These Escapades started in Reno, where I was supposed to be playing in a poker tournament. LOL, I’ll cut to the chase – I was dealt the A,K,J,10 of spades and drew the Q to hit a progressive Royal about 30 minutes before the tournament.
There was no time to get a check, so there was a large wad of bills burning a hole in my pocket when the tournament started. My heart just wasn’t in tournament mode, and after a half hour or so, I went all in with a mediocre flush draw – lost – and headed straight to the closest Bank of America! It was surprising to me that I was able to make an out of state deposit; the last time I tried that, the bank refused, citing money laundering laws. It’s nice info to have, but I wonder if I’ll ever get to make use of that knowledge again.
The rest of the Reno portion was bo-ring, just killing time until I left for Las Vegas. The last night, I played vp on my computer in the room – just didn’t want to give back that Harrah’s money! I had a really good buffet breakfast right before that Royal, and there were a couple of good dinners in the Harrah’s buffet; they serve really good prime rib, and that magic Diamond card gets free merlot to wash it down.
I wandered around town one day, practiced bowling at Grand Sierra and donated at Peppermill, even worked out in the exercise room when I was too wound up to nap and already tired of gambling<g>. If I had more energy, I would have checked out the auto collection – I haven’t seen that for 20-25 years when it was spread through three huge warehouses.
I hadn’t driven down to Las Vegas from Reno for about 15 years, so the drive was sort of interesting, but after you’ve seen a few thousand sage brush, they do all look somewhat alike<g>. It was interesting to note the names on various brothels along the way - I passed the Shady Lady Ranch, PlayMate Ranch, Angel’s Ladies Brothel and Cherry Patch Ranch – I forget which one offered free truck parking<g>, but I give kudos to Angel for honesty in advertising! 469 miles and 9 hours after leaving Reno, I checked into one of those lovely “view” rooms at SouthPoint. Yup, I had a lovely view of DAG’s wall<g>. No problem – I’m not there for the view! I dumped the bags in my room, cleaned up a bit and headed for M to meet the Taters.
The M buffet is all it’s cracked up to be IMHO – everything I had was good, and that included Caesar salad, fresh fruit, good-sized shrimp, pork satay, lemon chicken and more fruit for dessert. (What diet?) The crab legs yielded some good tasting meat, but it just didn’t seem worth the effort, and I skipped the prime rib because I’d had my fill in Reno. The service is very attentive, and they don’t rush you at all, so this was really a relaxed dinner. I really liked the ice cream display, scoops of ice cream made up into different characters – very cute! We wandered out into the casino afterward, and I hit Deuces (YEE HAW!) and cleaned a “shimmer” penny machine out pretty well too. The long drive finally caught up with me, so I said my goodbyes to Laine and Toby and then took about 10 minutes to find my way out<g> …. It’s really not that difficult if you use the M bar as a guide point, but I just kept wandering around – definitely in bed early that night!
I was a tired puppy Sunday, so I opted to spend the day right there at SouthPoint, starting with a Sunday brunch which was OK – no champagne (whaaat?) and no blintzes, but they carved large chunks of ham & sausage which were good, and I grabbed an Egg Benedict from a fresh batch – which was actually very good.
I wandered around the casino for awhile with break-even luck, so I headed upstairs for my first successful nap of the trip. That gave me enough energy for a good bowling practice, but I took it easy the rest of the day, alternating between brief gambling trips downstairs and relaxing with a book upstairs. Dinner at Don Vito’s also fell into the OK category – service was excellent, and my machaca style enchiladas were good, but the beans were pretty bland beans, and the rice stayed on the plate untouched after the first bite<g>.
The SouthPoint room was spacious, but there didn’t seem to be any real thought that went into decorating it. The coconut amenties were refreshing, and they had a Holiday Inn “rain” shower that was high enough for an NBA player to feel comfy. One downright funny thing was that the previous occupants had left the room safe locked. At first, the engineering guy thought I had locked some of my stuff in there, but we shared a laugh or two as he kept pulling goodies out – anyone here have any idea why someone would lock up the room keyboard, internet modem and hotel directory<g>?
Hmmm … nothing in my notes about breakfast the next morning, so that might be one of the days I started with a mocha and snacked at the Diamond Lounge<g>. I do remember the valet at SouthPoint was quick, but the bellman was slow – about a half hour slow, so my room at the Flamingo was ready when I checked in, and I got an upgrade to one of the GO rooms – very nice! There was a nice sitting area with a stereo to play my favorite CDs, a fridge, no coffee pot (seems to be Harrah’s new policy) and a very nice bathroom with separate shower & bathtub and nice grey & white marble tile everywhere. The new modern sink was a beautiful tile basin sitting on top of the counter – beautiful to look at, but I defy anyone to wash their face without splattering all over that counter<g>. LOL, I had asked for a garden view, and I got a lovely view of the topless pool thrown in too.
The wheels started coming off in that beautiful room – it was close to the elevator, and there was no way to get much sleep with bloody drunks loudly rolling down the halls at all hours.
I can function on one nights lousy sleep, so I was up early the next morning and exercising with a good-natured fun group of ripped guys down in the health club – I’d watch their technique on the machines and followed them around with about 75-80% of the weights removed<g>. The second day I managed a good bowling practice, but that was the end of my exercising for the trip – after tht, it was hard enough just to drag myself out of bed for my morning (or early afternoon) coffee the rest of the week.
It’s time to switch to topic style report because everything kinda blurred the rest of the trip. LOL, I only survived this trip with LOTS of coffee and Mt. Dew.
DINING: was pretty simple again on this trip. I did hit the Flamingo and Gold Coast buffets for breakfasts, and there were some excellent blueberry blintzes at IHop and a good “Deuces Wild” breakfast at the Sam’s Town TGIFriday. I actually turned down an invitation to dinner at Billy Bob’s because I was just too darn tired – hit Panda Express a couple of nights there at Sam’s and also hit the Mandalay Bay buffet earlier in the week when I could still appreciate what I was eating<vbg>.
SHOWS: I caught the Big Elvis show, which was very different since Pete Vallee was out of town. It was a very different show but very enjoyable – Chuck Rawlings did a great job filling in for Pete. I never did crawl over to the Indigo lounge at Bally’s at night or even Roxy’s at Sam’s Town, but I did catch a good solo performer in the Dueling Pianos lounge at Harrahs. It wasn’t really “my” music, so I only stuck around for a couple of songs. LOL, I actually gave away my tickets to Human Nature when I had enough coffee to do the math – realized that getting back to Sam’s at 10:30-11 p.m. (jazzed up after a show) just did not compute with a planned 6 a.m. departure the next morning.
GAMBLING: I bombed in the VP tournament at Bally’s but have absolutely no complaints! I only gave back a fraction of my Reno winnings during my week in Las Vegas, and I was almost even on gambling this year before I started this trip. I’m knocking on my wooden head as I type this, but at this point, Nevada has paid all but $146 of my total vacation expenses this year – and that’s getting close to a miracle!
NOTE TO WILL800: I had a fun encounter with one of the “suits” out at Sam’s Town, and you’ll be happy to know that only one of their tables pays 6:5 on a blackjack. The rest of the tables at Sam’s have the traditional payout.
BEST BARTENDER: Maybe Lee can help me with his name, but I’m talking about a tall black man about 60 at Flamingo’s Garden Bar. He's a really nice gentleman, and we’ve talked about everything from entertainment to football, and he got me started on a routine to try to get some sleep at Flamingo. OK, it didn’t work<g>, but he’d bring me a bottle of water and Tia Maria – I’d finish the water there at the bar and wander upstairs to relax in the room with the Tia Maria. LOL, I had no problem getting to sleep – only in staying asleep!
Altogether, it was another great trip with a lot of fun spots, but I really did get tired of the Mt. Dew and coffee routine. I got to visit with the Taters on my first day, but I skipped calling a couple of other friends because I probably would have fallen asleep with my face on the plate if we’d gone to dinner. LOL, I’ve used the Sam’s shuttles before, but this time, I was tipping the drivers as I got on and asking them to wake me up at my stop – those naps were some of my best sleep I got. At least I wasn’t bored in Las Vegas.
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