laughlin

For the weekend, we drove down to Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona with Matt and Andria. Matt, of the Matt Lewis Band, had two solo shows there in Bullhead, so we made a mini-vacation out of it. We enjoyed an afternoon jet skiing and lounging on the Colorado River, giant breakfast buffets, swimming, Matt's shows, and some responsible gambling.

We figure if you set a limit--$10 or $20--and only gamble with that and whatever earnings you get, it's just some entertainment like any other. If you're itching to gamble more after that original limit is gone, it's time to leave the casino floor. Justin had an intense round of bingo, competeing with some fierce 80-year-old women who have 10 bingo sheets at a time. Later, he won $110 on a slot machine. I'm not much into gambling--I've taken too many statistics classes, I guess, to believe I might actually win--but I couldn't leave Nevada without trying something. So with $20 that Justin had won the night before, I headed to the roulette table with Matt and his friend, Johnny, while Justin kept Juma from "underage loitering in a casino." I lost all $20 in four spins, less than 5 minutes, and wasn't too pleased. Especially since Johnny won $93 on the same four rounds. Oh well. At least I know I don't have the gambling bug.

More fun for me was the jet skiing on the river. We spent an hour convinving Juma to come with me on the ski. He finally did, but cried the whole time, even though I didn't got over about 15 miles an hour. If you go any slower than that, the river controls you, rather than you controlling the ski. Juma just cried and cried, saying, "I wanted to give Daddy a goodbye hug! I didn't get Baba a hug! That's why I'm crying!" As if we were leaving forever. He gave Justin a big hug when we got back to the shore, five minutes later.