Monday we got a car and drove from San Diego to Vegas. It was a 4-5 hour drive where Hugo and I took turns to drive. This time we had a Chrysler PT Cruiser
Actually there was quite a lot of traffic on the way to Vegas but the last two hours into Vegas the opposite lanes were just packed. But after a few hours of driving in one of the most deserted areas I've ever seen, all of a sudden there it is - VEGAS
We exited the freeway in downtown Vegas which is in the northern end. We then drove all the way down the Strip to the southern end to find the Las Vegas sign passing all the big casinos on the way.
Back in the car again we drove to Harrah's, our hotel on the Strip, where we had gotten two free nights if you remember. We had heard about something called the "Las Vegas sandwich" which is something you can try if you want a room upgrade. Basically, when you are about to check in, they are going to need your credit card and passport. Before you give them your passport and credit card, you slip a $20 bill in between and ask if they have any complimentary room upgrades. We did that and it worked, so instead of just a basic room we got one with a little more bang for your buck.
By now the clock was around 7-8 pm. We decided to take a shower and then head downstairs for something to eat. It wasn't mind blowing but we were pretty hungry. Then we decided that it was time for some gambling! We headed to the Venetian right next door. It's one of the newer casinos in Vegas and it looks pretty cool
I only had $200 in my wallet and I figured I might as well take out a lot of cash since every time I have to pay a pretty big fee. At first I tried with the mastercard I have for my neteller account (kind of online bank I use to handle my poker bankroll). The only reason why I had that made was because I would use it in Vegas... Of course, I couldn't get it to work. Somehow I had written down the wrong pin number for it, so that was no good. Then I tried my other cards and to make a long story short, I couldn't get any money.
Anyways, we were gonna play at a $200 buyin table and so I figured that I might as well just win the money I needed ;)
I was kind of rusty so I played pretty bad and ended up losing a bit at that table. On the other hand, Hugo was winning pretty big. After a while he wanted to cash out his winnings and didn't mind finding another place to play. One of the guys at the table told us that the game at the Flamingo was really soft. So we went there. Hugo kept winning and I kept losing because of a little bit of bad luck and a lot of bad play. I decided to call it a night and quit with a $270 total loss :(
Grand Canyon
Tuesday we got up kind of early (around 11) because we wanted to drive to Grand Canyon. We had to drive up north on the strip and on the way we came by a bank. I still needed money so I tried to take out some cash in the ATM. The machine !"#!"¤ ate my backup debit card. I went inside the bank and they told me that they couldn't give it back to me because I wasn't a customer so they would just destroy it. There was nothing I could do and luckily it was only my backup card!
Still with no cash we continued towards our goal. On the way I was wondering if I was near my monthly spending limit or if maybe my card had been blocked. I soon found out when we ran low on gas. To my luck, my card worked at the gas station.
About halfway you have to exit the highway and drive on smaller roads. The scenery was kind of spectacular!
And when you have to drive for a few hours on a road like this with absolutely no traffic, we started to think about things we were not supposed to do to do. We found out that out car had a top speed of 114 mph downhill...
After 4 hours drive we arrived. We walked along the rim and took a lot of pictures. Here's some of them
The mountains you see in the background are more than 100 miles away!
After 30-45 mins we drove back to Vegas. It was kind of a crazy day... spend 8-9 hours driving to see something for half an hour.
Back at the hotel at 10pm we took a shower and hit the casinos once again. We decided just to stay at the Harrah's. I had learned a bit from my mistakes the first night and won around $130 - unfortunately, Hugo ended up losing a little bit that night.
Wednesday we checked out at noon but our plane wasn't leaving until 11.30pm. I had contacted my bank to find out what was going on with my card. I had almost hit my limit and they were so kind to reset it for me. Hugo had to do some shopping so I went to Bally's to play some poker. The game was really soft and I was up a good amount of money but then I ran into one unlucky hand where my top two pair lost to a straight.
I got up and walked by a craps table that seemed to be on fire. I got $200 in chips and started to play. Craps is the game where you shoot the dice to the other end of the table. I lost $40 right away but then the magic started to happen. The basic rules are that once you "establish a point" you can only lose if the shooter rolls a 7, which is the most likely combination of two dice. He just kept on shooting for 15-20 mins straight and by the time he finally rolled a 7, I had won more than $250. So I was even steven for the day. I headed back to Harrah's and lost a bit of money. All together I ended up being down $300 for my Vegas stay which is kind of acceptable.
Then it was almost time to go to the airport. So we got something to eat and got in the car. We were not in a hurry so we decided to drive by the fountains at the Bellagio. I shot a video of it... quite a party piece!
That was it for now... As I mentioned, I'm in New York right now and I'm gonna stick around until Thursday when I fly back to good ol' Denmark.
Take care :)
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