Out West ~ Day 4, Vegas

To say I was ill-prepared for the grandeur that is the Grand Canyon is an understatement. It far exceeded whatever it was I had conceived it to be. It’s one thing to see the Grand Canyon on the pages of a magazine or view it on visual media, and it’s another thing to experience with one’s five senses. I was just thankful that having left the Grand Canyon area, there were roads, highways, and Interstates to take us to other destinations Out West. I surely cannot image how pioneers made their way across the vast stretches of dessert and mountains that we experienced in the comfort of an air-conditioned automobile while traveling hundreds of miles in a matter of hours.

Barbara and I had been to Las Vegas years ago on a SUPERVALU sponsored retailer trip. We had flown there and were bused to various shows on the company’s schedule of things to see and do. I think we each had a leather bag of nickels which were given to us on day one for us to feed into a slot machine, in hopes we’d catch gambling fever and wager lots more of our own money. Unfortunately for the gaming industry, I work hard for my money, and I’ll be darned if I want to throw it away in a casino.

On this trip, we had chosen a different reason to be in Vegas. Actually, it was on the short route we were taking to northern California, but as long as we were passing through, we purposed to visit the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, the same one featured weekly on the History Channel in the form of “Pawn Stars.”

A retailer friend of mine got me hooked on Pawn Stars last year in its first season. If you aren’t watching it, consider this a warning…you too can be hooked. Barbara and I both enjoy the program, but I have trouble pronouncing the name of the show.

Two months or so ago Barbara had been on an overnight trip to Baton Rouge and was on her way home late the next evening. She phoned me to let me know she had just dropped off a friend in Jackson and advise me of her expected time of arrival. When the phone rang, the ringtone, as well as the caller ID, signaled me it was Barbara.

I spoke my usual greeting to my wife, “Hello, Dear,” upon answering.

True to her typical pattern, Barbara responded, “What ‘cha doing?”

“Oh, I’m sitting on the couch watching Porn Stars,” I calmly replied.

As Barbara’s brain processed my comment, my brain had time to hear what my mouth had just uttered.

There’s no taking back the spoken word, so I just laughed and corrected my mistake, “Pawn Stars…Pawn Stars.”

“Sure,” she retorted, “I leave you home alone for one night and you rent a movie.”

We’ve both had a few good laughs over my faux pas.

With a GPS it was relatively easy to find the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop on Las Vegas Boulevard. It looks exactly like it does on TV. Barbara and I took turns making our picture with the shop’s marque in the background, then we walked toward the entrance where a large crowd awaited entrance. We decided to wait and were glad we did, because in less than ten minutes everyone was counted and allowed to enter.

We scanned the workers at various locations, many already helping customers, but we didn’t see any of the TV stars, The Old Man, Rick, Big Hoss or his best friend, Chumley. But the huge black man that had let us in, we recognized as the Bouncer, and I asked if he minded having his picture made with me. He didn’t mind and Barbara snapped one of us.

My shirt had Ole Miss on the front of it, so I asked, “You know anything about this?” gesturing toward the script.

“Sure, I’m from Memphis!”

What a surprise…two thousand miles from home and I run across a neighbor!
I phoned my retailer friend who had told me about the TV program and asked him to guess where I was. I joked if there was anything I could buy for him that he’d seen on the program…we decided we didn’t have room in the car for a drink machine.

My son asked me to bring him back a card dealer’s visor with Vegas on it, but there were none in the pawn shop. In a newly added part of the shop, we found several items we had seen purchased, including a barber chair and a vintage coke machine, both of which now look like new and were priced in the thousands of dollars.

Having satisfied our curiosity about the pawn shop we walked to the parking lot to leave. Suddenly, a recognizable figure with three others was walking toward the SUV parked nose to nose with our car. Chumley was going to lunch with somebody, and try as we might to get a picture of him (short of walking up and asking for one) we only got the open door as he got in and a view of the side of the truck as it drove off.

We grabbed a bite to eat after leaving the pawn shop and set a course toward Reno, where we would spend the night in Fallon, NV, on our way to California.

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