Las Vegas

After our chat with the neighbors of the Shoe tree we continued our drive towards Vegas. it had gotten a little late, and after a few hours of enjoyable evening driving we found ourselves in complete darkness speeding through the emptiness of the desert. Quiet, darkness and more darkness. And then a thin band of light steadily growing in the horizon. It quietly grew in the blackness into a vast, golden shimmering lake of light drawing us in. It was quite spectacular. It grew and grew as we came closer until at last we were engulfed in a bright chaos and the traffic instantly turned murderously confusing and stressful and the sharp vulgarity of it all overwhelmed completely.

We finally found our way into the Flamingo Hotel, a classic Vegas hotel on the Strip, known for mob murders and the related drama. We were naturally tired and just wanted to collapse in our room. But the place was huge beyond belief and felt and looked mostly like an airport stuffed with shops and casinos. After some exhausting confusion and bewilderment we got checked in and found our room.

In the morning we marveled at the view over the palm tree garden in the middle of the hotel grounds and ventured back out into the hotel ground floor. It took us a long time to find our way out of the hotel and into the street. When we finally got there, I regretted it imidiately. The heat was a hitherto unknown agony and the light was horribly sharp. There were people bustling everywhere, music blaring and flashing lights and everything enormous and polished looking. We went to see Caesars Palace, which Ivan thought was really rather awesome.

I didn't like it much, and was increasingly getting the feeling that Vegas didn't agree with me. I clutched my coffee and tried to avoid looking at bright surfaces.

We took refuge inside and walked around for a long time in a sort of mall with casinos in it... inside this building, they had a plastic Rome with a painted canvas sky and even worse a plastic Paris.



It was perfectly hideous. Ivan had the mental capacity and stability to laugh at it all and even thought some of it was kinda neat, where as I just felt increasingly sickened. Sensitive and a victim of my imagination as I am, I felt like I was walking inside a tremendous, bloated, squelching, money-devouring monster.

After perusing like this for a while we settled down at a black Jack table and started gambling. Our two dealers were very nice and good company and people with trays started bringing us booze. I slowly started feeling comfortable and we ended up spending most of a day gambling and drinking and having a great time of it. I fairly quickly lost the money I had alloted to gambling, but Ivan kept it going all day and actually managed to come out even in the end. All the while we talked to the other gamblers and generally had a gay old time.


Apart from the gambling which was good fun, I must admit, I couldn't stand the place. Ivan enjoyed it though and appreciated the grandeur.

The next morning, we got our bags into the car and got ready to take off. I was getting a rather bad stress reaction to the place by now and couldn't lift my eyes from the floor without it hurting them. I got in the car, pressed my pillow from the Austin Holiday Inn down over my eyes and and thankfully let Ivan drive us back out into the desert.