Road Trippin’

By 12:30 Sunday Brin and I were heading westbound on I-55 towards StL, not even outside the Springfield city limits when he declared he was “going to get a ticket in every state” About a minute later, we were approaching a state trooper that was already pulled over on the shoulder, and threw his sirens on before we even passed him. We were in the left lane so we got over, only to realize we were getting pulled over?

Apparently he was going 76 in a 65, and got a $70 ticket. I had no prior knowledge of this, but later he told me he had never actually been given a ticket. He was already on a remarkable pace to accomplish what he had stated just minutes earlier.

We had absolutely zero plan as to where we would be staying the night, and no real goal as to how far we should drive other than knowing we wouldn’t get to Amarillo, TX and would probably be staying somewhere west of OK City.

We made a handful of gas/bathroom/food stops over the course of the day, including stopping @ a Red Lobster in Tulsa for dinner around 9. I got the Maui luau salmon and shrimp which came on a bed of rice pilaf with a slice of grilled pineapple and a side of lobster mashed potatoes. It was better than it sounds.

We rolled into Elk City, OK, roughly 700 miles from Springfield, and got a room at a Comfort Inn around 1:15am CST.

Woke up to my cell phone alarm going haywire like seven times between 8:30 and 10:30, which was both befuddling and annoying. Got on the road by 11:30 with almost 1000 miles of I-40 staring us in the face. The plan was to make it to Flagstaff, AZ by about 10 local time. I downed a water and a CLIFF bar to hold me over until we could find a Subway. Over the course of the whole trip, I think we would eventually pass 257 of them at some point or another.

We shredded thru the rest of OK, a small sliver of Texas, and all of New Mexico in good time before stopping @ Denny’s for dinner breakfast. We decided to push the envelope, electing to stay on the road until Kingman, AZ, which is the last blip on the map before US-93. Before we headed out a $50 prop bet was made to determine the Greatest Claw Machine Player in the World. I knew I had an edge here because the last time I played a claw machine was @ a Denny’s under similar circumstances, albeit slightly smaller stakes, against two opponents and dominated on my first try. Ship it.

This time however neither of us could collect the South Park Kyle or the gnarly colored dragon. An employee tried afterward but had no luck. FAIL.

Motored into a Holiday Inn Express in Kingman around 11ish. Looking around and seeing all of the palm trees, it begins to set in that yes, I am farther west than I ever been in my lifetime, and that Sin City was only 100 or so miles away.

I went inside to check availability/rates and was greeted by a magnificent cunt working the front desk. Not only was she a colossal fucking idiot, but an uber bitch as well. The whole time she’s filling out my folio she never made eye contact, answered maybe two of my ten questions half-assed with the response time of hybrid slothdonkey. Easily the most unprofessional and unintelligent person I had come across in some time.

I was just way too tired to care. I was really eager to get some writing in and work on some tech stuff but barely managed to make any progress before passing out.

Woke up at 10:30 or so, grabbed some coffee in the lobby and printed out the directions for the day. Hung out for another hour before heading out, eager to just get to the house and get off the road.

As we neared Hoover Dam, we saw a sign that read something like, “Road Construction, 2003-200?”…LOL/WTF/FML

The Dam itself was really impressive. It was much different than I had seen in pictures and whatnot. It seemed to be recovering nicely from the Transformers/Megatron incident from a few years back. The new bridge that they are building is both fucking enormous and awe-inspiring.

Hoover Dam Bypass

After a while the skyline was in sight, and before long we were rolling thru Summerlin in search of Mansion de Lagtard. Pulling in the driveway was such a relief. Knowing we didn’t have to hop in the car the next day and drive until we were hallucinating felt vvvvvvvvvvnice.

We unpacked and got comfortable before heading to Red Rock to place some bets on the Penguins and Magic before both games started. Needless to say, BriN was not too happy when Orlando failed to get a defensive rebound three time as the clock dwindled and didn’t cover the 4.5 pt spread.

We went grocery shopping at Whole Foods, where I was excited to learn they actually carried Acai Machine Naked Juice, something that had eluded me for several months east of the Mississippi River.

Once we returned home, I grilled some chicken breasts and made{microwaved} some quinoa and whole wheat brown rice which was bombbb. We shot some pool before heading down to the Strip to meet up with DaFish @ the Rio who was birding Tom Koral the FT of Omaha 8 10k Championship. Congrats to him for taking 7th.

We arrived about 20 minutes after Negraneau busted fourth, but in plenty of time to see Daniel Alaei win his 2nd bracelet.

Checked out some of the $2500 6-max before heading off in search of drinks with lots of alcohol in them. We wandered thru Bellagio, grabbed some Crown & Coke’s and watched some high stakes action in Bobby’s Room before heading to O’Shea’s for some beer pong pwnage.

Myself and BriN went 2-0 against two incredibly drunk guys around our age, winning the first $20 game in regulation and the second in 6 cup double OT. At some point an older lady way past drunk stumbled up to me and asked how to get a pong game started. I told her I was relatively new to the scene and suggested she ask the bartender. She then asked where the bartender was, and I replied, “Behind the bar.”

Afterward we stumbled around aimlessly before deciding it would be fun to play $1-3 at Caesar’s because we wouldn’t have to pay for drinks anymore.

I folded 99% of my hands preflop for two hours, raking in one medium size pot with the nut flush in the only hand I saw a turn with cards in front of me. I blinded down to about 30bb when I was involved in a hand that I probably could have played better lol. I held 68d in the CO and the action went foldx2, mp+1 calls, mp+2 raises to $18, HJ calls, I flat, B calls, blinds fold, mp+1 folds. Before the flop the A of hearts is exposed as a burn card. Flop is A59 with one diamond. It checks to me and I move all-in for something like $55 into a pot of $78.

I’d like to think my reasoning for this is solid. The original raisers’ range is obviously pretty wide open, and the chances of either player checking an A or a set here is pretty slim. In either case I would assume they would just value bet thin to try and build a decent pot, and probably don’t have the stones to check call with a smaller pair like JJ, 1010, 88, 77. I think either player in front of me would have rr preflop with QQ or KK, and is hopefully laying down a gutshot lol.

Unfortunately for me, the guy on the B nearly beats me into the pot and flips over AQ. I declare I need ‘help’ but never receive any. Bleh.

Brin was getting a lot of action and left up a couple hundo, I think. Where we went from here is a little blurry, but we at some point made it back to the Bellagio parking garage and headed home. We watched SC and Season 2, disc 1 of Entourage and ate the leftovers from earlier before crashing shortly after the sun came up.

Today I woke up at like 12:30 somewhat dehydrated and wondering why the Hell I wasn’t still sleeping. Did some techy stuff on my computer whilst writing at the same time. Not doing much this afternoon but relaxing/recovering until PokerBabe’s flight lands around 5. Probably grind online tonight, and am planning on playing in some live tourny tomorrow although haven’t decided which one yet. DaFish is playing in the $230 HORSE @ Golden Nugget, and I’ll prob do the same.

I’m going to try to get another update tomorrow that will outline some tips to secure your computer, i.e. free virus and malware programs you can download, as well as a few other programs you would really be foolish not to check out. Again, they are all free programs so don’t forget to check them out. 1.

Zune Top 5:
1} Cleveland is the Reason by Kid Cudi
2} Go Hard by DJ Khaled ft. Kanye West & T-Pain
3} Sports, Drugs, and Entertainment by Cam’ron ft. Notorious B.I.G.
4} Yes by Pharell & Lil Wayne
5} Been Throwin’ Money by 2 Pistols

~ by therealJWilliam on June 10, 2009.