The Old Sloat Does Vegas

This will seem a little odd to readers of the blog, but one conspicuous gap in the Old Sloat's travels had been that in all his long life he had spent only one night in Las Vegas...and that was in 1975...until this year! This despite the fact that I have lived within 1000 miles of the city most of

my life...Monterey is actually only about 500 miles away. I guess the reason for my absence from Vegas is that I have never been much of a gambler, or a Broadway type show enthusiast. Add to that my recent trend of avoiding big cities in favor of more natural settings. But, I had a 2006 timeshare week that had to be used by the end of this February, I didn't want to go too far from home, and most of the exchange availability was in Las Vegas. Thus, I'm here. And, it is indeed an interesting place, as I observed back in '75. Where else can you see large replicas of the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Pyramid, and a medieval castle complex, all on the same street? Nowhere in the world, I reckon. And you see all kinds of people on the streets and in the casinos, from tacky rednecks to suave blokes in suits. It's a little more open here, too; I spotted a bunch of young sheilas strolling down the street swilling beer from bottles...at 1130 in the morning. Personally, I see nothing wrong with this as long as folks dispose of the bottles properly (except for the fact that these people were drinking light beer...ugh) but there are very few other places in the US...New Orleans may be one...where this is actually legal!

For the few of you who may not know, the Eiffel Tower replica is at Paris Las Vegas, and Miss Liberty presides at New York New York. Of course neither of these places, as well as most other resort/casinos, were here in 1975. Most of the places I saw back then, with the exception of Caesars Palace and Circus Circus, have been blown up and replaced.