Good Morning From Las Vegas!

I landed in Las Vegas yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, two days earlier than I’d originally planned. I’ve got a house for the summer that I can move into on Friday, but Matt Berkey had an empty seat in his inaugural Solve4Why MTT Academy and offered it to me, so I came out a few days early and took advantage of a comped (so, $35/nights with resort fee) room at Bally’s.

Shortly after I arrived, Jimmy Fricke picked me up and we got dinner, where we were joined by LiveGreenVegetation (not sure his real name, I mostly know him from Twitter). It was good to see him again, as we hadn’t really said more than hello to each other in person for a few years.

It was about a hundred degrees when I landed, but by the time dinner was over the sun was starting to go down and the temperature downright pleasant. Bally’s central location made it easy to wander the strip for a bit, including the new Linq Promenade which is a welcome addition to the Strip that makes for much more pleasant walking than the side of the road.

I paused to watch the end of the Bellagio fountain show, and as I stood there a wild-eyed man approached me holding up a t-shirt. “Benjamin Franklin!” he exclaimed in a strange, pinched voice. The shirt did indeed have a quote from Ben Franklin on it.

“Sorry,” I told him, assuming he was trying to sell me the shirt or otherwise hit me up for money.

“Fucking Benjamin Franklin,” he repeated. “Inventor of the fucking hundred dollar bill, man.”

I nodded. “It’s a good shirt,” I assured him, “but I’ve got no use for it.”

This didn’t really seem to register with him and he stared at me for a while before wandering off.

I woke early the next morning, my body still on east coast time, and decided to walk over to the Cosmopolitan for breakfast. It would be my first visit to that casino.

As I walked out on to the Strip, a police van pulled up to the curb, and I saw a familiar face hurrying towards me. It was the man from last night! He nervously glanced over his shoulder at the van as he passed me.

Two officers got out of the van and started walking towards him. He took off running. The officers exchanged looks and then chased after him.

The fleeing man ran awkwardly and nearly crashed into a woman in a wheelchair. The police ran him down easily and sent him sprawling to the ground with a stiff arm to the back.

I stuck around to observe – witness, if necessary – whatever happened next, but after that they were gentle with him. They allowed him to stand up on his own and then handcuffed him and walked him to the van without any excessive force.

Welcome to Las Vegas!