El Rancho Rides Again!
Image by Miss Shari
Just another blurry photo from the top of a double-decker bus cruising down the Las Vegas Strip, no?
NO!
In 2000, the El Rancho casino, once upon a time the Thunderbird and later renamed in semi-homage to the burned-down El Rancho Vegas (think distinctive windmill) across the street (where the ground in the vacant lot allegedly still smells of the fire, 40ish years later), was demolished.
I don’t know when Turnberry Place, the first of several eyesore condos going up on the Strip, covered up the old El Rancho sign, but El Rancho’s been an unknown entity to Vegas newcomers for some time. This past summer I stood whole minutes under the Turnberry sign, watching the canvas flutter, desperate to see a little peek of the old El Rancho underneath. It’s an armchair archaeologist thing.
Now here we are in February, and last night I hopped on "The Deuce" for the first time to go downtown. Save a quick drive-by, I haven’t been downtown in five years, not since I was a tourist. Not because I hate downtown, but because I’d hate to be caught near downtown at night with a car problem. I’m just an unrepentant snob that way.
So, I was on the upper deck, the thrill having worn off twenty minutes earlier and the possibility of a flat tire near Olympic Gardens looking better and better as we inched up the Strip in Saturday night traffic. And I looked up. I looked up, and for one second everything was almost-normal. No. No. Something’s off. Something’s… whoa.
THE EL RANCHO! IT LIVES!
Something has happened to one side of the Turnberry sign, and we can see the El Rancho waving from the grave, perhaps even fooling hundreds of tourists into saying, "Let’s go to that casino!"
It should be noted that no one else on the bus shared my enthusiasm, but that’s because I was the only fun person there. I’m just saying.
It’s like, as I said to Mike, looking at the Venetian and suddenly seeing a bit of the old Sands poking up through the roof. Maybe even rising from the water, forcing the gondolas to paddle around. ("That would be cool!" he said. Well, yeah, but this is cool, too. It is!)
Anyway, I’m always a little extra-fascinated by the El Rancho because of this story. And also because I’m a geek. But not so much of a geek that I stayed up until sunrise to take a properly clear daylight picture. Although, you know, it’s not even noon on Sunday, and I bet they don’t manage to get it covered back up today…
