Now this might seem like an odd choice for hardware today. You’ll have to bear with me as I tell the story that led me to choose this item today. I’ve been traveling a lot in the last month. I’m currently in my eighth state in the last three weeks and I have four more states to visit before the end of November. That has given me lots of travel time to think about things.

Yesterday morning I started out in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yes, the largest gambling mecca in the United States. I ended the day in Albuquerque, New Mexico after a very long drive. Along the drive I passed popular tourist sites like the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon Skywalk, the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, the “corner” in Winslow, Arizona (from the Eagles’ Take it Easy), the Painted Desert and more.

As I was driving, the strains of Take it Easy got me to thinking about my life in the 70s. One of my favorite Christmas presents was a Pachinko machine. I still have my machine though there are some things that I need to fix. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’ve thought recently about getting a newer machine with more bells and whistles.

If you aren’t familiar with these pinball-like machines, they are used in gambling halls in Japan and the machines sold in the United States are refurbished machines. So this brings me back to the start of the day yesterday in Las Vegas. While this might not be computer hardware, I think you would find it a lot of fun to play and it would get you some time away from the computer.