That was the day Las Vegas closed

Here's Britain's premier Vegas vlogger Matt Bridger, left,
with casino host Richard Wilk, who works for both The D
and the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino in Downtown Las
Vegas. They met late last week at The D but more to the
point, look at the crowd behind them. The very popular
Fremont St is now very much a tumbleweed ghost town.

I literally watched Las Vegas go from a thriving, bustling vacation spot last week to shuttered as of yesterday. And by shuttered, I mean shut down completely.

I have to be honest. Like many, I never thought I would see that day. It's like something out of a horror movie, that our beloved Las Vegas could become a ghost town. A movie like, say, "Outbreak" in 1995. Or "28 Days Later" in 2003. Or perhaps "Contagion" in 2011. Or even worse, "I Am Legend" in 2007, where that rat-bastard Will Smith killed his German Shepherd, Sam. After seeing that, I now think he was probably the one causing all that trouble in that West Philadelphia hood. Bastard.

You know, those crazy, far-fetched Hollywood yarns about a viral pandemic that wipes out half the world's population??

Turns out that's not so far-fetched, after all. I mean, I certainly don't expect we'll see half the world's population of 7.7 billion wiped out by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) a la Hollywood-style but with each passing day, we are all actually seeing how dangerous and even moreso, how very feared it has truly become by everyone world-wide.

On March 17, St Paddy's Day, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak shut down
all non-essential businesses, including hotels and casinos, to try and slow
the wave of Coronovirus, now gaining a foothold in the USA. Many of the
strip hotel-casinos had already suspended operations, especially after
seeing occupancy rates of less than 5% but Sisolak's order shut down all
the rest, including the hold-outs on Fremont Street. When business safely
gets started in Vegas again is anyone's guess but most of us hope it's soon.

Now both myself and my London, Ontario buddy Mark (along with his wife, Liz) had Vegas trips planned for March Break. Mark and Liz were leaving Sunday, March 15 while I was flight-bound the next day. And for a long while, we were both defiantly adamant that our trips would happen.

Then things started to change for us. First, early last week, a few markets in the NHL decided that no spectators would be allowed at games for fear of spreading the virus. San Jose is the one that comes to mind but I think a couple others were ready to followed suit.

Then the NBA "postponed" its season on March 11, due to fears of - same thing - Coronavirus. Then the next day, the NHL postponed its season. Okay, when hockey gets shut down, Canadians like Mark and myself finally start to pay very close attention.

Okay, a stopped escalator is nothing new to regular Las Vegas visitors
such as myself. Hell, a quarter of them are being repaired at any given
time on the Vegas strip. But it's the sign on the right that tells the tale.
Las Vegas is closed for business. It's something I never thought I'd see.

Next thing we know, March Madness, that yearly event where the top 64 US College basketball teams play off for the nation's crown, was canceled entirely. March Madness happens over March Break in America and believe me, Vegas is on fire during the tournament. If it was a TV show, it'd be called Betting Gone Wild. No single sporting event sees as many various and varied bets in Vegas as March Madness because it runs the entire week solid. It's a shit-ton of games - 63 in all - packed into one week.

Next up, the NFL Draft, which was slated to take place on the strip, mostly in front of The Bellagio, from April 23-25, more than a month from now, was changed to an audience-free TV event instead. It was meant to be this big glitzy live event that would have shut down a significant portion of the Vegas strip as the Oakland Raiders shift to Vegas and the presently-being-built Allegiant Stadium for the 2020-21 NFL season.

On the weekend, MGM Properties decided they were shutting down their properties as of Tuesday, including (take a deep breath) Bellagio, Aria, Vdara, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, The Mirage, New York New York, Park MGM and even the T-Mobile Arena where the Vegas Golden Knights play.

Half of my 16 trips to Vegas have been spent at the
Excalibur so I can tell you this is the walkway from
the Excalibur to New York New York. Doesn't even
matter what time of day or night it was because I
have crawled on that strip morning, noon and night
while I'm there - any hour, really - and I can tell you
this 100%. This walkway has NEVER been empty.
Not even once. So, 4:17 am, say? Yup, people are on
there. Not a lot but it's never empty. This is unreal.

That's half the freakin' strip.

On St Patrick's Day - March 17th - who was open and who was closed quickly became a moot point. Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak stepped up to the podium and announced every single non-essential service, including hotels and casinos, were ordered to be closed 30 days for public safety. I applaud this bold but tough move. Well done, sir.

So - and you have never heard me say this before and likely never will again - the Canadian government absolutely did Mark, Liz and myself a huge solid by shutting down Canadian travel out of country on the weekend. We both pulled the plugs on our trips on - hey, how appropriate - Friday the 13th. I would have been forced home to Canada on Day 3 of my week-long March Break trip. I can only imagine what a total shitshow McCarran International Airport in Vegas was for the past few days.

But even though I have been stuck in Canada, I have slowly over the week been able to see what's going on live in Las Vegas over the past week. You see, I watch a lot of Vegas vlogs. It started with El Paso, Texas couple, Hog and 2 cent (@hogand2cent). From them, I started watching Mark (@pennys4vegas). And because YouTube has these "recommended for you" videos on the right hand side, that lead to a trio of British Vegas vloggers. First, it was the affable Ben Heath (@benjiheath) with his trips and his very fun "Cocktail of the Day."

For the life of me, I can't remember which casino this was last
night or even which of my Twitter friends took it. But frankly,
every casino in Vegas looked like this last night. Empty. Barren.
Deserted. Other words from the Thesaurus. But again, I don't
think any one of us have ever seen anything like this. If I wander
down to a casino at 4 am, there are asses in the chairs. Just wow.

From Ben, I started catching Nick Furmage (@nickyfurmage) and his lovely wife, Claire, who on one night in Downtown Vegas last October had a slot machine run, the likes of which I have never seen. He started by saying in that polite British manner how much he enjoyed it Downtown on Fremont Street. By the end, after countless Budweisers, an insane amount of slot free plays and a final winnings of over $800 (a complete reversal of their trip to that point), he was basically yelling, "I love Downtown Vegas!" towards the end. (For you hardcore slot players, I'll include the link at the end because it was as entertaining as shit and I don't even gamble. Well, all that much.)

Moving along from Nicky, I eventually found Matt Bridger (@Matt_Bridger68), the Godfather, the Headmaster, the Grand Poobah and Chief Bottle Washer of the British Vegas vloggers. Now Matt has posted some fantastic Vegas stuff. Disarmingly charming, the ultimate Vegas vlog host, you feel like you're actually sitting next to him as he speaks. The dude is pretty much David Niven. (Feel free to Google him, younger people.)

Now I have a Matt Bridger story here but I want to say something at large to these three British vloggers. No matter how many Budweisers or cocktails you consume at the slot machines, no matter how hammered you actually are, you all still sound so bloody distinguished! It's that damn British accent. Drunk as skunks and you all still sound like freakin' Cary Grant! Canadians and Americans all sound like bombed Homer Simpson!

Hold on. I'm Canadian but British Vegas vlogger Matt
Bridger got to the just-opened and I suppose now-closed
Bar Canada at The D in Downtown Vegas before I did?
So you know, Matt, I took this to my lawyer. He told me
I was an idiot and I should probably just shut up. But I
tell you, mate, if it couldn't be me, I'm glad it was you.

Where do I file an official Human Rights complaint? I hardly think this is equitable.

So, anyway, back to this Matt Bridger chap. Well, he was in an interesting position to see everything go down, having landed in Las Vegas on Wednesday, March 11 just before the Coronavirus shit hit the fan. And I mean, just before. As he posted his daily vlogs, things began to slowly unravel. If you go to You-Tube, plug Matt Bridger into the search engine and watch his recent series "Las Vegas Vlog 11-03-20 to 17-03-20" Parts One Through Six (slightly more than two hours combined - so, you know, grab several beers and some snacks), you will see precisely what I mean.

At first on Part One, Vegas was still jammed, the crowds around him buoyant with buzzy enthusiasm and the casinos, well, packed. Then there is this slow shift downwards as the vlogs progress. Matt usually ends his vlogs with a synopsis of the day and things take a turn to the south as the week progresses. For starters, British Airlines cancels his flight home. Being left on hold (and eventually disconnected) by both BA's British and American help-lines for an hour at a time, it takes him two days to straighten it out with a new flight home. But you can sense below that steely British reserve, there is some anxiety over being stranded there.

Well, at least the escalator was working. So this
young couple had little problem with appropriate
social distancing in Vegas this week. As you can
see, there's no one near them. This is not a Vegas
that any of us recognize. It just looks spooky.

By the time you get to Part Six, it goes from "Well, this is a lovely win on the Buffalo slot" to "Holy crap, the entire city is shutting down around me." (And yes, I can happily report that after an unexpected diversion to LAX, Matt finally touched down in London this morning. I repeat, The Eagle has landed. Safely!)

On one of his vlogs - Part Five, I believe - I commented underneath that it was fascinating progression, watching them daily and seeing the events unfold as if in front of me. As I said earlier, for some reason, you feel like you're right there beside him.

A follower of Matt's on Twitter, Dave Coyne, expressed very much that same sentiment. "This last set of Matt Bridger vlogs have captured a moment in time that is unprecedented. When we talk to our grandchildren in years to come about this outbreak, his vlogs will be reference material."

Towards the end of his trip, Matt got to interact with some well-known American-based vloggers, all of whom were still able to travel to Vegas, including Hog and 2cent from El Paso, Texas and Sin City Nerds, Kaylene and Nick, from the Seattle area. (Kaylene and Nick are young, enthusiastic and she has really cool hair so subscribe to them.)

Poor Mark Anderson, my Vegas vlogging bro
from London, Ontario. In this instance, he was
damned if he did, damned if he didn't. He and I
both canceled our Vegas trips on March 13 to
avoid our chances of catching Coronavirus but
it looks like Mark caught it in his hometown,
regardless. I suspect in two weeks, he'll be as
right as rain and we can both go back to our
guessing as to when Vegas is open to us again.

Also along for the final ride was Ace of Vegas (also on YouTube so subscribe) as all of them were taping the eventual shutdown - deserted casinos, shuttered bars and... well, nobody home. On Ace of Vegas' filming of the final shutdown, I commented underneath that "This is unbelievable, Ace. It's like a place I know all too well... but don't recognize at all." He agreed. "Like your house (but) without all your stuff in it, right?" Exactly that!

Anyway, make the time to watch Matt's Six-Part Series on the trip that started fantastic and then went all to hell. If nothing else, like me, you'll walk away thinking, "Wow, what a shitty year this past week has been."

Anyway, I want to end this on happier Vegas memories, those halcyon days where it was, you know, open. As I said earlier, British Vegas Vlogger Nicky and his wife, Claire, absolutely tore up the machines on Fremont Street one night last October and, well, this is the Vegas I want to remember. And Matt? He's quite well-known for filming his casino-hotel walk-throughs. His vlogs usually get anywhere between 5,000 and 50,000 views. But one filmed last November - a walk-through of Circus Circus Casino Hotel and Theme Park - just, well, exploded with over 164,000 views, None of us, including Matt himself, can figure out why. Nostalgia for an old-school Vegas resort? We don't know. But anyway, for Nicky and Claire's crazy night on Fremont, click here on: The Couple Who Could Not Lose! And hey, let's add some more views to Matt's biggest hit by clicking here on: Circus Circus' Hidden Fan Club! That's it for today but on a final note: Please wash your hands and practice social distancing. The life you save could be someone else's. Just be safe! Peace out, homeys...