Random Ramblings

It has been a few days since my last post, and quite an eventful few to say the least.

After countless failed attempts at renting a car in San Francisco the future of our road trip was in jeopardy. On Thursday, what seemed like a last ditch effort to secure a ride home went up in smoke when Hertz screwed us over for a fourth time. There have been a lot of ironic titles on the trip so far, but Hertz is more fitting than any because they’re a pain to deal with.

Anyway, lucky for us blood is always thicker than water, and Sophie’s cousin Jason Carey came to our rescue; allowing us to the rent the car under his name.

We got on the road Thursday afternoon, and were able to get to the City of Angeles by dust. The ride was an epic one. Lots of winding roads along the coast of California. A beautiful site that everyone should have the joy of seeing in their life time.

We arrived in LA quite late so we shacked up at a Holiday Inn for the night. In the morning we heading into the city where we got to see something I’ve been waiting a long time to gaze upon.

That site was Venice Beach, but more specifically, a mural on the wall of the Jewish Community Center right off the boardwalk. In the mural a poem by Dora Bayrack, my great grandmother, is shown in English and Hebrew. In the 1994 earthquake the mural was destroyed, but two years later restored to its original status.

After walking the boardwalk, eating some pizza, chilling on the beach and talking a dip in the Pacific we embarked on our way to Hollywood.

We walked on Hollywood Blvd. and checked out the Hollywood Stars on the side walk. Some notable names were Michael Jackson, which had flowers and ribbons around it, Alfred Hitchock and Will and I’s favorte, Lassie.

Considering we were on a tight schedule we packed up, went to the nearest Walmart to buy some camping equipment and headed to…. Las Vegas!

When we arrived in the desert at 11 p.m. Pacific time it was a “cool” 91 degrees. We drove down the Strip checking out all the great casinos, however there was one problem. It was too late to go to a camping site, so for the second time into two days we had to get a hotel. For a road trip with such a tight budget this was seen as a problem.

But we were in Vegas. Despite it being the fakes city in the world, from the boobs to the mock Effiel Tower, I decided to take it upon myself to make my money back .

I first started out play roulette, and after hitting a double zero I finally started thinking our luck was about to change. The one thing with Vegas is you need to set a limit on yourself. So I took out two C notes and told myself that was it.

The roulette money quickly vanished and after a while I found myself at a poker table grinding out blinds ala Rounders. I felt like Kinish for a while, taking down all these tourists who came to just have fun. Before I new it I was up a hundred dollars, but again, that quickly vanished with a few bad beats.

At 4 a.m. I had almost hit rock bottom. With 60 dollars in my wallet I thought to myself: Should I call it a night. However, when it comes to gambling it has to be a go big or go home mentality, no matter how cheesy it sounds.

So I went to a black jack table and told myself I will either leave here with an empty wallet or leave breaking even. I didn’t want to be greedy and the gambling gods like that.

I was playing 20 dollar hands, then 40 dollar hands and eventually 100 dollar hands. I hit blackjack on my first 100 dollar hand and it paid out 150, so with a cool 320 dollars to stuff in my wallet I called it a night.

So here I am again writing the blog into the wee hours of the morning. Vegas never sleeps, so why should I?

I’ll be in the desert for a couple more days and will try to update the running diary as much as possible