Yes I know my last post was long, this one will probably be long also. Get over it.

Ok, so I woke up at 5:30a Vegas time. I let Michelle sleep until about 7am.

She woke up with her first beer hangover. Now she understands why I don’t drink beer anymore.

It was a long night trying to sleep. Every 15-20 mins there would be a loud banging noise. Come to find out it was the air conditioning.

On the way to breakfast we stopped by the front desk & told them about it. After breakfast we headed back up to the room to get ready for our drive out to the Valley of Fire State Park. After about 5 minutes the maintenance man showed up. He was a very nice guy. He messed with the A/C & said the problem was something with the metal covered filter not fitting tight. He said he would get some velcro put on it & get it to stay in place. As he was leaving I decided he deserved a tip. He said he would make sure it was quiet by the time we returned.

The drive out to Valley of Fire took about 45 mins or so & was awesome. We saw a lot of scenery neither of us had seen before. The rock “mountains” are actually sandstone formations “formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs, 150 million years ago”

Here are some pics –

I saw these holes way up the side of the mountain that looked like caves & had to go check them out -

If you look close, you can see me in this one -

Here is a pic I took with my phone of the “cave” -

Michelle stayed down where it was safe & took pictures -

Here is a couple links to panoramic pics I took -

Pic 1

Pic 2

If you want to see all the other pics, here are the links -

Pics taken with camera

Pics taken with Iphone

We got back to the hotel about 5pm. After arriving back in the room I once again heard the horrible LOUD banging of the A/C. So I called the front desk & asked them to tell Doug (that was the maintenance guy) and let him know the noise was still there. With in what seemed like 2 minutes Doug was knocking on our door. He said he thought it was fixed. I had figured out the noise happened every time the A/C shut off. Doug figured out it was the water pipe that controlled the cooling of the temperature that was making the banging noise. Every time the A/C shut off the water pressure made a BANG. Doug told us he technically was off the clock & wasn’t sure what to do to fix the problem. Then he asked if we could live with it until the morning. I started to say no & then he said if we could, he may be able to get us upgraded to the next higher room. So I told him if he could do that, yes we could deal with it 1 more night. I don’t think he would have offered the upgrade if I wouldn’t have tipped him.

We decided to order room service for lunch since the prices were almost exactly the same as down in the restaurant & that way we could rest after our journey. Here is a pic of my burger -

While Michelle took a nap, I decided to go visit the Wheel of Fortune machine that was so generous to me the day before. With in 30 minutes I had lost $60 on it. Well that was fun, interesting, a learning experience.

After Michelle woke up, she said she wanted to go to bingo. She loves bingo & there isn’t really anywhere to play around where we live, so I agreed. I had thought bingo was an old lady game. Yeah, I was wrong. You would be surprised at how many younger people were there & guys too. So I got an electronic machine. The thing was awesome. You didn’t have to do anything but sit there & watch it. Bingo was fun. $60 for both of us to “gamble” for 1 hr. The cheapest gambling we had found so far & people were actually winning. Some sessions paid $480 & you had the chance of winning up to $5000 on the last game.

After bingo we went back to our hotel for dinner. The restaurant their had $7.95 prime rib special (included 2 vegetables & soup or salad). Hell for that price I expected something barely resembling prime rib. I was wrong. We were served the same style prime rib I have paid $25 for elsewhere. Guess what we ate almost every night for dinner???

Here is the view from the restaurant looking out over the casino –

Michelle decided not to drink, but I picked up her slack by throwing back a few Captain Morgan & diet cokes.

Around 1am I won $72 on the nickel slot machines. This softened the blow of losing $50 right before that at the card tables.

Got to sleep around 1am, but once again woke up around 6am. Damn, I need to get sleep sometime. Put ear plugs in so I wouldn’t have to listen to the A/C banging.

Ok, that is it for day 2. Not as long of a write up as day 1 was.

Now on to day 3.

Yes this post is long, sorry. I have a lot of stories to share. If you don’t like it, MOVE ON. Go read another blog somewhere else.

Our day started at 3:30am on Wed 2/4 (after falling asleep around midnight). We woke up to 19 degree weather with snow & ice everywhere. For the first time since we have been here, our steps & walkway were iced over.

This snapshot was taken after we arrived at the airport. It had warmed up by then.

The roads were HORRIBLE. About 20 miles out of town we had to slow down from 55mph to about 30-35. Even then the car was slipping & sliding a lot. There was about a 5-6 mile stretch were the car had no traction at all. I figured once we got on the interstate it would be better……… WRONG

When we got on I-485, there was so much snow on the road you could not see what lane you were in. The fun “surprise” that the interstate had was all the ice under the snow. Once we got onto I-85, the snow was “gone” but the ice was still in spots. Upon arriving at the airport’s long term parking lot, we thought all the ice issues were done…..once again – WRONG.

Tried to step out of the car only to find out the ice in the parking lot was about 1/4 inch thick. Almost put my fat butt on the ground finding that out. So we “carefully” walked to the little “hut” to wait for the shuttle to the airport terminal. The “hut” is elevated about 6-8 inches off the ground & has a ramp going up into it (which was covered with ice). With my long legs this was no problem, but Michelle couldn’t make it up the ramp, so I had to pull her into the shelter.

We made it through security with little problem, well I had no problem. Michelle’s bag was pulled off for an extra search & she got the extra pat down. I guess she had something in her carry on that showed up as a solid mass & the X-ray machine couldn’t figure out what it was.

On to the gate. Once someone showed up at the ticket counter, I was able to get our seats changed to the emergency exit row (so I could have extra leg room). Unfortunately this meant Michelle & I were split up, but it wasn’t a huge split up. We both were given middle seats & her seat was right in front of mine. Upon departing the gate, the person that had purchased the seat next to mine had not arrived, so Michelle moved back to the same row I was on.

WOOHOO – off to Vegas.

We left 19 degree weather in North Carolina and arrived to 70 degree weather in Vegas. AWESOME….

The flight was pretty much uneventful (a good thing) and we arrived a little early (I love direct flights). Since we only had carry on baggage (I had shipped all our other stuff via UPS) we had no reason to spend time at baggage claim (exactly why I shipped stuff ahead of time). So we were off to the rental car shuttle bus. The new set up for rental cars at the Las Vegas airport is great. All the rental car companies are  all located in the same location. We had booked online & had everything set up ahead of time. So all I had to do was go to an electronic kiosk, swipe the credit card I had used online & verify the info on screen was correct. It printed out our claim ticket & we headed to the garage. Once in the garage a lot person checked the info & pointed you to the whichever row had the style car you had rented. All the cars had the keys in the doors. Seeing this, I decided to see if I could upgrade for no charge. With a $20 tip I was upgraded from a very tiny car, up to a Mazda 3. WOOHOO – off to the hotel.

We decided to stay in downtown Vegas (the older part), as opposed to the strip. The strip is where all the HUGE themed hotels are. We decided to stay downtown for numerous reasons, one being we could walk to other casinos if we wanted to. Out on the strip you walk about half mile getting from the entrance of 1 hotel to another.

Upon arriving at the hotel (The Four Queens), I decided to do the tip thing again to see if we could get our room upgraded. Here is a little bit of advice for anyone trying this – do not try to tip the supervisor. They tend to follow the rules. So no “free room upgrade”, but we were able to upgrade to a “mini suite” for $40 a night. This changed us from a tiny room with just a bed & bathroom, up to a room with a living room area & a bar area with a mini fridge & mini sink. Works for me.

Pics of our hotel –

Pics of our room –

Here is a picture of the view from our room. The view wasn’t great but could have been A LOT worse (yes it is a night time shot, the day time one didn’t turn out well)–

After checking out the room we went to the “Brew Pub” in our hotel for lunch. The food was great & they had very good prices. Here is the view from the table we were sitting at –

After lunch we decided to play some slots. Here are 2 pics – 1 of Michelle & 1 of me playing our first slot machines of this trip. We both put in $20 & lost it -

Next we played the “Wheel of Fortune” slot machines. They are nickel slots, but the trick to that is to actually win a large amount, you need to “play multiple lines”. Each line cost a nickel to play & then you can either play 1x or all the way up to 9x your bet. The ones we were playing had 25 lines. I put in $20 and just as I was getting ready to use last couple dollars I won $50. So I cashed out.

A smart person would have walked away. I should have walked away. I never win anything when I gamble. That is why I cashed out the $50. But something told me to keep playing. So I put in another $20, and the machine was teaching me a lesson. Just as it was getting ready to take my last dollar I won. I WON… holy crap I WON again… this time for $256 –

For those of you that have never played these kinds of slot machines, you are probably wondering about the printed ticket in the picture. That is how most of the slot machines pay out now. You either take the ticket to the cashier booth or take it to what looks like an ATM machine & it will cash it out. Or if you are like me, if it isn’t a HUGE win, you put the ticket in another slot machine & keep playing.

I was very excited to have actually won something like that. The only problem was this changed my feeling about gambling & set me up to do A LOT of gambling the rest of the trip.

Anyway, after winning we decided to take a tour of downtown Fremont Street. I really like it on Fremont. They have blocked off most of the original Fremont Street & made it into a pedestrian walkway. This allows you to walk in & out of the casinos without worrying about traffic. There are 2 spots where you have to cross normal roads, but they have it set up so the traffic gets red lights every 50 seconds. It literally only takes about 10-15 minutes to walk from one end of Fremont to the other.

They have also set up a huge LED screen canopy & starting at 6p they do a 5 minute light show every hour on this canopy. It is awesome to see.

According to their website, the canopy stretches for 5 football fields & has 12.5 million LED modules. The music they play is LOUD  & definitely adds to the experience.

To watch our first Fremont Street light show, Michelle & I decided to go to a bar located at the Fitzgerald Hotel & Casino. The Fitzgerald was literally right next door to where we were staying. The bar we went to is on the 2nd floor & has a balcony that looks out over Fremont Street. Here are some pics from there –

We went back to our hotel/casino & Michelle sat down at the 3 card poker table. I sat down with $50 and in 20 minutes I had handed over the entire $50 to the dealer. Michelle did pretty good for a little while. I moved on to play the slot machines for a couple hours.

Finally laid down sometime after 2am (Vegas time). I had been up since 3:30am (North Carolina time), and had only slept for about 3 & 1/2 hrs before getting on the plane. I woke up at 8:30am. Well 8:30am East coast time, so it was actually 5:30am where we were and I could not get back to sleep.

Wouldn’t you know it. We show up in Vegas & they get their first LARGE amount of moisture. What that means is the mountains got A LOT of snow & the city was forecasted to get A LOT of rain. It rained some, but what really sucked is the temperature dropped. The highs were in the mid 50s and the lows were in high 30s to low 40s, with A LOT of wind.

Ok. I know that this post was LONG. So I will break these posts up by the day they happened.

• Uugghh.. 6:30a & getting ready to head to airport. Time change going back east will suck. Will lose 3hrs #
• 2hrs til take off http://twitpic.com/1f554 #
• Taking off from vegas http://twitpic.com/1fbly #
• Landing in charlotte http://twitpic.com/1fbmj #
• @haightonline thanks man.. Yes we need to hang out. We want to bore you with all our pictures in reply to haightonline #
• Home.. Resting for an hour then heading to charlotte to pick up sister from bus station at midnight. Sisters & mom going to see brother #
• @haightonline approx 550 pics on iPhone, 350 or so on camera in reply to haightonline #
• @haightonline all of them except the hot tub pic.. Already scared you with that one even though it doesn’t show anything in reply to haightonline #
• My brother is not doing well. His cancer is worse than we knew #

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• Went to bellagio, flamingos, imperial palce, bally’s & Paris hotels/casinos from noon to 6:30p #
• At the Luxor http://twitpic.com/1er8o #
• Michelle’s first day (in almost a week) with no alcohol. Will she survive? #

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We are back from Vegas. I will delete the double blog posts that Twitter made & write a trip report (maybe tomorrow).

• @haightonline sorry. Was losing money all day. in reply to haightonline #
• Went to see show at Stratosphere called Bite. Was pretty good. Had my head rubbed twice by 2 vampires #
• View from stratosphere parking garage http://twitpic.com/1dy3g #
• Woohoo… 7hrs sleep #
• Michelle is killing them on slots today. Most recent, put in $10, won $94. She won $20 at other hotel slots & $20 at card tables #
• I lost $60, but just won $85 at least I am even today, lost $200 yesterday. #
• Off to the strip to see the Vegas that everyone else comes here to see. I prefer downtown area where we are staying. Not as fancy but still #
• In front of bellagio waiting for fountain show http://twitpic.com/1eahz #
• Fountain show at Bellagio http://twitpic.com/1eapn #
• At Imperial Palace. Worlds largest auto collection. Cars for sale up to $6.5 million. The ones on display not for sale have value up to 10.5 #
• One of approx 200 pics taken at auto collection http://twitpic.com/1ed8f #
• Wow http://twitpic.com/1eddh #

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• Played 3 card poker, some slots & other card games from 9pm tip about 1:30am… Walked away up about $140 from poker.. Time for bed #
• I really need to start getting more sleep in reply to haightonline #
• @haightonline thanks. Don’t get the wrong idea, I have still lost more than I have won, but it’s still fun in reply to haightonline #
• @adventuresofJ can you pass me some coffee?? in reply to adventuresofJ #
• @adventuresofJ thank you in reply to adventuresofJ #
• My luck at card tables from last night did NOT transfer over to today… #
• @haightonline which one? in reply to haightonline #
• @adventuresofJ nice in reply to adventuresofJ #

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