I have been biding my time in a Las Vegas hotel room, trying to gather my thoughts and spend a bit of time writing. Believe it or not despite my at time poor blogging, I do like to think and type.
This is my third trip to Vegas, once was about 10 years ago and two in the past two years. Last year my trip corresponded with the start of the economic downturn, and this one in the middle of a resession. To my untrained eyes Vegas looks to have had the middle torn out of it, something that was underway last year but has been augmented with economic meloncholy.
I took a simple walk down the vegas strip last night, starting at the Sahara where I got a room for $30 a night and working my way to the high end casinos at the south end of the strip.
Ten Years ago the strip extended all the way from the Manalay Bay to the Stratosphere, by this time last year many new casino had been built, as the big corperations started to redevelop older casinos from the south end down the strip. Unfortunately for the downtown end there is about 1 mile of real estate effectively abandoned. With only partially built or vacant lots where casinos used to stand. Probably one of the reasons that a hotel room is so cheap at this end of the strip.
I imagine that it might be years before the hole torn out of the middle of the city of Las Vegas is returned to what it once was.
Last night I walk into a Denny’s, to be honest it is little more than a MacDonalds with table service. However Denny’s means a lot more to me than McDonalds. I spent many a pleasant night in the Denny’s of Florida with my family growing up on holiday, and therefore thought I’d try and relive some of my childhood again by visiting this chain.
What I found was really upsetting, before I had seen Denny’s as McDonalds with a touch of class. The burgers always seemed tastier, the fries nicer the service better. Despite being hungry I could not finish my Burger, how you can cock up a burger I don’t know but the steak sauce it was garnished with simply wasn’t up to much, or certainly didn’t agree with my palate. As for the service, I had to ask several times to have my coke refilled. The same happened with my breakfast this morning, a bottomless cup of coffee indeed, I had physically aged by the time I had my cup refilled just once.
I did carrying on up the Strip, that goes on and on for what seems like forever, and the signs are so big outside the casinos that you might think you are moments away from them but you are probably a mile out. I carried on through hundreds of thousands of tourist set at giving as much of there money to these casinos as possible to get to the Belagio, and settle down to watch the fountains in all their glory. I have put together another video that captures what happens when the sunset and Vegas along with several massive electricity generators spring to life to make the strip what it is a Disneyland for adults. I hope you enjoy it.
The Video can be found at http://www.vimeo.com/15535494. I may be an hour before it can be view its called vegas nights, and is another stop animation.