MichaelPags: My First Vegas Trip – 2004

Reader MichaelPags shares his first Vegas trip from 2004…

My first Vegas trip took place in 2004. It was memorable, for certain, but it was also important because it set the stage for my third trip six years later.

I’m ashamed to admit; I didn’t even want to go to Vegas the first time. It was my wife’s idea, and it wasn’t the first time she had talked me into something, and I later found myself glad she had done so. (Note: that pattern has since continued unabated.) We had purchased a timeshare about five years prior, and using that, traded into the Carriage House on Harmon where we spent the week. It was a decent place and within walking distance to many casinos, which was important because we didn’t rent a car. Our friend Ray came along as well.

The closest casinos to us were Aladdin and the Boardwalk (RIP, both), and for whatever reason, we ended up spending the most time at the Boardwalk. Ray and I liked the cheap buffet (he got his money’s worth just on stuffed shells), and my wife liked the cheap blackjack tables. It was there I got my first experience with the idea of “drink early and drink often” – we made friends with a retired teacher who was happily downing vodka tonics at 9 am.

The boardwalk was where we found our favorite dealer, John. John was friendly, outgoing, and had this peculiar habit of adding the dealer cards starting with the up card, and announcing the running total: “ten…[flips hole card]…twelve…fifteen…too many!” It was always “too many!” when he busted, and we always cheered when he said it. Just good times with a good dealer, something I’ve learned in the years since is no guarantee when you sit down at a table.­

One evening, we took the timeshare shuttle downtown to see the sites. We had dinner at Binion’s and played Keno while we ate. To this day, any mention of the word Keno will instantly remind my wife and me of the lady at Binion’s, screaming out the word in her shrill voice as she hawked the cards.

After dinner, we walked Fremont, and Ray talked us into going to Girls of Glitter Gulch. Needless to say, not a good experience. I have never consumed booze so fast in my life as I did there, to finish my two-drink cover and get the hell out of Dodge. In the middle of the week, the wife and I took a Hoover Dam tour; we’re both nerds, so it appealed to us. Ray is not, and stayed back at the Monte Carlo playing blackjack. He lost more than we spent.

One other distinct memory I have is playing catch with Ray on the roof of the parking garage. For some reason, we brought our baseball gloves and a ball and found time one evening at dusk to throw the ball around. I know – weird, even by Vegas standards. All in all, we had a great trip, and we hadn’t even left before we knew we would want to come back. We had great fun, and there was so much we didn’t get to experience. I was a rookie then, and I know much better now – there can never be too many trips to Vegas.

Back to that third trip: our friend Jason came along with us, and we stayed at the Jockey Club. For Jason, visiting Las Vegas was a lifelong dream. He actually used those words several times during our stay and after, always grinning like a self-described “fat kid in a cake shop.” We made memories that will last forever and never fail to make me smile.

Less than three years after our trip, Jason died of thyroid cancer. He was 33. At his funeral, his girlfriend said to my wife and me, sobbing, “I am so glad you guys got him to Vegas. It was the one thing he always wanted to do.”

[Images: Greg C, Wikimedia Commons, CBSLocal]

Editor’s Note: MichaelPags answered our call to be an Author for a Day at Vegas Bright. We’d like you to be an author for a day as well, so drop us an email. The subject is your First Vegas Trip, or, your Luckiest Vegas Trip. Write at least three paragraphs (or more) and include original pictures (if you have them).

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