I won’t lie, I went into Las Vegas thinking I was going to hate it. I went because I wanted to be able to say that I’ve been there. Is it possible that my pre-conceived notions ruined my time there? Maybe. However, my pre-conceived notions were 100% correct.
After actually seeing The Strip, I can now say that while the Vegas streets are actually cleaner than I thought they’d be, I am not a fan. While technically cleaner feeling than New Orleans, at least New Orleans has beautiful historic buildings. Vegas just has new casinos replacing old ones every day!
Our Vegas Encounter
We checked into our hotel around 8 PM and immediately went to have a late dinner. Minutes after sitting down, a seriously drugged-out man wobbled in and walked up to the register. He stared up at the menu, mouth open, promptly dropped his wallet, and yelled, “AGH!” He bent over to pick it up, exposing his entire rear end, then nearly fell over while trying to stand back up. Giggling to himself, he exclaimed to the cashier, “Yo, I’m so f**king high right now!”
Minutes earlier, we had a nice conversation with the cashier, who turned out to be from Lebanon, TN (one town over from our house). Not that it really makes a difference, but after we established that connection and enjoyed some nice small talk, I felt disgusted that this drugged man would have the nerve to make this nice Tennessee man so uncomfortable. I thought to myself how much I would hate living in Vegas or even staying in the area for more than a few days just because I would hate interacting with drugged-out people.
Well, the cashier knew exactly how to handle this situation. I couldn’t decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing that he knew what to do because it meant that this clearly wasn’t his first rodeo.
He calmly asked the man if he wanted to place an order, to which the man mumbled an incoherent response, something about not being able to decide. The cashier offered some suggestions from the menu and eventually just picked one for the druggie. Druggie man then took out his wallet and held it open with the saddest, most confused look I’ve ever seen. “Just hand me a card,” the cashier said. Druggie stumbled backwards again as he thumbed through the contents of his wallet, eventually shrugging and forking the entire thing over to the cashier. The cashier sighed, rolled his eyes, and took the first method of payment he could find out of the man’s wallet, completing the purchase for him. He then swung the card reader back around so that the man could leave a tip and sign for the purchase.
Cashier man had high expectations, apparently.
Druggie stared at the screen like it was a complicated mathematical equation, giggled again, then started to stumble off through the restaurant. Honestly, I was impressed that I saw the cashier select the “no tip” option before simply signing it himself. After that ordeal, he should’ve given himself the “tip the bill” challenge.
After that, druggie stumbled into the corner and knocked over a barstool before practically falling out the front doors and heading down the road. We watched him walk away after paying for a meal he didn’t collect and start touching and talking to every pedestrian that walked by. There is a slight possibility that he even tried to take a woman’s purse from her, it was hard to tell. One of the other men working at the restaurant stood outside the door, almost as if to guard it and stop the man from coming back inside.
We finished our food quickly and went straight back to the hotel.
Better Things to Do In Nevada
It is fully possible to see druggies in other cities as well. There are plenty of other American cities that are dirty and have their fair share of casinos. But Vegas is PROUD of it. Going to Vegas is cool just to say that you’ve been there and you’ve seen the famous cathedrals and stepped foot in a Vegas casino, but it ends there.
Nevada is a BEAUTIFUL state! I firmly believe that there is beauty in every single one of these 50 states. Have you seen Red Rock Canyon? Reno? Have you visited the Hoover Dam and learned about the history behind it? How about Lake Tahoe, Death Valley National Park, and Lake Mead? I’ve seen and loved the Hoover Dam, and those other places are all for sure on my bucket list.
For now? At least I can say I’ve been to Vegas, and now I never have to go back.
