Picture Or Three A Day : Goodbye & Some Casino Stories

Hello! And welcome back. Today's picture of the day is from many many moons ago. You can tell by the smiles on our faces. Do we look like the perfect tourists?

I talked about this earlier in the week and I get changes and all that Jazz But The Mirage in Vegas hit me kind of hard. We used to live in Kingman Arizona and snuck to Vegas a lot back when you could still drive over the Hoover Dam We have stayed at a ton of the resorts on the strip and even walked the whole strip to get change buckets from each and every casino back in the day when you could still put quarters in slot machines and win them instead of the paper pay outs now. Anyways one trip April and I specifically stayed at The Mirage to see the animals and go on the dolphin experience. She loves Dolphins This is us in front of one of the tanks we look like such tourists Farwell!

IhII have been going through a lot of my older pictures lately to start this new page of mine. With my life looking up again, kind of---and my birthday coming up---kind of and I have to say a lot of the pictures hurt to look at a lot has changed over the years especially the last three years. And I realize change is going to happen and needed but. Over the last few days I am starting to think that my best adventures happened in the past. I have a lot of pictures to use on this page and to use as great memories. But I think I need to stop looking at older pictures for awhile. April and I have been together for almost 18 years now and the above picture was very early in the relationship while we were still in the Honeymoon phase for sure.

Another ancient picture in front of The Mirage

way back when I used to smoke the occasional cigar.

I and we have a lot of memories from Viva Las Vegas

and from casinos in general

My newest job will be my 4th job in a casino setting.

When these pictures were taken---I really did not even like to gamble

I would bet about five dollars and be more into the sights and sounds of the town!

Quick recap--

I will go into all of these trips more in future blog post

But I flew into Vegas the night after the big shooting at the country music festival

And than stayed in the closest casino to where the shooting took place. My airline actually called me---and asked if I wanted to cancel my flight because I guess many passengers did cancel.

And in 2014 2h3n 23 moved from Washington state to Arizona ---the trip should have took 4 days at the most but took over two weeks and cost us a fortune. When we got close to Vegas it was beyond hot but we decided to try and make the best of the day and stay the night in Vegas. My wife passed out in the motel room. It was the first time I got to ride in the front of an ambulance. Even though she arrived by ambulance--they had low prioritized her and we spent most of the night waiting for her to be seen at the hospital. She had heat stroke Her and I got back to the motel and the kiddos about time to go to bed. Nanna had toke them to Hooters to eat Anyways the next morning before we hit the road Our youngest and I walked to the strip and took a few pictures to prove we had been there

In March of 2020 during the start of The Covid I got a rental car and drove to Vegas to take pictures of the total shut down. It was a spooky feeling being on the streets with no one except police and security around. The main TV news on that trip was that each casino had to adapt a full shut down procedure because they were all closed. NONE of the casinos had ever had to do just that since they opened there doors. More on these trips and more but now some more pictures!

These are just a few of the pictures I took during The Covid. The night picture I walked to the New York New York at about 11 at night. The next two were on the strip at about 11 in the morning the very next day. Self distancing in usually one of the busiest places there is.

I like to sneak this picture on my local Facebook pages randomly

Just because the building cause anger in so many people

It would be comical if it wasn't this strong reaction over a building.

And that is as political as I am going to get today.... ;)

Coffee for one Cheers!

Other side of the strip that same day Near The Stratosphere

Another Very recent closure of Vegas
They are about to make the area a ball field.
This sign was for The Covid
On the same Morning as the above pictures

I was in my car- turned right onto The Strip and drove almost to The Stratosphere in FIVE MINUTES Because no one was out.

This is just another example of how things change

And one of the many pictures I have of things and places that one can no longer visit.

Usually it seems because they have been tour down and or fell down.

I am working on a future post here about such places across the country.

I have a ton more pictures and video from this amazing and depressing trip.

And from all of my other road trips in 2020 And I took a lot

The differences between the mind set of people from state to state during The Covid really amazed me most. And how hard it was to find a bathroom that was unlocked.

I will discuss that in pictures on another day.

And really after that trip I feel no need to visit Vegas again.

"They use fear to control!"

OK I lied one last picture from downtown Vegas----and its a bit political but this picture speaks to me the most from that whole trip. Especially with The election coming up.