Day 12

Well today we got up really early (6:20am) to go on our tour of the Ping golf factory and get fitted for clubs. The club fitting was really neat and more in depth than I thought it would be. Some of it was static like your height and the length of your fingers. However, there was also a dynamic part that involved actually swinging the club to see how the club face actually hit the ground. It was really great though and I think when I order a set of clubs now that I will really like them. After the fitting we went on a tour of the factory which was also really cool. The guy who started Ping started by heat treating putters in the oven in his house and doing everything else in his garage. Now there are over 800 employees and Ping is one of the most respected names in the industry. Also the company is privately owned, has not taken a loan since its first and only for $1200, and is the only golf club manufacturer that still makes its clubs in the USA.

After the tour we drove to Las Vegas. We ended up in the middle of nowhere again and didn't eat before we got there. The GPS couldn't find anything within 50 miles of us to eat so we ended up driving for quite a while before we actually found anything other than bushes, rocks, and dirt. Later we drove across the Hoover Dam which was really neat. We got a few pictures but didn't actually stop because it was really crowded, really hot, and the parking lots were about 1/2 a mile from the dam. We then finished our drive into Vegas and got to see a good bit of the strip, which by the way is really cool in a tacky overdone sort of way.

Finally got to the hotel (Caesar's Palace) and figured out the place could have its own zip code. Got checked in and settled then went exploring for a few hours. After that we started gambling. We stuck with blackjack and overall did pretty well. At this point Joseph is up almost $1000 and I'm sitting about even (first little bit was just learning so I lost a good bit but gained it back by the end). Anyway off to bed now so we can get up and explore some more tomorrow.