Tall Tales from the Patterson Ranch

The flight out was an adventure itself! We had a stop in Tulsa before going on to Vegas and the decent was extremely turbulent. The pilot did as good of a job as could be expected, but we did get a 2-fer-1 special on our landings. We didn’t bounce too bad, but it was a bit scary. We landed in Vegas with a crosswind, and the right side passengers got to land before we did. :p We did fly over the Grand Canyon, and that was pretty neat.

Our room in the Bellagio is fantastic in some ways and frustrating in other ways. The room itself is super plush, but there’s none of the normal amenities that you’d find in your typical Super8. There’s no coffee maker nor mini-fridge; I spent $12 for two cups of coffee this morning! Each local call is $1, and there’s no wi-fi. WTF? We did find a CVS drug store and bought a bunch of bottled water, and some breakfast munchies. That has turned out to be a great move. Check-in was crazy. Apparently there’s some convention going on right now and the desk was packed 10-20 people deep. Fortunately for us, we were willing to take a smoking room, so the desk clerk upgraded our room. We got a larger corner room with a whirlpool tub!! Its on the 24th floor and we have a great view of the strip and of the mountains.

We walked the strip and visited some of the other casinos including the Aladdin, Caesar’s, Barbary Coast, The Flamingo, O’Shea’s, and Casino Royal where we got $1 margaritas (we’re unsure whether there was any tequila in it, though). The Aladdin casino floor was a bit lame, but the shopping mall there is fantastic. We’re headed back there for lunch today, which is where I’m uploading everything for the blog. So far, we’ve lost $40 playing video poker at Caesar’s. Hopefully, I can win that money back at the poker tables today. Anyway, we’ll have more pics and more commentary later. Wish us luck!