IRON, Thanks. I just returned from a long walk on the Strip starting at the MGM Grand and down to Circus Circus and back with a couple of beers in both directions.
When it’s warm like this I walk about a 4th of that route through the east side of the Strip casinos which were not too busy this weekend.
I guess people are saving their travel dates for the big 4th of July weekend.
I used to stay at the old Barbury Coast before it became The Cromwell and the rooms were small enough that you had to open the door to remove your shoes.
A good friend of Only Me owned a small percentage of the BC and he would invite Keith and Chuck Norris and a handful of other ‘celebrities’ and do some fine dining at MICHEL’s which is still one of finest dining spots in town but extremely expensive.
And then they would all proceed to a private craps table at which no one else was allowed to play unless you were invited to play at that table by Keith or his friends.
I believe Keith won $8,000 that night before heading up to his room to catch some shuteye … only to return to that same table and lose it all in less than an hour.
There was supposedly one large hotel room in the BC which was called the John Wayne Suite where some of the guests stayed, but every room I ever stayed in was a bit larger than a shoebox.
Drai’s used to be an popular after-hours joint downstairs which was decorated to look like a tent in India, but the new Drai’s on the rooftop with a pool is one of the major nite spots in town now.
But I have yet to ever get up there. Yesterday (Saturday) was pool party day and the line waiting to go up there stretched throughout the casino floor.
The BC used to be a wild, wild west, cowboy type of casino and was always packed to the rafters, but now it looks like a French mausoleum with fewer customers than the number of hell raisers using the bathrooms in them good old days.
When I go in there …. it feels like I am visiting the dead.
Did you have a meal or two at Hell’s Kitchen. It appears to be a very popular dining spot.
And how about Absinth?
Sorry … getting carried away here, but I’ve seen this town grow way too fast over the tears … and much of the good stuff from back then has disappeared or simply gone to shit. But it is stilll great to hear that people still enjoy this town and all it has to offer as much as I used to.