...and more people should use it.<g>

One of the trashiest strip resorts and one of the trashiest downtown resorts have just finished the first stage of major remodeling.

The Gold Spike which is located downtown and always seemed to have the doors open was getting beyond nasty. It's one of the few places that I have seen pigeon poop on a slot machine. It had a very worn casino and I understand the rooms weren't a lot better. Well, the Gold Spike has completed the restoration of half of their casino. They will now close the other half and remodel it.

The Riviera on the strip has to be one of the top 5 nastiest resorts on the strip on most anyones list. They have just completed phase I of their remodeling plan. This includes the restoration of over 1000 rooms with new beds, carpet, furniture, etc. The other phases will remodel the casino, the convention space, and other public areas. Little known fact is that the casino is not that old. It was remodeled "not that long ago". When it was last remodeled, it was made to look a lot like the original casino instead of a modern casino. I have not heard if the newest casino plans will be "old style" or not.

Speaking of which - I stayed at the Spike once many years ago. The only casino where I've ever seen the Pit Boss physically remove a "customer" from a casino. Most of the players in that place would enter penniless and simply bum a couple of chips from the guys sitting to his right or left who were doing the same with the guy to his right or left, etc., etc.

I must have had my last twenty bucks (and probably the only twenty bucks in the whole darn place) and was playing it out real early in the morning and doing a lot of drinking, so the Boss asked me if I was planning to drive anyplace and I told him I was planning to drive up the Strip to my room at Caesars,

He said, "No ya ain't!" and made arrangements for me to crash out in one of the vacant rooms upstairs on the house.

Turned out that comped room was just as clean and almost as comfortable as my overpriced place in Caesars. The elevator might have been a mess but the room itself was fine and the bed and linens were clean and as comfortable as if they had just been washed, starched, and ironed. And the towels were plentiful and those big fluffy kind that you could wrap around your waist when getting out of the shower,

Ever since then I have never judged a book by its cover. Or a hotel room by it's exterior.

But I gotta admit that the rest of that old Gold Spike had a lot to be desired unless you enjoyed living on the inside of a dirty ashtray.

Come to think of it, the only real bad room that left an adverse impression on my mind after all these years of staying in LV was the mess of a room in Bob Stupak's Vegas World before the tower went up.

The bed was actually shaped like the bathtub and when you fell into it, it was almost impossible to get out. And a story was going around town that one young couple noticed a distinctive odor in their room and shortly discovered a recently deceased body sewn inside the mattress.

So will, do you think the fine room at the Spike was a constant or do you think it was a matter of timing for renovations, management teams, owners, etc? I think Jackie Gaughn might have owned it at one time. He was known for good deals but not luxury suites.

Worst room for me was the roach motel behind the Gold Spike. It's still there.