Times are a changing in Las Vegas, but what’s new. Every year places get torn down so that the newest mega-resort can be built. Unfortunately this year some of my favorite places are going up against the wrecking ball.

The first time I went to vegas back in 2000 I was a Senior in college. I went with my girlfriend (now my wife) for our last college spring break. We figured that since we’d be “real” people before too long we should try to have one last hurrah. Vegas was a perfect place for this.

Now anyone that has had to work their way through college would know that you don’t have much money when it comes to vacations. Usually a college vacation is going somewhere warm and crashing on a friends couch after you get plastered all night.

Well, we didn’t know anyone in Vegas so crashing on a couch was out of the question. That left us finding the cheapest way to get down there and stay for the 5 day break. Hello Circus Circus!!

Circus Circus will never be confused with the high roller joints like Bellagio and Wynn. Circus Circus is a low cost place to go with you children (why would anyone bring children to Vegas?) and join with the hordes of other people with children. There is a midway that has games and high wire acts that can keep your rug rat entranced for hours. Oh yeah, when you’re a drunk college kid, you too can be entranced for hours.

Anyway, so we made it down to Vegas. After paying for everything that was mandatory (airfare and hotel) we had $500 for the 5 days. This is the point where Vegas fanatics cringe and say that is way too little money. Well, that’s all we had.

Now the $500 was to cover food and entertainment while we were in the land of sin. We figured $50 for food and $50 for gambling, seeing shows, whatever. Remember, we were college kids. We didn’t need to do a lot to be happy. The big thing was that we were in Vegas in March when the temps up here in Montana were below freezing.

Starting here is the reason why I am writing this post.

One of the ways we actually had fun on such little resources was by frequenting the areas of the strip where your dollars can go a long way; the low roller joints. Places like the Slots-a-fun, Riviera, Frontier, Casino Royale and my all time favorite, Westward Ho.

Why is the Ho my favorite? Here’s the story.

One day Tracy and I decided to go do some gambling. When in Rome and all that. We wanted to go somewhere a little nicer so we started down the strip. (Remember, we stayed at Circus Circus, so we are walking away from the Stratosphere towards Treasure Island.)

When we cam to the Westward Ho it just looked like Vegas to me. It was glittery in all the right places. We had to stop.

Well, we head inside and start looking for a slot machine to play. At this time in my Vegas career I hadn’t started playing blackjack yet. The only gambling I was going to do was something machine based. Fortunately the Westward Ho had just the ticket. We started playing what we affectionately called the “Monkey Slots”.

The Monkey Slots were great. They were the normal 30 line slots but with a bonus round that was hilarious. I think there about 4 versions of it. One had a witch doctor come out and you had to pick shrunken heads. Each head had a different multiplier.

Another thing great about the Monkey Slots was that they were only $.05 per spin. We could sit there, slow play the machine and get free drinks. Our secret was to get the $.99 24 ounce margarita from the bar in the back and then order shots of Jose Cuervo from the waitress. When you added 4 shots (that only cost the price of a couple nickels) the margaritas really weren’t that bad.

So, Tracy and I are sitting there, drinking our loaded margaritas and betting up to 4 nickels at a time. Man, that’s huge money. All of a sudden I hit a bonus round. Sweet, maybe we can get something from this. After going through the machinations I end up with a $50 bonus. Remember, we allowed ourselves $50 per day for gambling or whatever. Winning $50 was huge for us. A whale that just won $100,000 at Bellagio couldn’t have been happier than we were.

Back to the story.

Tracy and I are hooting an hollering as the nickels pour out of the machine, (before the days of the tito style machines), when who do we spy strutting towards us.

“Sweety, is that Elvis?”

That’s right. Elvis was in the building and he was coming up to us.

Well, the big E comes up to us, looks at the nickels in our bucket and says

“Hey there. Looks like you’re a big winner. For that you can select one of these balloons I’m holding. Each has a special prize in it.”

Holy crap. Not only am I holding a couple buckets of nickels and talking to Elvis, I also get a prize!!!

So, I select a balloon, Elvis pops it and pulls out a slip of paper. What did I win? A free strawberry shortcake.

How awesome is Vegas? I am a big $50 winner, I get to see Elvis and he gives me free food. Las Vegas is the best place ever.

Ever since that day the Westward Ho has been a special place for me. When Tracy (now my wife) and I went back about 5 years later, I made a point of going to the Ho and playing the slots in the same area. They were no longer the Monkey Slots and I had a lot larger bankroll. However, for that little bit of time I was brought back to my first Vegas vacation.

The Westward Ho has now been closed. It will be torn down and a large, corporate place will take it’s place. Elvis may very well be in the building, but he won’t be my Elvis. No longer will a penny pinching college kid be able to while away the hours playing nickel slots while drinking “loaded” $.99 margaritas. Almost brings a tear to your eye.

Nope, you can never replace your first.