Got Change for One Penny?

Esteban and I had so much fun in Reno. Walked out with a 1 cent voucher - the remainder of our gambling money. I was half tempted to go cash it in...just wanted to see the look on the cashier's face, you know.

We followed the gambling with a wonderful buffet-style breakfast before heading over to Circus Circus to play a few of the carnival games. Well, I couldn't resist the urge to jump on the Dance, Dance Revolution machine first. I love that thing. Plus...what better way can you think of to work off that huge breakfast we just indulged in? The best part was when this little 5-year-old girl jumped onto the pads next to me. She didn't even ask her mom to deposit money into the game. She just wanted to dance along and mimick the cartoon character on the screen. She moved so freely and spun around as if it were her grand performance. It was the sweetest thing.

After I was sure I'd worked my heartrate up and broke into a bit of a sweat, we headed over to the horse-racing game. We jumped in on the next round and I ended up winning a prize. Eight of the 10 other players abandoned the table as we went for another stand-off. Won again. Next thing we knew, it was just Esteban against me. Any other couple may have gotten up and left too. We thought it was hilarious. The game host looked at us kinda funny and I threw in: hey, this is the best way to guarantee that one of the kids is getting a souvenir. He thought that was pretty funny and had a hard time not laughing while calling the race over the loud speaker.
I won again! Man...where was this luck while we were sitting at the slot machines?

We played a few more games before finishing off with a few rounds at the basketball shot machine. Round One: Esteban 41, Amber 18. Round Two: Esteban 60, Amber 32. Round Three: Esteban 68, Amber 13...WHAT!?

We finished our exploring by getting lost. Never realized that all the big casinos were interconnected! This is a detail that would have been nice to know of from the start. Couldn't figure out where we were, nor how to make it back to where we had come in. It took a few trips in and out to even notice all the skyways connecting the towering giants. Eventually, we made it back to where we parked and made fun of ourselves the whole way.

It was 2:17 and decided we'd make our way to Utah. It was gonna be a 7-hour drive. It amazed me -though I had made that trip before - to see just how much land there is in the United States with no hint of developement. For hours...we saw nothing but desert sand and rocks. Our trek was elongated due to all the construction on 80. In many parts, we had to tick off 20 miles/hour off the speedometer and hurdle the noise barrier (grooves meant to alert a sleepy or distracted driver from going off the side of the road) between the lanes and the shoulder of the highway. This made getting to Salt Lake City a very long ride.

We made it in at 11:30. The young lady who checked us in offered us dinner tokens and the room automatically came with a complimentary breakfast. We had only stopped for a snack while gassing up the car about 2 hours before the Utah State Line, but decided to head straight for bed. Then, in the insomniac fashion I can't seem to shake since Mom first got sick a few weeks ago (more to come about this), I woke at 4:40ish and couldn't get back to sleep. I even took a nice warm bath to try to relax. It was only several hours later after eating breakfast that I felt sleepy again. I took a much needed nap and now we are trying to figure out what to go see before we make it back onto the road.

We are doing well, and I am very thankful and feeling so blessed at having all of our friends and family rooting us on and check in with us as we make our way east. Life is wonderful...and I miss my Kids!!!