Royal Flusher's $1000 Bankroll Las Vegas Scrouge Trip

What person in their right mind would do a 13 day trip to Las Vegas with a $1000 bankroll and $300 in expenses? Nobody.

But I'm not in my right mind and that's exactly what I set out to do. I also had the Quad Queen's credit card information, but that's not the point! My gambling bankroll was set at just $77 a day.

Is it even possible to have any fun on $77 a day? How many goodies can one person wring out of the comp system? How many of those buffet Philadelphia cream cheese tubes can I fit in my pants pocket without freezing my Liberty Bell off?

Royal Flusher's Savvy Las Vegas Diet

How can you possibly lose weight in Las Vegas (other than draining the contents of your wallet)?

Mrs. Flusher says I should lose about 40 pounds*. And I've made a good start, cleaning up my eating habits and losing 15 pounds, with a small lapse (one year and two months) after pounds 8 and 9. But I carried on. I've been good, walking Chippy almost every day. It's doing Chippy some good too, she can almost keep up now. When I started, I'd leave her little roller skates on almost the whole way, but now she only needs them for the uphill parts.

The Lost Vegas Motels of East Fremont

The fifties. The sixties. Big fast rocketship cars. Whimsical post-modern atomic design, full of flair, playfulness, but still reaching for the stars with angular fonts, sweeping curves, pastel colors, and abstract elements from the heavens themselves.

I explored Las Vegas' Fremont Street east of the downtown canopy and found the remnants of what was once a string of businesses that embody the American dream. Mom and Pop motels with cheerful names and optimistic Googie-inspired signs.

These speak of their time, when Americans vacationed and saw their world by car. A time here in Las Vegas of thriving downtown casinos that spun off a mini-strip of commerce on their periphery.

The View From Las Vegas' High Roller

The High Roller, Las Vegas' huge ferris wheel, is a tourist attraction to be sure, complete with bar cars. But it can be much more than that, revealing the beauty of the Las Vegas valley as seen from on high.

It's a wheel dotted with observation platforms, and from a distance, looks simple. But this is deceptive. The wheel itself is 520 feet in diameter, massive, imposing - a feat of modern engineering.

The view at the top is from 550 feet high, and with the High Roller situated smack in the middle of the Las Vegas strip, great views of the carnival below are afforded.

The Pods are surprisingly roomy - and some of them have their own bars.

As you traverse one rotation, over the course of an hour, the views of Las Vegas change rapidly, and dramatically.

The Park at Park MGM in Pictures

On a 109 degree afternoon in Las Vegas, I explored MGM's new district The Park. Although primarily a retail conduit to the arena, it is filled with sculpture and abstract expressions of shape and form that draw the visitor in.

A walkway designed to lead, comfort, and cool the visitor, full of natural textures and colors, and life-giving water.