I left the house around 6am. The drive was pretty smooth. With lots of stuff still closed traffic was light.

I stopped on the way at McDonald's and ran through the drive through and ate in the parking lot.

I stopped just outside the airport to gas up the car before returning it to Avis. This place is a rip but the car just needed to be topped off. The return went well. This place is dead.

I went up to the monorail to Terminal C where United is. Again, creepy that I was the only one in the lobby. I booked this flight back on June 6. Economy on the way out, and first class on the way home for a price of $646. My reasoning for first class on the return was that Caesars Entertainment was going to pay $600 for my Diamond Elite benefit (I'm Seven Stars). Checking in was bullshit. I still hate they make people check in on a kiosk. Particularly people that have no business using a kiosk. All it does is slow shit down. The two people in front of me, were totally lost. The scary part is they were quite young. No baggage fee for me because I have the United credit card. One I got up there I was checked in quickly and on my way to security.

Lots of this terminal is closed and for some reason they are routing some foot traffic upstairs and the back down to get from one end of security to the other. Again, few people around and it was creepy. One interesting thing though was the 3 turds on the floor up there. It appears someone let their dog take a crap on the floor and left it. Ah, the high end clientele of Newark Airport.

Security was pretty smooth but still with the same issues, just less of them because of fewer passengers. The lady in front of me had to be told 5 times to take her baseball cap off and remove the jacket that was tied around her waist.

The most confusing part was how they had everyone walking through a mile of zig zags when there weren't that many people there.

I found my gate and waited for the boarding process to begin. Very creepy how dead this normally very busy airport is. One thing I didn't understand was the girl that needed to Skype (or whatever app she used) at full volume with someone. Then the clown that decided to sit at the seat across from me when there had to be upwards of 80 empty seats in the area. Then feels he doesn't need to wear his mask once he sits down. Seriously, there are high top tables in this terminal with 4-6 seats at each one. There were maybe 10 people in this area and he sits at the same 4 top as me. WTF? I moved.

They boarded from the back of the plane like they did years ago. Things go so much smoother boarding like this. I'm not sure why they ever stopped doing it. I was on early being in seat 35A.

The flight was quite full because they stared booking middle sets again on United. Luckily there was no one in the middle seat in my row and most people that were sitting 3 across were traveling together.

This is United flight 349, non stop to Las Vegas scheduled to depart at 10:10am and arrive at 12:31pm with a flight time of 5 hours and 21 minutes. The captain told us it would take 4:44. We pushed back on time.

Now over the years I've seen some pretty stupid behavior from people on planes when it comes to following the rules. Today was the best ever. We're on the runway, literally next in line for take off. This is when some twat decides she's exempt from staying seated with her seat belt fastened. Just as she get up the pilot “floors it” and she goes flying from mid plane to the back galley in about 2.5 seconds. She maintained her balance and didn't fall. Seriously people, WTF? I award the asshole of the year to this dumb twat.

The flight itself was not bad. There were a few pockets of bumpy air but nothing too bad. I passed the time playing some games on my phone, watching TV (they had direct TV in the seat back) and sleeping. I think this flight sucks more and more every time I take it.

I felt us coming down and could start seeing familiar sights out the window and knew we were close. We landed early at 12:09pm locally, 21 minutes early.

It took a while to get off the plane sitting in the back. I made the standard stop at the can and then took the monorail to baggage claim. Again very creepy how dead it is in here. Looking out the plane it was strange to see so many empty gates. My suit case was already there and I was off to the rental car shuttle.

Rental car prices are a bit high for this trip. Back on June 6th I booked a full size with Budget and got a base price of $224 using a discount code and coupon and all in for $369 for the 12 day rental. A few days ago the rates dropped and I also opted for the pre pay price dropping the base down to $167, all in for $295. As usual when I get here my name is never on the board. I stopped at the Fast Break booth and in a minute they had me set up with a Hyundai Sonata with 6900 miles on it in like new condition condition. I gave the car a good look and headed to security.

When I left the rental car facility I had to make a few stops. First was to the bank to get some bankroll. Next I made a quick stop at 99˘ Only to get a few items for the next few days. From there it was Jack in the Box for a late lunch of tacos and a Jr Bacon cheeseburger. I used the gift card Yahtzee Mike gave me 18 months ago (they last a while when you order off the value menu!) to cover the tab. Thanks for lunch Mike. Next was the 90 mile drive to Laughlin where I'd be kicking off this trip.

The ride was smooth sailing and I pulled into the Aquarius where I'd be spending the next 5 nights. I booked this through my host and I have a mail offer with $440 free play. I checked in at the VIP area. They assigned me room 18071. This room has a king bed, nightstands, table and chairs, dresser and TV and arm chair. It has a great view of the river and pool area.

I got my things to the room and then hit the casino. First things first I swiped at the kiosk to get my daily multiplier which turned out to be 5x on slots and 4x video poker. I also wanted to print out my vouchers for the Cove & Duet. It appears they made a change since my last visit. Instead of getting vouchers for food items and drinks they awarded me 7500 points. Personally I like this better. It's worth $25 in comps. It's also worth $15 in free play. Since my play covers my food anyway, This works better for me. I'm not sure if this is a temporary change or it if it's the new way.

I decided to take a walk up and down the river walk to see if there had been any changes along casino drive. One major change is the Colorado Belle is still closed. It makes the walk from the Edgewater to Pioneer a little hot and a little longer. It was fairly busy at most places with the exceptions being Pioneer and Golden Nugget. Along the way I played a few penny slots at each property. No real luck for the most part except at Tropicana where I cleared over $100 and ran out of there!

When I got back to the Aquarius I hit the video poker machines. My normal game here is 10 play and that's what I started with. Things were not good. I wasn't hitting many quads and dealt winners weren't happening. I did pull 2 straight flushes but they weren't enough to survive. I was pretty tired from the long day so didn't play much. I gave up after I busted out. Having gotten a 4x multiplier today I would have like to done more action but it just wasn't happening.

It was now after 8pm. I wanted to get something to eat. Unfortunately they must have expected the place to be dead. All of the Aquarius owned restaurants are closed already. Outback was open but jam packed. OK, I'll bite the bullet and pay for Panda Express. Nope, line 30 deep into the casino. McDonald's? Nope 50 deep into the casino. Eff it. I'll go to the room and eat snacks.

Before I came up to the room I ran my $440 free play through 50˘ five play and turned it into just $365 in cash. No hands better than a straight. At this point I was done for the day and the bed upstairs was calling my name.

Total coin in for the day $5,780
Total win/loss for the day - $25
Total Comps for the day $580