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Rich and Deni Rust get hitched at the beautiful Excalibur Resort & Casino
This is the story of my first time in Vega$. I must warn all the readers that this story will be extremely long. I am obligated to make it long to properly detail what I often consider one of the best times of my life. I will start with the first time Rich mentioned going to Vegas for his and Deni�s wedding. I was skeptical as to whether I should go or not. It was not because I didn�t want to go; on the contrary, every time Rich asked me to do the most mundane thing, I always accepted the invitation because it was proven that every time Rich and I did anything together it turned into an event of epic proportions. My only reasoning for hesitation was purely money and here is why. I was out of work from October 1999 � May 2000. On May 4, 2000, Amy and I had our second little girl, Jordan. A week later I moved to Florida for a job at Kennedy Space Center. I later came back to get my family and sweep them away to our new house on July 1, 2000. Soon after that, Rich started alluring me and Amy to go to Vegas for his wedding in June 2001. We had two mortgages, two babies to clothe and feed, and only one job to accomplish these tasks. We knew that it would be out of the question for Amy to attend because of child-neglect and endangerment laws, but she gave me the go ahead. I delayed RSVPing to this trip for as long as I could to see if things would change because I wanted to be there for my best friend�s wedding in the worst way.
Rich was pretty diligent in his ways. For all my excuses, he had an answer. �I don�t have the money for the room�, I would say. His answer, �There will be plenty of room for everyone, we will find you a place to stay!� �I�m not very lucky and Vegas is no place to sit around and watch people gamble.� His response, �Dan, there will plenty of things to do other than gambling, we will be getting married and you will have fun with us.� That went on for months and I agreed with every word he said, but I felt the responsibility of my family bearing down on me. January rolled around and we found someone to rent our house we left behind in Pittsburgh 6-months earlier, February came and Amy started working part-time at the Space Center for extra money. The stars were aligning and things were looking like they were falling into place. Finally, after looking at Expedia.com every day for 3-months straight, I found a reasonable fair for $205 and said to myself, �It�s only money, and Rich will only get married one time.� I called my mom and inquired, �Do you guys have a vacancy for me in your room?� She answered yes and on the day before Rich�s 30th Birthday, I booked the flight and saved space in the room at New York, New York with my mom, my sister, and my mom�s friend, Sherry, who is also the mother of one of my other best friends. At that point, I was like, �VEGAS BABY!�
Rich was excited to hear that I was attending his wedding and I guess he was just waiting for me to book my trip before he sprang the next big news on me. Soon after I told him my strategy, he asked if I would like to be in the wedding party. Of course, I accepted to be part of his and Deni�s big day. Weeks went by and it was a few months before the wedding and I started to ask the normal bothersome questions like I always do. You see, Rich is a very spontaneous kind of guy and didn�t really pay attention to the details. He loved to just show up and see what happens and plan from there. On the other hand, I am down right �anal� about the particulars. I love to plan. Don�t get me wrong, I am very flexible and willing to change, but when all things are equal, I would rather know what is ahead. So this is the reason I always felt like I was a nuisance to Rich by asking all my typical questions. Who, What, When, Where, and I knew Why. During this line of questioning, I came to find out that there is no wedding party, just two best men�Matt, his brother, and me. This made me even more excited and proud. I was grinning from ear to ear to hear this news.
When I thought about the probability of being someone�s best man, it didn�t look like I had a chance. I don�t have a brother, so that was out. My prospects, a.k.a., the guys in my wedding and closest friends, were all my friends for practically my whole life or at least their lives. Rich was my best man. Eric, who I grew up with and consider my other best friend, had his brother as his best man when he was married in 2000. Tim, who I also grew up with, had his brother as his best man when he was married in 1998. Shawn who was my childhood best friend had his dad as his best man. The only chances I had left were Rich and the other two in the wedding, my cousins, Tim and Matt, and they were both not married. Matt and Rich are 10-years apart in age, but you would never know this from their relationship. I have never once seen the two of them fight or even have words. They are closer than any two brothers I have ever seen. I just figured that Matt was going to be Rich�s best man and I would be there to �help out�. So when Rich mentioned that he wanted me as his best man also, I was overjoyed. I knew at that point that Rich felt as close to me as I did to him. He was the closest I had to a brother and to this day, aside from my wedding and the births of my three children, this single honor was my proudest moment.
Now it was time to catch the plane. Amy�s family was at our house for a visit during my trip, so it was nice to leave this house full of estrogen (4 women, 4 girls, and a female dog) for a place full of testosterone (Las Vegas, NV). After an uneventful plane ride, I arrived at McCarran Airport to find an entourage waiting for me at the gate. My three roommates for the next three nights and the happy couple all greeted me at the gate. This was the first time I saw Rich after his operations for the melanoma behind his ear and the parotid gland and lymph nodes in his neck. Although he seemed a little stiff from the scares, which traveled from behind his left ear to his shoulder-blades, he looked great and was in the best of spirits. In fact, he looked like he had some of my famous rosy cheeks. We all walked and talked to the luggage carousel. While we stood there waiting for my suitcase to come around, Rich handed me an envelope. This moment in time still haunts me. Maybe I should have stopped looking for my belongings and read it right there on the spot or maybe Rich could have waited until he had my utmost attention to hand me such a valuable commodity, but either way, it saddens me that I never found out what this note said. I�m not sure where I lost it, but somewhere between that carousel and the check-in at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino it slipped out of my possession. Later, Rich revealed that he wrote down his feelings on this note and wanted to tell me how happy he was that I could make it for this special day. I would pay a handsome ransom to know exactly what that note said. Rich is a very private person, contrary to what it seems by his website writings, and doesn�t show emotions too often, so this note was all I had to truly know how he felt about me and it was gone. But enough of that, this story is supposed to be a happy one, so back to the action. We went our separate ways in cabs to our hotels of choice. After a short visit to our room, Marie and I got right to gambling and I won $253 at video poker. That is how you get hooked in Vegas, with borrowed money!
The next day, Rich and Deni did a few things to prepare for the wedding. I continued my good luck as my roommates and I toured some other casinos. By the time we got to Paris (the hotel and casino, not the city), Marie and I wanted to head back to the hotel to see if anything else was going on. As we passed a temperature sign that read 107-degrees, Marie and I agreed it would be a good time to go sit by the pool. In Vegas they call this a dry heat, but don�t let that fool you. My oven is a dry heat too, but I don't go walking around in there. First of all, I am too tall (not by much) and it is too hot! After we got back to the room to find no messages, we sat by the pool the rest of the afternoon. Later that evening, we met up with Rich and Deni and a few others who were in town for the wedding at the Excalibur. We all kind of split-up and did some gambling. This is when I realized how entertaining it is to gamble with a group of people you know. We started to take over a roulette table and make these little humorous observations with each other, the dealers, and the others on the tables. It was gratifying and I was getting hooked with Vegas more and more with each amusing moment until it was time to quench our appetites. After finding everyone at their game of choice and deciding where to go, we gathered the troops on the casino floor and slowly moved as a unified group until we got to the Mexican restaurant at the MGM Grand. This sounds like an easy-enough task, but it is tough to keep everyone in a group this large corralled and focused on the goal�food. Once we got there, the food, the drinks, and the company was great. Rich and Deni recommended this place and we all enjoyed it. I liked it so much, Amy and I returned to this place on our trip last year and it was just as good. After dinner, it was time to do some more gambling and meander back to the Excalibur, so we did. Later that night, Whitey, Elaine and Matty showed up, checked in, and then joined us as we did even more gaming.
On Friday, I recognized that this �dry heat� was too hot to do anything outside and I have a pool in my back yard, so I spent the day laying some bets in New York, New York while Marie went to the pool and my mom and Sherry toured some more Las Vegas casinos. The main reason I stuck around was just in case Rich or anyone else came looking for us to hang out, but no one did, so maybe I should have tagged along with Mom and Sherry and familiarized myself with the sites of the strip. Later that night, we all met up again for Rich and Deni's last night as singles. This time there were more people, which made it tougher to round up. So instead of leaving the property to eat, we just went to the buffet above the casino. There was a group of about 15 or 20 of us going through the line and eating at about 3 or 4 tables. We listened to a few of Kelly�s greatest hits and all the humorous comments that followed from the peanut gallery until everyone was full. At that time, we tried to get everyone moving so we could have some excitement at a different locale, but with a crowd that big and so many things to do like buying a round of frozen margaritas to celebrate the occasion, it takes too much time to get organized. By the time we got to the tram at the MGM, it was just about 1 AM. This is quitting time for the tram, so we stood around and tried to come up with a mutual solution. As people looked at their watches and realized that tomorrow was the �big day�, the group dwindled down to Richy, Matty, and me.
This is what I will call the "Bachelor Party". I have been to some great bachelor parties in my life and one thing that seems to give them more excitement is spontaneity. Like I said earlier, I am a big believer in planning, but when it comes to pure fun, go with impulses. This was my and Matt�s first time in Vegas, so Rich was in the driver�s seat as to where to go. The first place we went was Barbary Coast. Rich said that this was one of his favorites and since this and many other times in Vegas, it is also one of my favorites. We had the magic touch at roulette here. We drank and won and drank some more. Matt didn�t do much gambling so far, he was a bit timid, plus he kept on getting carded at every casino because of the proximity to his 21st Birthday, which was earlier that year in February. It must have been the fact that they have a younger cliental at this casino and they didn�t check his ID that made him jump in on the action and make some money. He caught the back-end of our good fortune before it was time to move on.
Next stop was Caesar�s Palace. I misered my winnings at this place and watched Rich and Matt sit in the far part of the casino against the wall playing the "Wheel of Fortune" slots. I was also studied the cleaning staff at work. Somewhere around 3 AM is when these gnomes come out of hiding and make everything sparkle for the guests. This is also when they take the day�s winnings to the hard and soft count rooms. Traveling through the middle of the casino floor appeared this one big crate with 6 or so armed-guards attached by one hand to the prize to protect the profit. These were the biggest crowds we saw at this time of day. We were witnessing the Vegas that no one else gets to see and we were just drunk enough to think it was interesting. All of a sudden, Rich lets out a �WOO HOO!� I turn to find him cashing out for little over $300. We hit the cage and hit the road�on to rape another property of their money and booze.
We caught a cab to Mandalay Bay. We each sat at a machine raking in more money and drinking in more libations. We found that we were giddy like little school girls. We were having so much fun laughing at each other�s stupid jokes until our stomachs hurt. We traveled from Mandalay Bay to Luxor using the walk-way between the properties. In this long hall-way with people-movers, there are advertisements for every money-making activity in both these casinos. All of a sudden, I brake into the �fight scene� from �West Side Story� with snaps and all. I was soon joined by the other two �Sharks�. No verbal communication was needed to encourage the other players of this spontaneous musical number; they just knew where I was going with this joke that was inspired by the ad for the Shark Reef Exhibit. This is a prime example of the silliness that took place this night and how telepathy typically helped us get these points across to each other.
We finally got to the Luxor sans any turned ankles during the grand finale between the Sharks and the Jets. When I couldn�t recall the name of the other gang, Rich answered, �You should know this one! It�s the Jets!� (This was the name of our first group together). The main highlight from here involved an attractive waitress. If you have never been to Vegas, they put their cocktail waitresses in scantily clad uniforms for yet another enticement to stay and spend more money. This particular employee came to get our drink orders. Rich was having a beer, Matt, I believe, passed, and I requested a rum and coke. We proceeded to gamble and talk, when she returned with our drinks. Rich was pleasantly surprised to get a better brand of beer than he ordered and I got a spiced rum and coke, which was better than the ordinary rum. We were openly delighted with our surprises and tipped her well. She was being very nice to the drunken customers and deserves to be commended for putting up with our juvenile comments (I must say here that they were not sexist or demeaning in any way, just dim-witted). She was so nice or liked the tip that she soon stopped by to check on us by asking, �How are your drinks?� Rich said something normal like, �Good, thanks� and in my drunken and dumbfounded state of being in the presence of beauty, I said, �It�s all Rummy and Cokey.� As she walked away, not at all impressed with my debonair retort, I said to Rich and Matt, �I�m such a geek!� Their laughter and rolling around on the floor told me that they could not agree with me more. It was time to get out of this place while we had at least a portion of our dignity.
We took the tunnel to the place where it all got started, the Excalibur, for the final round of betting. We made a quick stop at the gift shop where Rich bought us all a shot glass to commemorate the fun bachelor night out in Vegas. Once we got into the casino, we played roulette. It was late or early, which ever way you look at it and this Chinese lady was dealing. She was �asleep at the wheel� babbling with her thick accent something about how she had been up all-night and she was so tired and on and on. Before you know it, Matt cuts in on her one-sided, senseless conversation by saying, �Yeah, yeah, last Tuesday.� We all got a good laugh out of that one, except the lady who was blindsided by the comment and woke up after she realized she was being mocked. It was time to move to the next roulette wheel and the board showed only red. This means that the past dozen or so numbers that have hit were all red. We also witnessed a few more reds rolled by this dealer. This also meant that, contrary to all the statisticians out there, black was due. We were all ahead for the night and a fifty dollar bill was burning a hole in my pocket, so it went down on black. The dealer turns to the pit boss and says, �50 on black!� The sounds of the ball falling in red yet again followed by the grimaced �ahhh�s of the players at the table, still ring in my ear. Now black was REALLY DUE! Yes, I made the same mistake again. The next $50 moving from my pockets to the felt got the group at the table and even the 21-players at the table next door interested in this action. �50 on black�, is called out again followed by many other calls on black. This time, there were others joining in on the sure bet. Unlike the last thousand rolls, it hit and a celebration party broke out. Everyone was in on this action and it all started with my 50 dollar bill. The next thing I know, I take my winnings, but let the original bet ride, saying �It�s still due!� I remember the black-jack player looking at me saying, �Don�t do it.� Well, you can guess what happened next, another loss for Dan. It was time to move to another table. Rich, Matt, and I all sat at the table across the pit. This was the best choice of the late night. I have always beleived that you can win at roulette and we were in-synch with this dealer. We were the only ones at this table and I am pretty sure that at least one of us got paid on each roll. We knew where the ball would fall before it was spun. I made up for my black and red indiscretions at the last table, plus some money for my time. Rich and Matt both did very well too, but it was getting late. We played for about an hour or two until we could no longer concentrate because it was 7 AM on the morning of Rich�s wedding. We had been out all night long, the early-bird gamblers were showing more and more, and our bets were showing signs of fatigue. We cashed in our chips and headed for the elevators.
When we got to Matt�s room, where he was staying with his mom and dad, they were up for the morning and getting ready to start the day. We stumbled into the room and Elaine asked us, �Have you guys been up long?� To which Matt answered, �Yeah, we�ve been up for a while.� This dialogue along with our exhaustion forced the three of us to fall to the ground in hysterics for a good 5 or 10 minutes, while my aunt and uncle starred at us like circus freaks. After we recuperated from the banter and the fits of laughter that ensued, it was time to grab a meal before naptime. We went back down to the casino level and waved as we passed our new friends at the tables and got a breakfast of gambling champions. We relived all the goofiness and even made some new stuff up at the rejuvenating feast. All-in-all, we saw a lot of stuff that made us laugh until our sides hurt and I think we even tried out for "Riverdance" at some point during the night. We finally went to sleep at about 8 AM (that's 11 AM EDT) on the day of Rich's wedding, after our giddiness which carried over into bed for a while ceased.
After our 4-hour nap, I got up and returned to my room to get ready, while Rich and Matt, as Rich said, �wiped the Vegas filth off of us and got all gussied up� in their room. I got back and we headed down to the chapel. The wedding was short and sweet and the bride and groom looked great, as did the wedding party and guests for that matter. It started at 3:30 PM and it lasted about half an hour. I would love to see the video of the ceremony to recall this time, but haven�t got the chance yet. Matt was paired up with Kim and I was with Kelly. The pictures also went smoothly. The cool thing about the wedding was the official. He had this big gray beard and was dressed as Merlin or something from the middle ages, remember the theme of the hotel. He also had this commanding voice that shook the roof of the Excalibur and may have single-headedly dislodged the sword. After the wedding, we all went to Deni's sister, Kathy and her husband, Ken's suite at the Riveria, for a reception. Their place was huge and gorgeous and even had a balcony, which came in handy to scout out other Vegas hot-spots. When we got there, I started to get a little nervous. I hadn�t prepared anything, but I wanted to say something nice for a toast. I hadn�t really discussed the idea with Rich. I pulled him and Deni aside and they both graciously welcomed my suggestion. I�m not exactly sure what I said, but I do know that I wanted to get across a few ideas I had in my head. I wanted to let them both know that I was very proud to be part of their important day; we are all very lucky to have Rich with us through this tough year for him and Deni; and they handled the adversity with such grace and courage, and they did it by being together. I wished them good luck and a great marriage and told them I loved them both. Matt and others also spoke some kind words, but Kelly was the one that lightened the mood to this emotional time, just like she did at the funeral. If you�ve never heard Kelly speak, she is one of the funniest women I have ever heard. She makes everyone laugh, but she also cries at the drop of a hat. It was quite a site seeing her getting teared-up and making everyone laugh at the same time. It was a nice comfortable reception with champagne, cake, crackers, and conversations about the missed jackpots.
After the reception, we got back into our dirty gambling clothes and got back into the casinos. We were all pretty tired, especially Rich because of the night before and Deni because of her pregnancy with Madison, and they had some consummating to do. So they went up to the room and we all turned in pretty early. The next day was my last day in magical Las Vegas, so I just did a little more visiting, gambling, touring, and relaxing before my flight later that night. I did pretty well for the extended weekend, but ended up leaving Vegas with less money then I brought, which includes money spent for meals and the room, but more guitars. Rich gave me this great Epiphone, Les Paul model, guitar as a gift for being in his wedding, as if just being asked wasn�t present enough. It made me uneasy to accept such an extravagant gift, but you will never find me playing any other of my three guitars but that one now.
I always can tell when I have a rewarding experience somewhere because when I leave, I get a feeling of separation anxiety in my heart. I instantly become melancholy because I miss the enjoyment of the people and the place. This was definitely the case here. On the plane ride home, I almost cried because I wanted to relive the Vegas Wedding trip from the beginning and it had just taken place. I will always remember this time as one of my all-time favorite trips and a wonderful event. I could spend all day looking at the pictures on Rich�s web site and reminisce with an unconscious smile appearing on my face. People, especially Rich, always accuse me of being a compulsive gambler because I am always yearning for the next trip to Vegas. I know that I should never move to Las Vegas or I may be forced to attend gamblers anonymous meetings. I also know they are only half-kidding me because if I were truly had a problem with gambling, I would constantly participate in games of chance and occasionally play the lottery, but I don�t. I believe that the main reason that I love Vegas so much is not only because of the excitement of gambling and the casinos, but because of what it has become in my mind, a perpetual reminder of the memory of my first time in Vegas, Rich�s wedding trip.
