Las Vegas, NV One thing I forgot, but was instantly reminded of when I crossed the Nevada border was gambling is not just legal in Vegas. Gambling is legal in all of Nevada. Most state's have a "welcome center" right over their borders. Those places give you free maps, free coffee, free rest rooms, and all the brochures about the state you can fit into your glove compartment. Nevada has "welcome casinos". I may be wrong, but I think the state motto is, "We want your money and we want it NOW!" The border casinos were a great site and very tempting, but we were holding out for the real thing. The orange glow in the sky kept getting brighter and brighter. Soon we came over a mountain and right before our eyes was the magnificent city that Bugsy Siegel had dreamed about. When he came west the mob asked Bugsy to find a city to build a casino. They wanted a place that would attract the rich, famous and elite. But they also wanted the convince of a place where a body could be ditched and never found if the need ever arose. Ol' Bugsy found the perfect place when he woke up in a Las Vegas bordello after a crazy night with a bunch of his friends from Hollywood.

I don't know this for a fact, but the city planners of Vegas must have made a law that all the street lights in the city had to give off a gold hue instead of the orange, yellow or white color in normal towns. From a distance, the city looked like it had been covered in gold glitter. Not just the Vegas strip, mind you, but the entire town. It was mesmerizing. I was immediately under it's spell. I went ahead and made out checks to the casinos. For some strange reason I didn't care about gambling, I just wanted to give them my money.

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