The Odyssey/Ulysses (Day 1)

Most disappointed I was when Borders had only 5 of the 20 books on my list. Nonetheless I thought it would be appropriate for my road trip to read The Odyssey and Ulysses. My other purchases included Slaughterhouse-Five, Catch 22 and the Brothers Karamozov. What do these all have in common? Yes, they are somehow related to Lost which means for the first time my book purchases are entirely fiction.

I left San Diego around 6 AM and encountered little traffic on the way to Vegas. I checked into my $25/night reservation at the Excalibur (or Sexcalibur as it has somehow become nicknamed). To my surprise I was handed a book of coupons to use for my stay, including two $5 drink tickets and two $5 game tickets. Thus, my stay was pretty much free. 

As I walked down the strip I began noticing an abnormal amount of Nascar T-shirts. I soon discovered that Nascar had been in town for a race the day before.  Accordingly, the cheap hotels were busy while the ritzy ones were empty. My plan was to check out the new Wynn and Venetian hotels, Encore and Palazzo respectively, before heading over to Trump. I was impressed with both Encore and Palazzo, but was not impressed with Trump. First of all its location is terrible - off the strip and right across from Fashion Show Mall. By the way the new convention center in the center of the strip is a behemoth. Secondly, I couldn't see much of Trump because I was not a guest. Maybe they are trying to keep out the ruffians but that is unlike all other Vegas hotels. 

While at the Venetian I walked past the wax museum, which had two wax celebrities outside looking to attract the mob. The first was Richard Petty, which was fitting for the Nascar crowd. The other was Nick Cage. I guess I didn't know the white trash were such a big fan of his.

Finally, I decided to hit up the buffet at Excalibur before my long week began. My plan was to eat fruit, meat and dessert - to maximize getting my money's worth. A couple approached my table while I was eating and, presumably, felt bad for my lonely self. They had extra tickets to a magic show at Luxor which they graciously offered, so I attended the kind-of open-mic night version of a magic show. Most of the magicians had one or two tricks, which were fairly impressive. A good start to the trip.