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From Reno to Tahoe to LV...

 
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LilyJDragonfly



Joined: 03 Mar 2009
Posts: 425

PostPosted: Jul Fri 01, 2011 3:56 pm    Post subject: From Reno to Tahoe to LV... Reply with quote

So I posted the first bit about our Reno/Tahoe adventure under the proper TR forum, but there's been some mumbling about wanting to hear about the LV portion.... so, in disconnected bits and parts, here it is:

Finally, right about 5pm, we spot the Stratosphere in the distance. By 5:30, we’ve managed to navigate our way to Bally’s, hand the car off to the valet, and get in line to check in. We’re used to Reno where a big line is about five people. There were more than 25 in line here. It moved quickly and we had a South tower Classic room (or whatever the lowest one was) comped for one night, $50 for Friday. Somehow, we wound up on the 25th floor in a room that had sliding glass doors (dammit, we didn’t pack the tools to open it!) with a small balcony. It was quite spacious. Also, the check in clerk hooked us up with two of the Caesar’s Fun Book “Pulse of Vegas” for some reason. We used NONE of the coupons, but I appreciated the thought.

From here, it gets blurry. It was Thursday night. We gambled a bit at Bally’s, then moved over to Paris, and then off to spin the Whammie thing at PH. I won $25 in freeplay (promptly lost) and The Dog won a plastic shot glass – and when we went in to redeem the ticket for the plastic shot glass, the lady at the desk offered us a pair of tickets for the live taping of Miss USA on Sunday night. Of course, we took those in lieu of the shot glass. (And though we had packed evening wear and lots of it, we managed to not go to the event…)

From there, we cruised to The Flamingo and gambled and then somehow it was late enough and we’d lost enough for the day to call it a night.

On Friday morning, I lost some more at Bally’s (and crummy drink service, to boot). By 9am, it was time to go queue up for the Sahara closing sale. The Dog opted to go to Pawn Stars while I combed The Sahara.

Here’s what I got after waiting in line and paying a $10 admission fee: Sahara logo shot glass (I swear they had these made for this sell-off as the Made in China sticker was still on the bottom of it)

Here’s what I got from the sale: Four dice, one employee name badge, one room key, one players card, a Next Window Please sign, 13 plastic Jack Daniels Lynchberg Lemonade cups, room service menu, takeout menu, two ashtrays, one pack of used matches from Dottie’s Casino, and one really large room service tray. Total purchase price: $16.62. I debated a Camel lamp, but it was $150 and we really didn’t have room for it in the car. There should plenty of them on ebay later.

From there, back to Bally’s, I think. Again, it’s getting fuzzy. I know we made it to a bunch of Strip casinos. I’m going to go through the cards we got and list comments.

Ellis Island: Rocking! We used the ACG coupons for breakfast on Thursday and Friday. I know I won some money from the freeplay, too. A must visit in the future. Easy place to get to from Bally’s for breakfast.

Cosmopolitan: We got the $100 On Us offer. Both of us promptly lost $100 each and went back to the player’s club where we used the freeplay to sit at the bar and play video poker. We wound up only $30 down between the two of us after cashing out and had several tasty cocktails, too. The floor drink service was non-existent. Pretty place. I’d probably go back. The high roller room had no vibe to it at all.

Tropicana: Another Play On Us offer, though only half back immediately. We both adored the Tropicana. It’s beautiful, great service (upon entering, a concierge?? asked if we needed directions, walked with us a bit, and handed us off when we were in sight of the players club), nice selection of machines, and a really fresh fun vibe, even in the early afternoon. We would absolutely go back and stay there.

Hooters: We went only for the $200 in spins on their special machines. It was like a black hole in there. Cheap knock-off Pergo floors, dingy, no vibe at all. We played through the $200, won nothing, washed our hands, and walked out.

MGM Grand: The players club lady was downright rude (a trait I very rarely encounter) and she misspelled my name TWICE on the player’s card. She was quite insistent that MGM had NO casinos in Reno and I told her that indeed MGM had THREE casinos in Reno. You can’t argue with stupid and I let it drop. That debacle over, we viewed the sleeping lions and began a hunt for Sigma Derby. We played and I hit the 139-to-1 on a quarter. Woo-hoo! Drink service was terrific at Sigma Derby. We came back another day and played it again, cashing out even. Fun, fun! We also hit the Lion’s Share and added another $40 or so to that jackpot. It was REALLY hard to find. We did not visit any other MGM properties during our visit. Other than Sigma Derby, I was completely underwhelmed by MGM. Oh. Wait. We watched the fountains at Bellagio from the street; they’re MGM, yes? The Fountains were cool and if there weren’t so many people shuffling around, we might have hung around and watched them a few times.

Bill’s Gambling Hall: We intended to go get something to eat here and signed up for the players cards as it was quite late and we figured we’d want to gamble after our late dinner. We were promptly seated, brought menus & water, and then totally forgotten. In fifteen minutes, NO ONE came back by our table. Screw it. We left. However, we had $10 in comp dollars as a bonus for signing up. We later went back, gambled a bit, and bought a beer stein, dice, and postcards with our comp dollars.

Other notes from the Strip portion of our trip:

Bally’s pool needs a good scrub. The divider for the deep end is grimy as are many of the tiles. And, Vegas, stop naming pools. Blu Pool, puh-lease.

There are Krispy Kreme donuts available in the very bottom floor of Bally’s. Yum. You can’t charge them to your room.

Many of the escalators were not working to use the pedestrian bridges. Trudging up an escalator is really a buzz kill.

Caesar’s Palace is OPULENT. We can get comped rooms there at Christmas and I think we’ll go this year. Also, they have two Bank of America ATMs inside. Lastly, we forgot to cash in our Free Caesar’s Medallion coupons. Dang.

I thought I would be inspired to shoot pictures and hauled all my gear to Las Vegas. Eh. I was not inspired.

Giant slot machine at Paris is broken.

Planet Hollywood is showing its age; grimy chairs, worn carpet.

No Strip properties offer bungee cords for your player’s card. Downtown does.

In spite of my food critic status, we ate nowhere of note. I meant to do the AYCE tapas at Johnny Smalls, find the secret pizza place, have a meal at Sugar Factory, eat a burger at Caesar’s, tasting menu at Joel’s, and so on. We ate for sustenance only. I guess gambling takes precedence over food for us.

The Strip is filled with people in flipflops and t-shirts. Everywhere.

It’s long walk to wherever you think you’re going.

Next up, Monorail! Red Rock, Silverton, and downtown.....
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BC Dave
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PostPosted: Jul Fri 01, 2011 11:13 pm    Post subject: Too much!! Reply with quote

Thanks Lily, you reinforced my opinion of the Vegas Strip. That opinion summed up amounts to, "Honey we're not in Reno anymore!" and "I've got a headache!" I do like the Bellagio fountains though.

What did the "Dog" think of the Pawn Stars shop? I'm kinda kicking myself for not going there last month. Janice and I are hooked on the show.

Glad you had fun and some luck playing Sigma Derby. I last encountered that game at the Horizon at south Lake Tahoe. There was a group there having a great time too. There was lots of them in Reno in the 80's.

Planet Hollywood showing it's age? My gosh! It really isn't that old. You'd think they'd at least fix it up when it was re-branded. The old Aladdin must be turning over in it's grave!

Looking forward to your report from the superior place!
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LilyJDragonfly



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PostPosted: Jul Sat 02, 2011 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pawn Stars shop was cool; go early in the morning, they open the shop at 9am-ish. Later in the day and there are big lines! (it's actually open 24 hours, but the night hours are with a walk-up window only)

The Dog had read that their self-promotion items (t-shirts, mouse pads, mugs, et cetera) were dominating in the shop, but he thought it was a tasteful rack or three and almost bought an I Love Chumlee trinket.

I actually took in my old pin-fire to see if they were interested sometime later during our trip. Both Rick and Old Man checked it out but it was too odd and in rough condition for them to buy.

It's really not much of a traditional pawn shop anymore. It's more like an antique shop! <grin>

And the Strip is like DisneyLand for alcoholics and I am not a fan of DisneyLand (but I do love alcoholics!) Downtown is rocking and I'll post up that portion later today on here...
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BC Dave
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PostPosted: Jul Sat 02, 2011 12:00 pm    Post subject: Cool! Reply with quote

Wow, you got to meet the Pawn Stars themselves! I thought with their new celebrity status, they'd rarely be seen on the job.

I with you, downtown is where it's at!
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LilyJDragonfly



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PostPosted: Jul Sat 02, 2011 12:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I didn't actually meet either of them, but the gun guy wasn't there and the counter man said he'd have to take it back to them. I did spot Rick and he glanced over at me and then headed back to his secret cave to reject my item... <grin>

And here's the next part of the trip. There is still more to come after this!

So Saturday morning arrives and we have booked the Motley Crue concert package at Red Rock. We check out of Bally’s and have the bellman take our luggage downstairs.

Overall, we’d stay at Bally’s again. Nice location, pleasant staff, good room.

We eased out towards Red Rock and Silverton was en route, more or less. We pull in to Silverton and self-park because the lot was fairly empty. There’s a giant fishtank as you walk in and a Bass Pro (I think that’s the name) shop right there, too.

Stood in line for about fifteen minutes for the player’s cards and get two free buffet coupons just for signing up, plus $10 in free play. The buffet comps were good any time for the next year, even on Father’s Day (which was tomorrow). Neither of us are hungry, so we use the free play (I cash out up $50!) and ponder the casino. It’s very nice and I wouldn’t mind coming back.

However, we’re heading to Red Rock so we jump back in the car and get to driving. It’s quite a drive out to Red Rock. We check in and our concert tickets are in a sealed envelope. We open it up and we have section 102 (which I knew) and row Y, seats 17 & 18. The price for the room & two tickets was just shy of $500 (27.99 for the resort fee). A truly outrageous price, but I figured, hey, it’s a nice place and we’re getting good tickets…

We took advantage of the included shoe shine service (put your shoes in the provided bag, call a number, and place the shoes outside of your door) and then got players cards. We ate at Grand Café (fish tacos and something else; tasty) and started playing Keno during lunch. I then went to the slots and lost plenty of money, but I did get moved to the second level of their players club. After that loss and upgrade, I decided to find The Dog. He was playing blackjack at a table but it had this automatic betting system. Confusing, but I figured it out and cashed out up $100, while The Dog lost his buy-in. It was around 5pm at this point. We went to the room for a few minutes and scoped it out a bit more. The bathroom has an ersatz leather paneling and TV over the deep tub. It’s nice, but our view was 3rd floor looking out over the valet parking. Would it be worth the retail price of $289+ and the resort fee? Absolutely not for us, especially since we had been comped rooms in Tahoe with a killer view and two bathrooms just two days prior. But it was all about the concert so what the hell.

We grabbed something to eat from their food court (and you can’t charge anything at the food court to your room) and got back to the machines. I continued to lose. We gambled right until 7pm when the concert started.

So here’s where we get ticked. Our seats are on the VERY top row of the section and you can only see the very front of the stage – none of the back and when Motley Crue came on, we couldn’t see the band or any of the amazing video stuff because we had a view of the curtains and speakers off the side stage.

A simply rotten experience for the concert and for the price, outrageous! After the show, I decided to skip the “after-party” in one of their lounges and refused to put another penny in their machines or at the tables. We went up to our room and surfed the web a bit and went to bed.

The next day, I spoke with a host via telephone. She apologized profusely about the situation but could only take off our Grand Café charge. She gave me the hotel manager’s name and said I should speak with her.

She wasn’t in, but we did get to speak to another manager who offered to take off a few bucks from our bill and give us a late check out. She did take a bit off, but I’m still not happy about this and have written the hotel manager and the Director of Entertainment for Stations. If I get a response back, I’ll post it here.

All that being said, Red Rock was a terrific property. Very professional and friendly staff, a beautiful facility, friendly dealers. I would not recommend booking their concert packages, though.

Bags in car, we head to Silverton for lunch. It was Father’s Day and took about fifteen minutes to get seated. The buffet was nice but nothing grandiose. There was a weird fire column thing in the middle of the dining room that would randomly set itself aflame and then magically go out.

We put in a few more bucks (I think we both wound up ahead here) and aimed the car towards the Fremont.

Rolling up to the Fremont, the valet handed us a ticket with the number 3 handwritten on it. I guess they don’t get a lot of valet parkers. A bellman was out in short order and I strode up to the check in. Per a tip from The Bucket, I specifically requested room 611, which caused a flurry of activity and printing and discussion in whispered tones. “Have you stayed here before?” “Nope.” “Are you sure you want 611?” “Yes, please.” The clerk had a puzzled look. I pulled out a sawbuck and placed it in front of him. “Room 611, please.” “Yes, ma’am.”

With the bellhop following us, we got in the elevator (strange enough, this is the first casino that I’ve had the bellhop right at hand with my luggage delivery and the very first casino I’ve ever seen that does not have you enter through the casino to get to the rooms) and up to the 6th floor. Upon exiting the elevator, I noticed the ersatz leather wallpaper in the hall and noted out loud that the Red Rock has the same thing in their bathrooms. The bellman immediately said, “Oh, so you’re saying our hallways are as good as the Red Rock bathrooms? Thanks!” He was grinning when he said this.

He brought our bags into the room, graciously accepted our tip for his assistance, wished us luck, and strode off down the ersatz leather hallway.

The room was in excellent condition with a modern style. Tiny, but it was the original portion of the hotel. The bathroom even came with a “Sparkling Clean – for your protection” paper seal on the toilet. Nice. I haven’t seen one of those since the 1970s. For $84 for three nights, it was a great deal.



So here it was, 3pm on a Sunday, and we had Miss USA tickets for 5:30 that night and evening wear (several choices) ready for the event. What do we do? Skip the event in favor of gambling.

We sign up for players cards and get to gambling. Nothing of significance for wins or losses and we decide to go scope out the rest of Fremont Street.

Let me just say, I love Fremont Street. Fun, easy to navigate, and lots of casinos to chose from. If you like to drink and gamble and dance a tune, too, come on down!

In no particular order, over the course of the next three days, we hit these casinos:

Fremont: Nice casino, $3 craps (though the table(s) was packed every moment of every day, even at 6am!) Buffet for breakfast – don’t. Rehydrated scrambled eggs, not a lot of choices. They do have miso soup for the breakfast buffet. We got it free so I guess for the price it was okay. I wouldn’t pay for it, though.

Four Queens: Super cool. We played the Silver Strike machine and got one of the $10 silver strikes. I debated keeping it, but I already have enough cool souvenirs in the form of cards and dice and stuff. I cashed it at the cage and played the $10 in the Star Wars machine, which was awesome. We also bought the “Win Cards” - $10 for $15 in chips. I lost all my buyin, The Dog got some play out of his. The Win Cards seem sorta useless to use, but they are cool looking. We also earned 50 points and scored a free tshirt (well, by free, The Dog says it’s actually a $300 t-shirt, which will be placed right next to our $1,000 beach towel from a trip to Biloxi), embroidered with the Four Queens logo, plus we each got a deck of cards and some free play. I played a bit of VP there and on my first hand, I scored, what else, four queens! Nice. We used the ACG coupon at their restaurant and had a nice breakfast there. They have one of those giant slot machines and you get a free pull on it. Neither of us got anything out of it except a coupon sheet, which we promptly misplaced. We will totally go back to 4Q.

El Cortez: I was excited about going here but my throat closed up upon entering – the air freshener was way, way, way worse than any I have ever encountered; my eyes were watering. I’m a smoker and generally not too bothered by aromas, but this was simply dreadful. We only managed to play our freeplay and bail out. Of note: They offer a free massage to the jackpot winners (they should be offering these to the losers, frankly) and they have a Baccarat table for FIVE DOLLARS. There was a sign indicating Vintage Rooms with an arrow, but the air freshener made me scurry out before I could investigate. I will attempt another trip here when we return to Vegas, as I really like old school casinos.

Golden Gate: %$^* Yeah!!! Man, I want to own this place. The pit bosses all wear fedoras and suits and vests. The “party pit” dancers are tastefully outfitted in fringed outfits and all good looking. The dealers look like old school Vegas. The players club workers were friendly and hooked us up with freeplay, two decks of cards AND a pair of blue dice, plus a coupon for a totally free shrimp cocktail. Add that to the two buy-one-get-one coupons and we got FIVE shrimp cocktails for four bucks and change. So let me talk about that for a moment.

The shrimp cocktails are GIANT, even the regular size. I can’t even begin to conceptualize the large one. The dollop of cocktail sauce on top of the shrimp (a sundae glass filled to the brim with shrimp, no ice) did not seem sufficient for the amount of shrimp, but in fact, it was just perfect. You can eat your shrimp cocktail and watch the dancers and dealers. I can see why it is voted best year after year. We were stuffed after three of them but we powered through all the shrimp. Delightful. (*Note: if you are from the Gulf or the East coast, the shrimp aren’t…. but still quite wonderful in this format!)



We will totally come back here and possibly even stay here. Golden Gate rules! And I say this not having won anything…

Vegas Club: Totally vibe-less. The players club workers had on jackets with the Plaza and Vegas Club logos and the card has both on it. (The Plaza was totally closed during our visit). We played our free play and left. No need to return.

Binions: We did not sign up for players card but did play their free spin machines. Won nothing. We spotted a bank of Rockin’ Olives and played those for a bit – I cashed out up ten, The Dog walked away down forty. Nice vibe and when we go back to Vegas, we will play some here.

La Bayou: Oh yes! Got neckloads of beads over the course of three days, they offer you a drink before you even sit down at a machine and have all coin-in, coin-out machines. There’s some funky folk art by some guy named Simon (I collect folk art and this was some fine stuff; they told me they thought he might work at the strip club across the way but I couldn’t track him down) and they sell the slushie drinks. The Dog bought the football and filled it up several times. They will give you a sample taste of the flavors, too. At one point, I was way up from playing their machines, but I’m pretty sure I wound up down at the end of it. Fun, fun, and a great staff, too. An absolute must-visit several times over. No players club.

Mermaids: Home of the Fried Oreo and Twinkie and Chocolate Banana – 99 cents each, I seem to recall. You actually get three fried Oreos for the price. I’m a Southerner and will try most anything fried. The Oreos were okay. No need to eat them again, though. Machines are coin-in, coin-out and they give you beads, too. Drink service good. They also have a whole bunch of other cheap eats. We’d go back again. No players club.

Golden Nugget: It was PACKED in here on a Sunday night. We didn’t sign up for cards or play, but we did scope out the Gold ATM, located right next to the giant gold nugget. $73 for a one-gram gold bit. Had we had a better run of gambling, I would have bought one, in spite of the high mark up. Cash only for the Gold ATM. We might go back, but didn’t feel any overwhelming compulsion to play here.

Additional notes about Fremont Street/Downtown:

There’s a cigar shop between El Cortez and Fremont Experience. They make all the cigars in shop. Great selection, good prices, and good cigars.

There’s a new bar next to or close to above-noted cigar shop. They have 80s video games, you know, Frogger, Galaga, Pac Man, and more. You sit at the bar, buy a drink, and play their Xboxes that are linked up. Cool concept and friendly staff. They also have private booths with individual Xboxes/PlayStations and a big screen for each booth.

They had an 80s cover band out playing every night that we were there (Sun – Tues). This was a kickin’ band and were high-energy and lots of fun.

No porn slappers downtown!

Neonopolis seemed like a great idea, but it was closed down. Many of the smaller neons are still there inside the plaza. I personally think it should have been built/developed down on the Strip.

Fremont doesn’t take off room charges for comps. You have to go to the players club and get a comp if you want something.

Downtown had a lot more energy at night and was a lot less walking than the Strip.
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LilyJDragonfly



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PostPosted: Jul Sat 02, 2011 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And the final bit:

Monorail and other commentary:

So we decided to ride the monorail after watching it slink down the track from the Bally’s pool. It looks like a caterpillar to me – just needs a fuzzy exterior and some antenna. We were staying downtown already so we drove to the LV Hilton to catch it. (Interestingly enough, on Sunday morning during our stay there was an article in the Review-Journal about the Monorail:[URL="http://www.lvrj.com/news/monorail-fan-uses-imagination-stopwatch-124151023.html"] http://www.lvrj.com/news/monorail-fan-uses-imagination-stopwatch-124151023.html[/URL] - it used different passenger scenarios and well, just read it!)

We self-parked the car and walked towards what looked to be an entrance. Nope. Just a big gated area with an indication that the station was accessible inside. So we walked inside. No signs! We asked at the security desk and they graciously walked us back towards the doors we had to go through to enter a casino bar and then pointed us on. A bit confusing, but we managed to get there. The Hilton’s monorail station entrance is through a Space Age theme bar! We meant to go back and gamble there a bit because it looked so cool, but we were just beat out by the end of the day.



We bought the 24-hour pass for $12/each. Not many folks on it. They seem to arrive every six or eight minutes.

We rode it past the now-closed Sahara and over to the Flamingo stop. At Flamingo, we checked out the flamingos - I love just watching them stand on a leg and rest. We put in a few bucks to their slots and wandered over to Bill’s to use up our $10 in comps and see Big Elvis and then hopped back on to head to the MGM Grand and play Sigma Derby again. LOVE Sigma Derby and I would have to say that outside of La Bayou down on Fremont, it’s got the very best drink service in Las Vegas! Below, The Dog playing Sigma Derby.



After several rounds and winding up about even, we went in hunt of Lion’s Share Progressive. A twenty-minute hunt finally put us in front of it. We put in twenty (or maybe $40) and came out with nothing. Eh, it was worth a shot!



We headed back to the Monorail and even though this was the last stop, we hopped on it and rode it through the loop where it turns around and rode it back to the Hilton. I think the article linked above really does sum up the whole monorail thing.

The neons down on Fremont and in Fremont East are spectacular. Take some time to go visit them. Here’s a pic of one and then a pic of the neon after I fixed it up a bit.





On Tuesday, we drove down to the Hoover Dam. It was about 45 minutes to get there from downtown. We figured it would have a few buses of tourists and maybe a few old folks touring around. Wrong.

It was LOADED with people everywhere! There’s a five-story parking garage (7 or 9 bucks to park) and we finally found a spot on the fourth floor. We walked down to the tour center and got the military discount price of $9/each for the hour-tour. We each were given a lovely book with a very detailed history and photos of the dam to read while waiting to go on the tour (about 30 minutes of waiting). A movie giving an overview of the history and then you get jammed in to a HUGE elevator with 59 other people (the elevators hold 60 people) and down you go! We got to look at the pipes, the turbines, and walk up on to the observation deck. Overall, a cool thing to do.

Before we went to the dam, we drove over to Arizona on the new bridge (which you can also access via a walkway on the Nevada side off the highway) and we took the Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible offroading down Kingman Wash. Not much to see, but I wanted to do it so The Dog obliged me. I did find a shiny thing in the middle of the dirt road back there and made him stop so I could investigate. It was a broken steel rim from a car.

After this big adventure, we had an appetite and used our $50 gift certificate (that we bought for $25 from Three Oclock Club) for Hash House A GoGo at the IP.

HHAGG was serving the lunch menu when we arrived at 4:35 and we decided to come back at 5 for the big menu. As reported by all who eat there, the portions are gargantuan. Seriously, split a plate! The Dog had lamp chops and I had the meatloaf, plus beer and the Bloody Mary BLT. Quite nice. They’ve just opened one up in place of Café Napa inside the Harrah’s in Reno and I’m thrilled to have it as an option in Reno!



We found the Only Asian Who Plays Guitar on the Street in the US right outside of Bill’s; who knew? He also has a small dog that wears matching sunglasses and sleeps in his guitar case.



Here’s a shot of the view from the Sahara penthouse. Note the hulking building that looks like it should be open but it’s just sitting there incomplete.



There's place called The Black Room indicating "German Fetish" about a block off the Strip. It was having a grand opening according to the sign in the window. We had gambling to do so we didn't stop in.

We ate at Hofbrauhaus one evening - I think it was across the street more or less from Hard Rock Casino. The food was great German food, service decent, beer great, and you eat in a big German hall at these long tables.

Keno finally paid off for me sometime on Tuesday night… I won $285! Now that didn’t even come close to offsetting the losses (let alone the ATM withdrawal from earlier that day) of the trip, but we rolled out on Wednesday with a few dollars in our pockets!

On Wednesday morning, we checked out of the Fremont and headed back towards Northern California. On our route home, we stopped in Rhyolite, a ghost town that existed for all of about ten years, right outside of Beatty, NV. It’s home to Goldwell Outdoor Museum, which has outdoor sculptures on display. The first new one in probably ten years was installed about two weeks ago. It’s desolate and quiet out there. You can scope out a few of the pictures from our visit here: [URL="http://www.flickr.com//photos/onlinelily/sets/72157627092723472/show/"]http://www.flickr.com//photos/onlinelily/sets/72157627092723472/show/
[/URL]
Whew! It was a fun week and we had a great time. Massive gambling losses (save for the Keno win) but we only gamble what we can afford to lose.

We’re considering a trip over Christmas but if we do, we’ll be flying. Hopefully, that Caesar’s comp for Christmas week will come back to me and we’ll split time between Caesar’s and downtown. If not, downtown all the way! And thanks for reading….
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mjames1229



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PostPosted: Jul Sun 03, 2011 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looking for the "like" button to click.....
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stan_allen



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PostPosted: Jul Tue 05, 2011 1:28 pm    Post subject: A superior account of an inferior place! Reply with quote

Jeez, I thought I'd put in a fairly comprehensive account of our Vegas trip from back in 2009, but you've blown me away!

And the level of action! How the heck do you fit all that activity in??

And all that detail - it's a sumptuous smorgasbord of input, and I thank you for gracing our board with this "Inferior Place" account!
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LilyJDragonfly



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PostPosted: Jul Tue 05, 2011 1:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the compliments! I can actually write a much more cohesive account when I take regular notes during the trip, but we were way too busy gambling and gawking to do that.... I pieced most of this together from shots off the camera, matchbooks (an excellent way to track your previous night's travels), and from player's cards.

For some reason, Caesar's Palace in LV was gracious enough to offer The Dog comped rooms at Christmas (but not for me - strange because I'm the one who has all the tier credits and can get comps in Reno left and right but he gets next to nothing there). We went ahead and booked for five comped nights but if we can't find a good airfare price there, we ain't going! That drive was a very, very long drive and once you've seen it twice, no need to do it again.

If we do go, we'll probably only stay at Caesar's for two nights (it was REALLY opulent in there) and then go back downtown for the remainder as downtown was grooving!
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