A good night's sleep?

If you ever talk about a Vegas vacation with anyone -- yours or theirs -- there are certain to be two questions.

"Did you win?"

"Where did you stay?"

My first trip in 1997 included three nights at the MGM Grand, and I arrived on the night of a star-studded preview party at the New York New York, which was opening to the public the following morning. 

I have stayed at several properties up and down the strip over the years, and occasionally at downtown casinos. I have stayed on the strip once during the past decade or more, and that was at The Strat, about as far away from the action as you can get and still make a legit argument you're staying on the strip. 

If I'm not staying downtown, I'm usually staying at the Orleans. I have used timeshare-style properties a couple of times during the past decade or so, although I wasn't there because of, or for, a timeshare pitch. 

I rent a car every trip, and staying off strip is more my style. I should really book a room at South Point or Silverton one of these years, although I never play there, so they're not going to entice me with a discounted rate. And I do like being closer to the action. Orleans has been a great destination for me, for the most part, during the past decade. 

I like gambling, but I have little interest in gambling with my hotel accommodations. I don't visit Vegas during the biggest weekends of the year, so I have little reason to look to the smaller independent hotels and chains that are scattered all over Vegas. 

The website photos look nice, but I can't imagine I'll be booking a room at The Shalimar Hotel any time soon. 

But I often wonder, who stays at those odd, unassuming flop houses still in business east of downtown Vegas? 

Want a low roller vacation? Stay at Hotel Galaxy. Right across the freeway from the Luxor! It looks like a slice of paradise, according to the website, and nothing says low roller like a small, independent hotel that nobody will accidentally find their way to. And just minutes from the action! 

Like many other Vegas enthusiasts, I watch YouTube videos about Sin City. I don't watch any channel religiously, but I have sampled plenty of them. One of the more modest channels out there is NeonVacation. 

Del, the content creator, hasn't been hammering away at videos for years, but he has uploads dating back nine years. He has been more active in the last year or so, and has been producing content that I'm not seeing elsewhere. (Admittedly, I'm not looking for it, either.)

One of the things Del does occasionally in Vegas is stay at one of the older independent hotels, and give you a look at them, inside and out. No, these are not the most fascinating videos ever produced, but when you've been to Vegas more than 40 times during the past 24 years, as I have, you start to wonder about these places. Del gives me a glimpse into that world. 

Recently he stayed at the Thunderbird Boutique Hotel. Maybe it's not as old as I assume, but it's just up the road from The Shalimar Hotel, not far from The Strat on Las Vegas Boulevard. That whole stretch between The Strat and Fremont Street is a bit dingy these days, but there are wedding chapels as well as hotels along the way, harkening back to a time when downtown gamblers didn't venture as far as The Tropicana when they visited Vegas. 

I  correspond with Del occasionally, but we haven't discussed what his motivation was for staying at the Thunderbird. I am also curious as to what the room rate was, including taxes. Trivial stuff, I know, but interesting stuff for longtime Vegas enthusiasts, I'd argue. 

I was impressed by how nice his Thunderbird room appeared to be. I was expecting 30-year-old amenities and rather dull, basic furnishings, but that didn't appear to be the case. 

The pool looked rather unspectacular, but that's not a surprise. Old motor lodges weren't known for their elaborate pools. 

Much to my surprise, however, is that there's a wedding chapel and banquet room on the property. Going to Vegas for to get married? Why hassle with going to the top of The Strat for a ceremony when you can get married at the Thunderbird? 

Years ago I was making periodic solo trips to Vegas. I stayed at a timeshare property near the Orleans one year, and as a result I ended up at the Orleans on subsequent trips. I never considered booking a room at one of these quirky, odd, old school properties. 

Even with a rental car, the drawbacks of booking a room at a quirky old Vegas relic are obvious. The Thunderbird has a lounge with some sort of food service, but it's not as if you have easy access to numerous dining options. And there's no gambling and heading up to the hotel room from the casino floor at the end of your night. Those are things Orleans offers, and I value. 

If I lived in southern California and wanted to head to Vegas for short trips on a recurring basis, perhaps that would inspire a weekend stay at Shalimar, which has a Florida-themed bar and grill, as well as a coffee shop, so says the website. And I can get married there, too! 

When you drive east on Fremont Street toward Boulder Highway, you pass old hotels with quirky neon signs. Some still appear to be in business, some clearly are not. Many appear to be rather sad and pathetic. But they remind you of a simpler time, before Holiday Inn, Days Inn, Super 8, Motel 6 and the others took over the Vegas landscape. And there were even a few of those old, independent motels still hanging on along the strip in the late 1990s.

And thanks to Del's videos, I've seen the inside of a few such places still waging war against the casinos and national chains. 

Perhaps I'll get a chance to revisit that era of Vegas one of these years. I might even book a stay at the Hotel Galaxy.