Ok, not so fast. The real story comes with the adventure of getting to Vegas. We had decided to drive to Vegas using my Jeep. Not thinking anything of it we started our trip sometime after noon on Thursday (after stopping at Tony P’s for a quick lunch). About 1.5 hours into the trip the Jeep started to overheat as we were going through the mountain passes. We stopped for a few minutes, let the car settle down a bit, then started back up with little change. I had a similar problem back in December while driving up to Ventura County. We ended up stopping at a little mom and pop shop where they took a quick look, added some coolant, told us that should do the trick, then sent us on our way. Well, it didn’t take long after getting back on the highway to figure out adding some coolant didn’t do the trick. At this point we happened to be in Victorville, CA, close to one of my clients, which also happens to be close to a Jeep dealership. We stopped and started a few times, managing to get there without destroying the Jeep. I was going to have to leave the Jeep there for a few days and there was an Enterprise Rent-a-car a few blocks away. The only question now was do we go to Vegas or back home? Yeah, Vegas was the easy answer. We finally got there about 9 hours after we started the trek.

While staying at Mandalay Bay, we spent most of our nights at EyeCandy, located at the center of the casino. During the day on Friday we relaxed at the Beach, which has a pool with waves, which was fun to hang out in… especially in 95+ degree heat. Although I spent a lot of money while in Vegas, I happened to leave with $100 more cash-on-hand then when I arrived. That included at least 5-6 hours of blackjack. I think this is the first time I’ve come out on top since my first trip to Vegas, when I stayed at Stratosphere, about 4 years ago. The most exciting/funny part of the trip had to be the Michael Jackson wannabe at EyeCandy on Thursday night (see video in previous post).

So Saturday was here and it was time to go home, stopping to pick up the Jeep. It turned out the coolant was in very bad shape and the radiator needed a flush (not sure if I’m explaining it correctly). We made it home in one piece from there on out, in plenty of time to settle in at home and prepare for our 4th of July BBQ, which turned out to be a resounding success.