SH0CK's Misadventures 2016 (S&M 2016)

As always it was wonderful seeing "Our Vegas Family". Once a year if definitely not enough.

 

You were sooooooooo funny. "Trust me Patti I am fine" as you were stumbling into the wall. "Shhhhhhh they are noisy, you have to take them away cuz I need my bed". Not to mention the poor people who were once again drunk dialed.

 

Just getting home and seeing that I'm several days behind on this. It was almost a tale of two trips, but I hope to have some more posted soon

I don't know what you mean Miss Patti

 

Friday morning rolls around and I've gotta say goodbye to room 3682 at the Cosmo and move over to the Flamingo. I get a text from IllMarty about meeting up for breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi, but had to pass since there was no way I could make it in time.


One of my favorite shots from the night before...


Hard to say goodbye to my two lovely room mates for the past few days...

After checking out, I head down to the main entrance to hail a Lyft, but couldn't find the sign that said "Ride Sharing Pick Up" but just found one marked "Ride Sharing" which I thought was the drop off spot since it was stuck over the corner. I give up on the Lyft and just catch a cab.

I get to the Flamingo and find the lines are outrageous for check in. I dig through my phone email to find their offer for self check in, but still have to use their kiosks, which proudly tell me that I can come back at 12:30 to pick up the keys or pay $35+ to get them now. Total con. I decide to save the cash and meet up with SanofreSurfer to toss my luggage in his room. He had booked the same room type as I, a studio king, so I got a look at what the room would look like. Even by his own admission, his room was old and worn and faced Ballys, so I didn't have high hopes for mine later.

Someone says the Flamingo pool has cabanas available for a $100 rental plus $100 minimum food/beverage (and minimum 20% tip built into the f/b part.) We figure it's a good way to start the day, so head that way. Of course, the main pool's cabanas are $500 on the weekday, but the upper pool's cabanas are the $100 I mentioned. Still sounds good to us, so we camp out in cabana 2 until we figure out the TV is broken and the number of ants way outnumber the people. Our friendly cabana host offers to move us to cabana 3 and that works out much better. We spend the rest of the day drinking and relaxing with the girls and the board couple DarNae swinging by as well. We end up shutting the pool down at 5 then decide to hit the Flamingo food court for some dinner to soak up the excess booze. Several of us grabbed some Chinese food which, I'd have to say, was mediocre at best.

After dinner, we all disperse but have plans to meet up at Slots A Fun about 7:30. I head over to the kiosk to get my room keys and it prints me directions to the Spa Tower, room 8001. I head up with SanofreSurfer to get my bags out of his room then head two floors down to mine.

Needless to say, my room was almost the complete opposite of SanofreSurfer's room. Mine had a newer bed and mattress as well as larger and cleaner couch and chairs along with a nice view of the pool.



I get unpacked and catch a quick snooze before the text messages start rolling in close to 7:30. I meet up with the other fellows and I call for a Lyft since it's clearly marked at the Flamingo just passed the roundabout. A quick ride down to Circus Circus (Slots A Fun didn't show up when I tried to find it in the app) for $7 after tip (remember I was getting 50% off all week day rides, so it would have been $12 after tip otherwise) and we meet up with the group. Great to see our local friends, Vegas Tonya and her husband along with, well she went by Bliss on the board, but we know her as Liz. Some of the group broke off to bowl, while others gambled, but the majority of us just sat around some tables and drank and gossiped about old times.



Once the group found out some of us, me being one, had never been inside Circus Circus, we were dragged kicking and screaming across the parking lot inside.

My first thought as soon as I got inside was of Clark Griswold at the Grand Canyon in the original Vacation movie.



The group headed upstairs to the Midway and made a lap to see what was up there before the majority of us headed back downstairs to play more adult games. After about an hour of low rolling, we found ourselves outside of Vince Neil's place which had some decent karaoke going on. You could tell the night and trip was winding down for a lot of us, so we started saying our goodbyes. The Cosmo girls headed back to their hotel with Liz while the rest of us took a Lyft back to Flamingo.

IllMarty was pounding away at a Game of Thrones machine, which would end up being a recurring theme the rest of the trip. I needed to get over to a MGM property to snag a Gold card before they switched me back over to Sapphire before midnight. I made it in plenty of time to the Bellagio, but know it would have made a better story if I had gotten there with less than a minute to spare... Needless to say, I got myself a couple of Gold cards so I can at least add them to my Player's Card collection. I played just enough to keep my play active in their system until the next trip and cashed out $25 to the good on a Top Dollar bonus.

I headed back toward Flamingo, but felt the day drinking and activities had gotten the best of me. I stopped at the new CVS along the way back and grabbed a sandwich, chips, and some Powerade for the room. After I got back to the room, I got a picture from Sonya with the caption saying


"SanofreSurfer is on his 3rd Jager shot. He may need a ride home."
Which my reply before bed was "Let me know when he's on his 10th. That's when it gets iffy."

I assumed everything was OK as I slept soundly and never heard a peep

 

SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

 

The slice of Americana that is Circus Circus. Lol

Good stuff!

 

Saturday morning and the best day of the week... college football!

The week before when Tennessee came from behind against Florida to win, I decided I'd chance it and wear my favorite Vol colors... with every intention of quickly changing clothes if they screwed the pooch at Georgia.



I figured ATCMurph, Sonya, and DarNae weren't going to be up for a day of football, so I sent out a message to the Flamingo boys and both were slow moving this morning. That CVS special sandwich from the night before wasn't cutting it this morning, so I headed out to find some grub.


SanofreSurfer: Apparently the Jager fairy showed up while I was sleeping and left this next to my bed. I obviously didn't buy it last night, since its still full!

I end up down by the food court and figure I'd just grab something quick. LA Subs looked good, so I ordered up a sandwich and fries to subside the morning hunger pangs. The fries were really good, but the sandwich was pretty mediocre. Definitely not a fan of hard bread on a ham and turkey sandwich. So, with that out of the way, I headed over to the Patio Bar that SanofreSurfer had suggested that we watch the games and drink at. Lynn was our bartender for the day. Seemed like a nice guy and would see him plenty of times for the rest of the trip. I bought in on the DDB machine and got served up a Blue Moon draft after several hands.

Since it was just me and the Tennessee/Georgia game wasn't on until later, I just played video poker more than watch the Iowa State/Baylor or Syracuse/Notre Dame games that were on... though one of the other bar patrons got shot down when he asked Lynn about changing one of the games to the Ryder Cup. Pretty sure he snickered at the guy when he told him they weren't allowed to change it from football on Saturdays. As I found out later, the Patio bar didn't have the light system yet, but Lynn told me they planned on installing it soon and they had to keep an eye on people's play for now. He was consistent with this for everyone, letting them play for a few minutes at max bet before approaching them for a drink. Now, the relief bartender didn't give a shit... but was slow getting drinks and making change anyway.



Eventually, the boys make it down to the bar and we find 3 seats together near the windows and we get Lynn to put my game on and the Michigan/Wisconsin game on the middle TV, since Marty had a bet on that one. Honestly, if it weren't for the pictures above, I'd have no clue how I did at video poker that afternoon. The Blue Moons and Jack Honey Waters kept coming and Tennessee was stinking up the first half, but came from behind and won on a Hail Mary to end the game. By that time, the boys had stepped outside and left me alone to watch the game. That last couple of minutes of the game caused all sorts of excitement and frustration and finally exhilaration as the Vols won. I'm usually a pretty quiet and reserved person, but my hooting and hollering at the end had Lynn and several of the other people at the bar wonder WTF was going on.

Anyway... Tennessee wins and I'm hammered from the beer and JDH. Donger need food. IllMarty spoke highly of the pizza at the place near the Diamond Lounge saying it was much better and cheaper than that stuff they served at the Food Court. Sounded good to me. A couple of slices of pepperoni and a Coors Light from the Garden Bar courtesy of IllMarty's drink vouchers from his sports bet (what do you mean they're only good for domestic beer?!?) hit the spot. After that though, I needed a nap. LOL

Later in the evening, I get a message from SanofreSurfer who was trying to find out where everyone was. A bunch of folks were headed downtown for dinner at Binions, but I could tell I wasn't in much shape to travel. I met up with him in the casino and found out IllMarty had been hitting the Game of Thrones game pretty hard after I left him and was still up in his room. Still feeling the booze from earlier in the day, which means damn I was hungry, we headed over to Carlos'n Charlie's for some Mexican food. The chips and salsa along with a huge burrito with rice and beans were pretty tasty, but I think I enjoyed the, what seemed like, gallons of ice water I drank more.

We finally catch up with IllMarty and roam decide we need some fresh air. We hit up the Linq promenade and I remind IllMarty of the good time we had at Brooklyn Bowl last December with their drinks at happy hour. Almost on queue, some guy is hollering from just outside Brooklyn Bowl about half price drinks and appetizers for their happy hour. SanofreSurfer has to quickly kill his drink before getting wanded to enter, then we head up to the bar. Last December, IllMarty, Doc Al, and myself tried out their Drunken Palmer and Rum Punch, with the Drunken Palmer being the clear cut favorite. For those not in the know, an Arnold Palmer is lemonade and tea mixed together. Must be a Yankee thing since they don't have the yummy goodness were call sweet tea down here in the South (we also have rampant diabetes but those two things may not be related .) But back to the Drunken Palmer, it's made out of Seagram's Sweet Tea Vodka & lemonade. Give it a good stir to chill it and mix the two and you've got yourself one drink that goes down smooth and sneaks up on you later on. We each had a few of these along with the BBQ Pork Sliders and got to listen to some band playing inside. They played a lot of songs we knew from Foo Fighters to Metallica and some 90's hip hop. They weren't half bad, but I wouldn't pay money to hear them play either.


Drunken Palmers at Brooklyn Bowl.

By this time, it was way past midnight so we called it a day.

 

Rise and shine cause it's NFL football time.

We had talked about it on Friday and the weather was nice enough and our bankrolls low enough that getting a cabana at the upper pool again was a good idea. IllMarty lined it up, this time we're moved over to cabana one to complete the trifecta of cabanas on that side of the pool. When I get there, IllMarty is already munching down on a breakfast burrito. Our lovely waitress comes by and I order the same along with a pitcher of some vodka and lemonade concoction that ended up being pretty tasty. SanofreSurfer finally sees daylight right about the time of the Raiders/Ravens game that we had on. It was a cool day out and it seemed like every parent with kids in Vegas were around the pool. Really, they weren't that bad or loud, but we did start questioning whether we should have sprung for a cabana at the other pool. I know at some point, we ordered up a bucket of beer along with a bucket of Henry's Hard Ginger Ale (to settle poor SanofreSurfer's tummy) but were denied on the Ginger Ale front as they couldn't find any. They offered up some Henry's Hard Orange Soda instead which ended up being so good, we ordered another bucket. With all this booze, we needed more food later to soak it all up and a HUGE nacho platter was what fit the bill.


Then there are these from an earlier post:

We watched the Cowboys/49ers game later and stayed until closing at 5. Somehow, I ended up with a bucket of Hard Orange Soda in my room at the end of the day too. We all split off to get ready for the evening (read that as taking a power nap.)

I meet up with IllMarty who has a room at the Cosmo lined up for that evening through some promotion. He head down there to get him checked in and they give him a room in the West Tower, without a terrace, but, from my understanding, much larger than a regular city room. It had a separate bedroom that had glass privacy doors and a view of Aria out the windows. The "living room" was fairly large as well and had at least a 60" television on the wall and a dinning room table between it and the L shaped couch along the wall. It also had a 1.5 bath. Like I said, I'm not sure what this room was but it was still pretty nice. The only drawback was a lound wind noise coming though some of the air ducts, especially in the half bath. It wasn't as loud if you closed the privacy doors in the bedroom, but I could imagine being pretty pissed off with that in the middle of the night.

Either way, we hung out in the room for a bit then headed over to PHo to check out the craps options. Nothing really looked that appealing to us, but we found some 100 play machines and ran some money though them. I think I ended up just a little bit, but a win is a win, so I'll take it. Notice there's one Royal Flush in there... I still say that counts



After video poker, we realized the nachos from earlier the day had worn off so I headed over to PF Changs for dinner. I had the Honey Chicken and lettuce wraps. Excellent as always.

After dinner, we started heading back to the Flamingo, but saw a sign at the Cromwell for $5 craps with 100X odds. Well, who can say no to that?

We ended up finding the one $5 table they had and it was pretty choppy at first then got ugly. I'd bought in for $200 but got close to busting out several times and I know IllMarty had to reload his bullets at least once before the dice got to us. We had some nice rolls and some $5 pass line with $50 odd behind them saved our bacon several times. I'm sorry to say though, I was that guy at the table. I had the 6 & 8 up along with my pass line bet then started laying some come bets. When you're rolling and making numbers this is a good way to have money on the table, but when you've just made your point and have 4 come bets still on the table when you roll a 7 on the next come out roll (without backing those up with a Big Red bet) it kinda sucks! At least I learned that lesson on a cheap table and was able to correct that the next day... but that is another post.

After we both cashed out slightly down on craps, we headed back to the Flamingo and called it a night.

 

Patio Bar? Is that the place where the former Sin City Brew Co. was in the lobby area of Flamingo?

And that miracle 4 card pull on the penny Royal, should have saved that for quarter bartop like my machine neighbor did at TAG... But it's still a royal!

 

Yeah, SanofreSurfer kept calling it that, but I never saw any signs with that name. I saw it was called Patio Bar on the property map though, so I ran with that.

Still have one day left to report though

 

Monday, the final full day.

The night before IllMarty and I planned on having breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi until I checked with SanofreSurfer about coming with us. He had a Diamond celebration voucher burning a hole in his pocket and wanted to treat us and his friends visiting from Minnesota to breakfast at Guy Fieri's place. Sounded good to me, but IllMarty was a late scratch due to having to be responsible and take care of some work phone calls early that morning.

I met up with SanofreSurfer at the bar at Linq to wait on everyone. Here is was his last morning in Vegas and he was still giving the video poker a go. We met up with his friends and had and enjoyable breakfast, but I can't say that Guy Fieri does breakfast food all that great as the menu seemed very limited. I had a breakfast burrito that came with some tortilla chips with a cheese sauce on them which was pretty good. Though the company was much better than the food.

After breakfast, SanofreSurfer had to finish up a few things before heading back to San Diego and IllMarty was still being the bossman, so I headed back upstairs to organize my stuff so I wouldn't have to worry about packing later that night or early Tuesday morning for the flight home. I get a message to meet everyone down at the Patio bar to say our good byes to SanofreSurfer. One last drink before the road and SanofreSurfer was headed home.

IllMarty and I were the last 2 people standing now, so we looked at each other and decided we needed to find a craps or Pai Gow table. I suggest Cromwell to look for that $5 table, but we were disappointed that they only one $10 table going. Instead of craps, we found their bank of Game of Thrones machines and took a small beating followed by a nastier beating at some Top Dollar machines. Worst bonus round ever at 5 credits. I should have just got up and left... or so said the people playing the machines beside me. I should have listened. Either way, I have always found the machines at Paris to be pretty tight, but I'm pretty sure Cromwell's machine could crush coal into diamonds. Just brutal.

We start heading back to Harrahs as IllMarty seems to enjoy playing there, but got sidetracked at Linq when we saw one end of a craps table open. It was a $10 table, but we needed to get back in the game. We played for quite awhile at what seemed like the most quiet craps table in the world. The other end had 4 older guys playing and they barely made a peep and the dealers, well, I think we should have been checking them for a pulse at times. I even made a comment to IllMarty that we should hoot and holler at any win just to get the energy up at that table. At least we made friends with a Australian woman and her two Indian friends who tried to bring up the energy at our end of the table.

By the time the dice got to us though, I was almost tapped out. Luckily, we both had some good rolls and I learned not backing up your 4 come bets with a big red bet on the come out roll after making your last point is just plain dumb. This was also the point where I think I'll just give up come bets and stick with place bets. We ended up at that table for over an hour and a half and I came back from $200 down to about even. Sounds like a win in my book.

Breakfast had been quite awhile back so we headed to Ruth's Chris for dinner. If I was a man of infinite wealth, I think I would eat there all they time. Love the service and the food. We ended up getting the 3-course tasting menu along with an extra side. I had the 16oz ribeye and IllMarty had the 11oz filet and we shared creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, and sweet potato casserole. And, of course, they brought White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake with Chocolate Almond Bark to round off the meal at the end. Damn that was good.




After dinner, what else could we do? Let's hit the Harrahs craps tables! We find another $10 table with none one at one end and buy in. Again, the table kept knocking up down, but wasn't ice cold. At least I learned my lesson and did place bets with the occasional press that kept me treading water. The next thing we know, our new Australian friend sneaks up beside us and buys in asking how the table is doing. By the time the dice to her, IllMarty and I were close to busting out again. Our Australian friend had a decent roll, followed by IllMarty who restocked our bullets even more. By the time I got them, I was down about a hundy then set a point of 9. I placed the 6 & 8 then preceded to just hammer the 8 like I owned it. By the time I finished my roll, I was up $200 and one happy camper.

We said our goodbyes to our Australian friend, but weren't ready to head back just yet. I had received a text from SanofreSurfer earlier in the week when he was out looking for hangover remedies when he saw the "Oxygen Bar" at Harrahs. We saw the bar and thought it might be good for a laugh and it pretty much was. They hooked us up to the oxygen machines then preceded to use different device to massage our backs, necks, and heads. OK, the scalp massager is just weird and we really don't know if the oxygen part did anything, but the back and necks massages were pretty good. $30 after tip for a few laughs (and pictures I'm not sharing) and a more relaxed backs and we headed over to Walgreens to grab some Powerade, then back to Flamingo.

When we got back to the Flamingo, IllMarty found an open spot at Game of Thrones and I found a video poker machine to my liking. Instead of DDB, I switched it up and played Deuces Bonus Poker. Oh where has this game been all my life.




IllMarty swings by to see how I'm doing, well, more to gloat at his $800 win on GOT... bastard. But I was doing pretty well on this game. I even made some money using the double up feature on these machines, so I'm expecting that to be gone the next time we come back. At the end of the night, I was up a couple of hundred on Deuces Bonus Poker. We made plans to meet up early the next morning for breakfast, then I grabbed some pizza and called it a night.

 

A small excerpt from Tuesday...

We both had flights within an hour of each other, so IllMarty and I met up about 8 so we could make sure we could enjoy breakfast and have time to make it to the airport. We walked over to Mon Ami Gabi and were able to get a table outside with no trouble. The service and food here always seems to be great, but I figured it was going to be a long day due to the flights home, so I opted for a ham and cheese omelet which hit the spot. We just sat there, relaxed, retold stories about the previous few days like 2 old friends catching up after years of being apart. Sometimes it's just nice to stop and smile at all the stupid shit you and your friends do.

I got an alert that my flight was delayed by an hour, so we said our goodbyes and I headed back to my room to grab a quick snooze, because, well, I could

I checked out, knowing there was nothing Total Rewards could do to help a brother out since my video poker and craps play is just not that strong. I called a Lyft and she arrived about 5 minutes later. Check in went smooth and security only took about 15 minutes to get through. The next thing I know, I'm the last one out for this trip.

 

Final thoughts.

This was basically a tale of 2 trips. My plans for the first half of the week with the girls was to plant my ass at the pool, enjoy some drinks, then do our gambling at night. Then, when the boys got into town, we'd spend hours at video poker watching football and barely seeing the sunshine. Damn, did I ever get that backwards. But I did accomplish my goals. Relax and have fun with my friends.

I love getting together with "the buffoons" or the old March Madness gang. These people always know how to have a good time. I'm grateful that I got to meet the majority of these folks over 9 years ago at the March Madness IV meetup and others who have trickled in over the years. Some have become life long friends and we still have a lot fun together. I'd love to be able to do this with these great folks for many years to come.

It's been about a year since the majority of us got together like this. I'm glad Sonya and VegasDrea got to make it out since I haven't seen them in forever. Those 2 are just as wild as ever. And I'm glad I got to hang out with SanofreSurfer once more this year before he ships out later this month. We've had some adventures the past 2 years, none more exciting than a week long cross country ride in his RV when the Navy transferred him back from Philadelphia to San Diego culminating in several days parked on the beach. Dude... hurry up and get back, I need the sand in my toes and a beer in my hand.

Now, that's not to discount all the rest of the folks who made this trip as fun as it is. I'll never forget the good times from this trip (well except that first night, but I've seen the video and pictures and I'm sure I'm better off not remembering...) But, needless to say, I love "My Vegas Friends" and won't trade them for nothing.

 

Awesome job on the TR, SH0CK! Thanks for sharing!

RICHARD

 

Nice run on the 96.22% Bonus Deuces! Damn CET crap paytable though. But Cromwell has 99.45% Bonus Deuces on their "full pay" bank though; it's the best deuces game STL offers too.

FYI, one of Cosmo's best games at the Sportsbook bar is "Double Bonus Deuces Wild" (97.68%). 5 Aces are worth $200 there and contribute 6.66% of the return. I played the same paytable briefly at Cal with this fine heartbreaker.

 

Nice run on the DW! Nothing sadder that a last day in Fabulous Las Vegas

 

Enjoyed your report mucho. Lots of buffoonery and memories. Thanks for posting.

later, GVJ