Hit ‘em All Nevada – Day 12
Today started off with listening to someone working on a room down the hall with a drill. Strange but then sleeping in late is not my usual thing either. I headed out of Harrahs in search for a Starbucks to turn in the yesterday’s journal. As much as I enjoy doing these journals every day, and as important it is for me to write, it does eat up a couple hours each day. That’s not a complaint, it simply is what it takes, and I have to plan my schedule with that in mind. I mention this because a couple of members have asked how I keep everything in order and remember it all. I take a little pocket spiral notebook with me and make a note at each place and how the bet turned out and any other small information that I might want to remember when I write the report. However, as most of you that contribute to this blog write your trip report at the end of it, my trips are SO long that I’d forget many of the smaller details and my thought process at the time, so I write them each day. I’ve taken some of my notes out took a picture of them.
Mr. Penmanship, I am not
Today’s quest is to finish up with all the casinos in the Reno valley and Sparks, a neighboring community just a few miles west. The weather today is perfect at 82 degrees, a far cry from Las Vegas and Laughlin. I still think of the trivia question: which is further west, San Diego or Reno? And of course the answer is Reno. The one downside to their weather here is that they do get high winds that come off the Sierra Mountains and whip things up here. My first stop was the Peppermill. This is a favorite place for a lot of people. It’s famous for its never-ending neon everywhere. I do find it beautiful though I find it a little too dark at times. I finally (and it took some effort and many wrong turns) found the table games and was greeted with another double down possibility holding ten with the dealers 3 showing. I held my breath after getting a 2 for my card, but the dealer still busted out, so a nice $20 win. After walking around a bit, I actually got a little lost and couldn’t find the door I walked in, so I found the first door I could and walked around the building to my car. I suppose I just stay here some day, so I could get used to the “lay of the land” of this place.
This is just ONE room of the neon jungle
Across the street is the other large hotel/casino in the valley called Atlantis. The one thing that I find interesting here is what they did with the walkway that goes across the street from the parking lot to the casino. They went to the extreme here, and not only put the requisite slot machines, but they also put in a full scale sushi bar and oyster bar. I thought it was a really good use of space and something different. My blackjack bet turned good once again with a win.
Sushi bar on the walkway, the oysbar is on the other side
West about five miles from the Atlantis is the Grand Sierra. I’ve told this story before so I won’t go too much into details. But back in my band days (in the mid 80s), we were paid to drive from San Diego to this place, then called the Reno Hilton, given rooms and paid very well for a convention banquet, which after the awards were given out, we were set to play for four hours of dancing. However, everyone seemed to want to go gamble, not dance to a band. After about two hours, we were thanked and said we could go enjoy the place. Anyway, as I approached the back part of the property, I noticed a huge cement pond/lake. I drove around and was surprised to find that this was a golfing range called an aquarange. The little islands you see have prizes that if your ball (I suppose their marked in some way) lands in a barrel on one of the islands, you win a corresponding prize, which according the board, was anything from a free meal, to a free basket of balls, all the way to a trip to Hawaii on the furthest island. The board also had ten names of members who have won that prize. My guess is that at the bottom on this lake, the cement floor is graded in such as way so the balls will eventually roll down to a collecting point—ingenious.
FORE!!!
The hotel itself is huge. It has a very nice shopping area on the bottom floor along with a bowling alley, theaters, and fast food places. Upstairs the casino is massive. This place has struggled in the past and I’m not sure how well they’re doing now, but the remodeling has been done very nicely. I went against the grain and tried my bet at roulette this time with ten dollars on red—wrong. However, I did play Lord of the Rings and walked off with a $60 profit. Props to LVA member JM (noahcat), who told me she liked the pony prance bonus round, which I began playing again and it has been the most consistent winning bonus of all of them. Thanks!
I headed into Sparks when I came to a corner with a place I hadn’t heard of before called Baldini’s Casino. It’s not listed in the American Casinos Guide (I’m finding a quite a few that aren’t), so I made a U-turn and went inside to check it out. I might mention that many times when I want to take the pic of a place for this report, I try my best to get both the front signage with the building behind it. In order to do this, many times I have to walk across the street or to a center medium of the road. This time I walked over to the cemented medium to get this pic. Some wise guy, while I was taking the pic, blew his horn right behind me and scared the hell out of me. I just turned and said, “Good one, you got me.”
When I walked inside, I was impressed not only how large this place was, but how many people were here playing not only at a sports book, but at the machines. I’m thinking to myself that it’s a Monday. Does no one work? What makes this place so popular? It didn’t take me long to find out. They have a grill here that serves the usual dogs and burgers, but not only is the food grilled to order, it’s amazingly cheap. It was lunch time, so I ordered a hot dog basket, which included a quarter pound grilled dog and a massive heap of fries. Soft drinks are free with the purchase. How much? $1.71. They did have one of the big video blackjack machines with the requisite buxom beauty. I played my $10 and won again (I think I’m 3-0 with these machines).
The next stop was mentioned in the AMG and is called the Western Village. I put the address into Milly who sent over to an area of Sparks I hadn’t been to before. It didn’t take me long to realize I just walked into a Peppermill owned property. Once again, the neon was everywhere. My blackjack bet was a winner. I picked up a slot card because I found one bank of machines that had some great video poker schedules: 10/7 double bonus with progressives on the Aces, straight flushes, and royals; 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe with the same progressives; and NSUD. It was just too good to pass up. My favorite game is full pay Bonus Poker Deluxe (any quad is worth $100 at the quarter level), so I put in a hundred. It took awhile, but I managed quad kings. I tried and tried to hit again, but was satisfied to take out a $25 profit and head out. If I lived in Reno, this would be my place of choice.
Looking at the outside of Western Village, it's hard to believe this is the inside
Next on the list was the Alamo Truck Stop and Casino. This place is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a truck stop, but the casino surprisingly had three blackjack tables. I played my ten bucks and won again (a bit of winning streak lately at blackjack). There really wasn’t much more to see here as it was small, the machines were poor, but I’m sure the free shower for truckers is a nice lure.
The oddest truck stop you're likely to see
It was time to go to the big daddy of Sparks, John Ascuagas’ The Nugget. It doesn’t quite have the flair of the Wynn, name wise, but if you have the dough to buy a place like this and want your name on it, why not? This is a very large casino and hotel. On this day, as I walked in I noticed quite a few blind people (seeing impaired—whatever the PC name for it is) walking with the white canes, the companion dogs, and people escorting them—and I mean a lot of people. There was, indeed, a convention for the blind going on. Now, I only mention this because I want to report just how amazing the staff was with these folks as I walked around. At a Starbucks outlet, the clerk walked around the counter to assist one person to a table with his coffee. At the blackjack table I played, the dealer though giving our two cards down, gave the blind player his cards up, then told the player what he had and what card she had showing, then did whatever decision the player made. And one of the most caring things I witnessed was a staff member following a blind customer with her companion dog outside for the dog to do its business on the lawn and the staff member did the cleaning up. So, I give major kudos to the staff and management, who obviously versed and trained everyone how to handle this group. Oh yes, I won my blackjack game, but lost $50 playing Pick ‘em poker.
Just down the street a few miles in a more depressed part of town is Terribles Rail City. This is really a barn casino, which is just one big floor of machines and tables. I didn’t particularly like anything about this place other than the fact I was dealt a blackjack on my bet for a $15 win.
A place only the pigeons could love
It was after 6 PM and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I only had one more place to visit and it was close to Harrahs, so I parked in the parking garage, put my stuff in the room and walked down a few blocks to the Sands Regency. This hotel was the first place I stayed at many years ago on my first trip to Reno. The one thing that stands out here is that their rooms are huge. My sister recently stayed here and said they were the same. The casino is now managed by Terribles and has the usual low paying machines. I was put off by some guy who appeared quite clean, somewhat well dressed, holding a man’s purse who walked up to me and asked me for forty cents. What? Something didn’t ring right, so I just walked away. To make things worse, my blackjack bet was a loser.
For dinner, I walked into the small Nugget and ordered a hot pastrami sandwich and took it back to my room to watch the end of the home run derby. Some have asked how my regular gambling is going on this trip. I mentioned it a few times here and there what I’ve done, but the focus of this trip is not my gambling, which I’m keeping down to a minimum. However, I do occasionally play if I have the itch. How’s it going? Not great, not too bad. You’ll note there have been no pictures of any royals or other jackpots, and believe me, if I get one, I’ll take a pic of it. Outside of that, I am really enjoying this summer’s trip. I know for many the idea of just walking around a casino for no other reason than to look around sounds pretty boring, but I’m enjoying it a lot, especially new places I’ve not seen and occasionally I get a surprise like Baldini’s and the Western Village today.
Totals for trip: Casinos visited 118; Bets Balance + $146
More tomorrow
Today started off with listening to someone working on a room down the hall with a drill. Strange but then sleeping in late is not my usual thing either. I headed out of Harrahs in search for a Starbucks to turn in the yesterday’s journal. As much as I enjoy doing these journals every day, and as important it is for me to write, it does eat up a couple hours each day. That’s not a complaint, it simply is what it takes, and I have to plan my schedule with that in mind. I mention this because a couple of members have asked how I keep everything in order and remember it all. I take a little pocket spiral notebook with me and make a note at each place and how the bet turned out and any other small information that I might want to remember when I write the report. However, as most of you that contribute to this blog write your trip report at the end of it, my trips are SO long that I’d forget many of the smaller details and my thought process at the time, so I write them each day. I’ve taken some of my notes out took a picture of them.
Mr. Penmanship, I am not
Today’s quest is to finish up with all the casinos in the Reno valley and Sparks, a neighboring community just a few miles west. The weather today is perfect at 82 degrees, a far cry from Las Vegas and Laughlin. I still think of the trivia question: which is further west, San Diego or Reno? And of course the answer is Reno. The one downside to their weather here is that they do get high winds that come off the Sierra Mountains and whip things up here. My first stop was the Peppermill. This is a favorite place for a lot of people. It’s famous for its never-ending neon everywhere. I do find it beautiful though I find it a little too dark at times. I finally (and it took some effort and many wrong turns) found the table games and was greeted with another double down possibility holding ten with the dealers 3 showing. I held my breath after getting a 2 for my card, but the dealer still busted out, so a nice $20 win. After walking around a bit, I actually got a little lost and couldn’t find the door I walked in, so I found the first door I could and walked around the building to my car. I suppose I just stay here some day, so I could get used to the “lay of the land” of this place.
This is just ONE room of the neon jungle
Across the street is the other large hotel/casino in the valley called Atlantis. The one thing that I find interesting here is what they did with the walkway that goes across the street from the parking lot to the casino. They went to the extreme here, and not only put the requisite slot machines, but they also put in a full scale sushi bar and oyster bar. I thought it was a really good use of space and something different. My blackjack bet turned good once again with a win.
Sushi bar on the walkway, the oysbar is on the other side
West about five miles from the Atlantis is the Grand Sierra. I’ve told this story before so I won’t go too much into details. But back in my band days (in the mid 80s), we were paid to drive from San Diego to this place, then called the Reno Hilton, given rooms and paid very well for a convention banquet, which after the awards were given out, we were set to play for four hours of dancing. However, everyone seemed to want to go gamble, not dance to a band. After about two hours, we were thanked and said we could go enjoy the place. Anyway, as I approached the back part of the property, I noticed a huge cement pond/lake. I drove around and was surprised to find that this was a golfing range called an aquarange. The little islands you see have prizes that if your ball (I suppose their marked in some way) lands in a barrel on one of the islands, you win a corresponding prize, which according the board, was anything from a free meal, to a free basket of balls, all the way to a trip to Hawaii on the furthest island. The board also had ten names of members who have won that prize. My guess is that at the bottom on this lake, the cement floor is graded in such as way so the balls will eventually roll down to a collecting point—ingenious.
FORE!!!
The hotel itself is huge. It has a very nice shopping area on the bottom floor along with a bowling alley, theaters, and fast food places. Upstairs the casino is massive. This place has struggled in the past and I’m not sure how well they’re doing now, but the remodeling has been done very nicely. I went against the grain and tried my bet at roulette this time with ten dollars on red—wrong. However, I did play Lord of the Rings and walked off with a $60 profit. Props to LVA member JM (noahcat), who told me she liked the pony prance bonus round, which I began playing again and it has been the most consistent winning bonus of all of them. Thanks!
I headed into Sparks when I came to a corner with a place I hadn’t heard of before called Baldini’s Casino. It’s not listed in the American Casinos Guide (I’m finding a quite a few that aren’t), so I made a U-turn and went inside to check it out. I might mention that many times when I want to take the pic of a place for this report, I try my best to get both the front signage with the building behind it. In order to do this, many times I have to walk across the street or to a center medium of the road. This time I walked over to the cemented medium to get this pic. Some wise guy, while I was taking the pic, blew his horn right behind me and scared the hell out of me. I just turned and said, “Good one, you got me.”
When I walked inside, I was impressed not only how large this place was, but how many people were here playing not only at a sports book, but at the machines. I’m thinking to myself that it’s a Monday. Does no one work? What makes this place so popular? It didn’t take me long to find out. They have a grill here that serves the usual dogs and burgers, but not only is the food grilled to order, it’s amazingly cheap. It was lunch time, so I ordered a hot dog basket, which included a quarter pound grilled dog and a massive heap of fries. Soft drinks are free with the purchase. How much? $1.71. They did have one of the big video blackjack machines with the requisite buxom beauty. I played my $10 and won again (I think I’m 3-0 with these machines).
The next stop was mentioned in the AMG and is called the Western Village. I put the address into Milly who sent over to an area of Sparks I hadn’t been to before. It didn’t take me long to realize I just walked into a Peppermill owned property. Once again, the neon was everywhere. My blackjack bet was a winner. I picked up a slot card because I found one bank of machines that had some great video poker schedules: 10/7 double bonus with progressives on the Aces, straight flushes, and royals; 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe with the same progressives; and NSUD. It was just too good to pass up. My favorite game is full pay Bonus Poker Deluxe (any quad is worth $100 at the quarter level), so I put in a hundred. It took awhile, but I managed quad kings. I tried and tried to hit again, but was satisfied to take out a $25 profit and head out. If I lived in Reno, this would be my place of choice.
Looking at the outside of Western Village, it's hard to believe this is the inside
Next on the list was the Alamo Truck Stop and Casino. This place is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a truck stop, but the casino surprisingly had three blackjack tables. I played my ten bucks and won again (a bit of winning streak lately at blackjack). There really wasn’t much more to see here as it was small, the machines were poor, but I’m sure the free shower for truckers is a nice lure.
The oddest truck stop you're likely to see
It was time to go to the big daddy of Sparks, John Ascuagas’ The Nugget. It doesn’t quite have the flair of the Wynn, name wise, but if you have the dough to buy a place like this and want your name on it, why not? This is a very large casino and hotel. On this day, as I walked in I noticed quite a few blind people (seeing impaired—whatever the PC name for it is) walking with the white canes, the companion dogs, and people escorting them—and I mean a lot of people. There was, indeed, a convention for the blind going on. Now, I only mention this because I want to report just how amazing the staff was with these folks as I walked around. At a Starbucks outlet, the clerk walked around the counter to assist one person to a table with his coffee. At the blackjack table I played, the dealer though giving our two cards down, gave the blind player his cards up, then told the player what he had and what card she had showing, then did whatever decision the player made. And one of the most caring things I witnessed was a staff member following a blind customer with her companion dog outside for the dog to do its business on the lawn and the staff member did the cleaning up. So, I give major kudos to the staff and management, who obviously versed and trained everyone how to handle this group. Oh yes, I won my blackjack game, but lost $50 playing Pick ‘em poker.
Just down the street a few miles in a more depressed part of town is Terribles Rail City. This is really a barn casino, which is just one big floor of machines and tables. I didn’t particularly like anything about this place other than the fact I was dealt a blackjack on my bet for a $15 win.
A place only the pigeons could love
It was after 6 PM and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I only had one more place to visit and it was close to Harrahs, so I parked in the parking garage, put my stuff in the room and walked down a few blocks to the Sands Regency. This hotel was the first place I stayed at many years ago on my first trip to Reno. The one thing that stands out here is that their rooms are huge. My sister recently stayed here and said they were the same. The casino is now managed by Terribles and has the usual low paying machines. I was put off by some guy who appeared quite clean, somewhat well dressed, holding a man’s purse who walked up to me and asked me for forty cents. What? Something didn’t ring right, so I just walked away. To make things worse, my blackjack bet was a loser.
For dinner, I walked into the small Nugget and ordered a hot pastrami sandwich and took it back to my room to watch the end of the home run derby. Some have asked how my regular gambling is going on this trip. I mentioned it a few times here and there what I’ve done, but the focus of this trip is not my gambling, which I’m keeping down to a minimum. However, I do occasionally play if I have the itch. How’s it going? Not great, not too bad. You’ll note there have been no pictures of any royals or other jackpots, and believe me, if I get one, I’ll take a pic of it. Outside of that, I am really enjoying this summer’s trip. I know for many the idea of just walking around a casino for no other reason than to look around sounds pretty boring, but I’m enjoying it a lot, especially new places I’ve not seen and occasionally I get a surprise like Baldini’s and the Western Village today.
Totals for trip: Casinos visited 118; Bets Balance + $146
More tomorrow
