Las Vegas Trip - Day 5 -- Stick a Fork in Me, I'm Done

Well....the merriment continues.  People are starting to get a little bedraggled and some are grumpy...but not me. The temperature today is 110 degrees and walking across the parking lot to the convention center (more than 2 football field lengths) is an ordeal.  Our hotel is one of the closest but it is still a 10-15 minute walk in the heat.


One of the vendors at the convention hall is selling shoe inserts. I bought a pair because of my sporadic foot problem (plantar fasciitis) and they work great. I went back today and bought another pair and got a coupon for a third pair.  I've been walking a lot and it feels good to be this active....especially since my feet are feeling OK.

So, what did we learn today?

• The publishers are starting to just give books away so they don't have to take them back home with them. Some are selling them for $1 to $5 each. I have somewhere around 50 books so far and I've paid $3.00 for the bunch. Librarians are starting to cull their collections and you find books laying around on tables or chairs in the convention hall or in the hotel. I found one at breakfast this morning that looks pretty good: Gutenberg's Apprentice by Alix Christie. 

• Librarians are more conscientious than corrections employees and are actually trying to attend the sessions even though this is day four. The sessions are still filling up.  I can recall some ACA congresses I attended where folks didn't last as long and sessions sometimes had only a dozen people.

• Slot machines are unkind. I brought a fair amount of gambling money with me and have only used a portion but it is easy to lose money.

•  I can't find where they keep the strippers.  I know they are here somewhere.

Well it is evening and Jill is at a librarian 'hunger games'  event where they act out the parts. I opted not to attend. This blog doesn't need to report on that. (Update....she had a good time.)

I watched the World Cup games: France and Germany won and will move into the quarter finals. Algeria and Nigeria go home. They are all good games.  USA plays Belgium tomorrow but  we will be on the road again.

We hauled some of our stuff to the car so we don't have to wrestle it all tomorrow
morning when we check out. The place is starting to thin out and is less crowded around the pool. We went down to the food court and had fast food. Eating here is expensive.

The Riviera Resort Casino is interesting because it dates to the era when entertainers like Jack Benny, Liberace, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra and Elvis all performed here. Pavarotti performed here as did the Village People. It's a Rat Pack place. They have a plaque on the wall with the names of the performers who appeared in the showrooms. Now they have a Crazy Girls show, a Men show (sort of a Chippendale's thing) and a comedy club and sometimes a magician.

I think that Riviera's history is a strength.  If they try to compete with Bellagio or The Venetian they will fail.   Across the street is a huge construction site for some new casino development. I'm sure that it will try to out-do the top tier casinos and will make the Riviera look even older.  

Our room was nice but a little bit 1970-ish. Some parts of the hotel have been recently renovated but ours is still untouched by the 2010s.  We have blond furniture, a lamp that sags over to one side, a little make-up station and a flat screen TV.  The bathroom is very nice and roomy.  There is no microwave or refrigerator. There is no coffee pot. The hotel doesn't provide a breakfast.


So we head for home tomorrow.  I'm ready to go home but I might come back. This was my first time here and there's a lot to do. I had a good time.