Days at the Gold Coast

I was exhausted by the time I got back to the Gold Coast and so I watched a little television and went to sleep. Of course that means I am awake again at five, but Elizabeth called just after I woke up. Jay is installing the new window and the air conditioner so he had a ton of questions.

I was considering a cab to move from the Orleans to the Gold Coast, but once I saw that with the extender opened on the new suitcase both my sleep apnea machine and my computer fit into the suitcases even with their cases, I decided to try walking.
It was an easy walk.
At one point I passed a 104 bus stop, so there is a bus that travels on Arville and that is good to know. I rested a few minutes, but my 24 hour pass from the day before ran out of time and so I just decided to walk. It was a good decision. No bus passed me.

The trip was easy. Arville was as I remember it, but the laudromat was really close to Flamingo and not an easy walk from the Orleans. I was considering on a future trip walking with my dirty clothes in my roller suitcase, but I think that is more practical from the Gold Coast than from the Orleans.
The neighborhood is very street friendly. The few people I encountered were polite. One young Korean girl on a bicycle on the sidewalk actually stopped and got off to give me a free roll around a pole. I thought I was in another country and thanked her. She smiled.
There was no one else much on the walk. There are mostly businesses along this stretch and parking lots. One fenced in lot was full of security guards and a Constable drove out of that area. There were a bunch of school buses; perhaps it is a school.

The only disconcerting thing was the noise of the traffic moving so close and so fast. I was again happy not to be driving here in Vegas. All along the route were fine sidewalks and those great suitcase ramps that Vegas builds into the sidewalks so that it is no effort to roll a suitcase.

I wondered about going down Rochelle and I'd like to check to see if that actually connects to the Palms. I did avoid the Flamingo corner by going into the Palms parking lot. I liked being away from the street traffic.

I was laughing that I probably got more exercise by doing this than I did in my morning workout at the Orleans. I could feel some of the weight of the suitcase on my arm and switched up a couple times, but it was not at all uncomfortable. I wondered if pulling the extra weight burned off more calories than my time on the treadmill. How odd we are to walk and run and climb for no purpose and spend the rest of our lives trying to get the parking spot within steps of the supermarket entrance.

So I we delighted to have this new frugal experience in Vegas to add to my collection. I saved $10. That paid for supper.

The sleeping issues are the hardest. Here I am up long before there is much to do and I'll be tired again later. I am hoping that I can get a nap in the afternoon today and head down to Oshea's or perhaps the Imperial Palace in the evening. It does convince me that I do need to plan a hotel close to where I want to play late night so that I can get a good afternoon nap and this Gold Coast is a perfect location.

room comparison:

The Orleans room was by far the nicer of the two, but this one is perfectly adequate. I have no view here, but I did not ask for any either. I do like being on the first floor as it means a quicker trip on the elevators. Everything seems smaller here. The corridor is more narrow, the room is smaller, the bathroom is small too.
I did not notice the art on the walls at the Orleans. Generally I find the wall decor of hotel rooms rather tacky and uninteresting, but this is different. I am certain none of it is expensive, but the scenes all depict a man on horse, often in a Mexican setting and with a pack animal along with him. In one the rider moves through a field near a line of small trees and in the background is a huge cathedral. In two others he moves down a street in a quaint Mexican town with small and dull adobe, and in one that is very different, he climbs up a winging trails above hoo doo like mountain plateaus. Justin Neisck is the artist. I like the feel of the prints, the sense of quiet movement with animals. It is always the same rider.

WEDNESDAY NOON

Ahhh. I had my fine breakfast here at the Gold Coast. I am still being careful to eat mostly fruit and vegetables, but I did have my red eye gravy and biscuit and it was as tasty as I remember. And speaking of comida sabrosa two tastes in the Mexican offerings were absolutely wonderful. One was a scrabble of chorizo and eggs and another was the corn soup posole. I loved both but had just tastes of each.
Again there were two small salad stations at the breakfast buffet and again I missed that there were two with different offerings. Also, at the dessert section there were blueberries and in another spot a few kinds of yogurt and a granola for topping. So I had plenty to eat. The vinegar is not balsamic or malt, but it was fine and I dribbled drops of tabasco along with it. Contrary to what I said about perfering Cholua, in this recipe I liked the tabasco.
It may be that in some of may tastes I am put off by intensity. I know that I did not eat yogurt for a long while and then found that a spoon or two as topping on fruit is very good. Also, I mix my juices with water.
I ended up with $37 in comps on my Coast Card, so all my meals here will be free. Breakfast was $5.99 so I can eat five of them for free.
Next I check out the pool and the workout room. The sun is out today and it is warming up. The water was fine. Perhaps it is heated. I like the setup. From the workout room the pool is visible so if the television is not entertaining perhaps a few bikinis can get the mind off the exercise. I also turned on the television and caught a Yankee game against LA. I am not a sports fan, but baseball and exercise seem a fine blend.
I did not last long on the stepper, but did twenty minutes on the treadmill and then swam the circumference of the pool 16 times before my bladder said it was time to get out. In the pool were two Asian girls talking a mile a minute in some version of French, I think. I enjoyed the cadences, the feeling again of being not in Vegas but traveling the world, and the playful, vacation attitudes of these two young women. So my swimming was not too boring. There were three women in bikinis and one was getting a foot rub and making the appropriate sighs. There was also a very overweight woman with plenty of physical issues who tried the pool but found it too cold. She had watched me swimming and I could see she wanted to try. I felt bad for her.
I think I have kept my weight off so far. The scale in the fitness center here showed I had lost 20 pounds since yesterday. Had I known that they had such a scale, I might have skipped the work of the exercise; however, I weighed myself after the exercise, so there it was. Once again my timing was off.
I had intended to go up to the strip earlier, but got attracted by all these adventures. Now I think I will catch a set or two of the jazz boys, perhaps drink a beer, and then try for an afternoon nap that would enable me to play poker tonight at OShea's or the Imperial Palace into the late hours of the morning.

It will get into the 80's tomorrow. Summer is here.

Jay talked to me about the work of the installation of window and air conditioner. It is going well and he is over the brink of the place where he is wondering how exactly to do it and has cut the hole and now sees how it will go. I am very excited to be able to abandon the old portable airconditioner.

THURSDAY

I napped a bit and then played poker all night. I started at the Imperial Palace where two fellows were using the button and regular straddles every time they had a chance. My blinds were useless then, but I thought myself in fairly good position to take advantage of the bigger pots whenever I had good cards, but that was seldom. The game did not last long and I went to O'Shea's and had a fine night of poker, but ended down about $200. So this has been a trip of one loss after another. I think it may be time to spend a day at the zoo.

I drank a good bit of Myer's rum and did enjoy the party atmosphere. To my left was a fellow from Brazil and his friend from Madrid, so I got to practice some of my Spanish. He taught me a few gambling expressions, but of course I have forgotten them now. So hard for me to learn anything at this age.

To my right was a doctor, a radiologist from just north of Toronto. He was friendly and interesting. He thought we would be pleased with the new Health care bill.

The time went quickly and I could not believe how fast the night was gone. I would have like to have some profit to show for it.

At home Elizabeth reports that Jay is finished and everything looks just great. It was fine to get the free window from Gregg as that saved us a couple hundred dollars and now I can get busy putting in the book shelves.

THURSDAY

Well, that all nighter wiped me out so I slept much of the day. The rum also dehydrated me so I drank ice water and sat by the pool. I did not work out but I did swim for quite a while and watched the bikinis and other interesting people by the pool. I read through a Vegas magazine, and some of the shows are mildly interesting, but so far nothing catches my imagination.

I did spend a second day listening to a few sets of the Classic Jazz band here. I miss the leader who must be on a vacation, and then at five yesterday the trumpeter also left, so I gave it up. What I heard was really great, however. There are lots of new faces in this band and they are all improvements. I just love the sound of these obscure old swim numbers and love watching the old people practicing dancing. Last night there was a young couple who were very good and did amazing things with their arms. Elizabeth would have loved watching this.

In between I played video poker and won back all I had lost on previous days here and ten dollars in addition. I had four 4's dealt to me and holding 2-3-4 of spades hit A-5 for a straight flush. I would have loved those dealt 4's on the double bonus three play, but I was content not to lose.
I had a pretty good poker session with locals here in the poker room, but they were tough to win much money from. Finally, I misplayed a hand by betting my full house into a larger one. I folded it before it got too expensive, but it cost me a bit first. fives and eights on the board. I have a five and one woman has an eight and another fellow actually has an 8-7 and catches his 7 on the river. I was stupid and made a raise. This was a 3-6 kill pot hand. I don't seem to mind the kill pot hands in this 2-4 game where there are not aggressive raisers.

I heard today that the Venetian is capping at least some of their rakes at $2 to attract business. I will have to walk up and try playing there.

Today I pack up and head out to the Super 8 on Koval for the weekend.

I tried the evening buffet with my ACG coupon last night, but it was not very impressive. I ate a bit off my diet as I had done from breakfast so yesterday was not a good dieting day.