At the same time Karen and I were at the ER, a dozen people were at Caesars Palace when their escalator malfunctioned, hurling them off. Coincidentally they were all taken to the hospital we were at. Read all about it here.
Readers of Terry Pratchett all know CMOT Dibbler — he’s a fictional character in a fictional world called Discworld. He’s a dodgy purveyor of suspect sausages of dubious content. Who knew he was real? Police in Russia arrested people selling human meat for use in sausages.
So, Karen encouraged me to go to the Santana concert without her. I flat out refused. No real friend would ditch someone after an experience like that. Long about 4pm she said she wanted to try to go to the concert, but we should eat first and see how she felt. She’s a real trouper and hobbled from the room, using my good shoulder for support, all the way to dinner — where there was a 30 minute wait.
For dinner we went to the famous Burger Bar in Mandalay Place. I got a Kobe Burger with cheddar cheese, bacon (duh), and a fried egg. Shut up. Any proper English hamburger has a fried egg on it. I added a bit of BBQ sauce and jumped right in. My sole complaint was that they didn’t fry the egg enough, so the yolk ruined my bun and my pants. It was quite tasty. Karen got a burger as well. Two burgers, a shared order of fries, and two sodas: $65. The place is cool because you pick your burger, the toppings, the cheeses, the sauce, and the bun. It’s a great concept. I was going to put pineapple on my burger, but it doesn’t mix with egg. It was one or the other.
We got in the cab line and made it to the Hard Rock. After getting to the theatre, we went to the office to explain that there was no way she could sit in our purchased seats because her leg cannot bend. Period. We needed an aisle seat with her right leg in the aisle. After they consulted with a supervisor, they said they could probably work it out and told us to see the show supervisor. They tried to get us to go back out of the theatre and get back in the ticket line, but Karen firmly refused and said she couldn’t make it. We got to our assigned seats accompanied buy the show supervisor who turned us over to the usher supervisor. His original plan was to put us at the end and move everyone over to the left. They were, BTW, great seats. It became clear that after Karen sat, her leg would be too far in the aisle and that was against the rules. Usher supervisor called the floor supervisor. He offered to put us in the VIP section, and we offered to pay the difference, but it was almost sold out and a huge line to buy tickets. He ended up taking us to the ADA seats in the third level. They were much further back, but the view was fine and she had plenty of leg room.
The show was amazingly fantastic. Acoustically it might have been one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The venue was The Joint at the Hard Rock (Las Vegas) and it’s an amazing, though uncomfortable, venue — the seats are a bit narrow and hard. His set list was every song of his you’ve ever loved and then some including a pair of covers. We had a special treat and got an unexpected song in the middle. His daughter was in the audience, and he said hi to her and sang a song for her. He doesn’t sing so much. What he does do is play the guitar like almost nobody else on earth. It was amazing what he could make that guitar do. I’ve never been so impressed with anyone I’ve seen play. I’d put him over Eddie Van Halen and Eric Clapton any day. Wow. Visually the show was psychedelic and that’s not bad because it fit the musical history of Santana. He is a child of the 60s after all.
After the show we waited for the entire theatre to empty — we were among the last dozen out — so we ran no risk of Karen’s leg being bumped. We encountered the longest cab line I have ever seen. It went back to the parking garage on the lot next door. About 2,000 people and one cab every 30 to 60 seconds. Karen would never have made it to the back of the line so I told her to wait, and I’d go to the back but she asked the guy loading the cabs if we could go because of her injury. He pretty much told her to get in the back of the line but she’s a very good whiner and the people in the front of the line said it was okay. So, I loaded her in the cab (she can’t do it herself) and off we went, getting stuck in the traffic leaving the big fight card at the MGM. (Here’s someone else’s review of a show earlier this year.) Came back to the hotel, donated money to the construction fund (that’s what you call playing the slots), bought some water and off to bed, or in my case to write this blog. Depend on how Karen feels tomorrow will determine when she goes home. I will assume most of the day will be spent at the hotel.