| rev:text
| - Turns out I have a lot of history with the monorail. The bookends, before I used it to get to work and after are brief. I tried making some cool unchronological way to mix this up, but you've seen that all in the movies.
The monorail started out as a casino "tram" that linked MGM Grand to Bally's. This was back when I was a vacationer. I don't remember ever seeing it back then, although I have been thru that hall to the MGM parking. I just don't remember seeing it in any capacity. And I was at times, sober on the strip.
The first time I started using the monorail regularly was when I had a job on the strip and I lived off Sahara. I'd take the deuce to Sahara station and catch the monorail to work. Cool thing is, locals get a ride for a dollar, but you have to go to the booth to buy your tickets. There used to be booths- open- at every station, but with the recession they closed all but the ones at the ends of the line, Sahara and MGM Grand. So it's a hassle if you get to the strip on a bus line that goes to the middle of the strip. And you can only buy 2 at a time, one to get back. If they sold you any more, you'd turn around and sell them to tourists that pay $5 a ride. for tourists, the strip deuce is a better deal. And for things like using it to get downtown, Outlet mall or Town Square, Max bus would be the best.
When locals buy in the booth, they write your info, including driver's license number. That always weird-ed me out, where those papers wound up. It's like the hundreds of applications I filled out. I don't like my personal info being out there to all those companies when they don't even talk to me when I'm there to acknowledge the effort I made to get down there. I don't understand why a manager wouldn't want to talk to someone who wants to be there, but they'll hang out with a dozen people in the back room that doesn't. After a month of applying I started to believe no one had any intention of hiring, all those applications went to their corporate market research think tanks that also come up with all those psychometric questions for applicants.
I have been on the monorail thousands of times. I know when it's crowded on the strip by how much overflow gets to the monorail. People usually ride the deuce on the strip, which would actually cost more for my purposes, single ride, or a 24 hour pass. I've done the math every way. I have had a car to myself many of the times, almost half I'd say. I have been on the monorail totally drunk, or hungover in the morning. Every once in awhile in a coffee shop or somewhere, I see a picture of a guy riding in a subway train or bus in bright morning sunlight and his suit is all jacked up and he's a wreck from the night before. I have been that guy many times, I always look carefully to see if it's me in the artwork.
I would usually ate my breakfast sandwich on the way to work. At the stations they had soda machines sponsored by Monster energy drink that may not be sponsoring it anymore. When I rode after those late nights, I started drinking them, they were $2 from the machine, at 7-11 they were more. I organized a couple of times to get them by the case at smart and final before I realized I was developing something of an addiction to something trashing my body with HFCS and sugar.
Occasionally, you may see a security dog escorted with patrol. New Years is cool, the police often commandeer a car for their units with their K-9's.
they used to have cute monorail girls hand out pamphlets along the strip. Their costumes were designed to be 50's vintage, which was nice.
The rail system travels along "the back" of the casinos. Tourists roaming the strip may see this as a hassle. But I enjoyed being away from the crowds and I like the views. you can see swimming pools of the casinos it passes, a lot of Paradise Road and because a casino mogul didn't play nice, you get to ride around a golf course and to the Hilton before arriving at Sahara. I don't understand the golf course, that land would seem to make a lot more money with a Central Park type environment with bike rentals, walking paths, shops, maybe a zoo. Guess I think too much like a 2-3 dollar sign customer.
I read the monorail may be closing 6 months from this writing if they don't come up with a backer. the problem was, the first leg SHOULD have been built to the airport, it would have paid for it to go all the way to Fremont Street by now, with the recession. But concessions had to be made to accommodate the taxi long haulers. BTW, all locals should tell you to NOT go thru a tunnel catching a cab from the airport. Drivers will lie and say there's construction or some BS, you have to be adamant before you get in the cab that Paradise is the way you'll be going, not the freeway.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)