You Can’t Beat A Happy Ending

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Wednesday, 23rd November 2011

Another good night’s sleep....like I said, the beds at Harrah's are very comfortable. I was doing the general stooging around the room when my brother Pete texted me suggesting breakfast. At 11am...is he insane...that’s way to early!?

Nevertheless, I felt it my duty to see the little blighter as I hadn’t actually laid eyes on him for 5 days or so. Good to know he was still alive although judging by the look of him when he knocked on my door it had been a rough night.

We sauntered down to The Cafe at Harrah's...an unimaginative name but accurate. Steak, Eggs, Breakfast potatoes, orange juice and coffee....lovely. We caught up on our various doings but as out interest on the gambling front are different he decided to have another shot at the blackjack tables and, mug that I am, went back to the Venetian.

Seriously, I should have known better....

No madam...you did not KNOW the villain had JJ on a J7388 board when you called all the streets of betting, raised by the villain and reraised by me on every street. I knew he was betting the come on the flop with his A2, I’d been watching him do it for past hour.

If you seriously thought he had JJ you would not have called with a bare 3 and no low on the flop and gone runner runner with 83 to boat the river against my 77.

That was enough, I’d been there less than 2 hours and was down $140 already...I’m done.

Of course, this left me with the rest of the day to fill. I wandered back to Harrah's and played the penny slots for an hour or two dropping another $100 or so...no, I lie, it was more like $200.

Jesus, I’m so stupid sometimes.

That put me further in a funk and I was sitting in my room trying to decide whether to even bother to do anything for the evening when I got a text from, as it turned out, Ger to the effect that they had acted on a suggestion of mine from some time back and made reservations at The Range Steakhouse upstairs in Harrah's for 8pm.

I kind of felt obliged to be there ad it had been my original idea but on reflection that wasn’t the important point. No, this would be my last opportunity so socialise with some of my APAT friends before they flew back and that I could not miss.

So, I threw off my troubles and made my way downstairs and found a small crowd at the Numb bar just outside The Range’s private elevator. It seemed that some people there were unconvinced about the value of the meal compared to the cost so they elected to choose the Outback instead.

Fair enough. As it turned out Richard Baker called me and said that he had rounded up a few more and we eventually made it upstairs eleven handed. A couple of tables pushed together right by the window overlooking the Strip and all the ambiance you might expect.

Oysters, Steak and Lobster followed by Tiramisu all washed down with a few large glasses of wine.

How much you ask?...About $110 each and worth every red cent. The service and food were top notch and I would recommend it if you happen to be into that kind of experience.

We were out by 10.30 pm or so, I’m not precisely sure of the time but I suggested that we finish off the night at Toby Keith's.

This ideas was more or les warmly received although I did see Ger and a couple of others yawning but that didn’t stop them following along.

On arrival, someone was getting the drinks in while we tried to find a table that we could all sit at when I looked around to find Dawn having a barney with a security guard.

It seemed that this jobsworth was concerned about us disrupting the flow of the restaurant section by sitting at a ‘restaurant table’ instead of at a a set of stools no more than 4 feet away.

Dawn was explaining to this f...ellow that it was had to disrupt the flow when there were precisely 3 people sitting the the restaurant section which had space for over 100 covers.

Regardless, I suggested to Dawn that it wasn’t worth the hassle but somehow, bless her, she managed to wangle not only $50 worth of comps as an apology for our trouble but late check-out (2pm instead of noon) for all of us in the party staying at Harrah's.

Gift of the gab I suppose.

Well that sealed it...we were drinking and singing along to the somewhat (I thought) mediocre cover band playing and eventually closed up the joint at 1.30am.

Job done.

I shook a few hands in case I didn’t see them again before they flew out and wended my weary way back my room. Stuffed and Happy.

Oh Shit, They’re Here!

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Thursday, 17th November 2011

This not sleeping right is really starting to hack me off big time but perhaps a change of scenery will do me some good...luckily it’s moving day. I pottered around the room packing and policing up the room to make sure I hadn’t left anything behind before making my way down to the front desk to check out around noon.

I took a cab over to Harrah's and got checked in in pretty short order and trekked up to my room on the 14th floor. I’d deliberately asked for a quiet room, I need to maximise my opportunities for a good nights kip.

I unpacked and set-up the IT kit as per usual but, for some reason, I couldn’t log on to the wi-fi. The screen kept saying I couldn’t apply charges to my room even though I had specifically enabled this on check-in. This was a little annoying as it meant I would have to trek down to the front desk and get it sorted.

These little things are sent to try us I suppose.

I’d already planned to get some lunch at Toby Keith’s so I took the opportunity to make my enquiries at the front desk as I passed. On doing so I was informed that Harrah's DOESN’T HAVE WI-FI in it’s standard rooms...only in it’s suites.

WTF!? Even the friggin’ Imperial Palace has wi-fi in all it’s rooms! I looked at the woman behind the desk as though she’d told me that beer was bad for you.

Apparently, they only have cabled connections in the standard rooms. I’d noticed a cable in the top drawer of the TV cabinet when I was unpacking but I’ve seen this dozens of times in other hotels...it’s an emergency thing, not an actual necessity.

Sorry folks, a ‘Travel Guru Fail’ on that one...who knew? I guess I’m supposed to know but it still boggles my mind that they don’t have this basic functionality.

Well, there it was, nothing I could do now, so I went to eat. A few beers and a plate of chicken fingers later I’d fed the body and soul and a text arrived from Richard Baker telling me he was in Carnaval Court. It was only 2pm by this time, a little early but why not?

I walked the short distance outside and found Rich, Andy & Deb planted at a table. Rich had one of those 4 foot drink things full of alcohol wrapped around his neck and was obviously in a party mood.

Figuring that I had a long night ahead I just contented myself with a few Bud Lights while we watched a great band called “Wonder Boogie” get the smallish crowd fired up with disco music and audience participation bits. They’ve been doing this for a long time and have it down pat. It’s a whole lot of fun to watch.

Rich and I sat there for a fair while (Andy & Deb had gone off to eat I think) just having a whale of a time just watching the crowd belly up to the bar for free shots of alcohol every half hour or so. It’s just cheap booze and fruit drinks mixed up in a pouring bottle but it’s a great way to get people involved.

Finally the rest of the APAT contingent started to arrive and we got stuck in. I can’t say everyone made the choice to turn up but the usual hard-core were in attendance so I think we did it up right.

Buckets of beer for $25 seemed popular once I’d spread the word...’Travel Guru Redeemed’.

To be honest I had expected us to just be there until fully liquored up and crashing but it seemed that a lot of people wanted to play the 8pm tournament at Harrah's. I honestly can’t see the attraction...It’s a crappy room and the tournament has, as is the way with these things, a horrible structure...but I was willing to go along with the majority.

Along the way, I’d been trying to get hold of my brother. He should have landed about 2pm but I hadn’t heard a peep out of him. I’d called, texted and emailed but nothing.

On my way to the poker room, detoured for a pee and as I’m washing my hands and on the way out, in he walks. I meet him in some funny places.

It turns out he’d gone out to an AT&T store to buy a sim immediately after checking in but for some reason his phone still wasn’t getting data. That explained the lack of contact. I took his new number and he went back to his blackjack I headed over to the poker room.

We’ll catch up later...it’s that sort of relationship. We don’t feel the need to be in each other’s pockets all the time. He’s not into poker and I’m pretty much over long spells at the blackjack tables....been there, did that during the nineties.

Naturally, every move I made was the wrong one and I was out in about 2 hours, probably less...in fact almost certainly less.

I sat outside the poker room for a while and found myself nodding off...I mean literally, doing the head jerk thing when you pull yourself back from the edge of sleep. This sleep deficiency thing is kicking my backside.

I played some slots for a while to rack up a few lousy Total Rewards points before heading back to the room to try and get the internet working.

That was a real palaver too. Firstly, I couldn’t find anywhere to plug the cable into. I searched for quite a while before finding the router attached to the back of one of the nightstands. Success I thought. Nope, the cable wouldn’t reach to the table in the room. Ok, move the table...that’ll cause problems with housekeeping, I’ll lay odds...I’ll have to leave a note asking them not to move it back.

Are we there yet? Nope, no signal. It’s surprising that something didn’t drop the 14 floors out of the window. The answer....they hadn’t plugged in the router to a power outlet. Once I’d twigged that it was plain sailing but, sheesh, sorry Harrah's you don’t get any more stays out of me.

So that was that. They’re here.

I’ll let them tell they’re own stories over on the APAT forum. I have little doubt they will be doozies.