Photo courtesy of Lucas Davies

@lucas-davies

Race You to Las Vegas!

Back in the day (before the oil embargo), Nevada had a safe and proper speed limit.

Meaning that you could go as fast as you wanted and if a police officer pulled you over and wrote you a ticket it would be for reckless driving.

A character named Matzoh Ball, a Jewish used-car salesman, was at a bar at South Lake Tahoe chewing the fat with a friend of his. They began talking about how easy it was to get to Vegas because of the flights from Reno that were now available. Old Matzoh Ball knew the flight schedules and how long it took to fly. He bet his friend $100 he could drive there faster than he could fly . His friend jumped on that bet and they shook on it. This was 1960 when $100 was the equivalent of $868.16.

Matzoh casually sauntered out of the bar, jumped into his four door sedan and floored it for Vegas. In the time it took him to get to Vegas he averaged 80 m.p.h. and wore out a set of tires.

Matzoh was waiting on the tarmac in Las Vegas when his friend walked off the plane.