We hit the Jackpot!

In February we took a mini vacation to Las Vegas.  It was time to get out of the Salt Lake smog and get the kids (bikes) some exercise.  On the way down we hooked up with our teammates, who were in Saint George for winter training camp.  I thought they would be as out of shape as us, but they weren't and they kicked our butts.  We slinked down to Vegas after the Friday afternoon ride. 

We stayed at the swanky Planet Hollywood Towers where a projection TV screen comes down in front of the picture windows

and there is a full kitchen for making delicious protein shakes as part of our 2-week special dietary cleanse

There was a whirlpool tub in the bedroom

 and sleek styling.

We were there to ride, so Saturday we met up with Erica, John, and Brad to ride the Blue Diamond trail system.  

There were some friendly burrows near the trail.

 And a Big Yucca.

Erica, John, and Brad were kind enough to wait up periodically for Drew and me with our northern climate, out-of-shape and wasted-from-yesterday legs.  To add generous to nice, John and Erica hosted us for a delicious lunch of healthy chicken, rice, and veggies at their house. We are lucky to have such awesome friends in Vegas.

The plan for Sunday was to ride some more, but the weather wasn't great and our legs were even worse, so we just chilled.  That evening, we went to a performance of Mystere by Cirque du Soleil.  It was incredible!

 Here are some of the performers on flying trapeze. 

After the show, we strolled in the casino and I put in my biannual $5 into the nickle slots.  I was pushing buttons and generally not really knowing what I was doing when the big jackpot scrolled up!  The machine started going "ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding..." forever.  The payout indicator kept going higher and higher and higher. $15, $30, $50, $115.  How high would it go?  Strangers stopped to check us out and seemed genuinely happy for me.  Since neither of us knew how to read the machine, we had no idea how much the payout would be.  The chronic gambler who had been at the machine next to us before I sat down kept giving us evil eye and finally said "if you had bet "max bet" you would have won $50,000".  Holy smokes!









As it turned out, the dinging stopped at $308.  That almost paid for our trip!











On Monday we headed back to Utah, stopping again for some great riding in Saint George on the Stucki Springs loop.

Sam was in the works and I knew this was probably my farewell ride on Magma. It was a bittersweet ending to a fun getaway.