Hit ‘em All Nevada – Day 11
It was up at 5 AM, shower, pack, and out of Las Vegas by six. Today promised to be a long drive, and it was. I drove to a Jack in the Box to pick up a breakfast burrito and some orange juice and was headed to my first stop along the route that will eventually end in Reno, something just short of 500 miles northwest.
The first stop was Pahrump, NV. This place is known as the bordello capital of Nevada, and no, I didn’t stop at any. I couldn’t even take a picture of one for you because today I’m heading downtown to check the casinos, and all the cat houses are located on the outskirts of town. My first place was Terribles Lakeside. There are two Terribles casinos in Pahrump, and this is by far the smaller of the two. There were about 100 machines and there were no tables and even any machines with blackjack. It was still early and there were only a few people in the place.
Terribles Lakeside
I then drove into downtown. Pahrump is much larger than most people think. I was surprised to see that it covered the entire valley and downtown, though one long street was very impressive. I stopped at the Terribles and this was a large casino but certainly carried on the western theme to the extreme. There were about four tables, but they were closed. It was a good place to use the bathroom and move on.
Across the street was a place called the Southwest Casino. This was also mostly a slot house and had quite a few machines. Of course the video poker schedules were all pretty bad. I did decide to put a twenty in a favorite penny game (sometimes the itch just needs to be scratched). I was down to almost five bucks when I hit bonus and cashed out $20.95. That’s okay, a profit is a profit.
On the corner is the jewel of the casinos in Pahrump and that’s the Pahrump Nugget. This place would remind you of any very nice casino in Las Vegas. It was spacious and lavishly decorated. They did have a blackjack table open and I put down my ten. For the third of fourth time this trip, I was dealt a blackjack. I collected my fifteen dollar profit and moved on.
The inside of the Pahrump Nugget
I left Pahrump and my next destination would be the small town of Beatty, NV. This, like a lot of other little towns along the route between Las Vegas and Reno are little speed traps. You’re cruisin’ at 70 or hours and suddenly have to slow all the way down to 25—and your better do it. I think that’s the way these towns can stay in business—but I’m cynic. There’s only one casino here called the Stagecoach. It has a motel connected to it. This place also had some BJ tables, but was closed except at night. I did play some ape penny machine, and again caught a bonus and cashed out with a small profit in cents.
Across from the Stagecoach casino is a candy and nut store. Now why I mention this is because you need to understand the Beatty is just bitty town, really small. When I walked into this place, it was like suddenly being in a major mall store. There was row after row after row of every kind of bagged candy and nuts you’ve ever seen or craved. The place also had a Subway sandwich shop and ice cream counter. It just seemed so out of character. LVA member Chessie recommended this place and she was right. It really does seem out of place for the little town of Beatty, but was certainly fun to just walk around a gaze at all the varieties (which took me about a half hour).
On to the next town along the way called Tonopah, NV. This was a half way mark to Reno and I needed to fill up the tank. The one casino here is called the Tonopah Ramada Inn and Casino. This is one cool, little place. There are antiques everywhere as well as stuffed animals on the walls and on the floor. The slot machines were all there but they didn’t spit out coins or tickets. Regardless of your payout when you want to cash out, the clerk has to pay you. As I’ve noted before, all these small places need to have as much money as they can squeeze out of these machines to stay in business, so the video poker schedules are all poor, and expectedly so; however, there was one bank in here that had full pay 8/5 bonus poker WITH progressives for quad Aces, straight flushes, and the royal. If I had the time, I would have stayed and played this machine for awhile. The royal was $1250, the straight flush was $138 and the quad aces were at $122.00. Pretty amazing.
Too many hours later of desert, desert, and more desert, I came to the town of Fallen. There were a couple of slot houses here, but one place I chose to stop at is called The Depot. This place had about four adjoining rooms of slots but they were pretty up-to-date. I almost was about to play another penny machine, but disciplined prevailed and I moved on.
The final small town before you get into Sparks and Reno is called Fernley, NV. I made two stops and places that seemed pretty large. The first was called Pioneer Crossing. This place had a quite a few machines and was pretty full with people playing. I found one of the Playboy penny machines like the one’s I played at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. I put in a twenty and then even without a bonus, hit a huge wild bar and profited $50. I cashed out and was out of there.
My final stop before Reno in Fernley was a place called the Silverado (Casinos and western themes—never ending). I was hoping my luck with the pennies would continue, but of course, it didn’t and I was out a $20. Interestingly enough, my little gambling along the way actually profited me enough to pay for the gas.
I finally pulled into Reno and Harrahs. The girl at the registration desk was very nice and sympathized with me after I told her I had just driven in from Vegas. She, too, has made that drive and agreed it’s absolutely torture. She then gave me my keys and said the room she got me is a good one. I’ve stayed here at Harrahs in Reno a couple of times before, and frankly, the rooms though clean are nothing to write home about. I was in room 1748 and as I was walking to it, I began to realize that once again I was going to be given the very last room at end of the halls (I’m like a magnet to them). However, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it’s a corner room reminiscent to a P-room at the Paris. I have great views of the Valley as well as the mountains of Lake Tahoe.
Three chairs AND a couch?
One view from my room
Another view from my room
I was in my room at 4PM, and full ten hours since leaving Las Vegas, a usual eight hour drive except for all the stops I made along the way. The girl at the registration also gave me a couple of bottles of cold water and I just hung out in the room for a while. Finally, I headed down to the casino. If you’ve never been here, this casino is one of the confusing of all the Caesar’s (Harrahs now called Caesar’s) properties. There are two floors of casino space that are connected by a bridge. It takes a while to navigate the place. The do have a small, but nice Diamond Lounge where I relaxed for another hour or so. I had a nice chat with the folks at the bar. Phil from Pennsylvania was very interested in my trip. I showed everyone at the bar this website on my iphone and explained how LVA works. They were all very interested. The food offered in his DL was very odd. The usual chips and nuts, but there were also won-tons and muscles on the half shell—huh?
I wanted to go ahead and get all of the downtown casinos out of the way, but one LVA member asked if I’d take the pictures after night fall, so I could get all the neon and such. So, I hung out in Harrahs playing some. The 7/5 Bonus Poker is the best schedule they have here, so I played that at the fifty cent level and was down $200 when I held two Aces and picked up the other two for a $200 win—good enough to break even. I made my ten dollar blackjack bet and lost.
I walked across the street to the three major downtown casinos. The Eldorado, the Silver Legacy, and Circus, Circus are all connected—like a big mall. The Eldorado casino floor is a mass of machines and tables scrunched together. My bet, this time in Roulette, was a loser.
Sorry about the glare in the nighttime pics. My camera has a difficult time with the neon lights.
I walked upstairs into the “mall” area which connects the three casinos. Of the three, the Silver Legacy is the jewel. The casino floor is very plush and the dealers are obviously more formal and less talkative. Something most people don’t recognize when they visit casinos is that you can get a feel for the management style in an area of small ways. Some places want their dealers to be friendly, cheer for the customer when he wins, and shake the head when he loses. Other places want the dealers to give the impression they’re only there to facilitate the transaction. I played black on roulette her and 26 black came up.
The final casino in this trio is Circus, Circus. Like its Vegas counterpart, this place is jammed with families and kids playing the carnival games on the second floor. Fortunately, unlike the Vegas property, this place is kept reasonably clean and doesn’t have the stale smell and dingy look. My roulette play was a loser.
I was on my way back to Harrahs. It was almost 10 PM (way past my bedtime—I’m so old) and hadn’t eaten since this morning. I walked over to a cool like joint called The Nugget (what is it with casinos and the name “Nugget”?). This place is not unlike the Mermaids on Freemont Street. It’s just a slot house, but it has one of the best diners in Reno. They sell what’s called The Awful, Awful Burger, which is a monster burger and if you order fries with that, you’re give an entire basket big enough to feed four. I’ve writing about this place in the past and this little joint is simply a great place with really good food that’s really bad for you. I just wasn’t that hungry and passed.
I headed back to Harrahs to call it night, but not before playing another round of Lord of the rings, which netted me $50.
I took one last pic of the famous Reno sign, which I’m afraid my camera simply freaks out at the neon, but good enough to give you an idea of what it looks like at night. I should mention that I like Reno. I really like Reno. The temperature year round is very pleasant, the real estate is reasonable, you’re a couple hours from Tahoe, and it still has a small city flavor. I very seriously considered retiring here, but my son put a stop to that. This place isn’t for everyone, but I find it nice—if only is wasn’t so far away!
Trip totals: Casinos Visited 109; Bets Balance +$81
More tomorrow
It was up at 5 AM, shower, pack, and out of Las Vegas by six. Today promised to be a long drive, and it was. I drove to a Jack in the Box to pick up a breakfast burrito and some orange juice and was headed to my first stop along the route that will eventually end in Reno, something just short of 500 miles northwest.
The first stop was Pahrump, NV. This place is known as the bordello capital of Nevada, and no, I didn’t stop at any. I couldn’t even take a picture of one for you because today I’m heading downtown to check the casinos, and all the cat houses are located on the outskirts of town. My first place was Terribles Lakeside. There are two Terribles casinos in Pahrump, and this is by far the smaller of the two. There were about 100 machines and there were no tables and even any machines with blackjack. It was still early and there were only a few people in the place.
Terribles Lakeside
I then drove into downtown. Pahrump is much larger than most people think. I was surprised to see that it covered the entire valley and downtown, though one long street was very impressive. I stopped at the Terribles and this was a large casino but certainly carried on the western theme to the extreme. There were about four tables, but they were closed. It was a good place to use the bathroom and move on.
Across the street was a place called the Southwest Casino. This was also mostly a slot house and had quite a few machines. Of course the video poker schedules were all pretty bad. I did decide to put a twenty in a favorite penny game (sometimes the itch just needs to be scratched). I was down to almost five bucks when I hit bonus and cashed out $20.95. That’s okay, a profit is a profit.
On the corner is the jewel of the casinos in Pahrump and that’s the Pahrump Nugget. This place would remind you of any very nice casino in Las Vegas. It was spacious and lavishly decorated. They did have a blackjack table open and I put down my ten. For the third of fourth time this trip, I was dealt a blackjack. I collected my fifteen dollar profit and moved on.
The inside of the Pahrump Nugget
I left Pahrump and my next destination would be the small town of Beatty, NV. This, like a lot of other little towns along the route between Las Vegas and Reno are little speed traps. You’re cruisin’ at 70 or hours and suddenly have to slow all the way down to 25—and your better do it. I think that’s the way these towns can stay in business—but I’m cynic. There’s only one casino here called the Stagecoach. It has a motel connected to it. This place also had some BJ tables, but was closed except at night. I did play some ape penny machine, and again caught a bonus and cashed out with a small profit in cents.
Across from the Stagecoach casino is a candy and nut store. Now why I mention this is because you need to understand the Beatty is just bitty town, really small. When I walked into this place, it was like suddenly being in a major mall store. There was row after row after row of every kind of bagged candy and nuts you’ve ever seen or craved. The place also had a Subway sandwich shop and ice cream counter. It just seemed so out of character. LVA member Chessie recommended this place and she was right. It really does seem out of place for the little town of Beatty, but was certainly fun to just walk around a gaze at all the varieties (which took me about a half hour).
On to the next town along the way called Tonopah, NV. This was a half way mark to Reno and I needed to fill up the tank. The one casino here is called the Tonopah Ramada Inn and Casino. This is one cool, little place. There are antiques everywhere as well as stuffed animals on the walls and on the floor. The slot machines were all there but they didn’t spit out coins or tickets. Regardless of your payout when you want to cash out, the clerk has to pay you. As I’ve noted before, all these small places need to have as much money as they can squeeze out of these machines to stay in business, so the video poker schedules are all poor, and expectedly so; however, there was one bank in here that had full pay 8/5 bonus poker WITH progressives for quad Aces, straight flushes, and the royal. If I had the time, I would have stayed and played this machine for awhile. The royal was $1250, the straight flush was $138 and the quad aces were at $122.00. Pretty amazing.
Too many hours later of desert, desert, and more desert, I came to the town of Fallen. There were a couple of slot houses here, but one place I chose to stop at is called The Depot. This place had about four adjoining rooms of slots but they were pretty up-to-date. I almost was about to play another penny machine, but disciplined prevailed and I moved on.
The final small town before you get into Sparks and Reno is called Fernley, NV. I made two stops and places that seemed pretty large. The first was called Pioneer Crossing. This place had a quite a few machines and was pretty full with people playing. I found one of the Playboy penny machines like the one’s I played at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. I put in a twenty and then even without a bonus, hit a huge wild bar and profited $50. I cashed out and was out of there.
My final stop before Reno in Fernley was a place called the Silverado (Casinos and western themes—never ending). I was hoping my luck with the pennies would continue, but of course, it didn’t and I was out a $20. Interestingly enough, my little gambling along the way actually profited me enough to pay for the gas.
I finally pulled into Reno and Harrahs. The girl at the registration desk was very nice and sympathized with me after I told her I had just driven in from Vegas. She, too, has made that drive and agreed it’s absolutely torture. She then gave me my keys and said the room she got me is a good one. I’ve stayed here at Harrahs in Reno a couple of times before, and frankly, the rooms though clean are nothing to write home about. I was in room 1748 and as I was walking to it, I began to realize that once again I was going to be given the very last room at end of the halls (I’m like a magnet to them). However, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it’s a corner room reminiscent to a P-room at the Paris. I have great views of the Valley as well as the mountains of Lake Tahoe.
Three chairs AND a couch?
One view from my room
Another view from my room
I was in my room at 4PM, and full ten hours since leaving Las Vegas, a usual eight hour drive except for all the stops I made along the way. The girl at the registration also gave me a couple of bottles of cold water and I just hung out in the room for a while. Finally, I headed down to the casino. If you’ve never been here, this casino is one of the confusing of all the Caesar’s (Harrahs now called Caesar’s) properties. There are two floors of casino space that are connected by a bridge. It takes a while to navigate the place. The do have a small, but nice Diamond Lounge where I relaxed for another hour or so. I had a nice chat with the folks at the bar. Phil from Pennsylvania was very interested in my trip. I showed everyone at the bar this website on my iphone and explained how LVA works. They were all very interested. The food offered in his DL was very odd. The usual chips and nuts, but there were also won-tons and muscles on the half shell—huh?
I wanted to go ahead and get all of the downtown casinos out of the way, but one LVA member asked if I’d take the pictures after night fall, so I could get all the neon and such. So, I hung out in Harrahs playing some. The 7/5 Bonus Poker is the best schedule they have here, so I played that at the fifty cent level and was down $200 when I held two Aces and picked up the other two for a $200 win—good enough to break even. I made my ten dollar blackjack bet and lost.
I walked across the street to the three major downtown casinos. The Eldorado, the Silver Legacy, and Circus, Circus are all connected—like a big mall. The Eldorado casino floor is a mass of machines and tables scrunched together. My bet, this time in Roulette, was a loser.
Sorry about the glare in the nighttime pics. My camera has a difficult time with the neon lights.
I walked upstairs into the “mall” area which connects the three casinos. Of the three, the Silver Legacy is the jewel. The casino floor is very plush and the dealers are obviously more formal and less talkative. Something most people don’t recognize when they visit casinos is that you can get a feel for the management style in an area of small ways. Some places want their dealers to be friendly, cheer for the customer when he wins, and shake the head when he loses. Other places want the dealers to give the impression they’re only there to facilitate the transaction. I played black on roulette her and 26 black came up.
The final casino in this trio is Circus, Circus. Like its Vegas counterpart, this place is jammed with families and kids playing the carnival games on the second floor. Fortunately, unlike the Vegas property, this place is kept reasonably clean and doesn’t have the stale smell and dingy look. My roulette play was a loser.
I was on my way back to Harrahs. It was almost 10 PM (way past my bedtime—I’m so old) and hadn’t eaten since this morning. I walked over to a cool like joint called The Nugget (what is it with casinos and the name “Nugget”?). This place is not unlike the Mermaids on Freemont Street. It’s just a slot house, but it has one of the best diners in Reno. They sell what’s called The Awful, Awful Burger, which is a monster burger and if you order fries with that, you’re give an entire basket big enough to feed four. I’ve writing about this place in the past and this little joint is simply a great place with really good food that’s really bad for you. I just wasn’t that hungry and passed.
I headed back to Harrahs to call it night, but not before playing another round of Lord of the rings, which netted me $50.
I took one last pic of the famous Reno sign, which I’m afraid my camera simply freaks out at the neon, but good enough to give you an idea of what it looks like at night. I should mention that I like Reno. I really like Reno. The temperature year round is very pleasant, the real estate is reasonable, you’re a couple hours from Tahoe, and it still has a small city flavor. I very seriously considered retiring here, but my son put a stop to that. This place isn’t for everyone, but I find it nice—if only is wasn’t so far away!
Trip totals: Casinos Visited 109; Bets Balance +$81
More tomorrow
