14 Years Ago.

Happy Sunday to everyone.
I just checked my notes and yes it was 14 years ago today that I made my very first trip out to Las Vegas. Las Vegas looked a lot different in July of 1996 than it does today. No Bellagio, NYNY, Paris, Mandalay Bay etc., were not even built yet. We stayed at the Monte Carlo and it had only been open for a few weeks and was so new that they didn't even have postcards of the place printed up yet.
I remember that after booking the trip a month in advanced I started reading books and practicing the game of blackjack in order to play that game during my trip. I didn't even own a computer yet so I would practice by hand and by using a little handheld game I bought at a outlet mall closeout. I also read 3 travel books on LV to get ready as I didn't know what to expect. I have to be honest that I didn't have high hopes about being too impressed about the whole thing. Boy was I wrong!
The first thing I noticed was the size of the hotels. These things are huge almost like cities within themselves. Also the heat was something else as it was not humid as it is here and the heat is a difference that you do notice. I was wearing a brand new pair of Docker slip on shoes and let me tell you that within 3 days the heat from the street had made a hole on the bottom of them! We are talking heat here.
Another thing I loved right off about the city was the freedoms that one enjoyed. You could just walk anywhere with a beer or drink in your hand. Slot machines were everywhere even at the airport and the clothes that people wore were out of this world. People do act a lot different there than they would back home.
My total bankroll for the trip was 300 dollars. That was for gambling and food! So here I have been practicing my bad ass blackjack playing and I proceed to lose 180 dollars the first night with 4 nights left! I just about cried when I went to the bathroom and realized that I was almost out of money. It was now 2am and I decided to play 20 more dollars and then go to bed. I won 160 of it back and then quit for the rest of the night feeling as it I had won! The rest of the trip I had to play at the 3 dollar tables in every dive joint on the strip. Food was still pretty cheap at the time as this was before all the highpriced dining places came into being.
We walked everywhere and saw everything on the strip. We even took the bus downtown and spent one night there. We would start each day at about 9am and drink and walk and gamble until almost 4am every night. I was a lot younger then and could handle such a pace. It was so much fun! In fact it was the greatest vacation I had ever had in my lifetime and I was hooked.
Gambling wise for the trip I made out really well too even though I had to play at the small betting tables. Remember I went out with 300 dollars total for everything? Well I came home after all the gambling, food, gifts and drinks that I bought with over 500 bucks! Not too bad for a first timer.
Well times have changed. Blackjack is no longer my main game, the food prices on the strip are very high, and many many new hotels are there with fancy dance clubs in every hotel. However it is still a cheap vacation since rooms are still cheap and airfare is usually not too bad. I still love the place even to this day but will never forget my first trip when I really feel in love with one of the greatest cities in the world.