May 6: Salina, UT to Las Vegas, NV

You may not know this about me, but I have a gambling problem. My original plan for today had been to drive to Zion National Park in Utah, then drive down to Vegas at night. Instead, I scrapped Zion so I could get to Vegas early. Why did I want to get to Vegas early? So I could do some in-game betting on the Hawks-Magic game, of course.

First things first, I did get lunch in St. George, UT at a place called Twentyfive Main Cafe, conveniently located at 25 Main St. It's weird how that worked out. I enjoyed my club sandwich, simple but good. They also had cupcakes, and I thought mine was quite tasty. But I feel like $1.75 is expensive for a cupcake. But maybe not, I don't really eat cupcakes, they may actually be very reasonably priced.



Then it was time for Vegas. Drove to the M casino, one of two places in Vegas that does in-game betting. I had a hunch that I should take Orlando (-9.5) for the game, and Atlanta for the first half spread. But what did I actually do? I hedged on the final score, and took Orlando in the first half. Net result - lost $5.45 when I should've won $9.10. Lesson one on the day: trust your instincts. Other lesson learned: don't bet on free throws. Way too tempting when it pops on screen, and a really easy way to lose money. Although when Dwight Howard got a nosebleed right before a free throw, I had to get back in the game and bet on a miss. So one of my 4 free throw bets worked out. Rough first half but I rallied with the second half over/under. Ended up down a little less than $10.

Dinner was a Vegas rarity for me: I did not eat inside a casino. Went to Raising Cane's, which specializes in chicken fingers. The chicken was good, pretty tender, and I really liked their sauce.



Other things of note.
Except for the 6 Asian people I saw at Arches (4 of whom were one family), it was 100% white people between Denver and Vegas.
Today, Arizona joined Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania as the only states that I traveled through twice. 15 takes you through Arizona for about 25 minutes before you get to Nevada.

Now, I'm just hanging out in my hotel room waiting for the madness that starts tomorrow. It's been an awesome trip, and this will be my last post. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it.