DAY 16
Week 3
LAS VEGAS (Nevada, USA)
Sunday November 19th, 2000
TODAYS MILEAGE – 20 miles or 32 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 11088 miles or 17844 kilometres
Sunday was designated a national day of rest, as we were both jetting back to Boise. We had a look at the Mandalay Bay before tucking into More The Buffet at the adjacent Luxor for a leisurely Sunday brunch. We were going to head up to the Stratosphere, but ending up asking our cabby where would be a good place to have a quite beer and watch some NFL action. The cabby dropped us of at PT's Pub on East Sahara Avenue, a couple of miles north of the Strip.
Rachel was serving and I was having trouble downing a couple of beers - self-inflicted, so no sympathy!!! I was feeling a bit crook from the night before and Fair Dinkum, the beers tasted like they had bones in them. As a last resort I thought I'd try a White Russian just to see if that'd help. Rachel makes one for us with real Kahlua and Absolut vodka (a rarity on both counts in Vegas), a splash of milk and I was back on the Mothers Milk and raring to go.
We spent the best part of four hours in the company of Rachel and her $3-00 White Russians. She also introduced us to her concoction called a Mind Eraser which had the angels dancing on your tongue. We had to fly out at 5 PM so we asked Rachel to call a cab for us at 3 PM.
We waited and waited and waited. We then heard a whole heap of sirens and shouting outside, so being true rubber-neckers, we went out to take a butchers hook. It was like a scene from the TV show Cops. Lights were flashing, the cops had their guns drawn, they had a helicopter was overhead and yelling through loud speakers at a couple in a car parked in front of the pub. In the midst of this a taxi turned up, took one look at the scene and was off like a Jewish foreskin, in the other direction.
After everything had died down ... and no the cops didn't get into a running gun battle or cap anyone's arse, I've lobbed up to two of Las Vegas's finest and asked for a photo. No dramas, the boys were more than accommodating and were a lot fun. But, we still weren't any closer to getting to the airport and it was 4 O'clock. I saw some bloke heading to his car with a 5 gallon bottle of water, so I yelled out and asked if he could give us a lift. Much to our surprise and probably the drivers, he agreed to drop us off at the airport.
It turns out the our good Samaritan was an off duty Las Vegas cop. Good onya son. We get to the airport, check our bags and promptly watched the plane take off without us as Southwest Airlines had oversold the flight by 25. That's not over selling the plane, that's selling a whole new bloody flight. Anyway's it took two hours to sort all the crap that's associated with the airline trying to butter you up. In the end, we were in Vegas for another night, on the airlines dime as well. 