Last Day in Vegas!  This is it. 24 hours to do what we want, then fly home. Oh man, this trip went fast. We got up late and Marylou, addict that she is, went down to the lobby to try and make a caffeine connection. Having her fix she straightened out and called up to the room where the recovering ex-caffeine addict, myself, was struggling with consciousness the old fashioned way. "Would you like some breakfast?" she inquired, "I'll bring it up to the room." "Sure" my prompt reply. So a couple of minutes later we were chowing down on what was supposed to be a 3 egg omelet but there either had to be 5 eggs in it or they were from an emu or some other bird dwarfing a chicken, I'm not sure which. Along with the eggs some onions, peppers and ham had gone along for the ride on the skillet express. Pared with hash browns a muffin and some toast we were set. As we were just finishing  we received a call from Dawn who said that she and Joe would join us for dinner at 7:30 that eve. I asked her to come earlier as we had to be at the theater for the Blue Men by 9:30 since they punish the tardy and we wanted not to have to rush through our time with them. Eventually we dressed and went out.

     Took a tour of the Luxor making sure we saw it all. Then we crossed the walkway to the Excalibur and toured it some more. We were interested in seeing their free night entertainment where Merlin slays the dragon. Every night. Poor dragon! Just like that team who plays the Harlem Globetrotters. Never a chance of victory. It took a while but we finally found someone who told us that the show goes off every hour on the hour from 8 PM until midnight with midnight being the last one. If we had time after the Blue Men we planned to go next door and catch the last time that night the dragon bit the big one. Not being sure if the Joe and Dawn entourage would be joining them that evening we went to a little store outside to pick up some more social lubricant. A 12 pack should do. I also got another roll of film, picture taking maniac that I am and some drinking water. After dropping off the goodies in our room making sure to cool the beers in the sink with ice we went to visit our other next door neighbor, the Mandalay Bay.

     It was rather elegant. Not as schlocky as most. Beaten in class only by that Bellagio. They have lots of top entertainers appear there as well as boxing, etc., etc. Shows, shows, shows. That's their thing. That and water. They  have a big shark show in an aquarium but at $13.50 each we didn't feel that sharks were that important to our having a fun day. We went outside to see the pool area and were amazed. They have several, with the two coolest being a kind of river that you float through, around and around never coming to the sea, and a faux beach with surf. A wave machine generates a wave every couple of minutes or so. It's the closest to the ocean you can get in a desert. This put the pool at the Luxor, basically a puddle in the middle of a frying pan, to shame.  Guess that's how the Luxor sells the cabana space. Some cabanas even have TV's and bars. Posh shade.

     We located the theater where the Blues reign every night near a rear corner of the pyramid so we can beeline it there after dinner. Went back up the inclinator to the room and I took a nap while Marylou engaged in the ultimate feminine sport, shopping. Upon returning she showed me her prize, a candle holder that encloses the candle but has cutouts on the sides which flash camels and palm trees on the walls to the candlelight. I found a hockey game on TV.  Devils vs Rangers. Got to root for the Rangers so as to help the Flyers advance in the standings over the Devils. We get ready to go out as the first period draws to an end a draw. Joe and Dawn show up sans entourage and we have a couple of beers watching the Rangers fail to be any help as the Devils bedevil them. We go to the Luxor buffet. Real cool decor, pretty good food, reasonable price. Our guests take off at 8:45 to catch a 9 o'clock comedy show somewhere with no real hope of getting there on time. We saunder corner to corner to the theater for the Blue Crew and are seated with our complementary strips of paper which we are instructed to wear wherever we will. O K.

     I don't want to say much about the Blue Man show except to strongly recommend that everyone go see it. Sure it was expensive for our budget but it was worth twice the price. Music, humor, paint, lights, audience participation, DNA, and paper were never so cleverly intertwined to produce 2 - 1/2 hours of euphoria. Afterglow completed we rush to the Excalibur and just make it by midnight. Then we are informed that the Merlin show has been undergoing repairs all week but will be up and running again next week. A fat lot of good that does us. I wish I could find those #$^&%$'s who told us what times the show ran. Stupid jerks! I'd like to, wheeew.  If I were a wizard I'd turn them into newts, I'd  ....oh, would that make me as bad as Saruman. Never mind, I don't want to serve the dark lord. It's hard enough paying the IRS.

     Well, still psyched from our little run to Excalibur and back we couldn't go to sleep so we watched "Politically Incorrect" and the  Late Late Show with Kilby until blissful sleep overcame us. The next day it's a buffet breakfast, a quick round of shopping getting our friend Bill a cartouche for dropping us off and picking us up at the 'port, and more batteries. The batteries in the camera and my mini recorder keep running out. I think it's Pyramid Power or something. Took some more pictures of Luxor, picked up our stuff after leaving a tip for the cleaning crew and went through express checkout. We stopped at the parking lot and cleaned up the car and thinking we had taken care of everything went to the airport. At the rental car return I remembered what I forgot. To top off the gas tank. Oh no. So gritting my teeth I wait for the total for gas at the exorbitant rate rental car companies charge. And it comes to $17. Wow not too bad. I figure it would have cost me $7. to fill it up. Looks like the oil companies have learned a thing or two about jacking up prices themselves if they are catching the rental car rates. Seems like almost everybody's got his hand in your pocket these days. And not for the good reason. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.

     The rental car bus takes us to our terminal where the porter seeing our name on the bags mistakes us for some cajun folk. He's from Alabam. So we talk about gumbo and jambalaya and such for a while then go to our gate and do the gate wait. Finally we board, take off seeing Lake Mead one more time as well as the big race track that NASCAR visits from time to time. Eventually we arrive in Philly after witnessing sunset in the sky. It's cool. You can see the line between day and night. We arrive 15 minutes early but they make us wait 15 minutes on the runway so it evens out. Bill picks us up and just like that we become regular Upper Darbarians again. Memories may fade but hopefully this memory will last on a CD ROM. The next day it's back to normal, meet my buds and go downtown for a microbrew fest. Life is sweet, ....when it's not hoppy.

tomb excavation next to Luxor's restaurant

looks like the blues have gone to the dogs

some o' my drinkin' buds