In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 15 Feb 2024 17:29:06 -0500, micky
<
NONONO...@fmguy.com> wrote:
>
>But I still think most of them don't need private planes. There were
>800 and something private planes that landed in Las Vegas for the game.
BTW, did I ever tell you about the time I visited McCarran Airport? That
was its name for a long time, before Harry Reid died.
In college a friend from San Diego used to drive back and forth, for
Xmas break and for the summer. He also told me how he would play
Blackjack in Las Vegas and win a bit. He used _Beat the Dealer_, a book
about how to count cards, specifically picture cards, in order to win.
He offered to take me with him and I set to work reading the book and
memorizing the 3 tables in the book. We drove all day and all night
and arrived early in the morning, to a nice hotel. He and another
friend stayed one night and then I looked for a cheap hotel. I found
the only hotel in Las Vegas that did not have AC. I thought that didn't
matter because everyone knows the desert is cold at night.
But Las Vegas is no longer the desert. It was July 4th weekend. I
went to the local fireworks, nothing very big.
I paid for a week in the hotel and my week ended the night of July 4,
iirc, so the next day I planned to leave.
(Story about being picked up by gay guy omitted for space, but because
of that, I woke up late on the 5th.)
I didn't get out to the airport until noon, an dby then most of the
private planes had left. I wen to the private terminal, on the other
side of the airport from the public terminal, because a friend of a
friend had hitchhiked to Europe by going to an airport in Newfoundland
or thereabouts. So I thought I'd go back to Chicago that way. I asked
people nicely and no one was rude or hostile in return, but most had
left in the morning (to get to work, for one thing), others were going
to California, and one or two told me that their insurance wouldn't
permit it. I'm sure that was true.
After trying for 3 hours or so, I decided to walk to the public airport.
It was 4 miles (with my suitcase) if I walked on the road. 3 miles if I
walked around the edge of the airport, and a mile and a quarter if I
walked straight across the airport (You can still see this on google
maps,) In a classic example of how a 20-something can convince himself
that something stupid is really okay, I chose the last choice. At one
point a plane was taking off or landing and I patiently waited in the
grass strip beside the runway. I thought I was being responsible. But
a few minutes later a jeep pulled up and he had me get in.
He drove me to the terminal, no more walking needed, and I waited a
while while he threatened me and met with others. Finally, after a
couple hours or more, he told me because this airport was one of the few
that was not fenced**, they couldn't charge me with trespassing (or
something like that) and he let me go. I walked to the ticket counter
and bought a ticket home.
**The story always struck me as strange, since I started at the private
airport, which opened onto a taxiway, and if there were a fence, it
would not have been in my way. I don't even know if there was a fence.
But that's what he said. Maybe they just wanted to scare me and didn't
want the trouble of arresting or charging me.
**(and then calculate in your head the ratio of 10's to non-tens, then
look up the dealers' showing cards in a 10x10 table that you have to
keep in your head, then compare the number in the table with then ratio
you calculated and then use that to decide whether to take another card.
I could do all that in my head except the last step, and I never knew if
I was to take a card or not. I lost $40 in 6 days.