Everything You Wanted to Know about Downtown Vegas..But Were Afraid to Ask

Vegas. Why? I needed a quick and cheap getaway with Pam. We decided to do Vegas because it's a cheap and silly place for a girl trip, and as an added bonus, our friend Jimmie was working out there this summer and we could hang out with him. Done. I'm so over the Strip and the large resorts that require a map to find your room. Miss Pamela and I took a gamble as would only be appropriate...on The Gold Spike. The Spike is a block off Fremont Street, newly renovated and very small. THE GOOD: $25 a night (that includes $7 mandatory 'resort fee') That's right, I said $25 a night. Not per person...per room! Hotels.com. The rooms were newly renovated and very clean. Comfy beds, plasma tv. No frills - no frig, no safe, no hair dryer, no iron etc, but if you know that and pack accordingly, it's no problem. The staff was super friendly and helpful. A/C went out in the middle of the night and after waking up long enough to put a piece of ice in my mouth from a cup on my nightstand and falling back asleep over and over again, we finally called maintenence. Up in a flash and fixed. It went out again later that afternoon, and we were given a new room within five minutes. Bartenders, Joe and Chris were great, Security guards watched over us when the bar got scary. Big security guard, Tyrone even let me feel of his bicep. THAT'S service. Security Guard:

The cocktail waitresses/dealers in casinos on the Strip dress in keeping with the casino theme, like the ones at Caesar's wear short sexy little togas. At the Spike, I think the dress code is 'the tiniest pieces of Spandex clothing you own and the highest heels'. All of the girls were meth addict skinny, but they were very nice. Downtown casinos have better odds (as usual this is based on my experience and I have no scientific evidence, but it's my blog so what the hell) and the food is cheap. Downtown is where you can still get a Vegas legendary $5.99 Prime Rib dinner and a 99 cent Shrimp Cocktail. The Gold Spike pool was nice. Not too big, but it wasn't crowded at all. Lounge chairs, towels provided and thankfully no loud booming music. I need a break from the 'gambient' noise now and again. The diner at The Spike was good. Incredible 4 cheese grilled cheese sandwich and fries. $3.50. Less walking. Okay, sure, we had our own personal driver and laughed at the hoards of people walking up and down the Strip as we zoomed past in air conditioned comfort, but when you are staying downtown, it doesn't take an hour to walk next door like on the Strip.


"Hurry, squirt the hand santizer around us in a circle. It's like holy water to the crack whore zombies!"- Jimmie, when we noticed that the bar was full of crack whore zombies and our pregnant waitress just sat down for her smoke break.  

You won 200 nickels! That's like....ten thousand dollars. And fifty cents."- Pam

 "You like theeees drink. Is berrynice!" - Cute little Polish cocktail waitress at Mermaid casino describing the shots she just brought us. I think they were vodka and Benedryl.



THE BAD AND THE UGLY: Honestly, the bar got a little scary at night if you looked around. One night at about 1:00 am, we noticed the bar was full of working girls and zombie like people singing bad, really really bad karaoke. We also noticed that the security guards were either sitting with us or right beside us whenever we were at the bar, so it was fine. No one bothered us, no one acted badly. It was a pretty good freak show, which is part of downtown's charm. And staying at The Spike made me feel a little bit like a bad ass. Wait..now, we're back to 'good'. The elevator smelled like a meth addict. And it was slow. Not a good combination.


 "I could see myself spending a fortune just to amuse you"- Jimmie  





Pam: "Call Room Service for coffee" Me: "There's no Room Service at the Spike. We don't even have a refrigerator" "Always wash your hands after you go to the bathroom and you HAVE to eat at Ellis Island! They have the best Prime Rib and mozzerella sticks THIS BIG!!!" - overenthused drunk man who talked with us for several minutes about these two things.


Jimmie acted as our driver, bodyguard and 'Julie, your ship's cruise director'. We got to use his employee discount to see a show - Absinthe at Caesar's, which was fabulous fun! He took us to a crazy good restaurant called 'Sammy's LA Pastrami and Burgers' http://www.sammysdoghouse.moonfruit.com/ The entire place was about the size of my kitchen. Their menu includes "The Big Ass Bacon Cheeseburger" - 1/2 pound of meat, 12 pieces of bacon and 1/4 pound of cheddar cheese. Also on the menu is the mind blowing "The Three Squares Fry" - 1 pound of french fries with a 1/2 pound each of pastrami, rib eye steak, chili, and topped with cheddar cheese, grilled onions, jalapenos, 1/3 pound of bacon and three fried eggs. Seriously! "You've won a new carrrr!" - Pam, upon discovering that she has a game show host voice talent We went to the coolest bar (way off the Strip) but I was told not to disclose the location. ;) Jimmie introduced us at one point to a lady as 'his goddesses' and I'm fairly sure she believed him. It is Vegas, after all.

Zip Line Worker about to push me off a five story platform: "Are you ready?!" Me: "I think so." Zip Line Worker: "When someone asks if you're ready you answer - I was born ready! Now...are you ready?!" Me: "I think so." On our last night we rode a zip line down Fremont Street. The video below isn't mine, but it is the same experience that we had. Sailing through the air beneath the Fremont canopy and over the crowds was fantastic!! I was a little nervous at first, but knew that like many things in life, it would be fun once I made the jump. It was!