Our ol' friend Augie had come to town from Florida for the shindig and we figured we'd try to catch him at his motel since he was supposed to arrive on St. Pat's. He had been a good friend of Joe's when he lived in Delaware county even though most of their interaction seemed to be arguing about how to fix this or that problem with Joe's car. He had moved to South Florida from Lansdowne with Mom & Dad a few years back as they were originally from there and had gotten the urge to return to their roots. The move would promote him from a bed in the basement to a bedroom above ground as there are no basements in South Florida. Anything lower that a couple of feet below the surface is underwater, you know. Why doesn't he have his own place yet, you ask? C'mon, give the guy a break he's only in his 40's.

     He had told us that he would be staying at the Days Inn up Las Vegas City (Old Las Vegas), so when we hit the City we went there to see if he was in yet and maybe get a room there for the night. This was the only night we had left with no accommodations as the rest of our stay we were at the Luxor. After finding the place in a seedy part of town, we parked, went to the office and inquired about Augie. They verified that he had checked in but wouldn't tell us his room number, calling his room to make sure he wanted to see us first. There was no answer. When we asked about a room they said they were booked as it was Saint Pat's and the center of all the action was a couple of blocks away at Fitzgeralds Hotel. We were disappointed to have missed him, figuring we could crash there in a pinch. We found out later he had secured a companion from one of the many "companion agencies" in town and was "entertaining" her at the time of our call. She companioned him all day Saturday, all night and most of the day Sunday as well. So I guess we couldn't have crashed there anyway.

      We then looked for accommodations in the hood, at Fitzg's and gave up as we were forced into even seedier streets. The St. Pat's celebration had very little to do with things Irish like in our neck of the woods, what with every third bar being an Irish Pub and quite a few of them populated by honest to God Irish. From Ireland! No, they were just a bunch a drunks wearing green hats and drinking big drinks or green beer from yard of ale glasses. Not wanting to join in a senseless drunk with the participants of true "amateur night" and not wanting to pay a bundle for accommodations when all we wanted was a bed and no amenities we adjourned the area. We had been traveling most of the day and were ready to rest. Tired, frustrated, unable to think straight I took the long ride to a nice inexpensive room back at Old Nevada, Bonnie Springs. We got there beat, groggy and irritable. Checked in, (It was more expensive on the weekend.) Rested. Had steak for dinner, grrrreat!. Crashed. Hard!.

     The next day, Sunday, we rose late, did laundry and then watched the beginning of the Nascar race. Checked out and drove into west Las Vegas on our way to the Luxor. We looked for a place to eat lunch and maybe see the end of the race and Marylou spotted Mr. D's Sports Bar & Grill. We stopped, checked it out and it was real nice. TV's covered all the walls showing every televised sporting event known to man, including Nascar. We sat down got a menu ordered a couple of beers, nothing fancy, and ordered lunch. A big burger for me and a tuna for Marylou. The race was still on because their had been a long delay due to a major wreck with Mike Skinner, who nearly burned up. There were just a couple of other people in the place but the barmaid was into the race. Soon after we got there a guy looking like the ghost of Dale Earnhardt walked in wearing a Dallas Cowboys jacket and sat across the bar. A little later another guy who was not visiting his first bar of the day came in and sat next to Marylou. Then things got interesting.

     This fella was fairly loaded and seemed to be batting for the other side, not that there's anything wrong with that. Judge not and all. Well he was going on and on about how he had just hit it big at a casino and he wanted to share the wealth. There was no ignoring this guy. He just could not stop talking. When he tried to buy us drinks we said we were leaving after the ones we had. Then he told Marylou that he could get the barmaid to leave with him. Hmmm, maybe a switch hitter. When he tried to buy us appetizers we told him we had just eaten lunch. This frustrated him even more than the realization that the barmaid was going nowhere with him. The Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 had ended with Dale Jarrett the winner over Steve Park, Jeremy Mayfield, Jimmy Spencer and Sterling Marlin.

     I finally broke down and let Mr. Insistent buy me a shot as I had a full beer and didn't want to stay to drink two as Marylou wanted to leave because the guy was driving her buggy. This seemed to make him happy so he called over the barmaid and told her to give me whatever I wanted. I asked if they had any single malt Scotch. "What's that?", she replied. I settled for whatever they had on the top shelf, Pinch, I think. So we toasted his good fortune. This is when the guy starts chatting up the Dale Earnhardt dude. He asked him this and that. You could see Dale was annoyed, like not being able to pass Jeff Gordon, but he stayed civil. That is until the guy sez, "I like your jacket. Where did you get it, K Mart?" Well, Dale freaked like he'd been rear ended by Rusty Wallace. "Don't even fuckin' talk to me." was his reply.

     Think this stopped our boy? Nooooo! He kept at Dale saying, "There's nothing wrong with K Mart clothes, I shop there." Dale's pitch was rising as he kept repeating his refrain "Don't even fuckin' talk to me" in more and more aggressive tones. I slurped down what was left of my beer, left a tip and we made a hasty retreat before violence broke out and we had to testify or something. Whew, what a trip. On to the Luxor. Down Rainbow, left on Tropicana, right on the Strip. Pull into Valet Parking with Baggage Check-in and sigh. We're here. Our home for the next 5 days.
 

Oh thank God, we're here

Let's walk inside