Day 6 – New Friends and High Roller Status
Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had on this trip so far. Not sure if I can say it was the actual best but it was close even though I’m just 5 days in. Well 6 if you count now. I was out a little late last night so I’m just now writing the post for yesterday.
I woke up around 6:30 or so to take a shower at the campground in Moab, UT before too many people got to stirring. I started taking down the tent/hammock and said goodbye to my neighbors for the night as they headed out on the rode. I don’t think I told you about them. Super nice and friendly couple that were doing something similar to what I was doing only on a motorcycle. They were from Georgia. The husband had already been out for a few weeks and the wife flew in to Salt Lake City to meet him. In conversation I found out their son actually lives in Richmond, KY. Small world for sure.
It was raining a decent amount the night before so everything was still wet. This made for packing up a bit of a mess to say the least. No worries though. I just rolled with it. Once everything was packed and situated in the car I double-checked that I had everything. Well this is were the problems started. I LOST MY WALLET!!!! Scrambling to think when I had it last I remembered taking it out of my pocket while setting in the tent. I was like no way you’ve got to be kidding me…. Is it still in the tent? So unpacking the wet, muddy, nasty tent began. On the bright side I found my wallet in the tent. HA!
Before leaving Moab I wanted to explore some more. I saw a very built off road rig the day before. It had a number on it and said they did “extreme tours.” A little Google-Fu led me to their website where sure enough it looked like they did some awesome tours of Moab. They actually hit some legit hard trails and they weren’t your average scenic Jeep/Hummer tour. Unfortunately for me they were booked up and I couldn’t get a reservation. Instead I went to Canyonlands National Park. A few pictures from Canyonlands:
Well it was back on the road for me. Off to fabulous Las Vegas! On the way I stopped at Denny’s to grab some breakfast since I left camp before making anything. The views from the interstate while traveling from Utah to Arizona and on into Nevada were nothing shy of breathtaking. Boy was it hot when I got into Arizona and Nevada. The temperature display in the car said 115 degrees at one point.
Once getting to Las Vegas I came to the Green Valley Ranch Resort. It’s a little off the strip and out of the hustle and bustle. This is the first time I’ve stayed here and it certainly didn’t let me done. Granted I didn’t expect much considering It was a $50 express deal on Priceline. I was impressed. Shoot I’d stay here again that’s for sure.
I unpacked some of my things in the room and got the good ol’ MacBook out. Wanted to check some email to see if anything needed attention and such. While looking on Facebook I found a message in my “other” inbox from Catherine Williamson. I responded and found out that the Williamson family had spotted me in Colorado Springs. They are moving from Palm Bay, FL to Colorado Springs, CO. They Google’d 6K Adventure and found me. Well they found the blog and found my IG/FB pages. Super cool how a little hashtag can connect people from all over that just might be on a similar journey. With her permission I’ll attache some screenshots of our conversation and the images she sent.
With that making me smile and putting me in a good mood I figured it was time to hit the Vegas Strip. I mainly just did the tourist thing. I walked around took some pictures and people watched some. I did sit for a while and watch a handful of street performers. It’s crazy how some of these people are legit talented.
One stop along the way was at the Cosmopolitan. The last time I was in Vegas I stayed there so I figured I take a couple pictures of it and hit a slot machine. As most of you know I’m not really a big gamblers. Shoot I could spend more in an arcade then I could a casino. None the less you know how it goes… when in Rome. I put a 20 in a random slot machine and boom 3 button clicks later I had $29.00. Not wanting to push my luck I cashed out my ticket and was heading to the cashier when another slot machine caught my eye. Yeah it was Monopoly. I said what the heck I’m up 9 bucks anyway. Well as luck would have it I’m hitting the max bet button repeatedly only to find I’m now down $3…. but wait a minute what was that??? I hit something big and BOOM I’m back up to $54.02. Yep I’m cashing out now for real.
I walked around the strip some more then got a Taxi back to Green Valley Ranch Resort. I wanted some food before I crashed so I went to a place here in the hotel called Fatburger. While there I saw one of those cheesy 5 card draw pocker machines so I figured I’d put a dollar in it. I mean I am a high roller now with my 54 bucks. It was a quarter per hand and on my last quarter from the dollar I hit big again…. Well I got $1.50 and cashed it out. Now I’m feeling the gambling urge. What in the world is this? And where is my burger? I need to get food and get out of here before I lose the house. I take my freshly printed $1.50 ticket and put it in another slot machine. Once again a few clicks later and I’m up to $6.75 so what do I do? Cash out!! Until I get pulled back into another slot machine to go up even more. Now I’m sitting at $21.75 from an initial $1 investment. What the heck man lets put it in another one. So that’s exactly what I did. It wasn’t long before I was down to $8. My gigantic winning streak and thoughts of new cars, houses, boat etc was slowly fading before my eyes. I told myself I would play until I got back down to $1 then call it a night. Needless to say a few max spins later I hit some sort of free spins something another and the silly slot machine just started spinning for me. 19 free spins later I’m up to $201.15. I immediatlely cash out and go to my room. LOL! Should I have played more? No clue!
All in all Vegas was good to me. I actually won enough to make this a 100% free trip. Off to San Diego now!