Las Vegas Day Four

June 7

Hi Everyone: I am inside the Fremont Hotel and Casino across the street from the Four Queens (4Q) where they offer free wifi. The 4Q charges $8.95 a day. Plus they have $3 blackjack here, and I've already won $17, which is lunch! Breakfast this morning was at the Magnolia Cafe inside the 4Q which, by the way, Yelp and other Internet sources consistently rate as one of the best breakfast places in downtown LV. I had their 8-ounce bone-in hamsteak breakfast, which used to the Player's Card Special at $7.99 but now is just on the regular menu for $10.49, no discount. Still a very good value for the money.

OK, backtracking to yesterday. I finally got the call from Tavannes that my sources were back in their booth, so I went over to talk to folks there about prospective timetables for two of their new watches: the "Le Captive" and the "Submarine Commander." Their head designer, Nicholas, is going to email me some hi-res photos of both in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here is the "Le Captive" in wristwatch mode:

It will also serve as a belt buckle watch, where the watch "module" (seen on the band) slides into a belt buckle contraption and springs open at a 90 degree angle so that the time can be read. This promises to be popular among golfers, as it was for the original "customer" of this product, which was King Edward the 8th, who was an avid golfer and wanted a timepiece he could read as was standing on the tee waiting to swing away. The entire buckle also serves as a desktop and car clock. Tavannes is hoping this will become a "breakout" product for them, like the "Big Bang" watch was (and is) for Hublot. Certainly it will be on a smaller scale, but nevertheless a hit for the small company of Tavannes.

As a wristwatch collector (and not a golfer) I am more excited about the re-introduction of the Submarine Commander watch, but I was unable to obtain any photos of this watch. As  I parted company with Tavannes, the President of the company, Bruce Cummings, invited me to dinner Wednesday night, which is tonight as a I write this, so we'll see how this goes. There will be a number of people in the party, including the company's wristband supplier.

At this point, I am officially done with my business activities and am on my own until Thursday morning when I depart for Janesville.

I was hungry for lunch, and was looking for cheap eats on the Strip. I was thinking Slots a Fun, but they no longer offer their 99 cent half-pound hot dog. The old "Hash House" inside the Imperial is no more, because the Imperial is no more, and upscaled to the "LINQ." I enlisted the help of (niece) Kris, and she suggested the food court at Caesars Palace. I checked that out online, and it looked like I'd be spending a $20 bill there easily, no matter which eatery I chose. So I had "Mon Ami Gabi" in the back of mind at the Paris hotel and casino for their delicious French Onion Soup au Gratin at $11.99 and Ubered on over there. With a side salad, it came to $23, and I got a fresh baked baguette to go with, and a water to drink. It was as delicious as I remember when (sister) Dawn and I visited there some years ago.

I Ubered back to the 4Q after that, and my driver, Roosevelt, got into a bit of a road rage incident with the driver of a sport utility vehicle on the way back along Las Vegas Blvd. Roosevelt pulled in front of the guy in the process of making a quick lane change, and the guy pulled alongside side us at the next light and started fuck-you-ing my driver. Roosevelt told the guy to "pull over" if he wanted to make something of it, and then told the guy he was "lucky" he was carrying a passenger (me) or he would clean the guy's clock. So the light changed, with my driver and the other guy racing each other, but the other guy had more horsepower, and pulled in front of my guy, with inches to spare between us, and horns blaring. Quite the excitement, of the type I was not seeking! Anyway, made it back to my hotel, and cooled off in the room for awhile.

Somewhere along the line, I got a wicked case of heartburn, and I don't know quite why. I had not brought along my reflux drug because lately I hadn't really been eating that much. So as a result, I had no dinner on this evening, save for half a pack of Tums "Smoothies" and a 7-Up. I walked down to the El Cortez and proceeded to lose $80 between craps and blackjack. Ugh!

Back to the room, and stayed up until about 11 p.m. waiting for the heartburn to subside, which it finally did.

Up at 7 a.m. this morning, and today is a free day. Don't really have any plans, so I'll probably just hang around downtown and maybe have a fancy dinner out tonight!

That's all for now.

Bruce