I'm back.

In response to the last posts' comments;

laura - The trip was very uneventful, which in my book is good.

dmarks - I didn't! I swear! ....and I didn't even want to.

NoRegrets - I suppose that depends on your definition of crappy. So yeah, I did visit a crappy part. Tulare County is the poorest county in all of CA. I like Visalia, but the rest of it is meh.

This whole thinking for myself is proving to be more involved than I thought. I kicked myself at least twice on the trip back for not planning a little and actually doing things. The first was driving through St. George, Utah during sunset and thinking that I should have planning to be there about 2 hours earlier so that I could have been hiking in Zion National Park during sunset. If you haven't done that, I highly recommend it. Splendid doesn't begin to describe it.



The next was when driving through Provo Canyon, Utah. I think I've been to Bridal Veil Falls before, but it must have been as a very young kid. I had no idea where it actually was and when I drove past sometime in the middle of the night, I wish I'd planned to hike that too.



I got home around noon today and promptly went to bed. Slept until 4. Since the only thing I ate the whole trip was at a Mandalay Bay buffet yesterday (why the heck do I go to those things?), a bag of sour worms, and a couple of McD's breakfast sandwiches this morning, I'm hungry and am trying to decide where I want to eat.

About the buffets, I don't eat nearly enough to justify paying for a 'good' buffet in Vegas. $25! I ate my fill and it was decent food, but not that decent. I'm sure dinner would have been a little closer to a good value, but brunch wasn't. The people that may have got their moneys worth were going through the crab legs like candy. Sat near a guy who finished off at least 3 plates worth while I was there. And considering the bored expression of his wife, I think they had been there for a while. He was still going when I left. While I like crab legs too, they are very much a dinner food for me. Not 10am food.

Then I lost some money at the blackjack table. Shoulda looked for a $5 table instead of the $10, which seems to be the cheapest at Mandalay Bay. Forgot to hit the slots before I left Vegas though. They've paid for my gas before and I was going to try again. Guess that shows how much I really think about gambling.

There is a new resort/casino further south along the strip. It might be the Summer Bay resort but I'm not sure. Then there building another one about midway. I suppose they can justify it because it was pretty busy being Halloween and all. A little disappointed at the lack of costumes though. There were a few waitresses that may have been in costume but they may have been in their regular uniform too.

The flight to Vegas was full and I sat next to a couple of very non-chatty young guys from Portugal. That's the only word I heard from them, "Portugal." The leg to Fresno was about half full and I buried my head in a book and finished it as the plane was descending.

I love people watching. Airports are a fantastic place to people watch. And of the handful of conversations I overheard, not one of them was in English.

I miss CA girls though. That is one true stereotype, CA has a disproportionate share of the attractive ladies. There are cute girls here too, but odds are a whole lot better than Vegas that they smoke. Not that I mind if someone smokes occasionally, but they reek of it. No thanks.

So the blackjack games were interesting. The dealer was nice and helpful, but even then I made a couple of dumb calls. But he played so. stinking. fast. That hour+ I spent last time I was in Vegas was probably around the same # of hands as this one...in about half the time. He did this little pause before he picked up our chips when he won, like he was giving us time to check, but sheesh, gimme a break. By "little pause" I mean he slowed his hand down to 1/2 speed between when he dropped the last card and when he picked up the first losers chips. Which was still too fast.

And I even tipped him when I won!

That's it in a nutshell. I'm going to eat and hopefully I'll get around to reading blogs later this evening. or tomorrow.