I knew that it could not face intense and lengthy gambling if my small bankroll was to sustain me for 23 days. I also knew that I hated leaving Vegas with so many interesting trips still on a list of things to do because all I seemed to do was play poker and drink. And I noted that in my earlier trips I often lose when I play the first couple days, so I wondered if I needed time to adjust before playing and time to settle down.
Low limit live poker is about unconscious rhythm. You can feel it, but not create it.
Wild Bill was not coming until a few days after I arrived.
So, I planned a good solo outing to see parts of Vegas I usually miss and that would not be interesting to Bill.
Leaving from downtown I started out in the morning on the Centennial Express, a bus that weaves about, crosses the strip at The Fashion Show Mall and then makes its way to the UNLV campus. Part of its purpose is to provide students an easy bus route to class, so it runs more often on weekdays. It was a weekday, but the bus was almost empty when I caught it.
http://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/transit/route/centennial/centennial(09-18-11).pdf
To go South I caught it at Casino Center and Fremont, next to Binions.
I was dropped at the campus on Maryland.
Just two steps on campus and I was in a small desert garden and along my day's walk I saw others. These are scattered all around the campus and planted with various desert flowers, trees, and cactus. Even in October there was some color, and I found this a fine way to see a bit of the desert without a car.
The UNLV campus is huge. It runs along Maryland from Flamingo to Tropicana. It makes for good walking, but it can be hard finding the right route. Almost right away I bumped into a box office and they had maps of the campus.
I always find great pleasure in any campus visit. When I started college at SUNY Buffalo, I found the campus such a luxury compared to my home neighborhood, on the East Side of Buffalo. In those days there was little danger on campuses and I thought of being on campus, even in the dark of night, as being on a wonderful island of peaceful calm compared to my neighborhood streets where certain guys hung on certain corners just looking for a brawl and an evening walk meant picking a path around trouble.
The whole university experience pulled me out of my narrow neighborhood, and emersed me in centuries of new ideas. And the joy of that opportunity to learn and know stays with me even in this older age.
So to be on campus here in Nevada, on a warm sunny day, in the midst of young people walking, biking and on skateboards felt just fine, and the icing on the cake was the pretty girls.
In my college years I did not have money for a modern skateboard, and it would have been useless most of the time at SUNY Buffalo, but they were just becoming popular and there was one long easy stretch of walkway to ride.
I took a drawer front from some old dresser and mounted the wheels from the skates I used as a kid and I rode it along that long pathway for a few Autumn weeks until one hard fall on my tailbone discouraged me.
In Nevada the skateboard is a common means of transportation. I have a nephew who used his daily to commute to his job at Pizza Hut.
It is much faster than walking, fun, and easier to secure than a bike.
I headed toward the Barrick Museum. I knew I wanted to see the museum both for the regular exhibits and also for a short run exhibit of banned comic books called
Seduction of the Innocent.
The museum was less full than it usually is. One whole section was being reworked with temporary paintings that reflected themes that fit into the Halloween season.
I think this mask collection is a permanent display, but it too fit well into Halloween.
I enjoyed the comic display. It was interesting to see how far these books were from what I read as a kid and to wonder who was reading these.
They did not photograph very well, but here is a site with photos of the Omaha Cat comic. Pretty wild and racy stuff.
I don't want to take a chance on violating copyright, but click on any interesting cover and it will enlarge for a better view. Included in the display was some of the history of the banning
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I always like the old ceramics of a culture. This display includes interesting pieces from various cultures in Central America.
I love everything decorated with fish. Fishing is such an old occupation and I feel connected to the centuries when I'm out being an angler.
I loved this one.
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I had picked my day also to coincide with the Professional Bull Riders competition held in the Thomas Mack Center right on that campus.
Tickets were advertised for as little as $20, but I bought a bit better seat for $36, still a cheap price for such an event.
I had a long wait, so I decided to go up to the Pinball Hall of Fame. I walked out to Tropicana and took the bus. On the way I saw the Crowne and Anchor English Pub
and remembered their great offer of free lunch for video poker play.
I was hungry, so in I went.
I recommend this spot, even though I went a bit on tilt and lost $100 in the short pay machines. It surprises me that I want to go back, but I do.
The ambiance was just great. Soft blues mixed with other music played. The bar was populated but not crowded. The ambiance was delightful.
A very pretty and personable waitress explained the rules of the free lunch. I was required to play 15 hits of max play quarters, thus putting at risk my $20 at least once. For that I got lunch and a fine beer. I could not decide which beer to have and she actually gave me three tastes from the many tapped beers. I can't remember which I chose. But I was amazed that she was so easy and friendly to a guy getting a free meal.
Of course, that is the way to be, isn't it? Jackie Gaughn knew that and he was right. Some of the newer "experts" don't know how to lure and keep a customer.
If a frugal and disciplined gambler like me can be lulled into losing $100 on short pay Deuces, well the place is doing something right. I ate lamb in a bread bowl and it was all delightful. It is the best bread bowl I can remember having anywhere. However, if I go again I won't keep chasing lost money.
I walked down to the Pinball Hall of Fame and soothed myself with games where I could only loose at most 75 cents a play.
I did not do this, but I remember being so fascinated with these coins when I was a kid.
This is my favorite game. I play it every time I visit. I remember seeing these cartoons, even in high school when there was an evening show featuring Daffy Duck.
After busing back to the campus, I was still early for the bull riding, so I parked myself on a busy campus walkway where some students were selling baked goods, and a blood mobile collected blood donations and passing in front of me was a cross section of the students going from class to class. It was fine to sit at a table in the warm sun and watch the parade of young folks, dressed in the most casual and in suits as well, walking, biking, riding skateboards, quiet and determined or in intellectual conversation.
And did I mention the pretty girls?
From a vending machine I had a drink that cost half what the prices were in the tents and trucks of food set up for the Bull Riding event.
One fine thing for me in touring a campus is there is always cold water from a fountain and always a nearby bathroom, even in the "desert" areas. These things become increasingly important for me as I age.
I sat near the soon to open doors of the Mack Center and watched the audience stream in, many dressed in cowboy gear with hats and shirts and interesting belt buckles.
All around this event were huge Ford Trucks with Ford Built Tough plastered around. It seems ironic since I remember FORD meaning "Found On the Road Dead" or "Fix Or Repair Daily." I wonder if they are built better now. It is a good way to change the image to attack the old stereotype.
I also wonder if bull riders are loyal Ford guys. My dairy farm raised buddy Dick and his family always bought and defended Ford vehicles. My family was a Chevy family, so the banter was on often, and certainly always came up whenever we had nothing else to talk about, when the cows were in and milked, and we walked the couple miles of highway back to Lime Lake for roller skating.
When I got in to the Mack Center, I saw what looked like a very small area and huge screens. I have not been to a bull riding event, so for a while I worried that I had come just to a televised bull riding with the actual bull riding to occur somewhere else. The area did not look ready for bull riding.
And it wasn't ready just yet.
It was opening night, so there was a bit of ceremony. Since I don't actually follow the celebrities of bull riding, this would mean nothing to me, and I'll probably skip it next time; however, I was amused and delighted that as well as putting the spotlight on old star riders of the bullring, they put it on old star bulls as well. Funny to see these bulls placidly standing in the spotlight and honored with applause from a crowd who remembered them.
Then there was an opening ceremony. It included a military induction of new recruits and some returning Veterans and some honorary speeches. Generally, I don't much like these ceremonies. I'd rather support the troops with additional resources so that returning Veterans don't have to wait a year to discuss issues of post traumatic stress at a VA hospital. Or perhaps a jobs fair for returning Vets. Or some added resources for rehabilitation of the wounded. It is not such a feel good kind of Rah! Rah! exprience, but war is not football and these guys come back after all the hoopla with real physical and mental issues.
But this one I liked, I suppose because it was all Air Force and reminded me again of my youth. Also, it was a real experience and not all oversentimentalized pathos .
Young recruits took the oath right there on the bullring floor.
All through these activities was a fellow doing a clown act to make up for time to rearrange things in the arena. It was the worst clown act I have ever seen. He just winged it. Even his jokes were stale.
And then the riding started.
The arena was quickly transformed and two bull riding were areas set up across from one another so that there could be a few rides on one side followed by a few on the other.
I am not much in favor of sports that hurt the players, but I really got into this bull riding.
It was amazing!
And the screens were helpful because at any time I could glance up for some detail. Each ride goes very quickly. We get a brief summary of the guys prior rides, current hopes and past injuries as he wraps the rope just the way he wants it.
Then the gate is opened and the rough ride is on. I don't understand any of the techniques, but I can count the seconds the rider stays on.
Riders came from the States but also from Canada, South America, Australia. Each ride was very important. This was the National Championships.
I'll go again if I am in town on the days they ride, but I'll skip the first night and go on the nights when there is no ceremony and only riding.
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In the dark coming out, I got twisted up and was unsure where to go, so I just followed some other audience members and when I emerged from the campus I was closest to the 108 bus. I decided to take that to the BTC and switch to get downtown. It was a bad decision because the scheduled bus had broken down, and I waited my longest wait of the Vegas trip, 40 minutes. When I got on the bus, everyone was grumbling and complaining. Some had been on the broke down bus and had to wait for this one and reboard.
I did not make it as far as the BTC. At the Stratosphere there is a shared stop with the SDX and I decided to switch buses there. It is a fine stop at night because Denny's is right there and so while I waited people could see my from the glass and were my street sense hackles to rise for any reason, the door to Denny's was steps away. Very unlikely to have any difficulties there. With me were folks from Denmark trying to understand the ticket machine.
I waited a while.
But Denny's looked inviting and I really had not eaten much that day.
So I went in and had a fine late night breakfast. The waiter was just great! It did seem odd to eat in Denny's in Vegas, but there I was, so why not? The meal was inexpensive as always, but over my $7 a day average for food expenses for the trip.
It was a fine day of travel. It cost very little. I had wanted to try this place, but I just can't do everything.
However, it would have been cheaper than that meal at Crowne and Anchor. In my statistics I let $20 be the cost of the meal and the rest count as gambling losses. That seemed to reflect the accuracy of the lunch.
