Yes we're going to Vegas with the KIDS again Day 10

[daytonababe]

Me... 38 lover of NASCAR , Outspoken ,
DH... 43 Lover of all things with wheels, quiet , suffer of psoratic arthritus but carries on regardless
DD...13 Loves Shopping, not keen on racing, 90% lovely 10% hormonal Teenage
DD...9 Love NASCAR , 9 going on 19 , not a fan of shopping unless its for him.


Today was practise / qualifying day for the Sprint cup... as much as i love racing i detest qualifying bores me to tears.. but Barry wanted to go... well at least he was dropping plenty of hints anyway !

It was a beautiful morning so we went to the Las Vegas sign to have some pictures taken, i think it cost us $10 for the very nice man to take several shots with our many cameras/phones and ipods , money well spent though.. Big Bird (from Sesame Street ) was also there so i got a shot of him with the kids.

I know many people dont like all the characters at the sign but i think it adds to the fun...i'm just sorry we missed Elvis and his pink car :-(

For some reason we didnt get breakfast today... not sure what happened there !

Barry decided we would go out to the racetrack, watch practise, buy yet more stuff and then come back to the strip to Madame Tussards and then go to the Autograph session at the Riviera that night and as he rarely asks for much thats what we did... sort of

So we get to the track and park where we always do... and have a 10 min walk to the main track area, doing a bit of people watching and having RV envy.. i also had some tickets to sell.. i'd been given some pit passes for free and they were worth about $400 and i didnt want them so i decided i'd try and tout them (which is legal).

Well there's just never a tout about when u want one.. last year there was loads lol.. Anyway i find one eventually and we strike a deal, he gets my passes and i get some $'s so we're both happy

Vegas is a much bigger track than Phoenix so far more merchandise stands / haulers and displays to look around , so we start by doing that and by now its really hot

The Speed stand though is empty, the kids spot their "friend" Heather and she calls them over and they spend ages with her... Finally we drag them away and Barry and Connor spend more $'s on NASCAR stuff, Barry tries to persuade me to buy a autographed Kevin Harvick helmet for $150 but i didnt ... wish i had now though.

Well we never did make it in watch any qualifying , we spent so much time wandering around having fun (yes Barry spending nearly an hr playing some Xbox racing game you cant get here!) so it didnt matter. Oh and we hadnt starved allday we just ate rubbish at the track lol

We head back to the car, down to the strip and to Madame Tussards, Intial plan was to park in the Fashion Show Mall and walk across but we changed that and parked in the Venetian and walked through to Madame Tussards. It was the first time the kids had been in the Venetian since they were little so both were very impressed...No Chloe we cant afford to stay there for 2 weeks !

I have never ever been in a Madame Tussards before and i wasnt really sure what it would be like... but we all enjoyed it and most were pretty life like (sadly not Jon Bon Jovi :-( ) .. It was pretty quiet in there so we got round reasonably quickly... kids loved the interactive side of things... There is a scream section which is optional... kids decided they wanted to go in despite hearing numerous screams !

Well we went in and came back out in about 15 seconds lol

Overall we were pretty impressed with Tussards and it was worth the $48 we paid for it (tix4tonite) it is not though imo worth full price which is about double what we paid.

By now it was getting on for 6pm and Barry was itching to get off , so we went back to the hotel, quick change, back in the car and down to the Riviera . Its somewhere i havent been in for years and my overall impression is its very old, needs renovating and not somewhere i would stop.

Anyway the line for the autograph was huge... it was supposed to start at 8pm so we had an hr or so to wait... As per usual people were cutting in line:angry: and i voiced my opinion more than once !

We passed time by talking to people nr us and its funny all the things we in this country moan about, they moan about too lol.

Finally we got to the front of the line about 9pm... there was either 8 or 9 NASCAR drivers there so autographs were got and we were on our way back out the hotel...

I was seriously starving by this point, but didnt want a huge meal... the one complaint i have about the Tropicana is it lacks anywhere cheap to eat.. the restuarants are lovely but $$$$'s .. so we decide on the MGM food court and a combination of pizza, Nathan's hot dogs and Big Macs and we're sorted :-)

We're all pretty tired by now and have to be up early next morning so we head back to the hotel and go straight to sleep





The speedway
[IMG]


Diceman

[daytonababe]

[daytonababe]

[Glee Fan]

Fab! What a shame about Jon Bon Jovi! Some of the others look quite real though. There were no charcters and no Elvis at all when we went to the sign.

[orlandosgr8]

Glad that you got some $$'s for your passes.