Michelle and I woke up earlier than any human should have to, ever, at 4am. We got our showers and finished our packing. Genetta came down at 4:45am and drove us to the airport. It was surprisingly busy for 5:30am. We checked in, zipped through security fairly quickly (though we both got patted down after the scanner because we’re shifty or something), and got to the gate with just under an hour to go. I went and got us some La Farm (two plain croissants for Michelle and two pain de chocolate for me) and got back to the gate shortly before boarding around 6:30am.
We were in the fifteenth row, so not very far back. The flight was pretty uneventful — we both finished our La Farm and I had some ginger ale and the tiniest bag of cheddar Sun Chips imaginable. I watched The Fablemans, a semi-autobiographical movie about Steven Spielberg. It was a bit of a downer despite being a really good movie. Michelle slept most of the flight and listened to Zac Brown radio on Spotify via the in-flight entertainment console.
We landed just after 8am. Almost immediately I knew we were in trouble — there was a store there called Kalifano that sold a lot of cute metal sculptures. Some were small and others larger and pretty expensive. We decided that if we didn’t find anything while on our trip maybe we’d get a small Wall-E or something (it was cute, Michelle adored it). Also so odd to just see gambling machines spaced along the terminal’s walkway. We headed to the tram to go from concourse D to baggage claim. Just as we were walking up our luggage was spinning by — guess it was a good thing we spent some time in that metal store!
We stepped into the hot Las Vegas air and hopped on to the bus connecting the airport to the rental car center. The driver was very friendly and loaded our luggage. We ended up talking with an older couple from Columbia, Missouri that were in town for a UFC fight. Once at the rental car center we headed to Hertz. Despite a small line it moved quickly and we were processed by a nice lady from the south fork of Long Island. We chatted a bit while she processed us. We then hauled our luggage out to the lot to pick out a car (so odd that modern rental isn’t reserving a specific car but instead a level of car and they just turn you lose to drive away in whatever is in that level). One problem, though. The level was empty, we watched the last one drive off. We ended up being told to pick one from the next level, which we did — a GMC Terrain, a mid-sized SUV. It has one annoying thing, however — the gear selection are buttons in the dash beneath the radio. We thought we’d seen it all!
We left the rental car center and went up Las Vegas Boulevard past the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and the Pinball Hall of Fame enroute to our hotel for the next two nights, Planet Hollywood. We got there a bit before 11am and were allowed to pay $50 to check-in early. Whatever, it’s extortion but we were tired and wanted to get our luggage out of the hot car rather than drive around Las Vegas tired for a few hours.
After relaxing a bit in our room (2061 in the north tower) we went down around noon to the Casino floor to find a restaurant. What’s crazy is smoking is still allowed on the Casino floor — I figured that was a thing of the past. Michelle even later saw a “cigarette lady” in the outfit with the tray of cigarettes and everything! We decided on Gordon Ramsay burger (yeah, the “b” is lower-cased and it’s super annoying). We ordered some truffle fries with a house-made ketchup that was good and an mushroom garlic aioli that was amazing. Michelle had a Euro Burger with goat cheese, truffle aioli, roasted tomato, arugula and a unsweet tea while I had a Stout Burger with Guinness mustard aioli, gruyere cheese, mushrooms, and crispy onion strings and water. Both were amazing!
Unfortunately I had begun to develop a headache during the meal. Pretty common for me on travel day. Instead of doing something productive we ended up heading back to the room after making dinner reservations for 6pm. We rested until around 5:30pm and then headed down to dinner at P.F. Changs — yeah, I know, we were trying to avoid chains but… P.F. Changs. We both had unsweetened tea and shared an appetizer of pork spring rolls that were excellent. Michelle had sweet and sour chicken and I had their Mongolian beef. Neither disappointed. We had hoped to also have dessert but were way too full. Our waiter was excellent, his familiarity with North Carolina was pretty much limited to Asheville. He had visited it in the past and wanted to retire there but he said it was now too expensive to move there. He’s not wrong.
We were hit with the oppressive heat as we exited P.F. Changs onto Las Vegas Boulevard around 7:15pm. We walked a short way to Walgreens and picked up some supplies — Motrin for my headache, sunscreen, some water, a water bottle, a couple of magnets, etc. Headed back to our room in time to catch the sunset around 7:40pm. We relaxed a bit more before getting our car from the valet and heading toward The Neon Museum of Las Vegas located well north. Along the way we were treated to the garish lights of the strip as well as the Bellagio fountain doing a show. We arrived at The Neon Museum with four minutes to spare for our meetup at 9:30pm for our 9:45pm tour. Whew!
The building / lobby for the museum was the former La Concha hotel, designed by Paul Revere Williams in the 50s or 60s. He was a famous black architect and designed not only the hotel but homes for several stars. He also designed affordable housing and built neighborhoods for the city’s largely black (and, at the time, segregated) workforce. We visited the gift store and bought a couple of magnets then visited the restroom prior to our 9:45pm start time.
Our guide Tia was fantastic. She led us in a loop around both the boneyard (where neon signs that are beyond repair or awaiting restoration) and the main area with the restored signs over a period of forty-five minutes, telling us some excellent stories about the signs themselves and the history of Las Vegas. Las Vegas was founded in 1905 as a stop on the Union Pacific between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. It was built on the location of an aquifer and means literally “The Meadows” from the greenery the aquifer made possible.
In the unrestored “boneyard” they had a really cool lamp that was originally in front of the Aladdin Hotel. It was there in 1967 when Elvis married Priscilla at the hotel. Also there was a portion of the Horseshoe sign and even that small portion had over 1,000 incandescent bulbs!
Moving into the restored portion the one that immediately stood out was the very long sign for the Moulin Rouge, the first casino that allowed black clientele. The sign, written in cursive, was designed by the same lady who designed the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Betty Willis. Sadly the casino would only remain open for five months when the government shut it down, reputedly for tax reasons. Yeah, doubt. The Moulin Rouge, despite its short life, served as the meeting place between the NAACP and Las Vegas leaders and led to the Moulin Rouge Agreement in 1960 which led to the casinos being integrated — a full four years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Another impressive sign was that of the Yucca. This beautiful sign had both a lot of green and was topped with white. Our guide explained that most neon signs are actually argon. Neon shines red when a charge is run through it whereas argon shines blue. In order to do the green they’d coat the tube with some other color (like yellow) that would cause the blue of the argon to appear green. Really cool!
Most of the signs were produced and owned by YESCO — Young Electric Sign Company. They lease them out to the casinos and, when no longer needed, they are returned for stripping, retrofitting, and now sometimes preservation. Before OSHA metal spikes protruded from the signs that those who maintained the signs would use to climb and change lightbulbs. Yikes!
Despite never being a frontier town (as it was founded in 1905) Las Vegas billed itself as one for marketing, even going so far as having a cowboy mascot named Vegas Vic that appeared on various signage. Signage wasn’t just for casinos and hotels, however — even tailors and milk companies used them.
In the 1990s Las Vegas tried to clean up its act and become more family friendly. Part of this was Treasure Island having elaborate naval battles between the pirates and British navy (with the pirates always winning, of course). The museum had one of the giant fiberglass skulls that were at the casino at the time. Though massive they are also very fragile as they are only a quarter inch think. Sadly, one of the skulls was destroyed in transit but the other made it. It is displayed on its back, however, to prevent it from damage — but Google Maps clearly shows it! The family friendly movement didn’t last long and by the early 2000s Las Vegas was back to catering to adults.
Another interesting piece was the 82 foot tall guitar from the Hard Rock Cafe. It was modeled after The Who’s Pete Townsend’s Gibson. To prevent it from falling over the museum drove a pole 30′ down beneath the ground. As the guide said, “it may rock, but it won’t roll.”
Wrapping up the tour was the neon sign from the La Concha hotel, a cool duck from a car wash, as well as two neon sign art installations done by Tim Burton — including a really cool “Lost Vegas” sign made to look far older than its 2019 creation date. The exhibition only lasted a few months before COVID killed it, sadly, but at least the museum has the pieces.
The tour finished at 10:30pm but we also had a light show called “Brilliant” to see at 11pm. We hung out a bit before heading across the street to the Boneyard Park where we were met by our guide, Josh. He walked us past a mural with notable people related to the signage including Betty Willis. We went past some signs that were in not-so-great-shape then to a courtyard surrounded by signs and two large posts (with benches around them) in the middle. “Brilliant” has three programs and it’s random which one will be shown.
Ours was apparently “Atomic” and covered the 50s and the testing in the area. The music was great and it was amazing how precise the projection technology they used was. I was skeptical about the show going in but by the end I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Finally around 11:45pm we got back into our car and drove south back to our hotel, crashing just before 1am.
