| rev:text
| - "Go ahead. Drink. Drink. No, you're out of the family business, that's your punishment. You're finished. I'm putting you on a plane to Vegas."
-- Michael Corleone to Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather
In the movie, Carlo is garroted on the way to the airport, but if he had made it to Vegas and aged thirty-some years, I swear he would be a dead ringer for Tony, the driver for Enterprise that drove us to and from our hotel. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
To allow our wives to fully exploit shopping opportunities in Vegas, my friend and I (both of us are engineers) needed to get away. We decided to take a day trip to Hoover Dam. After consulting with our excellent concierge, it became evident that to maximize flexibility and minimize cost, the best tactic was to rent a car and drive there rather than purchase a package that included bus transportation.
Our concierge worked her magic. A few mouse clicks and telephone calls later, she had us dialed into a $37 day rate for a mid-size car at Enterprise. We were given a phone number and told that Tony would pick us up the following morning at 10:00.
I met my friend in the lobby at dawn and we slogged out a four mile run up and down the strip (it's hard to find the discipline to do this when you were out past midnight the night before having a $4.99 ribeye and egg special in the Victorian Room at Bill's trying to soak up all the bar drinks you'd had earlier). Freshly showered and feeling accomplished after the run, we met in the lobby again shortly before 10:00.
Tony arrived right on schedule and strode into the lobby sporting craggy features, a perfectly coiffed pompadour, a gym-enhanced upper body, and a waistline that was starting to get away from him. When he opened his mouth to speak, we heard a vintage South Side Chicago accent. My friend and I looked at each other, smiled and came to the same conclusion: retired Mafia henchman.
During the short drive to the Enterprise office near the airport, Tony gave us detailed directions and tips to more things than we could ever absorb even if we were familiar with Las Vegas and had a map in our hands. He was a friendly font of information. The lot at the office was small and had very few rental cars parked on it. They must bring them over from the big airport facility on Gilespie. While my friend signed all the obligatory paperwork for us to rent the car, Tony showed me an alternate way to drive back from Hoover Dam that's a bit more leisurely and scenic.
The drive to Hoover Dam takes a bit over a half hour. Our clean and functional Ford Fusion performed just fine. On the way back, we took Tony's advice and turned off of Hwy 93 onto Lakeshore Drive, paid $5 to enter the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and drove along the lake. Descending through the foothills near Lake Las Vegas, you get a panoramic view of the whole basin below you and realize what a crazy place Vegas really is. A carpet of suburbia sprawls toward you from its epicenter amidst the tall landmarks on the Strip. This wouldn't be so striking if it weren't in one of the most inhospitable places on the continent--the Mojave desert. It's a bit surreal to see.
We topped off the gas tank, turned the car in quickly and encountered no issues. Tony, in his gruffly jovial way, drove us back to our hotel. He told us he'd been in Vegas for five years and had come here from Chicago. Yep--retired Mafia henchman.
Without Tony, this Enterprise location runs a decent three-star business. Tony gives it four-star flavor.
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