Day 2 in Las Vegas, to Leaving “ “

We got up just in time to get ready to leave for the timeshare talk, that is, around 10am. We’d spent some time the night before walking around our neighborhood, doing our darndest to feed me (only McDonald’s seemed to be open after 12am and we weren’t ready to stoop to that level) and ultimately finding a little food counter where they made me a grilled cheese sandwich. We got one of those very tall cool drinks that are all the rage in Vegas and Brendan won some money at the Roulette table and at a game of Blackjack.

And so we slept in Tuesday morning until we had to get up, and went to this supposedly 2-3 hour timeshare talk that ended up being more like four hours. Our sales representative led us into a room with many other couples and their sales representatives and while we ate sandwiches and drank lemonade we listened to very sincere-seeming woman talk about how we all need vacations in order to stay mentally healthy. Brendan volunteered to be the note-taker on a noteboard while people called out reasons we take vacations, and he provided some life to an otherwise dull presentation with his natural flair, as he took the opportunity to lead the group in singing happy birthday to one of the attendees, among other things.

After the talk and a video, our host took us out to another room and tried to get a feeling for what we look for in a vacation, then he drove us out to the brand new resort he was trying to sell us. At this point we’d probably been there 2 and a half hours. We went back and told him we weren’t interested, then another guy came to us and offered us a reduced price and we said no, then he offered us an even more reduced price and we still said no. He then took us to another room and another guy who offered us the lowest price yet--4,000 down from 40,000 at the beginning--and we said no one more time. Then we got our free stuff and caught a shuttle to the strip.

The Strip in brief: Big, gaudy, crowded, fun. We had a buffet early dinner courtesy of our timeshare talk from earlier in the day, then enjoyed a delightful variety show called “V: the Variety Show,” courtesy of the same. The host of V was a juggling comedian and he was very impressive. His big climax was playing the piano by juggling balls onto the keys. He juggled ping pong balls with his mouth -- did I mention he is impressive? I think he has videos on Youtube--look for Wally Eastwood.

Before and after the variety show we walked all around the strip, and then around 10pm we had dinner at Planet Hollywood courtesy of the timeshare company that provided us the trip in the first place. Afterwards we made our way back downtown on the Deuce, a double-decker bus, where we spent some more time at our hotel’s casino and Brendan won more money on the Roulette table. Brendan ended up with a $19.50 profit from Vegas.

And that was pretty much the end of our Vegas trip. The next day we missed the bus we meant to take to the airport due to my faulty memory of where the stop was, but ultimately made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight back to Vancouver. And then the hitchhiking fun began anew but oh my those stories will have to wait.