NYE in Vegas!

Happy 2009 everybody.

Unlike last year where I stayed home and watched TV, this year I decided to actually go down to the Strip just to experience the madness of New Year's Eve in Las Vegas.

Cherise had to work at 6:00 so we left around 4:30 just in case there was a ton of traffic. Surprisingly the freeways weren't that bad and it was early enough that they weren't closing offramps, so we got off at Spring Mountain at parked at Treasure Island, figuring it would be easier to get out of there at 2:00 AM then it would be at Venetian.


I played poker at the Venetian until about 11:00..... I was down for most of the session but in the last half hour or so I finally got into the black and finished with a $125 profit, which also cemented my best poker month ever since I started keeping records. Woo hoooooo. I went outside a couple times to try to watch the son of Evil Knievel jump his motorcycle over the Mirage volcano but every time I went out they were still just getting everything set up. I later heard that he didn't actually jump over the volcano but in front of it. What is up with that!? Anybody can jump in front of a volcano, it's jumping over a volcano that truly makes you a daredevil. Later in the night another guy jumped a motorcycle onto the top of the Arc de Triumph in front of the Paris hotel, and then back down again. I saw that on TV and it was very impressive.



So anyway at about 11 I went out and decided to just start walking down the Strip to soak everything in. They had the Strip completely closed off to traffic and there was just a mass of people (many of them trashed) walking all over the place.

In front of Caesars Palace the Jesus freaks were out with their signs, and it was here that I saw the only altercation of the night as police took some guy down to the ground and were wrestling with him. Not sure if it had something to do with the Jesus people or it was unrelated.

I made it as far as the Bellagio when midnight started to approach so I stopped to await the fireworks. There was a countdown on the Planet Hollywood video screen, the anticipation built, the count reached 0, and then..... NOTHING! Some fireworks went off but they were way down on the other end of the Strip and it was hard to see them. Unlike in years past, this year they set the fireworks off from parking garages instead of from the roofs of the hotels. They said they did this out of safety precautions after the Monte Carlo fire earlier in the year. I've heard a lot of complaints about the show so maybe they'll change it back next year...



After the fireworks I started walking back toward the Venetian. I made it as far as Ceasars and then hit an absolute wall of people. Everybody was crammed shoulder to shoulder and you couldn't move more than a few inches at a time. For a while nobody could move at all. It probably took a half hour just to make it half a block. I was actually starting to feel claustrophobic at one point.

Finally made it back to the Palazzo where I waited about a half hour for Cherise to get off work and lost about $40 playing video poker in the process.

Anyway I hope everybody has a great 2009......... GO CHARGERS!!!!