I pity people who’ve never been to Vegas. Who dismiss the city without setting foot on its carpeted sidewalks. I recognized myself in the town the first time I laid eyes on it, during a cross-country trip the summer after college. My friend Darren had a gig writing for Let’s Go, the student-produced series of travel guides. Let’s Go: USA, Let’s Go: Europe, Let’s Go: North Korea (they always lost a few freshmen updating that one). The previous year his beat had been New York City. We’d spent the summer eating 50¢ hot dogs at Gray’s Papaya for breakfast,…