Thursday, October 15, 2009

Adventures in Las Vegas

We'd all been looking forward to seeing Fat Elvis. We hurried from lunch at the Bellagio (3 p.m.)! and raced over to Bill's Gambling Saloon, wriggled our way through the gamblers and arrived at his stage -- only to see a sign which ead: "Elvis is indisposed and will not be performing." Dejected, we walked out.

Red is a great fan of "group gambling." He picks out a machine that's "hot" and we all gather round it, chip in $10 each and take turns pulling the lever.

I'm against. I make my own luck (usually bad.) He finally conned/nagged me into it and we made a bet -- $60 into the machine. I warned him, "You'll get less than 22 pulls..." Red said, "No! At least 50!" So we bet a bogi on it. The sogi bogi is Red's creation. There are two kinds -- any time or on demand. The bogi-er (?) gets down on his knees and salaams the winner, murmuring "Sogi bogi..."

I won -- sadly -- and I say that because this machine never paid off at all! 21 pulls and the money was gone. Red dutifully knelt on the casino floor and gave me a bogi. I'd rather have gotten my $10 back... Nevermore.

We saw a revue featuring the Platters (first Detroit group to be invited into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame) the Coasters and the Marvelettes. For older guys, they had a lot of energy -- one of the Coastrs was jumping around like a flea! The Marvelettes were considerably younger -- daughters of the originals? I could swear that the middle singer (and lead) was a female impersonator. All of the gestures, facial expressions down pat!

Our last night in town, we had an alfresco dinner down on the resort's patio. Leftovers from lunch (pizza which had been reheated in the room - these were one bedroom suites with full kitchen, dining rable, living area, bathroom and a huge Jacuzzi off the bedroom. There's a little grocery store that's part of the deal and we purchased a fruit plate, cheese tray, cold shrimp and potato chips from there as well as a couple of six-packs and three splits of champagne for the ladies to congratulate them on their big win. Nancy and Barbara shared a machine and it paid them $1,000 or $500 each. Barbara got a big grin on her face and said, "Here's my new washing machine!"

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