I think I hurt myself 10/20-24 Part I

The recovery process has slowly taken it's course. Vegas left an empty feeling inside me, as it did my wallet, and time has passed to where I can finally put it all down. First I'd like to apologize for not being on here for a while but that old town crushed the snot out of me to the point where I didn't even, dare I say, want to think about gambling. But I'm over that now and it's good to be back on here and hell I even got my own poll! Thanks Terry! Looks like you buffoons had a terrific time. Hope I heal so I can catch you crazy bastards in March! On with the show...

Oh man it was like a nightmare, no a sick practical joke. I felt like Don Vito on VivaLaBam. It all started out good. Flight left O'Scare on time. Usually I fly out of Midway, cause it's closer but I scored a round trip on American for $196 tax and all. Flew out with a couple of friends, Jerry and Nick. Jerry being a fellow cohort of all kinds of debauchery and always a co-pilot whenever Vegas is involved. We work with Nick and he's just pure entertainment when he's got a few drinks in him. Although the Bloody Mary's we had in the airport put us to sleep. Well I guess it was worth the $27! Ridiculous.

Landed and got our bags and I grabbed the rental car which the guy wanted me to get all the bells and whistles insurance. So let me get this straight, instead of paying $150 for the 5 days, you want me to spend $289 for all the crap that my insurance already covers. I give up. I hate when I get the upsell pitch. Look dude I know what I want, and you probably hate your job so just give me what I need and I'll get the hell out of your life. I'm on vacation for pleasure not work so don't make me do it. Can you tell I'm still a little bitter about that.

Anyway I get this POS Dodge and within minutes I proceed to blow out of the lot with the tires spinning the whole way. In fact this would be the only time this happened because A) it was raining. And B) the car didn't have enough power to get out of it's own way. Highway merging was a real test of faith.

Oh yeah it's raining. Did I mention that. Note to the people at In-n-Out...extend the awning in the drive thru so when it's raining it doesn't cascade into the car. Yeah, I'll take a double-double with a SPLASH! Still a great burger and cooler fries.

Over to Paris where I drop off Jerry and Nick and I'm off to meet John at the wonderfully luxurious palace of the strip...the Flaming-O. Jerry scored compski at Paris, don't know how, he just did, so I roomed with fellow drinking buddy John. Who proceeds to call me from the craps table telling me he's up $18 bucks. John flew out about 1 hour before the rest of us. I park the car and wheel my bag up to the craps table and then under it, meet John, buy in for a few throws, then get my key and throw my stuff upstairs. Actually got a room close to the Lindy's elevators. Excellent view of Caesar's. The curtains stayed open the whole week. Nature's wake up call every morning.

I go back downstairs and get back to the table with John. Jerry and Nick meet up with us along with friends Michelle and Paula. We screw around at the table for a little and I get up a little, maybe $40 and the food topic comes up. Let's see we're hungry and we're at the Flamingo and I haven't had a foo-foo drink yet. Ah yes, Margaritaville baby.

We get a table up past the boats with a nice view of the Boston/Yankee game which everyone and their brother seemed to have money on but me. Still don't know what I was thinking. Ordered up a ton of drinks and appetizers and burgers and also had to ask the waitress to bring back the drink menu because we were just leading a full out assault on the bar. After all was said and done the bill wasn't as bad as we thought it would be.

After dinner we headed North to check out the lights. Into O'Sheas and we land at a crap table. I go and scout the BJ situation. Yup same BS 6/5 21. Seen way too much of that. Grabbed a beer and sat at an Elvis progressive. He nickeled and dimed my hundred. The craps table empties as I return and we head out again. We duck into the Tequila Joe's walk up bar and order some frozen concoctions. Hurricanes are a lovely thing I may say. There are now a mainstay in any Vegas trip. I believe it was some fellow parrothead who planted that idea in my head. And I think they are on this board! Thanks guys!

On to, dum-de-dum-dum. Harrah's. Good thing I had the rum-infused slurpee to help me thru it. Played a couple slots. Laughed at the people playing their table games. Pathetic. Ambled over to the bar and watched the game. I believe Boston was wiping their asses with the Yankees by now going into the middle of the game.

After polishing off the slushee and now switching over to the Cap'n full bore, Jerry brings up the idea to shuttle it over to Rio and meet up with a few other people we knew who also just happened to be out here. It really turned into a coincidental Vegas trip. We had at one point about 16 people together on Thursday night. It was surreal. All we need was Bridgette Nielsen and Flavor Flav and we coulda had our own reality show.

We're at the Rio and I immediately hit the first thing that serves alcohol as soon as we get in. Oh looks sports book. So I've gotten slightly hooked on vodka and RedBull. Unfortunately this bartender probably didn't hear me say RedBull and gave me Stoli on the rocks...with a splash of RedBull. Needless to say the masquerade in the sky had an entirely new meaning to me. We meet up with our friends and try to play some craps, but it's crowded...on wed. night at a $10 table. Screw it, someone mentions about Gold Coast having lower limits and they were just there. It's right across the street. Okay we're there. Before leaving though we watch Boston whip the s*it out of the Yanks. Then we crush foliage and avoid traffic and walk thru the parking garage into the Gold Coast.

Cool little place, I could play here. Oh look, it's the Cap'n thank you very much. Oh look $3 craps, all right. Whaddya mean only double odds??? (Drag needle across record here.) Well I play anyway. Only because, I've managed to make it this far into today and the eight of us are on a table together. I'll play real conservative. 30 minutes later and conservative has left the building. The Cap'n is visiting me with a few Corona's in between and I'm placing clay all over the place. It was more for entertainment value alone, as we were laughing it up the whole time. The dealers were going along with us as was the other end of the table making it good fun. Albeit with double odds. Eventually we all leave the table some up some down, but with a lot of one-liners that would be said thruout the week. Yours truly would color up for about $150. I'm happy and smashingly drunk. But coherent and ready for more. We end up back at Paris.

Some people call it a night but me, John and Jerry waltz onto a $5 table. We play for a while but by now I feel like the Cap'n has one of his first mates swabbin' the deck with my head so I surrender. John feels the same way and agrees to walk back with me. Jerry stays for more. The greens were multiplying like rabbitts in the rail.

Ah yes, a drunken walk back to the Flaming-O. a good chance to check out the hookers en route to the pink bird. None tonight. "looks like they cleaned it up, John." "Patinece young grasshopper, it's only Wednesday."

Nature wakes us up in a few hours and hangover breakfast is on tap. We round up a few bodies and decide to wreck the Rio buffet. They saw us walking in and they got nervous. Let's just say we got our money's worth. The table limits were still up, even on Thursday morning so we decided to get outta there and back to Paris. Here's where the rental car turned into a scavenger hunt. What floor is bad enough but what hotel? It happened more than once. I literally had to write down where I parked the car. Don't laugh because it will happen to you.

We screwed around Paris for a while and then wound up in the Aladdin, where I basically resumed drinking. Like I ever stopped. Breakfast was like in between the first and second quarter. I found a multi-play 100 hand poker machine and after laughing for a while killed about an hour playing 1 cent VP. Oh and the Cap'n likes this place to. Ahoy mateys! Nick sits in next to me and informs me that he's not drinking all day. Wrong crowd to be making that statement to. A bloody mary and an Amaretto stone sour later and he was ready to party. Always willing to lend a hand to a hanging drinker.

After a little more craps and a finance check that reveals I'm only down about $100 bucks so far I feel pretty good. John heads off for a dinner appointment with some of his family that's out there as well. So about 5 of us decide to go and kill some time up by Casino Royale and drift over to Mirage to tram it over to TI to see the sirens show.

Well, (insert various alcoholic beverages here) after seeing the sirens show, part strip-tease part pirate battle, we tried to meet back up with John. Since John still hasn't drifted into the 21st century, we have to find him the old fashioned way. Detective style. See John doesn't have a cell phone.

First we go to Guaranteed Spot A: Flamingo craps table. No dice. However we must have a drink to plot out future searching areas. At this point Paula decides to go back to her room. She's not feeling well, (so she says), I think we broke her the night before. However, Michelle who has now developed a severe crap addiction, Nick who just plain laughs a lot, Jerry, ringleader extrordinaire and "give me another RedBull and Stoli," devotee and yours truly decide to amble over to: Guaranteed Spot B: the Imperial Palace where my highlight, well make that 1 of 2 highlights of this Vegas trip would occur.

No sighting of John, but Michelle coerces me into playing craps with her. Jerry and Nick pick up on a roulette table across the way. Now I've only heard stories of how I won big here or there. Held the dice for an hour kinda stuff. You know what I mean, when you hit a table that is just hot, and this one was about to turn into an inferno, it's just great.

We're on the end me in the corner Michelle right in the firing line of Nolan Ryan across the table. Every time this guy got the dice he not only would throw them at some insane velocity, but every 2 out of 5 throws one would literally rocket off the table. If not me, or Michelle or they guy standing behind me, then they would fly off the table never to be seen again. One made it all the way to the dealertainer pit! We have a few laughs and the dice do some traveling, I'm really not paying to much attention, except to the waitress who is trying to get me hammered. Excellent drink service as always at the IP. Just betting the pass line and taking full odds every other number is slowly paying off. The green is slowly growing. No sucker bets Don, just don't get stupid. Images from the previous year seemed to flash into my head.

The dice keep on rolling, points are set and made and set and made. etc. Then the guy sevens out. Trying not to jinx myself, I try not to study the green in front of me. Next shooter, same thing he keeps the dice for about 30 mins. I decide to go full odds on the pass line and then I go for full odds on the come as well. Next thing you know this guy throws nothing but moneymakers. People next to us are littering the come area with chips. We start cleaning up on the come bets. The 7 comes. Chips get collected, the clay is still growing in my rail. I'm guessing around $250. This same pattern keeps up for about another hour. Everyone rolled for at least 15 mins per person. Drinks are flowing, everyone's happy I'm making $10 pass line bets with full odds and $10 come bets with full odds and just whacking the board. No place bets, no sucker bets just that. I felt I found the trick to winning at craps. I was undefeatable. Then with the next few rolls nothing, but 2's, 12's and 3's. I decide to bail, I'm feeling really lit, I've got a lot of clay in front of me and I feel the table starting to turn. Michelle feels the same way as do some other shooters. About six of us color up. One guy across the way had about 3 large pushed towards him. Another a few hundred and another. Michelle grabbed a quick hundred and change and yours truly walked off with a cool $700. I'm ready for anything now. And plus, we found John. Who said we weren't good detectives. We BS for a little bit and then Jerry's phone rings. It's his nephew who's in town with like 5 of his friends. Brace yourself boys it's gonna get crazy!

We meet up with Jimmy at the Flamingo only after we had the hottest looking woman in the world come up to us and tell us that she was really, really, drunk. No s*it honey. She needs to find her friends. Like we know who they are or what they look like. She has no idea what hotel she's staying at either. We offer to help her out and she agrees, but when we turn to walk into the casino she bolts some other direction. Hope she found her friends.

We don't make it 50 feet into the casino when we see a really tall blond woman walking thru with the look on her face like she lost her dog. She only sticks out in my mind because she is 6 feet plus tall and also very attractive. Upon deciding that I need yet another drink I stagger over to the bar, upon which I run into yet another very attractive brunette who bee-lines right for me asking if I've seen her friends. "Like I know what your friends look like." This chick is also very drunk and also doesn't know where she's staying either. A dusty light bulb that hasn't lit for years, like the one in your attic, flickers on in my brain. "What's your friends look like?" I had to ask. And in a drunken slur manages to blurt out the only info I need.
"Okay she's like really tall..."
"like 6 feet tall?"
"YEAH!"
"Tight blue jeans and a black sweater?"
"hey you know my friends!"
"Well no I don't know them. But I saw a really tall woman like that about 30 seconds ago. And a shorter blonde girl with a bikini top on too."
"where?"
"Right this way."
So now I'm thinking, I just won a ton of money and I'm going to meet some hotties, because I came to the rescue. Life's good. Well let's just say when the one girl spotted the other from across the casino it was like see you, bye. Too drunk, but yet, still proud enough to not do a drunken pursuit. I retreat to the bar for the margarita I intended for in the first place, with only the memories of 3 hot women who walked in to and out of my life within minutes. Ahhh, good times......Aw what the hell am I talking about on with the gambling.

We meet Jimmy and his friends at Barbary Coast. (Like one thing I really need right now is good drink service!) We manage to finagle onto a craps table. We're all scattered, but that doesn't slow us down a bit. But we do notice that we seem to be the only ones at the table drinking. I thought maybe it was like dry night at the Coast, cause usually the booze just flows thru this joint like a river. Well it was a dried up river tonight and drink service was well below the norm. Don't know what it was, cause the following day it was all good. After about another hour, I call it quits. I'm up for now and if I play my cards right, this will be a very successful trip to Vegas. Little did I know things were about to change.

To be continued.....

 

Don't make us wait too long for part 2......lol

 

Been there, done that...

I can't wait...

 

All together now:

"part 2... part2... part2... part2..."

 

The slow service might have come from a pitboss or a security person. Sometimes they will tell the waitress or bartender to slow down on your service because of maybe a little too much already. It has happened to me. They told me the next day.

 

Still waiting…

Great so far DD. So how can you even remember all this

And

It's Vegas, there's no such thing as too much

 

I keep checking back to hear the rest of this story, step it up dufflebag don !!
just kidding.
We are all eagerly anticipating the ending.

 

So far this report sounds like a great time. I can't imagine how bad the ending is to put you in seclusion for two months. It must be a horrific tale. T2Vers don't be ashamed to look away from the monitor if part two gets too intense

Take your time Double D and exorcise the Vegas demons.

 

That's what I was thinking, killer. Either he's gathering the strength to write up The Big F Up, or he's having his lawyer review it first.

Great story so far, DuffelbagDon, really good stuff.

 

Great so far. It makes me feel like I am really there...can't wait for the rest!

 

Geez Don ....You are such a tease..


We Want more ! We want more ! We want more !

sunni

 

It's up! Check it out!

After rehashing the stories, I'm almost ready to say I I look forward to another "successful" getaway to Vegas.

 

D-Don... awesome TR (so far)...

feels like i'm on the adventure w/ you & the gang.

Okay--let me take a look @ part 2.
mK