Ryan and I returned from Las Vegas yesterday morning around 8:00am. To quote Dickens (not Hemmingway as previously reported, or Captain Kirk in Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan…which is more appropriate after all), “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.
The conference was a horrible, horrible bust. There were allegedly going to be 2000 people there, but there was no way there were any more than 100, and of those, I would say that 95 of them were there for figure skating…Figure Skating on Quads…ugh.
On the good side, neither Ryan or I spent more than we took with us (about $300.00 combined), and we managed to make back our daily expenses at the craps tables. I actually had to take some money out on Sunday to cover our gas. At the airport however I put $5.00 into a slot machine and walked away with $27.00. Not a lot of money no, but it helped cover my $58.00 cab ride home.
We also got a lot of work done on the tool, which was a good thing, it’s unfortunate that we had to go across the country to actually build it all, but by not having a lot to do all day, we were forced to actually work on the tool or die of boredom.
We ate really well this time, taking advantage of CheapoVegas.com‘s ratings for various buffet’s, and their cheap gambling ratings ($2.00 minimum Craps with 10x odds was the best bet in Vegas by far!).
Overall the trip was a bust business wise, but it could have been much worse, and we’re going to try to get a listing of contacts from the guys at USARollerSports so that we can send out packages to all of them. If we get that, then we will have at least salvaged something from the trip.