Day 13
Monday July 24, 2000
Got up and decided on going to the strip and taking a shot at the Mirage again for some double deck Blackjack. When I arrived, the valet area was jammed with cars but that was quickly fixed. After parking I headed to the tables. I sat at a table and played for quite a while but in the end they got my money. Now things are not looking good and I seem to be losing at just about everything I play. I went to another table and in less than 20 minutes I was wiped out again. By this time I have had enough of the Mirage and went back out to Sam’s Town.

When I got back there I went to lunch at Mary’s Diner. I had a bowl of soup and a grilled cheese this time. The food was good and amazingly the service wasn’t too bad either. That’s kind of unusual here though.

After lunch I played some video poker and couldn’t hit a thing there. I then went back to the tables and it was more of the same. After 3 tables and losing even more money I wasn’t only getting aggravated but I was just not in the mood for gambling anymore. I had blown through a good chunk of my winnings and wasn’t even having fun anymore. I still actually had 3 days left on my trip. The problem was I didn’t have the desire to play anymore. I didn’t want to lose anymore of my winnings, and I never thought I’d ever say it, but I wanted to go home. That’s when I did what I never though I would do while I was in Las Vegas. I called the airline and checked to see if there were any earlier flights out of town. Never ever would I have thought I would try to leave town early but that’s just what I was doing. I was in luck. There was a flight out that night with the same times and arrivals that my original flights had. I was set to leave at 10:25pm. Now I had about 4 hours to get my act together and get to the airport.

Still not believing I had to leave tonight instead of 3 days from now I called my father who was staying at my apartment for a few days and told him to pick me up at the airport in the morning instead of Friday. My next move was back up to the laundromat to pick up my clothes and a few other things. Then I went back to the room and went through all the junk I had collected up to this point in the trip and got all of my things together.

Just before leaving I went to Mary’s Diner to get a sandwich to eat on the plane trip home. I went to the counter as usual and waited for someone to come take my order. Finally after 15 minutes someone finally took my order. I wasn’t happy about this at all since I had a few other things I needed to do before I left for the airport. After I placed my order I went down to Java in the Park and ordered a few pastry items and a few Snapple Iced Teas. I stopped back up to the diner to get my sandwich and then it was back up to the room to gather all of my things. The last stop was the front desk to check out. It really killed me to have to check out of a suite 3 days early but I think it was the best thing to do at the time considering the terrible losing streak I had been on for the last few days.

After checking out and leaving Sam’s Town I made a quick stop at the Arco AM/PM on Flamingo and Mountain Vista to fill up the gas tank on the car. Now it was clear sailing to the Alamo lot to return the car. Other than some jerk off that thought driving 20 miles per hour on Flamingo that is! The lot at Alamo was pretty busy but drop off went well and I got right onto the shuttle back to the airport.

At the airport things went well too. There were only a few people in line in front of me and I was on my way to the gate right away. Shortly after getting to the gate they began the boarding process. I was sitting in the rear of the plane so I was one of the first passengers to board. The flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta was pretty uneventful. There was a movie but they didn’t give us free headsets this trip so I slept and listened to CD’s. There was no meal but they gave us soda and a small bag of that Summer Harvest mix that we had on the way out. We landed in Atlanta quite a bit early but that really did me no good since I had to wait for my connection. Things were good on this flight too and although there was no meal we picked up a bagged snack as we boarded. It had a blueberry muffin, a small cup of Dannon yogurt, a banana that wasn’t ripe, and a small Minute Maid orange juice. They also served coffee and other beverages during the flight. We landed in Newark quite a bit early too. This was ok since I was tired of sitting in tubes all night long. When I got off the plane I saw my father and mother and we were on our way to baggage claim. Shortly after we arrived down there the bags were coming out. This was a new experience. Usually Newark is pretty bad about getting luggage out quickly.

When I stepped outside after getting my suitcase I knew I noticed something. It wasn’t hot and it wasn’t dry. It was cool at just after 8am. Somewhere around 70 degrees I’d say. The humidity was about 80% and it was really sticky. Yup, I’m home. My Las Vegas trip is officially over.

Total win for the day -$2700
Total Comps for the day $325