Las Vegas Weekly

December 18, 2008 · 12:19 PM

101 residents of Cranfills Gap, Texas, are stranded in Vegas for two more nights

By Robin Leach

Snow falls on New York-New York on the Strip on Wednesday.

Photo: Tiffany Brown

If weather conditions in our now winter wonderland of record-breaking 5 inches of snow continue, the five-day freebie visit might become another two nights on the house!

Vegas DeLuxe told you that about one-third of the residents of tiny 350-strong Cranfills Gap, Texas, landed here last Friday for the ultimate, free-vacation getaway. Only 101 people ages 21 and older were able to get the time off work and agreed to be followed around the clock by video cameras recording their every move in Sin City.

Our Convention & Visitors Authority picked up their $2.5 million tab for airfare, hotel rooms, show tickets and meals in some of our finest restaurants. The footage will be edited into new tourism TV commercials for broadcast early next year in a bid to boost Las Vegas visitor counts! Tourism officials said they checked out 125 tiny towns before selecting Cranfills Gap, which has only two stop signs, no traffic lights, one bank, one gas station and one bar!

They loved Vegas! One couple got engaged while on the trip, and another person fulfilled a lifelong ambition to go skydiving. Hotel tycoon George Maloof threw their farewell party in his lavish, $40,000-a-night Hardwood basketball suite -- larger than the schoolyard back home!

But then came yesterday’s record-breaking snowstorm. Click HERE for coverage and photos of the Vegas winter wonderland as recorded by Las Vegas Sun staff. Unfortunately, their flight home was canceled when the airport was closed to inbound and outward planes.

So at the last minute, tourism officials scrambled last night to find somebody willing to put them all up for possibly two more free nights. In stepped South Point executives, and all 101 visitors got their sixth night on the house! They’ve been told it might be tomorrow before their return flight, so they will stay here tonight, too!

It sure makes for dramatic reality TV -- and it’s those genuine messages of love and admiration for our great city that will make it on air!

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