As usual, I am falling behind on my “real time” trip reports, so I’ll make the next three days go more quickly than usual.

Day 3:

Took this pic at sunrise, from my room on the 18th floor of the Strat…

Went to the National Atomic Museum. Learned that 100 above-ground nuclear tests were performed within sight of Las Vegas during the 1950’s. Tourists came to Vegas from all over, just to see the real, live mushroom clouds. I spent half the day here. I’d recommend it. Next, I drove up Paradise Road to get back to my hotel. Pondered the irony of calling it Paradise Road, when it seems to have been paved by work crews from Hell. Spent most of the rest of the day gambling. I won a shiny fiddle made of gold!

Day 4:

The devil I went down to Bellagio, and watched the fountain show (in broad daylight). It was as I remembered…pretty cool. Proceeded to walk around what I’ll call the Vegas “Skywalk” system. There are liquor stores and restaurants galore, but I wandered into the Bellagio casino and got lost. Once I was found (but not claimed), I headed back to the Pinball Hall of Fame. I found a whole aisle of machines that I had missed on Day 1. This included a large number of OLD (“woodrail”) pinball machines, and more of my favorites (which seemed to be pretty well maintained, and a couple of oddities – notably, a game called Canada Dry. Yes, a pinball game themed after Canada Dry. I ran away.

Day 5:

After a few days of dealing with throngs of people (both in cars and on foot), overpriced (but good) food, a 15-minute walk from my hotel room to my car, and other tribulations, I was quite happy to take this day off and work on my tax returns.