Sundays are the day I feel a bit strange about because the feeling was I should be home and resting and preparing for work the next day.
I woke up at 10:00 pm. I used my compass to fairly calculate the time accurately. (To tell time with a compass, the south direction and the position of the sun both need to be known.)
Made lunch by cooking one of the freeze-dried food packs, spicy Thai peanut over rice and vegetables. I had a week's supply of freeze-dried food, which only needs boiling hot water added, which is why I brought along the portable camping stove and gas container.
This was only the third time the tent has been set up and there was already 3 tiny rips in the mesh. I must have stepped on the mesh door while it was lying on rocks last night when I set up the tent in the dark. The 2000 North Face Roadrunner 2 is a very good 2 person, double wall, free-standing tent, and very light compared to similiar tents. It was on sale for $169 a few months ago, so I had to get it. Unfortunately, I was planning on replacing it with an even lighter tent in the near future.
Before I left, I packed out some of the trash left by pass campers. When it comes to the outdoors, people can be very inconsiderate, selfish, and irresponsible. I relate irresponsibility with people who cannot clean up after themselves- I don't think I would ever trust someone who cannot clean up after themselves to make critical decisions because they don't seem to have the sense of caring or responsibility to do it correctly.
The bra in the bush was size 34C and looked like a wonder bra because it was padded, but I wasn't too positive.
It was a warm morning after a cool night. Another area my dad and I drove through back in 1998 was Mesquite, Nevada, the fastest growing city in Nevada, in terms of percentages, that is, it's population has gone from 5000 to 15000 in during some period, which is a 300% increase. Funny, it was the same sign from 1998, but the town doesn't seem any larger. Mesquite is approximately 75 minutes north of Las Vegas.
The Oasis Casino had rooms for $20, but I doubt if there would be any available. I went about a mile up the insterstate to Virgin Rivers, and their electric signed boasted $22 rooms. My dad and I stopped here and played for a few minutes and won $15 or so, and we took the money to get the very inexpensive breakfast in the casino restaurant. Today, all the $22 rooms were booked, and the next cheapest was $29, and I took it after thinking a while in the parking lot. Plus, the need to use the bathroom was another good reason. Casinos generally have very cheap rates Sunday through Thursday since the crowds are much less.
When I went to the car, I realized it had a Texas license plate. All this time, I thought it had an Arizona plate.
It was very relaxing to have a cool room in the hot weather, especially after 2 days of camping out. It was nice to take a shower and rest a bit before attacking one of the four local casinos; however, I slept very lightly, maybe feeling the guilt of not roughing it a bit. As a rule, I don't play at the casino I stay at since getting caught card counting could lead to serious problems. It may not be too much of a problem at casinos regulated by the state, but at unregulated casinos, such as Indian casinos,I've read of violence occuring.
Today, I wanted to stay here and get away from the crowded Las Vegas scene; therefore, I took a quick nap and headed over to the Oasis Casino, where I played for approximately 5 hours. I mainly played the six-deck shoe game, and hopping around from table to table as they got crowded. Most of the time I was down, but at one point I got ahead by $100 after being down $200 when I started to bet more when the count got high. Luckily, the guy on the next table was a high roller, having about $200,000 in chips, and most of the crew was paying attention to him.
The other thing of note happened when I was near the end of the session: The pit boss hung up the phone, looked up and made eye contact with me, then came directly over to watch the play at my table. She often came back. At that point I figured they suspected something about me even though I was down. I don't think I really cared if they barred me or not since it would probably save me money. Luckily I was able to play the last shoe head on against the dealer, and got up by $25. Unfortunately, when I went over to the cashier's cage, the pit boss was off her shift and was right behind me as I cashed out $725. She made a comment about my "winnings," but I replied I bought in throughout the night for $700. She lived in Anchorage, Alaska in the 70's.