Farewell Riviera

Demolition - Las Vegas ReviewJournal

Farewell, Riviera.
DonDiego has lots of pleasant memories of this place, . . . the sports book, the tables, and the coffee shop, . . . .

The most common coffee cups in his cupboard are Riviera cups; he'd get one every time he visited the casino.

DonDiego played in one of his first blackjack tournaments here, . . . walked away with $1200 cash in the first-round, and was propositioned by a hooker in a pink Cadillace 5 minutes later.

And in another tournament poor old DonDiego saw a fellow competitor fall dead face-first into his chip pile during the competition; he had been leading at the time.

Ahhhhh, . . . the memories, . . .

Reminds me of this guy:


I played at the Riv many times, but must admit that I have no particularly notable memories.

I've visited Vegas approximately 65 times over the years. The Riv was trip #2 in 1985.

I was there for the implosion, and it was way cool. I almost didn't go because I was expecting a hassle, but it was just just about hassle free. The parking was plentiful and free, it wasn't that crowded and the crowd that I saw was well-behaved and fun, the view was great, and perhaps due to lucky winds, the soot cloud did not attack in my direction. And even the fireworks were very impressive.

I watched from behind the Peppermill up against the police tape. The videos I've seen give you a only slightly better view of the blast, but feeling the overwhelming rumbling as the tower came down - live - was thrilling and a little scary. Everyone in my area started scurrying away when the soot cloud formed, but then we realized it had taken a right turn toward the Fountainbleu. So there was zero soot at my location, and the smell was feint to non-existent. I counted at least eight drones buzzing around, and I'm guessing they shot the best videos.

For anyone considering attending the next blast, probably in August, I'd recommend parking as I did in the Ross/Walgreens/Dennys/etc. parking lot off of Convention Center Drive. Traffic on the Strip was light, so taking a taxi or Ubering would probably work well. Getting out of the parking lot was a pain, and attending an event at 2:30 AM is difficult - for me - but otherwise it was all positives. I'm planning on doing it again in August.