Route 66

Hey LVAers.  Has anyone ever taken a Route 66 Casino cruise?  Wife, son and I will be driving to Oklahoma and for the Christmas holiday to spend time with my wife's relatives. 

Plan on hitting a bunch of casinos there and back, including Spirit Mt. Casino in Needles, Twin Arrows outside of Flagstaff, the Fire Rock and Dancing Eagle in New Mexico, as well as Sandia and Isleta Casinos in Albuquerque. 

Then going to hit the Sugar Creek Casino near Weatherford, OK and the Ioway Casino on our way to Tulsa.  Staying at the Osage Casino in Skaitook for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day since family lives in a small apartment. Wife got 2 rooms, 3 nights comped for one room and one night for the other. 

After Christmas we will be going to the Win Star Casino in Thackerville, OK.  Supposed to be the biggest single casino in America.  We'll see.  We'll leave there and then head back toward the 40, stopping on the way at the Comanche Cashe Casino in Cashe, OK.  We'll also hit the Route 66 and Sky City Casinos on the way back. 

The plan is to each play $100 at each casino and then move on.  We win, we take the winnings and skeedaddle.  We are staying at various Hampton Inns along the way using our Hilton Honors points.  

Has anyone ever been to any of these casinos and have any suggestions for food spots or interesting sights along the way?   Thanks. 

My experiences there are several years old, but...

Twin Arrows east of Flagstaff had FPDW at one point. Then, they degraded their inventory, and there's no real reason to visit.

The New Mexico casinos had a similar arc. They used to offer good value. Isleta was the best. I've seen nothing thrilling in the ABQ metro casinos.

You probably know this, but the OK casinos are a sick joke, charging blackjack players fifty cents a hand, among other abominations. As they basically exist to suck money out of Texans, they don't need to offer decent gambling.

The Route 66 path is largely devoid of scenery, except for a few stretches through NM, and it's a stark, bleak trip through a high elevation desert wasteland. 

And the above is why I would NEVER make this trip in December. The weather will suck big time unless you're lucky. Snow, sleet, high winds, short days, elevations at 5,000 feet or higher.

There's a reason why, for 300 years, on the Santa Fe Trail, all travel and trade ceased during fall and winter. The Llano Estacado, where you will be driving, is a place where people died.

And then when you get where you're going...you look around, and you're in....

OKLAHOMA!!! GAAH!!!

Do make sure you have an onion burger, though. And you probably know this already, but you should stop in ABQ and have a meal that involves green chile. You'll have lots of options. They put green chile on everything, including ice cream. As they should.

I have had friends take golf trips down to the Winn Star and had a really good time.  About 6 years ago we did something similar going to a wedding in Oklahoma.  I don't remember which ones we hit on the way down, but a few gave us some free play for getting a players card and were great.  A couple were pretty small with bad games and we just ended up doing a walk through.  Sounds like you did some research so I think you will have a great time.  We just kind of winged it for our trip, but still had fun and made a small profit.  I will have to think about the food options.

I recently moved from Flagstaff after living there for 19 years.  Twin Arrows was a 35 minute drive from my house.  It is a lovely casino.  If you have time, take a walk around and view the incredible Navajo art work.  Their rooms are very nice and the restaurants are decent.  I recommend having a Navajo taco if you decide to eat there.  The regular restaurant is only open until 2:00 pm.  The Sports Bar, opens at 2:00 or 3:00 pm and stays open late.  They also have a buffet Friday through Sunday.  We were not too fond of the buffet.  I can't speak on the video poker--I mostly play slots. It is a beautiful Native American casino and worth a stop.

Appreciate the response, Brent.   We figure we won't spend too much time at some of them depending on what kind of games they have.  

Thanks for your info on Twin Arrows.  We have driven from Cali to OK and back many times, but never stopped at any of the casinos.  Now that are son is over 21, we thought this would be a cool thing to do.  Definitely interested in the Navajo taco suggestion.  

A Navajo taco is basically just a regular taco on fry bread instead of a tortilla, so no big whoop as far as I'm concerned, but I can say that the best ones I've had were, just like the best taco tacos I've ever had, from taco carts. I lived in Durango and so passed through Kayenta and Shiprock on occasion. Also the area just north of the Hwy 89 overpass above the Colorado (an impromptu Navajo bazaar). 

I've been to the Sandia casino in AbQ .   That place is fancy.   There's another one in Bernalillo that was a lot of fun too.  Can't remember the name of that one.     I've never done the whole drive but lots of small parts of it.   

id love to start in St. Louis and go all the way to Cali.    It'll be a retirement thing for sure.     Sounds like a fun trip you have planned.

As we have it planned, it looks like we'll get through 2/3rds of it.  More of just something to do during our winter break since we were going to OK for Christmas anyway.  I just hope we don't have horrible weather....which is possible.  In 2018 we hit a blizzard driving back and barely made it to Moriarity.....instead of ABQ, where we had reserved a hotel room.  Wife has experience from her time living in OK and Kansas City dealing with the snow.  There were so many semis and trucks in the middle area between East and West Bound 40 between Moriarity and ABQ.  It was a good thing we stopped when we did. 

Having experienced horrible winter weather while traveling east of the Rockies multiple times--on I-90, I-80, I-70, I-40, but NOT on I-10 or I-20, I would recommend considering getting to OK via Tucson, El Paso, Midland, and Fort Worth. I assume that you're coming from San Diego, since you mentioned stopping at Needles. No casinos on the way, but maybe no blizzards, either. Actually, Tucson has several casinos.

If a storm hits, the worst thing that happens on the interstates is that disabled/skidded out trucks will inevitably slam the road closed. And there you are. Maybe sitting in your car for hours, hoping you don't run out of gas as you idle the car to keep warm.

I realize the motivation/reasons for this trip, but I can't disrecommend it enough. Why not save it for May or something?

I know you're going no matter what, though, so good luck. In both directions. Maybe you'll beat the odds.