(Never) Leaving Las Vegas

I have officially been in Vegas for a week, and it feels like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day. Every morning I keep waking up in the same god damn place without being able to leave. If it were up to me, I would have been out of here on Monday. In fact, I was almost gone on Monday, but the pull of the city was just too strong.

The bachelor party was great - it was fun to see people I actually knew for the first time in almost three weeks. I'm going to leave out the details, and all I'm going to say is that Gabe, the bachelor, had a great time. Period end.

I left Monday and headed to the Hoover Dam. Only 26 miles from Vegas, it's deemed one of the great architectural wonders of the United States. And it is impressive - I took the tour that take you deep into the bowels of the concrete monster. They show you a 10 minute film before you start, and in my hung-over, sleep deprived state, I feel asleep twice. Between Vegas and the dam, I was amazed at what man can build when he puts his mind to it. So far the wonders I've seen have been nature made, so it was an interesting contrast.

Lake Mead is what was created when the dam backed up the Colorado river, and I took some time to drive around there. There wasn't all that much to see; the lake is mostly known for it's water sports activities, so if you're not planning on going on the water, I'd say it's a stop you could bypass. It was about mid-afternoon at this point, and I decided to stop at a campground on the lake for the evening. That's when I heard it: the noise. The noise in the car that I thought had been fixed in Spokane. It was back. I drove into Boulder, the town next to Lake Mead, to get some supplies for the night, and the sound just got worse and worse. It was evident that there was no way I was making it to the Grand Canyon without getting it checked out, and I realized with sadness that I would be heading back to Vegas in the morning.

Now don't get me wrong. Vegas is a lot of fun. A lot of fun for about four days max when you're with a bunch of your best friends. It's not fun when you're partied and gambled out and just want to get as far away from the place as possible. It's not fun when the reason you have to go back is because your car is making a sickening clunk every two seconds. I wasn't happy.

I woke up in the morning, and through some internet research with my Dad, found a recommended mechanic. With in seconds of looking at the car, the German mechanic named Wolf said in his Schwarzenneger-like accent "You're not going to like this." According to him, the transmission differential was just about dry, causing the parts to do some significant damage. The differential would need to be replaced, and the part would need to be ordered from somewhere that wasn't in Vegas, or even Nevada. It was going to cost several hundred, if not a thousand dollars, and it would probably take a couple of days. The news sunk in, and as bad as I wanted to get as far from Vegas as possible, I realized there was nothing I could do, and this was all part of a trip of this nature. I was pissed, sure, but I had to make the best of it. I started by calling the guys who fixed the car in Spokane, since they basically replaced a part that didn't need to be fixed. They were very nice about the whole thing, and agreed to refund me the cost of the labor. In my book, that makes them stand-up guys.

The differential was ordered and would arrive Wednesday morning, so now I had to decide what to do for the night. I was in North Las Vegas, a not very cheap cab ride from the strip, so I decided that since Vegas had already take a rather large chunk out of my wallet, I would sleep in the car in the parking lot of the repair shop. Wolf had no problem with this - there was a security guard who watched the place at night and cameras all over the place. I wasn't in the best part of town, but I'd probably be safe. I was introduced to the security guard, who's name was (I shit you not), Painless, and was told he had a shotgun next to him at all times. Sweet.

Then darkness started to fall. It was hot, and I was in a parking lot in a sketchy part of town, and I thought "What the fuck am I doing?" I thought about it for a second, called downtown Vegas, and got a room at Binion's for $59. For a good night's sleep, a shower, and some piece of mind, I figured it would be worth it, and it was. One $25 cab ride later, I was watching The Sopranos and falling asleep.

The parts arrived this morning, and they stared working on the car. I had to go back to give them my keys, so rather than spend $50 on two cab rides, I paid $35 for a rental car. They were out of the smalls, so I was upgraded for free to a Ford Fusion, which is a pretty sick little sedan. I also talked John the Front Desk Guy at Binion's into uprgrading me (for free) to a junior suite, so I'm living in luxury in downtown Vegas with my Ford Fusion and junior suite. At Wolf's, I was informed that the car probably wasn't going to be ready until tomorrow, so I extended my stay for one more night and entered the 2pm Binion's Poker Tournament.

Now, for those that aren't aware, Binion's is somewhat of a poker mecca. It's heydays have since passed, but Binion's is where the World Series of Poker was invented and played for the first twenty or so years of its existence. As the WSOP started to be televised and popular, Binion's started its decline into bankruptcy and management problems, and so the rights have since been purchased. But there's so much history still in the place, I just had to play one tournament here.

The buy in was $70, and I played perhaps the greatest poker I've ever played in my life. I was knocking people out left and right, making fantastic calls, and bluffing people with crap hands and making them fold. Everyone who played at my table respected and feared me, and they all thought I'd go on to win it. I was the chip lead for most of the tournament, and when we got down to the final two tables, things started to get bumpy. Since I've only been in that situation twice (big chip lead near the end of the tournament), I don't really know how to properly play my position, and I made some stupid mistakes, busting out in 9th place out of 70 or so. The top 7 places got paid. On the one hand, it's nice to do so well and play good poker for so long, but on the other hand, it REALLY sucks to make it that far and win as much as I would have had I gone out in the first 15 minutes.

Well, you learn and move on, right? I just pray to god that my car is ready and I can get the hell out of here and back into nature for a couple of days. Vegas is a city of false creation, and I need some good old fashioned nature made splendor. Viva la Roadtrip!