Vegas baby!

A group of friends from Edmonton decided to plan a trip to Las Vegas for the end of February. So I thought I'd just hop on a plane from Kansas and join 'em. Believe it or not, but Edmonton to Vegas is about the same distance as Kansas to Vegas.

Departure
Anyway, there's an airline here called Allegiant Air which flies out of Topeka and Wichita directly to Vegas. But you can only do a Friday - Monday trip out of Topeka, so I drove two hours down to Wichita can left on a Wednesday, returning Saturday morning.

Little known fact: Unbeknowest to me until a week after my trip, the
movie "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" starring John Candy and Steve Martin has
the pair meet on a plane which was diverted from Chicago to Wichita!

The plane ride was most fun. The Kansan people sitting near me, and the whole plane for that matter, was in a party mood, so drinks were had. I told them I was from Canada, we talked about that, and laughed all the way.

As the plane flew over the rough terrain of Arizona, the excitement started to really kick in as I'm a VV -- Vegas Virgin and I had no idea what to expect other than what I saw on movies and TV. As you may know, the airport in Vegas is pretty close to The Strip, so the view flying by all the crazy buildings and hotels, especially New York New York was really cool.

Arrival
As soon as you get out of your gate in Vegas, there are slot machines, just in case you didn't notice you were in Vegas.

As I waited for my bag, I couldn't help but notice two young clad women at the next carousel arguing. One got so pissed, she pushed her friend to the ground and continued swearing and ranting. The guy next to them didn't flinch, but I think he was enjoying the whole thing actually. As more ranting continued, security came by and eventually handcuffed them! It was then I knew security in Vegas was toit!

So I arrive before my friends at the Monte Carlo and had a nap in my room, then headed down to the hotel bar to have a rye and a burger. I called my friend in Edmonton to rub it in that I was in Vegas and to share in the excitement.

Finally, I hook up with one of the boys who arrived before the others, one "Gerelukstein" as we call him. His room was quite large for a single, but that's his style. Then we took to the Strip and I had my expert tour guide show me around.

Drinks here, drinks there, drinks wherever and whenever
As you know the best part of Vegas is that you can drink booze when and wherever you want. I saw very little police, but perhaps hotel security acts as the defacto cops anyway. Whenever we had to take a cab, I had to have a rye, just to soak in the novelty of it all. And you know when you just buy a drink at a bar and everyone then wants to head somewhere else, and you have to pound back your drink, so you get really drunk? Well, not in Vegas. Just bring the drink with you. Nice! And the uberbeauty from this Canuck is the rye in abundance was Canadian Club--the rye whisky that Al Capone used to smuggle.

To be continued...