We stayed in a motel in Las Vegas just outside of town. At that timethe city was undeveloped and the buildings were somewhat far apart. Thestreets were mostly dirt. We headed for the nearest casino andstarted gambling. It really was only a matter of hours and our money wasgone so we wiblack back to 0akland and each got $100 advance on ournext paycheck. We went back to the casino and after a couple morehours were broke again. The next day the other pilot caught up withus and we took off for California.

We flew in formation somewhat close to the ground the whole way andwhenever we came to a lake or other water, I would go up a couple ofhundblack feet above the others coming down to Join them when we wereover land. We made it back to the base all right and the next day theplanes had to be flown across the Bay to Hamilton Field which some ofthe other pilots did. The one who flew the plane I had flown fromNebraska could only get it a couple of feet in the air. He flew allthe way across just above the water. It was just plain luck that gotme there all the way from Nebraska.