What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…whatever. This is a pretty kick ass story if you ask me and that’s why it gets blogged. This is also the story I promised in Vegas, a Town for Those with ADD (VTTADD)when I went to bed at 8am.
One of my goals for Vegas was to walk up and down the strip and photograph all the things that had pretty lights. As I mentioned in VTTADD, it was not unusual to be up at all hours of the night. There are also some benefits, such as the lack of kids, pedestrian traffic and, of course, the pretty lights are on. There are also some downsides, mainly that all the drunk people are also out.
I started as Caesars Palace and started making my way south on the strip: Bellagio, Monte Carlo, New York – New York, Excalibur. I was on the pedestrian overpass, between NY-NY and Excalibur. There’s not a ton of people out, not like during the day, but people walk by quite frequently and so I try to setup and take my pictures as quick as possible to avoid holding up people.
I wave a few people on and then group comes up and one of them asks if I want to take her picture (for later reference, this is Amy…although I kept spelling it Aimee in my head all I night…I have no idea why).
I say, “Sure.” Why not?
After a second thought, Amy decides she doesn’t want her picture on the Internet.
Amy, as well as the other ten girls of ΚΔ, are graduating seniors at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Not that it would happen (let alone the technical feasible), but she was worried about potential employers would finding pictures of her Vegas exploits. Certainly a valid concern, but not in this instance.
I finished my photos of the Excalibur towers and walked over the tram to get to my next photo shoot destination. While waiting for tram to arrive, the girls were point and gesturing toward me with some comments about the guy who puts pictures on the Internet. I assured them that I wasn’t that creepy guy with the camera.
The tram arrived and just as I was was about to get on, Amy invited me to ride with them. So I did.
The tram took us to Mandalay Bay. In the way, I posed for some pictures with them. Amy offered to let me tag along with them. Not wanting to be that creepy guy with the camera, I tucked mine away; confident I wouldn’t be using it anytime soon (unfortunately).
We arrived at Mandalay Bay, some of the girls wanted to play slots. I talked with Amy and some of the others, franticly trying to remember even some of their names (by the end of our excursion, I had remembered who Amy, Rachel, Jen, Sierra, Beth and Christine [aka Spooky] were). Jen was the “natural” leader of the group, constantly performing head counts. As I previously mentioned, they were all Κ&Delta’s, on Spring Break. They had flown in that night and couldn’t check in until 9am, so they planned to stay up all night.
We stopped at the bar. Amy decided to inform me that I would not be “getting any from her.” She then added that she felt kind of weird about relaying that fact to me. I understood. Only two of the girls did not have boyfriends; Amy said I could hit on her.
After a stop at the bar, we were off to Forty Deuce. I had wait outside, since I was wearing (gasp) shorts. I wasn’t terribly disappointed. I whipped out one of the books Jacqueline loaned me. After 10 minutes, the bouncer started to feel some pity for me and assured me that they were closing”my friends” would be out soon. He gave me his card, worth a free entry. I shook his hand and thanked him.
Sure enough, they came out and we moved on to the Tropicana. It was pushing 4am at this point. More gambling, mostly slots; although I suggested that they play Video Poker as it offers a higher rate of return. With the gambling came the free drinks. I accompanied Sierra to the ATM/Ticket Redemption machine to redeem her ticket. We finally moved on to the Blackjack tables. This is where I met the two guys from Mines.
MGM was the final stop. Everyone was tired by this point and it was starting to show. A few more quick plays on the slots and it was finally decided that food was needed (it had been at least 8 hours since I last ate). Not wanting to walk anywhere, we decided the overpriced in-hotel-casino restaurant. I don’t think I’ve ever paid that much for Buttermilk pancakes. We talked more and after paying, parted ways just before 7 am.
That’s how I met The Eleven Girls of Kappa Delta.
I started making my way back up the strip, snapping a few photos of the sunrise along the way. I made it back and was in bed (alone, mom) by 8 am.
P.S. If any of the girls from Kappa Delta are reading this, I’d love to see the photos you took. My contact information is on the upper right of my site. Amy should also have my contact information.
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