Day 84 Thurs Apr 5 Out Zuni Village RV, Kingman, north to Las Vegas NV

Sunny, but very windy today.

Out of Kingman @ 10:35 @ 150420 km. We got to go over the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge but even with being high up in the RV the cement guard rails prevented us from seeing the Dam or the canyon or anything. There were supposed to be pull off places for parking to walk across, (they have a nice wide pedestrian walk all the way over), but we missed them so onwards into Vegas.
Arrived Sam’s Town Casino RV Park @ 12:40 @ 150576 km. We checked in, hooked up, went into the Casino for lunch and discovered that the old coffee shop that used to have great bargains, especially late at night, has been taken over by a TGIF franchise. They did have some specials. After lunch we headed into town to Tix4Tonite at Bill’s Casino to see what ½ price tickets they had. The wind on the strip was blasting through the casino--you could hardly open doors and then you couldn’t close them. Tonight we are going to “DIVAS, starring Frank Marino and a cast of celebrity female impersonators” at the Imperial Palace. We also got tickets for tomorrow night for “Vegas the Show” it is billed as recreating the greatest moments in Vegas history, from vintage Vegas icons to Elvis to today’s hottest stars. We walked up to the Imperial Palace and got our seat assignments for tomorrow and then we returned to Bill’s Casino, (corner Flamingo & L.V. Blvd), where I left Sheila playing the bar video poker/BJ machines & getting ‘comp’ drinks, while I walked down to Planet Hollywood to get our tickets for tomorrow night. As she played, she listened to a lounge entertainer called “Big Elvis” whom she thought sounded more like Elvis than any other Elvis impersonator she’s ever heard. Unfortunately, due to his size, he wasn’t able to move like Elvis, but he did have a great voice. He performs there on weekdays 3 or 4x/day starting around 3 PM.
When I returned, we drove back to Sam’s Town area & went straight to the Longhorn Casino for their advertised steak & 2 petite lobster tails for $9.99. The lobster wasn’t nearly as tasty as what we had at Red Lobster, but the steak was good. Finally back at the RV, we rested before heading into town for tonight’s 10 PM DIVA’S show. This time, we parked in the Imperial Palace lot. The show was terrific! With some of them, (Mariah Carey, Brianna, Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Brittany Spears), we weren’t familiar enough with their style to determine how accurate the ‘tribute’ was, others such as Cher, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, and Lisa Minnelli were ‘spot’ on. Frank Marino, as Joan Rivers was the MC & after a very funny opening monologue he came out, as Joan Rivers, in a completely different gown after every performer to announce the next one. At present, he’s the longest running performer in Vegas having been on the strip for 27 yrs.! The show was over an hour & a half long.
After the show, we stayed in the casino to watch the “dealertainers”, they are B/J dealers who dress like their favourite entertainer and perform one of his/her songs on a raised platform in the middle of the tables once or twice a day. Free entertainment for us. I was thirsty so I sat at the bar, played Video poker and after getting just 1 or 2 pair for a while, I was back at even so I cashed out & got my free coke. When went to get our car, we entered the parking garage from a different door – bad mistake, we couldn’t find the car! I pushed the horn button & could hear it in the distance but couldn’t tell which direction. The casino parking garages are huge, half a square block. So we finally went back down to Casino level, found the exit we had originally come out of, went in, & found the car easily. Finally, home to the RV about 1 AM!

Distance travelled 156 km, 97 miles