BUS BITS FROM THE OCT/NOV 2014 TRIP

On one board Keno 60 posted about using the Walgreen's on Decatur and Tropicana, just a short walk from the Orleans to buy bus passes. This worked just great. The Walgreen's is 24 hours so I could go up very early at 5 AM when I could not sleep and had nothing much else to do.

I thought the walk was very safe and easy.

There were some pretty girls working the street, but they are not aggressive or much of a bother.

Walgreen's said that they don't run out of the 15 and 30 day passes with senior discount there, so we can count on them.

While I was there I picked up some snacks and a large gallon of water that cost just 99 cents as opposed to the small bottles for $2.25 for sale at the Orleans.

Along the way I noticed a Bank of America that would be a handy place for me to get more gambling money were I to run short.

Also, if I wanted some food outside the casino that great Irish Pub McMullen's is open 24 hours and there is a Jack in the Box not far from the Walgreen's.

What this does for me is make the Orleans an easy place to start my trips. In the past, the desire to buy a 30 day bus pass had me leaning toward starting my trip downtown. This time I followed up two nights at the Orleans with 5 nights on the strip, some of them one nighters, and I wanted to do that at the beginning of the trip when I was not so tired out that the check in/check out took away from the fun of the strip hotels. I'd do that again.

However to get the Orleans I decided to try getting off the WAX at the Koval stop. The idea was that I could manage a better choice of seats if I did not wait for the NYNY stop and possible crowds.

That was a mistake.

Hovering around that Koval stop are a half dozen homeless guys asking for money. They did not seem particularly troublesome, but after 5 hours on the plane I really don't want to hear sad luck stories from a guy with a beer can in a paper sack.

I talked to another regular rider who said they were harmless but always in that area.

So, next trip I'll go back to the NYNY stop which is less isolated from other riders, patrolled more often by security, and more comfortable for an old guy with a huge suitcase.

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I fully intended not to be out of downtown on Halloween night, but there I was on the BHX with some costumes. There was a route change, but from what the driver said I could not figure it out. This particular driver is a character. At one point he noticed the next bus directly behind him and he was hoping that no one would need to get off so that he could just sail on downtown.

I got off too early, well North of the Downtowner, but I did not really understand where he might go due to the festival. It was early evening and there were plenty of folks out on the street, so I was comfortable.

I expect that he did go all the way to just opposite the El Cortez as I saw the bus continue straight. There was just no asking. Folks were in a party mood and he was into other issues than helping me exit properly.

I did note that the place to catch the BHX is just before the Mob Museum and in the rear of the Downtown Grand. This is a temporary stop, so I can't tell if it will be there for long, but it is worth walking over to see.

Today, without knowing the exact temporary stop, I hopped on the DVX at Binions and transferred at the BTC, but that cost me time. From what I figured, I actually might have caught an earlier bus had I gone to the stop.

I had had such a run around last year when the temporary stops were not well marked, that I wanted the safe route, That might make me a bit late for the tournament, but I would not be wandering all over downtown checking for the stops and getting bad advice from folks who only knew the old stops. Nor would I be walking all the way out to the Western only to perhaps find that stop closed as it is for the Life is Beautiful Festival. That Binions stop is very convenient for just taking any bus that come, getting off at the BTC and then finding whatever bus is desired.

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Since I often write about buses as if I know what I am going, I think it only fair to share my bus errors from this trip.

Sometimes in life I just don't know what I am going. And it happens sometimes on the Vegas bus.

The first happened right on the WAX. I could not decide whether to just pay a dollar to get to NYNY and then a dollar to get to the Orleans or to buy a 24 hour pass.

When I finally decided, I did not have the correct change, so I bought a 24 hour pass (which as it turned out I did not need) and paid $3 for it, rather than the senior rate of $2.50.

The second was even more stupid. I got confused as to the position of the Palace Station compared to the Boulder Highway. I had two football squares and had decided to go from the Palace Station to Eastside Cannery and play during the football game.

I got on the Sahara Express going the wrong way.

I was way out West before I really woke up to the fact.

And by then I was going to be late for the Poker game.

So, instead I got on the bus going East and the bus driver helped me get to my second choice, the Italian Club presentation of Kelly Holmes (Clint's wife). This mistake ended up giving me the best show I saw in Vegas this trip

 

The third mistake was to board the WAX on my way up to play my freeroll at Monte Carlo. There was a couple there who owned a condo in downtown, but never gambled. They asked me a pile of questions, curious about how I made gambling a frugal occupation. I got so absorbed in answering I missed my Tropican stop and the first thing I knew I was at the airport. Luckily, there was another WAX just arriving to take me back to the NYNY. I lost about 15 minutes, but perhaps less since I ended up on the correct side of the strip for Monte Carlo.

The fourth mistake was to take my son to catch the SDX and forget to get him to buy his ticket until the bus was on its way. Then we approached the machine and I asked the worker there, a very friendly fellow, to help him get a 24 hour $7 pass before the bus arrived. Well, in the confusion he ended up with two passes on his charge card and we missed that bus anyway. I tried to resell it, but when the next SDX came I just gave it to the worker and he passed it on to some needy person. I did not need a pass as I had the 30 day pass already.

MY COMPLETE TRIP REPORT SNIPPETS ARE PUBLISHED HERE:

http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/

Bits of the trip are organized by topic and labeled TR Snippet.  Ignore dates.  However, it won't all load at first, so when finished with the first batch,  look for the Prompt "older posts" at the bottom right hand corner of the page and that will take you to page 2 and so on.