This was to be my last full day in las ...

Trip Start Nov 09, 1998

Trip End Nov 24, 1998

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Where I stayed

Treasure Island - TI Hotel & Casino Las Vegas

Flag of United States Las Vegas, Nevada
Friday, November 20, 1998

This was to be my last full day in Las Vegas and I was glad. It's a fun town for 3 or 4 days but after that it really wears you down physically and spiritually. You overcome that feeling of awe you get from looking at all the casinos and you realize that no matter how pretty a face they put on it this place is a monstrosity of greed. I was also tired of those automatic flushing laser toilets. I betcha when scientists put together the very first laser they immediately thought "Hey, now we never have to flush toilets by hand ever again!" Seriously, everyone knows that Las Vegas has the most hotel rooms in the world but the town is also the Laser Toilet Capital Of The World as well.

By now most of the COMDEX participants had left so the town was returning to "normal." This year a huge chunk of the convention-goers took off after Tuesday in order to avoid shelling out more money to the hotels. During COMDEX hotel rates go through the roof. For example, what normally is a $59 room at Treasure Island gets jacked up to $350 for the week of COMDEX. It's not just the hotels either. I was looking into renting a car for a day trip out to Death Valley but it was going to cost me almost $60 for a crappy Corolla and that didn't include unlimited mileage. It appears as if the conventioneers have tired of playing this game. I spent the day driving around the outskirts of the city again. I am just amazed how the city suddenly stops and the desert begins. I was also just itching to get out of town so I thought a little ride in the truck would placate that urge. In the late afternoon I headed over to the Sands Convention center in order to start the tear down of the booth. Because we had to wait for the Teamsters to bring us our crates and boxes we didn't finish until after midnight. By that time I was ready for bed. While we were waiting however we did have time to head over to Harrah's for one last buffet. The Fresh Market Buffet may be the greatest buffet I've ever been to. The selection is good and the food is fantastic. Normally when eating at a buffet I'm willing to give up a little quality for the sheer quantity but this buffet delivered both. They had an authentic jambalaya complete with crawfish and I could have eaten three plates of the baked ziti alone. They even have a specialty dessert called Bananas Foster which tasted great on vanilla ice cream. If you're only going to go to one buffet in Vegas, this is the one.