Last weekend, we were in Las Vegas for an getaway and Rockabilly Weekend. The cab ride from the Orleans back to our hotel was an opportunity to relax and reflect on our brief sojourn.Much about Las Vegas is just unreal. You can spend 24 hours indoors under a simulated sky and lose track of what is real day or night. You can visit casinos with themes of cities: Venice complete with gondola rides, Paris with an Eiffel Tower, and New York with delis, neighborhoods, the Statue of Liberty, and a skyline that includes the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings. Some casinos will take you on fanciful trips to Egypt or Camelot.
In other ways, Las Vegas is surreal. Elvises, showgirls, and other costumed characters are so ubiquitous that, after awhile, they do not warrant a second glance. At times, you feel that you are in the middle of a carnival. Las Vegas’ citizens and visitors can invent any persona they want, never really look out of the ordinary, and be either anonymous or bigger than life.
A certain reality of Las Vegas revealed itself during our visit. Abandoned building projects. Vacant lots where casinos or hotels once stood. Older casinos made obsolete by new ones, which inevitably will become obsolete. Ostensibly down on their luck people asking for change. Expressionless folks mesmerized by machines that take their money. They are buoyed by the hope that they will be the lucky ones while knowing that the odds are against that.
Sometimes, the city is a caricature of itself. Easy, quick weddings and divorces. Wedding chapels seem to be everywhere. Many have drive thrus like fast food chains. You can get married and then go have a Big Mac for a wedding dinner. All without leaving the comfort of an air conditioned car! On the flip side, billboard after billboard stand in vacant lots to advertise attorneys handling, among other services, divorces.
On Fremont Street and along The Strip, you get a sense of Sin City as a multitude of folks hand out fliers that picture naked or nearly naked women who are available for private entertainment. Newspaper stands offer more of the same. Sign trucks cruise The Strip advertising “Girls, Girls, Girls.”
Real, unreal, surreal, caricature, or Sin City? No matter what you think, Las Vegas is bound to entertain you in some fashion along the way.
During the cab ride, Becky laughed as she recounted the story of the couple next door to us at our hotel.
As we walked by their room, they opened their door and asked, “Do you have a humming sound in your room?” The man continued, “We were in another room. It had this weird humming sound. They upgraded us to here, but we are hearing the same weird humming sound.” The woman motioned to a corner.
Becky went in and thinking the humming sound was coming from the cold air return, she asked Brett (our son and HIVAC expert) to come in and diagnose the problem.
Becky pointed to the overhead. Brett listened intently. “Uh huh, I hear it, but it is not coming from there.” He then reached down picked up the couple’s duffel bag, held it up, and said, “There’s something vibrating in here. What’s in the bag?”
The couple blushed simultaneously. They thanked Becky and Brett and rushed them out of the room with a “please don’t tell anybody about this.” They then avoided us the rest of their stay.
Yeah, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!
