The Final Frontier

The Final Frontier.

Today was the day anything that we had to do was going to have to be done today, cunning plans and the such like were put into motion and the blue touch paper had been lit! Peter was coming to town! If you have looked at the books you will notice I wear (yes that stud on the back of the books is really me) a Peter Griffin mask and my intention had been to take the mask everywhere however the disease ridden person that I was for the first five days had not been too inclined so it was make or break day, and my promotional manager (yes you guessed it E) wasn’t going to let me off the hook!

I was up and had my customary bath and we headed out onto the strip me with my Buckets t-shirt on again and Peters mask in the wife’s bag! We intended to do a little shopping nothing major just go with the flow and see where we actually end up, we dodged the Mexicans and their cards (flick off you dodgy people) the wife was still wanting to shout at them I just laughed at them and the way the wife went on. We soon came across a more friendly set of inhabitants of the strips and that was a group of ducks who were in the water features heading up the strip. We took a few pictures and got a few laughs but more than a few stares from inquisitive natives. We crossed the strip looking for somewhere to eat and we ended up in a small food court tucked away we all got our various eats while G opted for chicken wings(there’s a surprise) but when they came they weren’t cooked right and when he took them back the young person serving was just going to re-heat the bloody things that will be a no then, it wasn’t a good start but as far as I was concerned my pizza was appreciated as my tummy was at last starting to find an even keel although it was bland it stayed where it was supposed to (in my belly) we had yet another little gamble and I went into panic stations as I had no dollar bills and I was too lazy to break a bill I put a twenty dollar bill in and then the  machine went tilt(oh bugger) I wasn’t a happy bunny but the man soon turned up and gave me my bill back(thank the lord) we headed out and took some pictures and again there was much hilarity especially as G wanted things done right two go’s at everything.

After a good day we headed back to the hotel snapping pictures all the way I will admit that the mask was a ghastly nightmare as soon as it went on the heat just went through the bloody roof I couldn’t wear the bloody thing for more than ten seconds at a time but hey ho it was bloody worth it, even though I was a tad shy even I wouldn’t do some of the things that E wanted me to do (don’t go there). Back at the hotel we started to pack as the tomorrow was the day for heading home and the wife was soon stealing all of the toiletries (WHY?) we both got dressed like adults we were heading to the Pepper Mill a restaurant I had been looking forward to all week and with my stomach finally settled down I wanted food.

We headed back to the bus stop but the ticket machine stole a dollar off me, it said it didn’t like the bill and just kept it I’m glad it was only a dollar bill the robbing bastards (felt like I was back in the Robbers den) but we soon got over the hump and jumped on board the deuce but the driver was an absolute hoot the best one yet and again to describe his patter wouldn’t do it justice just take it from me it was cracking! We got a seat and jumped off at the right place thanks to the hilarious description of every stop, we headed round the corner and there was the Pepper Mill resplendent in neon and looking bloody good!

We didn’t have to wait long to get seated and the girl who served us was the best of the holiday, I opted for steak which I enjoyed but my starter was a lobster bisque soup which was the best thing I ate all the time I was in America (but it was just a tad rich watch this space!) Poor E had enough to feed a family of four (hundred) after we finished we headed into the other side of the restaurant which had a fire pit, we ordered a couple of drinks and enjoyed our blue surroundings, we had other places to go to so we said our farewells and headed (for me that should read hobbled) off to get the bus. We boarded the bus for what was to be our last bus journey of the holiday and had to endure a miserable bus driver (he must have transferred over from the north east of England) who used the recorded messages telling people where they were instead of being just a tad dramatic.

We ended up at Freemont Street which was good and had a party kind of vibe and we wandered through the crowds looking at the various stages littered up and down the street, we were hoping to see Sin City Sinners, a super group covers band who we finally found at the bottom end of the strip past the Zip wire and they were good however I was suffering from a blonde moment working out who the band were the drummer I didn’t know but he was good even when he did an impression of Rick Allen of Def Leppard by tucking his arm inside his T-Shirt the bass player was familiar it turns out he plays with LA Guns (that’s not where I knew him from) and we had Brent Muscat from Faster Pussycat  but the other guitarist although very familiar I have to admit I had to admit defeat I just couldn’t place him until the band introductions, the bass player finally struck me where I knew him from, he had been at the Brian Tichy gig the other night and E was filled lust when he hit the stage and hated me when I realised he had been sat behind us in the venue she could have had a bit more time to lust over him, the other guitarist was only Eric Dover I won’t bore you with his long list of bands but I first encountered him playing with Jellyfish and after I reminded him(it was twenty long years ago) about abusing him in Redcar he actually remembered that he didn’t know the obscure B-Side me and my mate Warren had been shouting for, at least I made a lasting impression. The band played a couple of great sets they also had a singer who spent more time n the rest room than I had for the entire holiday, the amount of singing he did was about 40% of the set, the rest of the band did the other 60%, as the night progressed the freaks arrived (there’s some everywhere) and started to do the drunk dance which from a distance was funny, between sets we headed off to an Indian (native American) shop to look at the merchandise and to watch E Glare at G in case he bought (yet) more stuff at this moment the soup decided although it liked me it didn’t like me enough to stay in my body so I scuttled off to find a restroom, I think even if I had been healthy this would have happened as the soup was so rich and I don’t normally do rich food, it wasn’t a problem I didn’t have to sprint I was able to take my time I just knew the train was coming into the station so I had better find said station hahaha!

After a little more gambling and a little drink we caught the last set of the band and then rather than try and fight our way onto a bus or even after not being able to do that we decided to jump in a taxi ahead of the crowds, now this soured the evening for me as it seemed to me he went the long way round and he was so disappointed with his miniscule tip (ya robbing bastard) we settled down for a last little drink and some more gambling before heading up to hit the hay one last time, the adventure was very nearly over and although I had enjoyed it I hoped I hadn’t been the fly in the ointment for everybody else!