A Thursday in Vegas

It's 7:20 PM in Las Vegas on October 21st, 2021. Out on the Strip, the neon lights have come on and things are just getting started for the evening. Meanwhile, I'm in the Excalibur waiting for a show to start - the Australian Bee Gees. In the showroom, the lights are dimmed and the screens on stage are on, showing some info about their act. I already know it's gonna be good, but thanks mate.

Up on stage, the screens fade to off, the fog machines come on and the lights do too. A reiteration of what was played on the screens comes on, on the main center screen. They've played in a total of 60 countries for a few decades now, which I find pretty impressive!
(temporary time skip lmfao)

After the Show

While I can't remember now what songs they played at the very end of the show, I still remember like 95% of the rest though. My personal favorite part was when they played the two Andy songs, "Shadow Dancing" and "I Just Want to be Your Everything", complete with Andy concert footage. Plus, the guy who played Maurice was funny! I still have the paper tickets to the show. They're in my Here At Last... Bee Gees ... LIVE! album.

Walking out through the hallway, there's a merch table - CDs, shirts, hats, even a little kangaroo plush! (with a little ABG shirt on of course) My mom let me get the shirt, I have it in my closet right now, and I like to think I rock that shirt. I kinda wanted the CD but it was like $15. It was basically a like live album, with songs they played at their shows. But now, it's out of the hallway and into the greater area, with all the upper floor's restaurants. "So what to do next?" Silly question! There's always something to do in this city. So me and mum went back up to our hotel room to get my brother and my dad - we're going out tonight! And we're gonna start right here in this here castle!

And by "start right here in this here castle", I mean my mom tried her luck at the slot machines on the floor. The slots here, you can start at a dollar with them, and if you're lucky you might just win some more. Me and my brother had fun giving advice to my mom on how to spin next and maybe get a few cents more in winnings. How many lines, how high she'd bet, all that jazz. After a while, my mom ended up with three tickets, which you can redeem for your winnings. She ended up with two tickets worth - wait for it - a penny in earnings. Just remembering that makes me laugh. The third wasn't too bad though - it was a whole nickel's worth of winnings! Wow, you really can win fat stacks of cash in Vegas! Just amazing!

My mom had brought her three tickets to the counter, and we were with her, when one of the security guys out on the casino floor told her that me and my brother couldn't stand next to her while she was on the slots. Because as it turns out, if you're under 21 (the legal gambling age in Nevada), you can't be on the casino floor. Like at all. I guess you can walk and look around on the walkways though? They didn't stop us then. But regardless, this was the time when we decided to finish with the slots and go out to the Strip.

Walking the Strip

By the time we've left the Excalibur to walk the Strip, it's already dark out. If I remember correctly, it was at this point we temporarily lost dad somewhere on the casino floor, and it took us maybe 8 minutes to find him again. If not then, I know it happened some time when we were going out. But anyways, it had been dark for awhile by the time we left the Excalibur tonight. Walking out onto the street, the Luxor, with its Sky Beam shining bright up into the night sky, is right across the street from the castle.

Out on the street, neon and glitter and all the lights shine in all their glamour. New York New York, The Flamingo, Planet Hollywood, Paris (along with the Eiffel tower lit up in the French flag's colors), Harrah's, the fountains outside Caesar's Palace, the Madame Tussauds sign, Señor Frog's pirate ship, the Casino Royale sign... there's even a big McDonald's sign done up in neon here!

Now, one thing you should NOT miss in Vegas is the Fountains at Bellagio. (But really, you don't wanna miss a thing in Vegas. That's why I have major FOMO nowadays. Good ole Vegas!) Of course we got to see it! I remember the two shows we saw, the first show went along with "Time To Say Goodbye", the second show went along with Sinatra's "Luck be a Lady". The fountain shows are simply amazing, you'd really have to see one for yourself. I remember when we passed by the Bellagio during the daytime, there was a little family of ducks! Both the duck parents were in the fountain, along with around five little baby ducklings, it was so cute!
Another free show we saw on the Strip was the volcano show at the Mirage. That was amazing too! When the drums start and the anticipation rises... And when the volcano erupts, with its lava and fire! I still remember feeling the heat of the fire against my face and the way it lit up the sidewalk. It's really something to remember.

And a cool little thing about the Strip - along the sidewalks are little speakers that play music (possibly) 24/7! My iPod was dead for most of the trip 'cause I hardly had the chance to charge it, so it's nice that there was already music. Plus, my mind associates music with places/people, so that's, like, a double whammy!

Circus Circus

First opened in 1968, with the towers built in '72, one of the oldest standing hotels on the Strip - along with one of the most-photographed signs in the world (I took a picture of it myself too!). Upon first entering Slots-A-Fun, the smell of smoke hits you like a wall. It's probably woven into the very fabric of the carpet floors at this point. Penny and quarter slots line the walls, with stools that aren't necessarily looking in shambles, but definitely old. More spread out and in higher quantity are the actually modern slots, but there's some vintage-looking ones among them.

Upstairs is the Midway arcade for the kids. The stairs up look like the ones you see in the movie theatre, complete with those little lights on the side. Thankfully the smell of smoke is barely present now. In this arcade are ... pretty much the games you typically see, really - darts, claw machines, basketball, and so on. Although there are some vintage games, like the horse racing game. That was a lot of fun, although I didn't win (my brother got a little squishimals plushie). There's a version there which is the exact same, but with camels! The one thing about the playcard is that the amount of tickets required to play some games is kind of high. So I guess the more you play, the more tickets spent, and you gotta pay money to reload the card. Good ole Vegas, taking your money as often as possible and in as many different ways as possible!

After we were pretty much done with the Midway, we stopped for ice cream sundaes at the McDonald's right nearby the arcade... those were sooo delicious! Plus I hadn't had one in quite a while. We (or rather my mum) decided to stop and see a circus act. Another vintage-esque construction - bleachers as the stands, the kind you see at your high school's football field, and individual chairs at the very front rows. In front of the stands there's a good-sized platform for the acts to perform on, complete with lights, music, an announcer, and a trapeze/tightrope line up high. The show we saw was the Free Ladderman, which at first I thought was gonna be dumb, but I left pretty impressed! Who knew you could do such cool things with a ladder? Along with some fancy tricks with his hat! And then there was the bit with the hula hoop, spinning round and round! It turned out the Ladderman was the last show of the night, so we got lucky with that timing.

After the Circus Circus was all done, it was time to go somewhere else. And that "somewhere else" was nothing else but Fremont Street. But to get there, we had to take...

A Brutally, Painfully Long Bus Ride Downtown

By far the worst part of my time in Vegas, second only to going home. It must have taken 30, 35, minutes at the VERY LEAST. 45 minutes at most. But to be fair, the distance from Excalibur to Circus Circus was already 3.4 miles, and Circus to the Golden Nugget was 4 miles. So it's not like we coulda walked! But anyways, we decided to take the bus downtown. Getting our transit passes was kind of a pain, what with the payment, but not too much thankfully. After a little ~3 minute wait at the stop, our bus finally came - a yellow double-decker called the Deuce. I remember we sat in the upper floor of the bus. It was really cool to look out the window and see everything from the window seat!

I remember the Deuce picked us up around Polo Towers. On both levels of the bus there was a little screen a ways in front of our seats - showing us what stop we were at and what stop we were heading for. Like, ----o---o---o---o---o---- except in a vertical-ish curve, and stop names on the sides. Stops like the Strat on the Boulevard, St. Louis, Oakley, 4th St. & the Boulevard, the Arts District, Bonneville Transit Center, and Fremont Street Experience. The Deuce passed through the Arts District on the way to downtown as well. There were so many interesting murals on the walls, the cool businesses on the street too... When I go to Fremont again, I might consider walking through the Arts District, just because. It seems like a really nice place.

The traffic going north was kinda heavy by my standards. Definitely worse than what it's usually like in, say, the Vista or even just going to the mall. Probably standard Vegas traffic (there was definitely slowed traffic at some points for sure), but OH MY GOD the amount of time we spent at every freaking stop!!! It must have been 4 minutes every time! Now look, I could be exaggerating, but I know for sure it was over two minutes. And I really just wanted to get there already, y'know? The anticipation was killing me!

And there were a few ... annoying people on the bus too. Like, this was the one part of the trip that I regretted the fact that I couldn't charge my iPod, never mind the fact that I'd already lost both of the rubber tips for my earbuds back in Arizona a few days prior. Shove 'em right into my ears, hard ends and all. But anyways, while there were some chill, "normal" people immediately next to us, there was some crying baby in the front row further up in the bus. The baby must'ave been with some relatives or something, but one of the people up there was very much annoying. Like, every time the baby started to cry, she was like "Shut up." Every, single, time. After five minutes it started really annoying me. Like, why don't you shut up? Maybe the kid wants to be held or something.

Another reason that the bus sucked was, well, everything. The baby crying, and the "shut up"s, the time the bus took at every stop (plus the time it took to get to Fremont), and the fact that I didn't have my music. Honestly, I was getting pretty stressed and fidgety about it all, like "I just wanna get off this damn bus already". At least the people in the rows behind us were quiet.

Fortunately, I just looked out the window most've the time and tried to ignore everything. Pro Tip: If you just daydream for 5 minutes, it'll end up being 10, 15, or more! So I got through it alright, we got to Fremont, and the best part of the night was about to begin - finally!

The Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street. Part of Downtown Las Vegas, sometimes called "Old Vegas", other times "the Glitter Gulch". Overhead, the VivaVision shows a cool-looking neon light pattern, blasting music from its speakers up high. SlotZilla's up there too, and people are zip-lining down the street from higher up. Must be a great view! On the ground, flanking the street are casinos - Binion's, Four Queens, Golden Nugget, The D, Fremont Casino. Souvenir shops - Fabulous Las Vegas, Viva Vegas, Souvenir Super Mart. Over one of the shops, Vegas Vic watches over the hustle and bustle of Fremont. Bars - D Bar, Legacy Club, The Griffin, Corduroy, Fat Tuesday Neonopolis. Mom actually did stop at Fat Tuesday for a strawberry daiquiri slushy. I still have the glass it was in, actually, but I just use it as a change collector now. There's a ton of restaurants on Fremont as well, including the ✨charming✨ Heart Attack Grill.

Walking further down, there's three different stages where live bands play. Tonight, the three bands are Alter Igor, Spandex Nation, and Zowie Bowie. Alter Igor was playing "Let's Do the Time Warp Again", Spandex Nation was playing "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Mötley Crüe (perfect for las vegas!), and I stayed around the longest for Zowie Bowie's show. I remember when I first saw Zowie Bowie, I said to myself, "Holy shit! Zowie Bowie!" (thankfully the music was loud, otherwise mum woulda heard me!) My gullible self then thought it was Barry Manilow for a bit - they did have a similar hairstyle. (And now I'm gonna get made fun of for that, dammit!) He was performing with Christina Amato, who's actually really good, she went out on stage a couple times or sang along with Zowie. I honestly had such a good time at the Zowie show - when he was singing "That's the Way I lIke It", I absolutely was singing along with him! There really is no party like a Zowie Bowie party, lemme tell ya. One of the highlights of my trip to Vegas for sure!

Going Home

I think it was around one, one-thirty in the morning when my dad started complaining and wanted to go back to the Excalibur. Some drunk guy had accidentally spilled his beer on him. Honestly, I'd be a little mad too, but I'm the type to just wipe it off and get back to having fun, ya know? But being him, he bitched for a good two and a half minutes about wanting to go home already and how he was tired. oi! Anyways, after a little bit, we decided to finally leave Fremont Street to go back to the room. As we walked back to the entrance, there was a band playing on stage - Spandex Nation. Basically, they were a hair metal cover/tribute band. The song we got to see them play was "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Mötley Crüe. Looking back I find it kinda funny they play "Girls, Girls, Girls" in Vegas, what with all the showgirls and burlesque shows. But anyways, I thought that show was really good. My dad likes classic rock and all that so I know he liked it (even though he was pissed about the beer).

All in all, the Spandex Nation show was pretty cool to see, even though we caught them at their last song of their set - some DJ was playing next. It was at this point of the night that we left to the entrance of Fremont. We were around the entrance of the Golden Nugget when we caught our taxi back to the Excalibur. The driver was really nice and we had a good conversation about Las Vegas. Mostly, I just looked out the window at all the lights out on the street. I remember I saw the Strat tower lit up from quite a ways away, which was pretty cool!

The taxi dropped us off at the Mirage, (if I remember correctly) so we just walked the rest of the way to the Excal. The drive must have been a good ~7 miles from the Golden Nugget and then a 1.7 mile walk to the Excalibur from the Mirage. At least I got to see all the neon lights on the Strip while I was walking home, so that's good. So anyways, we got to the Excal all right, scanned the card, took the elevator to the room, got ready for bed, and ... over n' done.

Of course, my mum had to watch TV for 15 minutes or whatever, I was texting my best friend about my night out, my brother was on his phone, and dad was already asleep and snoring. (I figured.)

So right now, it's 2 AM in Las Vegas on October 22nd, 2021. Out on the Strip, the neon lights shine in their full splendor. The night is dark and endless and full of promise, but I'm fast asleep now in the Excalibur...

A Sequels This Way Cometh

• Micky Goes to Vegas, Again, the sequel (COMING MARCH 2024!!!)
• Micky's Big-Freakin-Deal 21st Birthday Blowout, the obligatory threequel. What's it like to turn 21 in Las Vegas? Find out here! (coming nov/dec '24)

I should point out too, the next editions are gonna be WAY more detailed 'coz i've got a phone now, so I can more easily update things while I'm out; kinda like live-tweeting yaknow?