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Unexpected meetings in Vegas

Discussion in 'Misc. Vegas Chat' started by booker, Mar 20, 2020.

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  1. booker

    booker VIP Whale

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    I've met people that I knew in my profession in Las Vegas, but my all time Small World story happened last year at breakfast in the Orleans buffet. A couple was seated two tables away from me and a single man was seated at the table between us. The men met while on vacation the year before on vacation in Madagascar. Bizarre enough? Both guys live in Germany!!

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    Last edited: Mar 21, 2020
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  2. westexrancher

    westexrancher Low-Roller

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    In 2011 I was down town walking from GN to Binions and ran into my Dr. We were talking and up came my uncle and his wife. In the span of a couple minutes I ran into a close friend and family.
     
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  3. topcard

    topcard Here's to $10 3:2 two-deck, $5 Craps, and $5 UTH!

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    Back in 2003 (I think), I was at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay to see Toad the Wet Sprocket, and ran into one of my 'regular' bartenders from a sports bar I'd go to in the DFW area.
    That's all I've got.
     
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  4. joespoolhall

    joespoolhall VIP Whale

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    Happened in Reno, not LV, maybe 30 years ago. I had bowled a weekend tournament and ended up finishing 3rd or 4th for a $300-350 check the tournament director gave me. I was leaving Mon for Reno, so added BR was great. The next day, after getting settled into my room, I headed downstairs for my first round of BJ. I was winding my way through the slots to the table games when who do I see at one of the slots? The tournament director! I'd bowled his tournaments a number of times, so we knew each other and were both a little suprised. We both chuckled about it and then I moved on to the tables. Didn't see him the rest of the trip.
     
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  5. mescalita

    mescalita old and in the way...

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    I’ve run into people I know a few times in Vegas, but the strangest meeting happened out at Red Rock Canyon. This was many years ago, well before the park got popular and crowded. My lovely wife and I were headed uphill on a Madre Springs hike and crossed paths with another couple headed down. They were the only other folks we saw on the trail that day. We all smiled, said hello and kept on moving. A few seconds later I heard a questioning voice call my name. Turned around and realized that the guy was a childhood friend of my older brother. I hadn’t seen him in at least twenty years! Had a great chat before we headed our separate ways.
     
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  6. vegascurley

    vegascurley Low-Roller

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    My story is just plain crazy! A group of friends from my hometown in ohio was waiting to catch a cab at Harrahs to the airport. The gentleman who was calling for the taxi asked us where we were from. Told him we were from Ohio. He asked where about?. Well we live in a very small town in central ohio so I told him we live about 100 miles south of Cleveland.No-one ever hears of it so we just say that. He then proceeds to ask us if we live anywhere close to Dennison.We all looked at each other stunned.I looked at everyones clothes to see if anyone had that on their clothes.Nope..no-one did. That is exactly where we live.Population of Dennison is 4000+. If that wasn't enough he asked us if we knew some ppl there. One was a friend of ours Grandpa. This guy was from Toledo ohio(about 3 hours from Dennison) but came to dennison to play cards with a local group of men. Anyways that was soo odd it happened that way . Well everytime we go to vegas we have to stop back and see Mike. We yell Mike and he yells back Dennison without even looking at us.
     
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  7. rbspartan

    rbspartan Low-Roller

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    About 15 years ago, before I retired, I and four other degenerates made a short trip in mid-December, after NFR and before Christmas. We mainly stayed Downtown, but since we had a rental car, we were fairly mobile and we would visit a few casinos that we hadn't been to before. One of them was the Rio. We proceeded to acquire player cards and select some machines to use the free-play we received for signing up. I look up and see someone I know. He occupies a cubicle at work near my office. We're cordial friends, and have traveled occasionally to some of our outlying plants. It turns out he was heading to Los Angeles area to spend Christmas with family, and found that flying into LV and renting a car there was far cheaper than going directly to LA. He had stopped at Rio to wind down and get something to eat before starting his drive to LA. The timing and coincidence of all this was downright spooky.
     
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  8. blkshirt

    blkshirt High-Roller

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    My first ever trip to Vegas with a bunch of friends and we stayed at the Flamingo. We come down from our room and are headed out for the night and I hear this girl yell my first and last name. Of course all the guys stopped and I go “yeah?!?!?” Turns our it was a girl I went to high school with and hadn’t seen in about 6 years. Nothing crazy but just funny.
     
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  9. NewOrleansSlimm

    NewOrleansSlimm VIP Whale

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    every single time I go Vegas I run into someone I know that does not live there
     
  10. rhinoman7

    rhinoman7 A Diamond in the Ruff

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    Have had a few of these, but the best was finding out my cousin and his wife were in Vegas the same time as me. It was December, 2013. But first, a little back story: his dad and my mom are brother and sister. His parents got divorced when I was real little, so I don't remember him except through pictures of us together at our Grandma's house when we were little. Fast forward to January, 2013, and my uncle is on his deathbed in Leesburg, FL. We fly down to visit with him and say our good-byes, and I got to see my cousin for the first time in over 40 years. We sat and talked for a long time, with promises to keep in touch. (He lives in Sanford, FL, me in Kenosha, WI) Unfortunately, we were both too busy to stay in touch during the year. Now, in December, 2013, I am in Vegas solo, and I am talking to my wife on speaker phone in the car as I head back to the Rio from downtown. During our call, my mom tries to call, but I let it go to voicemail. I finally end the call with my wife and head back to my room, totally forgetting about my mom's call. After getting settled in for the night, I check my phone and remember my mom's call. Turns out she saw some pictures of the Bellagio fountains on my cousin's wife's FB page, and wanted to let me know that she thinks they may be in Vegas. I quickly get onto FB, see the pictures, and ask if they are in Vegas right now. I call my mom back, get my cousin's cell phone number, and call, he doesn't answer, so I leave him a VM. About 15 minutes later, he calls back and confirms that they are in Vegas!!!! We talk a bit, and make plans to meet up for breakfast the next morning at the Bellagio Cafe. We have a nice breakfast together, and I figure they are probably busy, so we would go our separate ways. I was due to fly out later that evening, and I asked what their plans were for the day. They didn't have any! So, I ended up being their tour guides for the afternoon! It was a blast!! And we have done a much better job of keeping in touch ever since!
     
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  11. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    I was standing in Cosmo, watching some friends play Quick Hits. I feel someone come into my personal space, which isn't unusual, but then I felt an arm go around my shoulder. I turned to punch whomever it was. Luckily I recognized @BeeeJay before I murdered him. ;)

    Usually anyone I know in my non-Vegas life has consulted me a hundred times about hotels, restaurants, shows, etc before they get to Vegas.
     
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  12. donfairplay

    donfairplay VIP Whale

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    One of my doctors asked me if I had been to Vegas a couple of weeks after I got back. I was like yea... and then he said 'how do I know that?' and I was a bit puzzled. He said he saw me as I was in the boarding area and he was exiting the boarding area (Long Beach airport at the time was smaller then, although you could still run into someone today)
     
  13. bshowell

    bshowell VIP Whale

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    It's happened a couple of times. The first time was a few years ago. My sisters and I were on our usual trip and through FB found out that some first cousins we'd never met were there at the same time we were. In the same hotel (we were all at Luxor). We ended up meeting for dinner and hanging out a bit. The second time was last year's trip and my sister and I had just gotten into town. Get a message on FB (again) - hey I'm at MGM where are you? Wanna meet for dinner? Turned out one of my old college roommates was in town for the Paparazzi convention and just happened to be there at the same time. We live maybe 40 mins from each other and never see each other, but then came Vegas.
     
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  14. NYNYGirl

    NYNYGirl VIP Whale

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    On my very first trip to Vegas. Had come there with a group of 5 others. We were standing in the lobby of Excalibur the hotel we were staying at, making our plans.

    Well to everybody's surprise when I walked away after seeing a dear friend that I grew up with! We embraced talked and I introduced her to everyone.

    Thinking now that was the best part of the trip. Lol...I know I mentioned on here before how my first trip was a mess coming with these guys which is why I always planned my own after this. But seeing my old childhood friend was great.
     
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  15. rhinoman7

    rhinoman7 A Diamond in the Ruff

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    A couple other "almost" meetings:

    One of my good friends from childhood had moved away from our neighborhood when we were about 10 years old. Never saw him again, but talked on the phone a couple of times the first year after he moved away, and sadly we lost touch after that. This was in the mid-70s. Fast forward to the Facebook era, and we end up reconnecting through FB. Have messaged each other back and forth many times, with plans to eventually get together, but still hasn't happened. Well, a few years ago we are in Vegas, and I see a post of his on FB that he is at the Flamingo. I quickly reach out to him, and confirm that we are actually in Vegas at the same time! Unfortunately, he was at the beginning of his trip, and I was getting close to the end of mine. However, we made tentative plans to meet up the next day before we had to fly home. This would have been the first time seeing each other face to face in a little over 40 years! Not sure exactly what happened, but we ended up not connecting again until I was already at home, so never got to meet up.

    Another time, I was solo at Harrah's for a BJ tournament, and on my last day saw another FB friend had just gotten into town. This guy was the drummer for a band I was in back in the 80s, and despite reconnecting on FB, haven't seen him in person since around 1989. We messaged back and forth a little, but our schedules didn't seem to jive, so didn't get to meet up. Since I was solo, I did not rent a car, otherwise I would have been able to meet up with him before flying out.
     
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  16. tmoney25

    tmoney25 High-Roller

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    I'm from Canada, in the province of Alberta. Two years in a row I went to the same conference and I ran into the same fellow at the conference. We're both IT Managers for non-profit orgs in the same sector, just different regions within our province.

    Last year I was at the airport in Calgary waiting for my flight and I saw old neighbors of mine. I grew up with their daughter. We chatted and found out we were both on the same flight to Vegas, and we were also staying at the same hotel! We swapped phone numbers and we met up for lunch, and ran into each other a few other times at the hotel.

    I also ran into somebody I work with. That person used to work for the same org as me but had moved over to one of the orgs we support. Again, I was in town for a conference, and this trip my wife joined me mid trip. She ran into that co-worker at the airport so they took the shuttle together.

    Just missed some people that I play hockey with. I was staying at NYNY and they were staying at Monte Carlo. It wasn't until we were all back home that we found out the others were in Vegas at the same time. One of the bars at Monte Carlo had a cutout of a VGK goalie and they posted a pic of one of them with that goalie. I also had a pic taken with that goalie and we talked about when the pics were taken and we figure we missed running into each other by mere minutes.
     
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  17. mercr350

    mercr350 Low-Roller

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    In November I was at the Toronto/Vegas game. My daughter's softball coach was 20 rows ahead of me. We both got there early to soak in the atmosphere.
     
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  18. tee6395

    tee6395 Downtown Dreamer

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    I've run into waaaaaayyyyyy too many people I know. Rarely is it someone that I'm glad to see! LOL! I would say over the years - probably in the neighborhood of 30 people - mostly when I was on the Strip. Only once or twice downtown or off strip. I need to come up with a better disguise!
     
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  19. BlacklabberMike

    BlacklabberMike MIA

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    One time I was in CC playing blackjack and heard a voice from a nearby Craps table.... "come on little joe"

    I knew immediately who it was and when I turned around it was the guy I thought it was. One of my bookies.

    So I walked over to the table and deadpanned , "that guy never made a little joe in his life" I got several looks and when he saw me he burst out laughing.

    Another time I went to the Splash bar in the Riv to play VP and shoot the breeze with Marvin the bartender,who used
    to work at the Dunes.... I look over and I see the above mentioned bookies partner....

    other than that, we had a code of honor, that if you saw someone, you didn't acknowledge them but maybe
    put your finger to your nose like in the Sting, because maybe that person sid they were going to xxxx ,and didn't want
    anyone to know they were in Vegas and were with someone ...;)
     
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  20. wormhole

    wormhole VIP Whale

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    I feel left out :) . I have never run into anyone I know in Vegas.
     
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