Saturday December 23rd 2017

It is starting to look a lot like winter here in Las Vegas. It isn’t snowing, but it has become cloudy and cool. The temperature peaked around 55 degrees today. There hasn’t been any recorded precipitation in Las Vegas in over 100 days. If it makes it past Christmas without rain or snow, as it is forecast to, a new record for longest dry spell will be set.

After yesterday’s encounter with traffic around the shopping areas, I wasn’t going to venture very far on the roads today. My solution was to take the shuttle downtown from the nearby Sam’s Town casino. I caught the 1PM shuttle which is actually a full size tour bus for the five and a half to six mile ride. You could tell it was a weekend in Las Vegas, there were already a couple of well lubricated riders. They weren’t disruptive, but they had a very loud creative vocabulary on the three quarter full bus.

Is this the Grinch?

The raindeer head was moving back and forth.

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A gold Father Christmas.

The Freemont Street Experience area of downtown was loaded with tourists. All of the buskers and general weirdos looking to make money off the tourists were out. The showgirls had their fake furs on to keep warm and the almost naked people were in body suits. One of the strangest was the woman dressed as a leather clad dominatrix complete with a whip and a Santa hat on her head. They were all getting plenty of picture taking business. Not from me thank you.

I wandered around looking for signs of Christmas. The big outside tree was uninspiring during the daylight hours. I hope it is more impressive at night. The only hotel and casino I found with any sense of the holiday was the Golden Nugget. It had many holiday scenes around the indoor pool area. They were hard to take pictures of with the bright background of the pool area.

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As I visited each casino I paid my toll in the slot machines. The goal was not to spend more than forty dollars. It was tough going. I was down under ten dollars when my fortune turned around a little. By the time I headed out to catch the shuttle back I was up thirty five dollars. I think this is the first day since October that I haven’t left a casino with less money than I started with. It’s a good thing I don’t go to the casinos every day. That’s another way this stay in Las Vegas is so much different than a vacation.

I caught the four thirty shuttle back to Sam’s Town. This one also had a couple of inebriated souls in the back of the bus. Once I arrived back at Sam’s it was only a few minutes before I was back in my RV home at the RV park. I had fun walking around the downtown area but I doubt I’ll be back before I leave Las Vegas next month. Downtown continues to be edgier and more in your face than the strip. I think it is best taken in small doses.