Back in Madtown

Just got back to Madison after a ridiculously long drive. I left Vegas with Eric and went to LA to catch a Dodgers game and stayed at Commerce Casino for the night. I didn't get a chance to play poker there but they have a huge poker room and from what I've heard it's a great place to play with a lot of really weak players. Don't ever go there to play blackjack though. There is some weird law that doesn't allow them to spread regular blackjack so they have these weird alternative blackjack games, which they charge you $1 per hand to play. I wouldn't recommend going there to play anything but blackjack

After LA we hit up San Diego and I went to check out the beaches with Ian, another poker player from Madison who's living in SD for the summer, while Eric picked up his girlfriend Mary, who flew in to SD to meet up with us. We then hit up a Padres game and after words went out in downtown SD. Petco is a really nice stadium and we had a ton of fun during and after the game. I don't remember what bars we hit up since we just stopped at wherever we could find right after the game.

I took off by myself the next morning and headed back to Madison while Eric and Mary went back to Vegas. I wanted to drive back a different route so I went from SD through Phoenix, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Des Moines, and up to Madison. It was a nice trip and while I had planned to stop somewhere along the way and get a room I never really got too tired so I drove almost straight through. I ended up stopping around 9am (pst) after driving 22 hours for a little 2 hour nap at a rest stop but then finished the drive getting into Madison around 1am (cst), which means the entire trip took exactly 36 hours (I left SD at 11am (pst). It took a bit longer than I expected, partly because of the nap but also because most of the times when I stopped for food I would sit down to eat instead of just getting it to go. I think getting out of the truck a few times on the trip helped me to keep going as it broke it up quite a bit. I also had two books on tape which made the first 2/3s of the trip go by much faster than just listening to music. Overall it was a nice drive and during the daylight hours it was nice to see the different landscapes and cities. I missed most of New Mexico and Texas since I was passing through them at night.

It will be back to the online grind now and I'll try to keep my blog updated at least once a week and hopefully as many as two or three times. I'm sure most people who have kept up with the blog know this is wishful thinking but I will do my best. I have gotten a few comments while playing online from people who have been reading and I appreciate all of the compliments. I haven't seen too many comments here on the blog but please feel free to post any observations, ideas, criticisms, or compliments as it's all welcome and will hopefully help me stay motivated to post more regularly.