Our Vegas whirlwind weekend is over, and after this post I’m hopping in my car for the drive back to Phoenix. It has been a GREAT time – lots of laughs, cocktails, great food, pretty girls, and, while no big wins at the tables, enough entertainment to keep you going without breaking your wallet. Now it’s back to the real world of work, responsibilities, rabbits, and paying those credit cards off. Nevertheless, as I make my way back, the adrenaline and pure excitement of this weekend will always be something I remember (and, undoubtedly, to re-live again and again whenever the Goodboys gather).

I think Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman must have had these very same sentiments in mind when they wrote the lyrics to Elvis’ hit song, “Viva Las Vegas”:

Bright light city gonna set my soul
Gonna set my soul on fire
Got a whole lot of money that’s ready to burn,
So get those stakes up higher
There’s a thousand pretty women waitin’ out there
And they’re all livin’ devil may care
And I’m just the devil with love to spare
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas

How I wish that there were more
Than the twenty-four hours in the day
‘Cause even if there were forty more
I wouldn’t sleep a minute away
Oh, there’s blackjack and poker and the roulette wheel
A fortune won and lost on ev’ry deal
All you need’s a strong heart and a nerve of steel
So viva Las Vegas, viva Las Vegas

Viva Las Vegas with your neon flashin’
And your one armbandits crashin’
All those hopes down the drain
Viva Las Vegas turnin’ day into nighttime
Turnin’ night into daytime
If you see it once
You’ll never be the same again

I’m gonna keep on the run
I’m gonna have me some fun
If it costs me my very last dime
If I wind up broke up well
I’ll always remember that I had a swingin’ time
I’m gonna give it ev’rything I’ve got
Lady luck please let the dice stay hot
Let me shout a seven with ev’ry shot
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas,
Viva, viva Las Vegas!

Viva Las Vegas, indeed!