Day 190, Saturday, December 10

In prepping for the last leg of my trip, I mailed my bicycle and the motorcycle tire home today. When I was setting off on this adventure back in June, I was sure I was going to be able to use the adventure as a wonderful chance to really get back in shape. After all where better to do bicycle sight seeing than the national parks. What a disappointment that was. The bicycle has basically served as a paper weight (motorcycle trailer weight?) for most of the trip. I’ve done much more hiking than bicycling. Who could have known? At least I was able to make good use of the bicycle here in San Diego. After sending off the bicycle Peter and I were initially going to go play paintball but got there late enough that the organizers discouraged us from trying to get into the games as walk-on players.
On the way home from paintball, Peter decided he wanted to stop in at a casino on the Indian reservation to play a little roulette. I’ve never been a gambler so I watched him play for a little while before setting off to wander through the casino people watching. What I saw really made me sad. Looking around it appeared to me that the vast majority of people sinking their money into the machines, with the glimmer of hope that they’ll strike it big, are people who can’t afford to be spending the money on gambling. Most of the people in that casino looked like they’d be much better off spending their money on food or shelter rather than giving it away by the fistful to the casino. What Peter pointed out to me which was the saddest of all was the little playing cards that so many people carried around there. Peter described it as their umbilical chord. He was right. I’d look around and see probably half the people sitting there, slumped down in their chairs, umbilical cord plugged into the slot machine and sucking their money out. I guess it’s more of a reverse umbilical than anything else. I’ll never be a gambler. Seeing this, and having seen much the same sights when I was visiting the Chungs in Vegas just confirms it for me. If I’m going to spend my money, I want either a tangible result or I want to have been greatly entertained. No thanks on padding the pockets of the casino owners.
After getting done with gambling (Peter came out with only $5 loss because he’d been playing the roulette equivalent of quarter slots) we went back to Peter’s house and I took him for his first motorcycle ride. We did a quick jaunt along the ocean heading North from San Diego. Pete’s summary was that it was definitely fun and that he’d enjoyed it but that the rear seat on my RT has is a bit shy on leg room for a 6’ tall passenger.