In 108 degree F heat, we drove from Huntington Beach to Las Vegas.  Now the cool of a powerful air conditioner surrounds us.  But along the way we marvelled at the traffic jam of cars leaving Las Vegas and headed back to southern California.  It was nearly two hundred miles of solid two-lane traffic.  Yet the local newspaper says visitor statistics are down, and gambling revenues are off 2.5 % from last year.  Seems to me visitor statistics will have to fall at least twenty-five percent before I spend a weekend here that involves a drive back to Los Angeles. 

[Read more →]