World Series of Beer Pong - 1st Day in Mesquite

By this time, it was 2:30 and I had been drinking solidly for the last 4 hours. Drinking often impairs the decision making process and allows accidents to happen. Case in point - I accidentally hit max bet (betting $2.50) instead of hitting 24x1 (betting $0.24) and didn't realize it until I had won 5,040 credits ($50.40!!!) I was excited, not just because I was wasted, but also because I had done something good.

By this time it was around 4:00 pm and Chris was upset that I had yet to check into our room. We were also able to register for the World Series. I figured that this was the reason why I came out here, so I might as well put my drinking and gambling on hold for a little while.

Home

We arrived at the hotel at around 10:30 am. Everyone was really tired, but we couldn't sleep yet because our rooms would not be ready until sometime after noon. I couldn't sleep because I was incandescent. I honestly don't know why I am glowing in the picture on the left, but maybe it's because I was about to gamble, drink and play beer pong for 4 days with my friends in the desert. We figured that there was one easy way to pass 2 hours in a casino - gambling. I chose to stick with penny slots, for it's been my favorite for as long as I've been gambling. Why you ask? Because there isn't much risk involved. Sure, you never really win big, but at least all you lose is a few pennies. Plus, and a few pennies a turn, it takes a long time to go through 2,000 of them. I sat down on my own and started playing, and a waitress asked me if I wanted something to drink (cocktails, as I think they put it.) I decided, why the hell not? I'm on vacation. This would be the beginning of a very long and interesting day. Eventually, I met up with Balkman and we played penny slots together and drank multiple beers.

You're not supposed to take pictures inside of a casino for security reason, but it was 1:30 pm and I was drunk. That's right, free beer is my Achilles' Heel. At the time that I was winning this jackpot, Fresno, Lorge, Casey, Casey and Phany mysteriously appeared behind me. They almost spooked me right off of my chair, but I was able to sit upright. They said hello then went around to gamble.

I needed to take a picture showing my grand accomplishment of securing a room for the night. Unfortunately, no one was around to take the picture. That is when I spotted this plant staring at me from across the way. I rested my camera upon one of its blades and let the self-timer do the rest.

The Oasis Hotel was pretty neat, although it was in the middle of the desert. But isn't that what an oasis is in the first place? Ah, so it's not just a name but also a clever reference to it's location. The hotel was a lot bigger than I imagined it to be, and it seemed like our hotel room (on the right) was so far away from the casino (on the left.) Maybe that's because it was 2:00 am or I was drunk almost every time that I walked back and forth between the two. That might have something to do with it.

Luckily, there was a liquor store across the street from the casino. Already half-drunk and accelerating towards sober, I needed some logs to keep this fire burning all night long. I pretended that it was difficult to cross the street, hoping to turn this more into an adventure than just an average visit to buy some booze. When that failed, I just stared off towards the mountains and dreamed about the day when I could live in them and create a society full of kooky mountain people.