#VegasHalloween 2021 -- day 2

My first full day in Las Vegas qualifies as atypical in several ways. 

Having a rental vehicle, I have easy access to places many tourists may never go. 

Having fallen asleep before midnight on Friday, I must have gotten a full eight hours of sleep. I set my alarm for sometime after 7 a.m., and didn't jump out of bed at the sound of the first, second or third alarm. Eventually I rolled out of bed and began getting ready for the day ahead. But my first destination of the day was sidetracked by breakfast. 

My life partner texted me. She and her sisters were coming to the Plaza for Breakfast at the celebrated Hash House A Go Go, which has more locations than I would have guessed in the Vegas area. Surprised by this, I invited myself to join the, especially given the fact I had a $25 meal voucher courtesy of the Plaza. 

After breakfast I placed a couple of wagers on the afternoon UFC main events. Yes, UFC had Saturday morning and afternoon fights, thanks to the card taking place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. My buddy is pretty good at handicapping the UFC, so I put a modest $30 down on two picks he gave me, which were the co-main events. I bet on one fight to go over 2.5 rounds, and the other to go under 4.5 rounds. 

Then it was off to the Broadacres Marketplace in North Las Vegas for flea market action. I had been there in June with my podcast producer, and I made my first visit on a Friday night in October 2020. I don't buy much at flea markets, garage sales or any other type of secondhand goods outlet, but I can spend long hours browsing at the right place. I spent more than two hours under the warm Nevada sun, and I will detail my experiences and observations about this giant flea market in a future post. And soon. I promise!

Who buys a mattress set at a flea market?
Somebody must, because there was more than one vendor selling them. 

I have no idea what a bunny sells for at the mall pet store, but $65 must be a bargain. 

Broadacres Marketplace has several food vendors, a stage with live music,
beer sales and a few carnival rides, as well as carnival games, for the kids. 

After my day at the flea market was complete, with one $10 purchase I won't discuss at this time, it was off to Jerry's Nugget. I wasn't hungry at this point, so I stopped at Jerry's Nugget on my way back to see what kind of low-roller action was available. Jerry's had $5 craps with 2X odds, some $5 blackjack, albeit with continuous shuffle machines and a $5 table game that was a lot like Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em, but seemed to be a bit different. I didn't take the time to learn how it was different. 

Jerry was offering hand-shuffled blackjack, but even Jerry wants $10/hand for the privilege these days. 

I opted for my conservative craps play. I don't make many exotic bets, I pretty much bet the pass line with an equal odds bet behind it. I don't make big money on a hot roll, but I don't drop huge money in short order. If we make points, I make a little money. If we crap out, I don't. 

I had a couple of decent rolls, making a few points, but nothing spectacular. There was a woman who joined the table and talked quite a bit. She was making multiple side bets before many rolls, and was basically telling the dealers who was supposed to be getting paid. She was a handful, to say the least. 

Jerry's Nugget offers a couple of those prop bets where you have to roll all the numbers. If every combo of 2-12 is rolled before the 7, on any come out roll, anyone betting at the start of the come out roll wins 175-1. If you bet on 2-6 or 8-12, you get like 34-1, or something close to that. So in 10 rolls, a $1 bet could win $175, but it's likely one of the 10 numbers won't be repeated, assuming the shooter doesn't crap out. 

This woman was betting a couple bucks on all three props each turn. After me, the dude before her began shooting. He had no dice technique, he just picked them up and tossed them. And it took a while for him to do it, but he eventually hit all 10 combos without crapping out. When he hit his final number, a 3, she erupted. She had $4 on the 175-1 bet, paying her $700. She had three bucks on the lower range of numbers, so that paid her just over $100. And she collected previously on the 8-12 spread, too. So she won over $900 on this guy's turn. Amazing. 

She had several bets on the table when she won the big payout. She immediately gave the shooter about $50 in chips. As she waited to get paid, she told the dealers all her bets on the table were theirs. As soon as she got paid, she walked away, leaving money on the table for the dealers to reap the benefits of. And the shooter continued his turn several more rolls before finally hitting a 7. 

How high maintenance was this woman? She was so slow in tossing out her side bets each turn, and disputing what the dealers and stickman were doing, that it sometimes took more than two minutes for the next roll to occur. The boxman had seen enough, declaring no more string betting, or the action would be declined. He was not having any more of it. 

And how did I do with my conservative, boring strategy? I finished the afternoon $15 ahead. The woman near me walked away with hundreds of dollars. I walked away with $15. But it was fun playing on a live table for low stakes. You don't find $5 tables anywhere tourists frequent. 

After Jerry's, I decided I had to see what the Silver Nugget was like. You pass it after Jerry's, on your way to the flea market. I decided Saturday was the day I'd see what it had to offer. 

There was a little kiddie fall festival/Halloween carnival in the parking lot next to Silver Nugget, or perhaps that was part of the Silver Nugget parking lot. It wasn't open, but people were getting ready for that evening. It looked cute, and lame for kids 10 and older. 

There were a few folks seemingly hanging out in the parking lot, which I found odd. I didn't park particularly close to the door, and that didn't matter, but it could have mattered. I noticed that the front parking area and entry to the casino looked rather messy, as if cleaning up the outside of the building wasn't a priority. The pile of Pringles on the ground near the front doors was a nice touch. 

I knew Silver Nugget was a mistake when I saw the signs taped up to the entrance doors: Masks available for $2. 

If this joint can't afford to give away masks to customers too lazy or careless to bring them, this place was not for me. 

Inside I found a casino with no table games, a weird layout of machines, as if they didn't have enough machines to fill the floor space, one bar with a few folks hanging around and yucking it up, a small sports book in the back corner and a side annex that had machines scattered in there, as well as an entrance to a restaurant that didn't appear to be open in the middle of the afternoon. I would later learn that there's a bowling alley and "event center" at Silver Nugget, but I didn't realize it at the time. It's in an enclosed area separate from the casino, allegedly.  

I tweeted about what a mistake it was to stop in after driving by the place a few times, and for some reason that tweet blew up, at least by my standards. It got a few retweets, and I think I know which retweet brought it to the masses, but I can't guarantee it. All I know is that I got a lot more action on that tweet than I do on anything else I tweet, and that lasted for more than 24 hours. Very unexpected. 

I had no idea this simple picture and a comment via Twitter would
garner more attention than anything else I shared during my weekend in Vegas. 

After wasting 15 minutes at Silver Nugget it was time to go back downtown, where I bopped around and won a few bucks at the Plaza, only to lose a few bucks low rolling at Circa. Those UFC bets I made? The fight I bet to go over 2.5 ended in less than 2.5, and the fight I bet to end in less than 4.5 went the full five rounds. So much for my expert. 

Oh yeah, I had a small ticket to redeem at Circa, and I took it to the cage. As I was waiting, some old dude was at the cage, off to the side, with two much younger women. I'm not sure exactly why, but the dude was rubbing one of the young women's butt quite vigorously for several seconds. He didn't care if anyone saw him, clearly. It wasn't the most bizarre thing you'll see in Vegas, not by a long shot, but that image is forever burned in my mind. 

I returned to the Plaza to clean up. Dinner was at 7 p.m., and we were going to Chicago Joe's. 

I know of it, and it was my suggestion we go. The bride-to-be wanted a group dinner on Saturday night, and we had 18 people there for the wedding. She decided a group dinner was a great idea about four days before Saturday night. And she really wanted Italian. A little online research reminded me that Chicago Joe's isn't miles away from Fremont Street, and I've read references to the quirky little building that looks like a house. People are mostly positive toward it, so I thought it was a reasonable option, assuming they could take a reservation for 18. Sucker bet!

And yet, against all odds, they said yes. We sat at five tables in the back of the building. It was a bit tight, but it worked. We couldn't move about easily, but it worked out well, and everyone seemed pleased with their meals. 

Our group waited outside the entrance to the quirky Italian restaurant known as Chicago Joe's prior to our dinner reservation. It's downtown, about a one-mile walk from Golden Nugget, so says Google.

Chicago Joe's is a modestly priced place that makes good Italian food. They serve beer and wine, but no alcohol, as best I could tell, and they've been in business since 1975. It's not a must-visit restaurant, but it's fun, delicious and a good value. I'd like to dine there again sometime. 

I will say this, I splurged on a shrimp and pasta meal, but didn't love the shrimp. It wasn't bad, but I think next time I'll skip spending extra on the shrimp and go with the big meatball or Italian sausage. 

Perhaps most amazing: We had one waiter for the entire party, for the entire evening. Drink orders, food orders, food distribution, drink refills and multiple checks and credit card charges: Darrin did it all. He was on the move from start to finish. He would make loud announcements occasionally to the entire group, and you'd think he was from Boston, not Chicago, but he got the job done efficiently, and paid attention to detail when it was necessary. It was borderline amazing. 

Not the best photo, but the only one I have that shows the interior of quirky Chicago Joe's.

Dinner ends and we return downtown. I hung out for a bit with my life partner and her sisters. We had a drink at a Golden Nugget bar. The ladies, after a day at the pool and plenty of drinking, were ready to call it a night. These aren't late night people, for the most part. I departed and hit Fremont, soaking in the Halloween atmosphere provided by many people in costume. 

I also toured many of the casinos, as if I expected to find something new or unexpected. I walked down to El Cortez, then worked my way back through a heavy crowd in the Fremont East district. I popped into the Fremont, California and Main Street Station and gawked at the crowds. I didn't gamble a dime, and was most tempted to play a nickel video poker progressive game at Main Street Station that had a nice payoff working on the royal flush for a 50-cent max play. But I skipped it. 

I didn't take Halloween photos on Saturday night, but there was a Day of the Dead group
that gathered in front of a fire truck parked in the middle of Fremont Street near El Cortez. 

My night was almost over. I went back to the Plaza, intended to buy a $3 Bud Light and retire to my room. But then I decided to sit down at the bar, order a cocktail and play 25-cent keno. My goal was to hit 4-for-4 and win a whopping $25 for my 25-cent play. I did that within the first $5. Wow, big winner!

The bartenders were rather prompt with the drinks, so I had a few and decided to lower my keno wager to 10 cents, simply to avoid losing my tiny profit swiftly. And thanks to my continued play, I hit 4-for-4 twice more, which amused me greatly. Each subsequent win paid me all of $10. Of course I should have stayed at a quarter a game, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to win big money either way. I had about six cocktails and won $30 while doing so. I felt like a king at the end of the night. 

It's amazing how a modest win can make for such a pleasant final hour of your day.

Neutered Vegas (day 3)

It's Friday morning, Oct. 9, and I'm awake before 8 a.m., time to venture out into the parking lot. 

Twenty years ago I learned about the high tech game of hide-and-seek: Geocaching. I wrote about it for my newspaper chain, and spent a little time the next several years searching for hidden containers of trinkets and crap in public parks and other places. During that era of my life I found a few hidden caches at point along the strip. It's a fun, family-friendly activity that I stopped making time for years ago. 

And then I wound up babysitting my nieces during the past several months. Before long I was introducing them to geocaching. 

Knowing there was a geocache in the parking lot of the Orleans, I ventured out shortly after the sun had risen to find a small, hidden metal tin using GPS coordinates, take a few pictures and ponder all the things I'll never experience in Vegas as a resident of Minnesota. I spent a few minutes in the parking lot that morning watching cars cruising Tropicana Avenue in both directions, regretting I didn't snap a picture of the colorful woman who was walking down the sidewalk, probably not for exercise, and considering how my life might have been different had I made different choices at points in my life. More on that another day. 

My parking lot view of the hotel where I've spent the most nights during the past 10 years.

After my short parking lot excursion, I took coffee up to the room, we relaxed for a while, snacked on breakfast bars we brought with us and decided our lunch would be at In-N-Out. My trips often end with lunch at In-N-Out before heading to the airport, and usually at the Maryland Parkway location near the Pinball Hall of Fame. This trip would have a morning departure, so our In-N-Out visit came early, and we opted for the location down the street since we wouldn't be dining in the restaurant. We used the drive-thru, which took about 20 minutes, then dined at the outdoor table outside the gift shop next door. 

The long wait for a burger and fries.

Then it was back to Orleans and a visit to the pool. We spent a long afternoon at the pool, which again wasn't very busy, although it seemed like a lot of the pool visitors came later that afternoon. Once again there were announcements telling us to wear our mask, and for whatever reason, one of the poolboys made a pass around the pool deck during the late afternoon telling everyone not wearing a mask while lounging to wear their mask. But it's not as if the mask police were pounding the pavement all afternoon. 

We left the pool late in the afternoon and cleaned up before heading north. Our first destination: Broadacres Marketplace. 

Broadacres Marketplace is a huge outdoor flea market. I'm a sucker for flea markets, although I often have a tough time parting with my cash when I visit one. My buddy, who is a master at scooping up old video game cartridges in bulk and selling off his purchase game by game for a nice profit, had been to Broadacres once upon a time, and vouched for it as being a good flea market. 

It's a couple of miles north of downtown, and it's huge. Huge. HUGE. It's a couple of bucks to get in, and they have security doing metal detection when you enter, which didn't exactly comfort my girlfriend. 

The flea market runs Friday evenings and weekends. There are many food vendors scattered about the market grounds, and there are tables and a stage area where they feature live music during less pandemic times. There also appears to be a small variety of simple amusement park rides on the grounds to help entertain the kids, but those were all shut down on this Friday night. 

I wondered if some of the vendors have semi-permanent set ups at this flea market. Plenty didn't, without question. Despite opening at 4 p.m., we were there at 6 p.m. and some vendors were still setting up, including the one vendor I found that had an extensive collection of Halloween merchandise. Their entire space seemed dedicated to Halloween merch, but they weren't ready to begin selling when I walked by. I thought I'd come back later, but forgot about them before we left. 

The layout of booths is organized, but it's hard to keep track of where to go, or where you've been. It's not a basic rectangle of shopping aisles. And as I noted, it's huge. Huge. HUGE. 

As for the merchandise. I was both amazed and disappointed. 

There were booths that had odd collections of random secondhand crap, which is what I like to see at a flea market. And there were plenty of dealers selling new merchandise, as I expected. 

There were plenty of vendors selling household products you'd find at your local grocery store, such as laundry soap and toilet paper. I didn't price compare the bargains to be had. I don't recall seeing Tide laundry detergent, but there was plenty of less prestigious brands. I couldn't help but wonder, who comes to the flea market to buy their plastic sandwich bags or aluminum foil? Can it really be that much cheaper than the generic products at local stores around Vegas? 

Need $5 leggings? I don't, but I saw at least a dozen vendors with big displays of leggings, some noting their product was $5. If you're looking for cheap leggings, I guess you eye them up and assume they'll fit to your liking. The vendors don't have fitting rooms, that I could tell, and I'm guessing they aren't in the business of making exchanges, a la your local Target store.

I saw a few vendors with lingerie prominently on display, as well. I also multiple vendors with socks and tighty-whities, but those weren't displayed as prominently, for some reason. Plenty of new women's and children's shoes to be had, and a few men's sneakers, I believe. I only recall one vendor selling new cowboy boots. But dang, that booth had a ton of them, and I think they were all $50 a pair. I can't imagine they were high quality, and I'm guessing boots in your size are hit and miss.

If you need bright yellow or orange clothing for wearing at a construction site, several vendors at the flea market had you covered. 

Bulk candy and/or nuts, you could find that several times over. A lot of those products seemed to be things you'd more commonly find in a Mexican market. 

Several vendors had toys, although it didn't appear many of the toys were name brand products. There were some, I believe, but I sensed that a lot of the toys were generic versions of known commodities, like Disney princess dolls. I saw a smattering of dealers selling Funko Pops, but I didn't bother looking at what they had or what they were asking for their inventory. I don't collect them, and I have no idea which ones are "valuable." 

The oddest things I found were tires, mattresses and appliances. 

I didn't see many vendors selling tires, maybe only one, but I had to wonder who buys a set of tires from a random vendor at a flea market? 

Several vendors had mattresses. How does a person decide they're going to buy mattresses in bulk and resell them through a flea market? And how much can you make selling them? 

And appliances! There were a few vendors with washers and dryers. So weird!

hI was disappointed that I didn't find many vendors selling collectibles or outdated media. I don't collect comic books any more. I haven't for decades. But I always enjoy checking out books for sale, and buy some cheap old books for reading and passing along, often via a Little Free Library. 

Same with baseball cards or other sports collectibles. I get a kick out of looking at the stuff, but rarely see anything I'm even tempted to buy, unless I think I can easily turn around and sell it on eBay for a healthy product, and most vendors know what the going rate is for such merch. 

I found one vendor with old video games, but I don't play them, I don't collect them and I have no idea what any of them are worth, so I wouldn't know a bargain if I saw it. I was surprised not to see many DVDs, CDs or other media for sale. Many of us don't want that stuff any more, but I'll buy a cheap CD if it interests me, although I don't have the patience to search through an unorganized collection looking for the diamond in the rough.  

More than anything, I'd love to know the stories behind these vendors. Where do they source mattresses, leggings, bulk candy and generic toys? How much do they earn after a weekend at Broadacres? Why is the flea market business appealing to them? 

I know we missed an aisle or two of vendors, but I didn't want to spend two hours looking at merchandise I wasn't going to buy. I had given up hope of finding vendors with merchandise that interested me, so after about an hour it was time to head for the car. 

My picture at the start of our flea market adventure doesn't
give you a good idea of how expansive Broadacres Marketplace is.
And I didn't stop to take pics of all the odd merchandise I found at this flea market. 

I'd love to have a chance to go back some day, by myself, and scrutinize the merchandise for a couple of hours. My girlfriend politely tagged along, but she'd gladly stay at the hotel on a Saturday and allow me to scour the merch all morning. 

From Broadacres we headed downtown for dinner at Chicago Brewing Company inside Four Queens.

Friday night downtown during a pandemic. You wouldn't know it. Like many have reported, plenty of people are rolling in on the weekends. Fremont Street was crowded, and although they're not doing temperature checks outside the casinos, they still have gates funneling you into and out of areas. Not sure why that makes sense when social distancing is preached everywhere we go. 

Dinner at Chicago Brewing was good, but we had to tolerate three jackasses who were drunk, watching NBA basketball and yelling every time they got a little tingly in their pants. I've been emotionally invested in televised sports, but Chicago Brewing ain't a sports bar. The waiter working the room told the dudes, more than once, that they needed to dial it down, and the second time he did, one of the dudes got belligerent. Dudes should have been kicked out. They were done eating, and one of the dudes was practically passed out on the table for a while. And yet, when it appeared they were going to pay their tab and leave, the waiter ends up bringing three more beers. Made no sense to me. 

After dinner we went to the Plaza to play. I finally sat down to play Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em, and had no luck. My girlfriend had no luck on the slots, either. After an hour or so we headed back to the Orleans, where I played cards again, with no luck. It wasn't a late night for me, and it wasn't an exciting night of gambling in Vegas, but it was a great day in Vegas nonetheless.