Several years ago, when I was in school, my buddy and I decided it’d be a good idea to disappear for a couple of days and go have some fun on a road trip. This buddy, she likes to go on random “adventures” and get lost and not tell any one where she’s going, and it’s exciting for her. This was the one and only adventure I accompanied her on, and there’s good reason why I never did again.
We left on a Thursday morning, around 8am, and after a long and grueling road trip together, we arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday around 3pm. We took turns driving through the night and day, so it was a pretty intense trip.
Vegas is more than you could ever imagine. Those of you who’ve been there know exactly what I’m talking about. It reminds me of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut – where everyone is so willing to be someone else because no one else there knows who you are, and you’ll leave in a week or less, so no one will remember who you were.
Within the first fifteen minutes in Vegas, I had already blown $300 at various blackjack tables. I was starting to get worried if I’d be able to have much more fun and still afford gas to get home. Are there a lot of Things to do in Las Vegas when you’re broke? Then I discovered a fun game called “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Apparently I’m pretty good at it, because when I want to, I can keep people from reading me. I played a few hands and then cashed out and had won almost twice the money I previously lost.
I decided to give a shot at a tournament, and ended up winning something like $5,000 at the end of the tournament. The hotel comp’d us a suite – I won’t say the name, but it’s initials are M-G-M. I made the hotel be sure that the room had separate beds, because I wanted to remain buddies and not become “buddies,” if you know what I mean.
The next day we were given tickets to go see Celine Dion, but I declined and let my friend attend alone. I know that sounds cruel, but it’s definitely not as cruel as making me sit through Celine Dion. Wayne Newton, Siegfried & what’s left of Roy, those are shows I’d want to see. So while that was going on, I went out to eat, did some sightseeing tours, and bought some souvenirs, and did a little more gambling.
I walked away up about $300 from the slots that afternoon. Again, instead of losing all that money, I went and got it changed out for pre-paid credit cards that I hid in various places on my person. It was a nice feeling knowing that at that point, I could have bought a used car and driven it back home with money to spare.
My buddy apparently didn’t know that she didn’t like Celine Dion. She got a little tipsy and started throwing things at the stage. In addition to being thrown out of the audience, she got arrested for standing outside and yelling back in at the guards and disturbing the peace.
And how much was bail, you ask? It was about $5,100, leaving me with about a grand total of $50 in winnings over what I had brought with me. We decided to leave Vegas, despite that making her a bail-jumper – we had to get back for classes! She promised to pay me back, some day.
The drive home was kind of depressing, but we did decide to stop at a Hard Rock cafe and eat a good meal with my winnings before we left. I got a t-shirt from there, but she made me promise not to wear it out for a long time because she didn’t want people to know where we went.
We got back late Monday night and she dropped me off at home and I immediately went to sleep. The next day I went to class, and everything seemed so ho-hum and boring. They say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. That is unless your friend needs something to write about on a Friday morning in his blog.
That being said, TrustedTours.com is having a promotion where if you and your wanderlust want to sign-up for their newsletter, you might win a free hand-held GPS system. (Offer Valid through April 30th, 2008 so hurry up and sign-up to win!)