Here are a few photographs from my weekend in Vegas.

This is the view from my hotel downtown Las Vegas looking towards the Strip. The hotel I stayed at, The El Cortez, was build and operated by the Mobster Bugsy Sgeal. The hotel/casino has been operating continuously since 1941.

As such it has a bit of a run down look, but really not too bad. Here is a photo of the hallways — note the natural light (open to sky and weather) in the center.

My room was just down the hall on the right-hand side, about four doors. I had two beds — originally it was going to be me and a friend but he was unable to go — and the TV was a Standard definition set. The service had cable but no premium channels. I am not complaining as I booked the room for $37 a night. I could have stayed at the South Point Hotel and Casino but that would have run $120 per night. No thank you, I prefer to save the money.

This view is still from the floor where my room was and it is looking a block away towards the Fremont Street Experience. That arch you can see is the tail end of the hugh covering to the street. It stretches a couple of blocks and the underside is a giant video screen. This is a very touristy thing to do. I walked it, and it was interesting to look at, but it failed to pull my money out of my pockets.

This is the 2010 Toyota Corolla that I rented for the trip. Man, I loved driving that car. It made the drive easy and pleasant. No doubt about it, I would like to have one for my very own.

This was my first stop Saturday morning. This establishment has ads all over the city enticing people to come down and fire a machine-gun. Which of course was one of my principle reasons for making the trip to begin with. This is not cheap and it takes an exercise in will not to spend a trunk-load of cash on ammo. A machine-gun spits out the rounds very quickly. I restricted myself to the rounds that came with the WW II package. ( A single magazine for the M1911, and the MP40, and two Magazines for the Thompson submachine-gun.)

Here’s myself, the MP40, and the Nazi Zombie I shot up. I tell you if you get a chance to do this, don’t pass it up. This was a load of fun.

Here’s me (on the left) with the Thompson. I enjoyed the Thompson the best. I found I was more accurate with the Thompson than the MP40 and I really liked the way it felt. Very natural, very easy, and a pleasant deep-throated sound to its report.

As you can see the regular zombie that met the Thompson had seen better days.

Tomorrow scenes from Vegas and the concert.