We completed the drive back to Vegas with no hiccups. There was a strange cloud formation that looked like the genie had been let out of the bottle so we wondered if it meant our luck would be in. We drove into the self-park at the Hard Rock eagerly anticipating our move to our new non-smoking room. We still had the keys to the old room and went there first.
We retrieved an answerphone message to the effect that arrangements had been made to move us but we needed to confirm by 6 pm. Of course it’s now gone 7 and we missed our slot. A call to reception promised to sort it out. Several more phone calls to check progress, and not even a drink in our room, caused both us and our receptionist to lose it a bit. She eventually promised us an upgrade to a junior suite for our trouble. It was a nice room and certainly didn’t smell of smoke but had a magnificent view of the car park in place of the view of pools and palms we had in the first one. Reception 1 – Lesley/Raggett 0. Genie rating not auspicious.
After a day of driving and two hours of hassle we were disinclined to go out so stayed in the Hard Rock, went to confirm our booking at Nobu for the next evening and then ate perfectly adequately but unmemorably in another of the hotel’s outlets. Given our lengthy wait for a room change our choice was reduced somewhat as most of them stop serving at 10:00. We don’t want people eating when they could be spending real money do we?
After a comfortable night in our king size bed with no views to distract us we tested the SatNav with a trip to the suburbs. In Boston Dee had discovered many garments to her taste and budget in a store called Talbots. There’s a Talbots in Las Vegas and there’s a sale on. It’s in Rampart Commons Shopping District – oh please let there be no more enticing lizards on these ramparts! (For those who weren’t there a fateful encounter took place on a Watford pre-season tour in Ibiza in 2004 when a discussion with a lizard on Ibiza town ramparts resulted in a team of plastic lizards with full squad names and painted numbers being entered in a five-a-side tournament – don’t ask!).
We had a fascinating half-hour ride through the plusher suburbs (not much featured in CSI) with neat detached houses, corner mini malls, swimming pools in profusion and well-kept streets. We found Talbots with no trouble and suffice it to say I emerged wearing several bags and Dee a beaming smile.
On our way back in we drove the length of the strip. Now we know we have to do it at night but we have a date at Nobu for our wedding anniversary dinner. Even by daylight finding the Eiffel Tower, a pyramid, the canals of Venice and many other fantasy buildings lining the street was quite staggering enough.
To have examined them each in detail would have been kitsch overkill. There was the massive tower of Caesar’s Palace and the prospect of interesting beer among the other strip attractions we passed.
So we retreated to the Hard Rock and got a couple of hours by the Nirvana Pool before being kicked out for a private function. It transpires that despite having their own hotel and casino in Vegas, Hooters had taken the Hard Rock over for the week with performance prizes, beauty pageants, recruitment sessions and a whole load more. I guess this was an international gathering so they wanted the home team to feel they were somewhere different. I had no idea there were 430 Hooters in 28 countries the only one in the UK being in Nottingham. I didn’t know that as I haven’t there been for ages – and it’s probably not our kind of place anyway. So there was nothing for it but to freshen up, frock up and head for the tables prior to our Nobu dinner.
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