On Las Vegas

After winning this trip to Las Vegas from a timeshare company and being told what a wonderful trip it would be, it’s funny how the company then tried to get us not to take the trip. They said if we didn’t upgrade it really wouldn’t be that great and when we said no to the upgrade they said the trip was overbooked and wouldn’t we rather have some cash than take the trip? And we said no again, and had to deal with hassles of traveling to Vancouver in order to fly to Vegas, but it was oh so worth it for both the hitchhiking and the couchsurfing.
And so we flew to Vegas, after first flying to Phoenix. At the Phoenix airport they have a fun paging system where you can type in a message to your party and then that person’s name is called over the loudspeakers that always seem to be going off in airports and if that person goes to one of many computer screen message centers, they can find their name and read their message. This message system is a fun way to pass the time if one can think of a message that will get past the screeners (edit by B: Mine was "from Jorge Borges to Ricardo Montalban: Please pick up your A.P.E. and follow the instructions for the Garden of Forking Paths", Stina's was "from Veronica Lodge to Forsythe Jones: Please meet your party at the Hot Dog stand in concourse C"). But it only occupies all of five minutes, if that. We passed more time by juggling out of the way but in full sight of passers by, and by trying to strike up actual conversation with credit card salespeople.

We made it to Vegas by around 9pm and headed outside to catch a bus to our hotel. Thanks to a little help from family (Phone to Internet) we knew what bus to take, and even if we hadn’t, there were several others waiting for the bus who were eager to help us find our way. One man we met this way told us all about how he thinks the internet is the future for basically everything, but primarily politics. He was concerned about whether or not Washington would vote democratic in the upcoming presidential election. He made sure we knew what stop to get off at before getting off himself.

Walking to our hotel from the bus stop, we met another Las Vegas resident who is soon relocating to Bellingham. He was a self-described pot-head who loves the atmosphere of Berkeley and had recently been to a Dave Matthews concert there, and he seemed excited about moving to Bellingham. He told us that people who live in Las Vegas are unhappy and mean to one another because of it. He was headed to the casino at our hotel and walked us right to the door.

We stayed at the Fitzgerald, a pretty nice hotel in downtown, where a sign says “Welcome to the Fremont Street Experience.” This is about a 15 minute bus ride from the strip, but is much cozier and very pedestrian friendly. A few blocks are closed off to cars and there is a roof over the streets, creating a neon-lit safe-to-get-drunk environment. That first night we were approached by another time-share representative and this one was offering show tickets, a free dinner buffet at the Luxor and another free meal offered during the timeshare talk. We didn’t have any plans to see a show, so free tickets appealed greatly. A tip for getting free stuff from time-share talks: If you make less than 40k, lie and say you do. They don’t actually check. And if you know that you have a hard time saying no to things, don’t do it. But if you can say no and are willing to sit through a 2-3 (or sometimes 4) hour talk, the payoff is worth it.

So we signed up to go to a talk the next day. There was some difficulty actually getting there, because we don’t have ID with our current address, and we didn’t have any of their other required proof that we live together. But after much one person asking another person who asked another person who finally got a hold of someone with the authority to say it was fine, we were able to go. And more on that soon.