poker and lose. I try the El Cortez and someone is on MY machine. I play around a bit and keep checking back and still someone is on MY machine. Get OFF my machine. I need to leave soon. LET ME HAVE MYYYYYYYYY MACHINE.
Finally at around 11:00, my machine is mine. But it is mad at me for leaving it alone with that other person and gives me nothing. I want one last four of a kind and it refuses.
Finally it is time to say goodbye. I tell my machine I understand she’s upset, but I really do need to leave.
I head back to the Fremont and put a $100 bill in a quarter video poker machine and get my last four of a kind! I cash out and off to the airport we go.
Our flight home is delayed. When it shows up they announce there are only 54 passengers. so pretty much everyone gets their own row. I get my own, my sister gets her own. We are all the way in the back and there are lots and lots of empty rows surrounding us. So when some man comes and sits with me, I get so annoyed. So I move. His friend sits with my sister. why? Go away. The plane is more than half empty.
I fall asleep instantly and get woken up instantly when the stewardess throws a snack box to me and hits me. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I spend the rest of the flight wishing I were asleep.
Finally we reach Long Island close to two hours late. I am hit with cold air. I start to run through my head some dates on which I can return to Vegas. I’m thinking October, although no one (including myself) believes that I won’t return before then.
The end.
awesome old trip report… oh those gaudy bedspreads in most of the rooms – loved them! thanks for reliving 2005…
I loved the Luxor bedspread with the Egyptian theme.
OMG! Those pictures of the Strat —- so retro. Thanks for posting your old TR(s). Like 95% of why I do my own TRs is to come back later and marvel at what I USED to do. Love seeing someone else do that too.
My trip reports are a diary for me. I did these things, I want to remember them. I also LOVE the outdated room photos. That Luxor bedspread was my favorite photo of this report.
Your blast from the past was just great and a lot of fun to read. Between 2000 and maybe 2012, I stayed almost always at the Stratosphere, so it was kind of nostalgic to see those old room photos. I’ve seen photos of the Fremont rooms before, but yours really showed how small the room is. You said you were a low roller back then, but you also had some good money management going on (for the most part). BTW; having porterhouse steak two nights in a row is not excessive; it makes you my hero. Thanks for digging up this report. As always, all the best to you on the next excursion.
Thanks Mike! I have been working on some other older reports I never put on this blog. Some are so old that the photos are stored separately on floppy disks. That should be fun.
I am currently in Vegas right now, so hopefully I will win a million dollars and be free to work on those older reports.
I had forgotten that you were due to return to Vegas right around now. Good luck and have fun………. and maybe another steak.
Thanks Mike!
” I am out of money so I have to take $100 out of my “emergency” stash.”
That’s like saying “I’m out of beer… except for these two beers I have over here”.
Rationalizations…