Saturday 10/6 Flew on Southwest Airlines out of Manchester NH. They have done away with all the direct flights, so we had a layover in Baltimore. It made for a very long plane ride, as we were not able to leave the plane. Many people were on the entire leg of the journey, which made getting into the bathroom during the wait time near impossible.
Arrived at McCarron airport, had carry on bags so no wait for luggage this trip. Took the car shuttle over to Payless. The only car rental with a line! After ½ hour in line, I walked over to the empty Budget counter and asked how much for a car. I had booked Payless at 198.00 for the week. Budget quoted me $350. For the same amount of time. No thanks, got back in line with hubby and waited. The line was not all that long, but the wait was 45 minutes. They are so involved with trying to see you all the add on, it’s unreal. Finally we found our car, a very nice Nissan Versa with 5000 miles on it. I was happy as I own a Toyota Corolla and this is the same size, which made driving and parking a breeze for me. I have to make mention here that the boothling tried his best to sell me different types of insurance to cover the car – even telling me that even though my personal auto insurance would cover collision, if the car was damaged, I would be liable for up to 90 days of rental fees while it was repaired. I left feeling very uneasy.
On to Palace Station to begin our 2 night stay there. Threw the bags into the room, and ran down to the casino…….let the playing begin. Now, we live on the east coast, so the 11:30 pm check in was really 2:30 Am our time. We played our favorite game – video keno, until 5 AM our time when we had to crawl back to the room for some much needed sleep. My best hit on Saturday was 6/7 for $200 I went to bed $200 ahead.
Sunday started with breakfast in the Café at Palace Station. Always a good choice. We both had the skillet breakfasts with eggs, sausage, hash browns and white toast. And coffee, lots and lots of coffee. Then to the casino to play more video keno. Some penny machine was offering a progressive of $26,000 for hitting 10/10 for 40 pennies. We tried it, of course didn’t win. But then I changed to 7 numbers and hit for $134 so it wasn’t a total loss. I also played some penny machines here and there, but did nothing on them.
Jumped in the car and off to Texas Station to try our luck there. Hubby likes that casino, I once hit 9/9 for nickels and cashed out a grand. I haven’t done a thing there since. I believe they got their grand back by now. I got tired of losing there, so we headed down the road to the Orleans. Hubby parked himself at the bar, watching the Patriots game – go Pats!!! They won J Lots of people at the Orleans in their football shirts. Seems everywhere was offering $1 beers and $1 hotdogs in the sports book area. None for me, thanks – up the escalator I ran, heading to the movie theatre to get some nice fresh popcorn. I played some video keno at the bar, and then moved on to video poker. Bonus poker was 7/5 at the bar.
Back to Palace Station to head to the buffet. We had looked at the Orleans buffet, huge line, not into waiting in line these days. No line at Palace station, food was good, hot, plentiful, sliced turkey and ham at the carving stations. Some german type food for Octoberfest was available. Their buffet is okay, nothing to write home about, 10.99 for the 2 of us with MRB coupon. Went back to video keno, and hit 6/6 for $400. 8 PM Vegas time is 11 PM our time, heading to the room to get some needed sleep. Beds are comfy and pillows are plump! Tomorrow we drive to Laughlin for a 1 night stay at the Aquarius.
Monday – We leave Palace station and head down the long road of route 95 to Laughlin. We have visited Laughlin before, but always for a day trip. I thought it might be nice to stay one night there and see if maybe it would bring us some luck. Driving through the desert we were shocked to see some actual water in the usually dry lake beds. I knew Las Vegas had gotten some rain, and was surprised that it was still sitting out there in the desert. Had an uneventful drive – knew that the speed trap was coming and was prepared for it, and drove the required 25 mph through the little town of Searchlight.
Check in at the Aquarius was very easy as it was really dead there. We were given a high corner room – rate booked on line was 24.00 for the night! Lovely view of the river, watched the water taxi boats for a bit and headed down to the casino.
John played on his video keno machine for a long long time on his first 20 dollars. I fed bill after bill into every keno and poker machine I tried. No luck at all! I walked over to check out the buffet to see what they had to offer. I believe it was 15.95 per person, and on Monday night, it offered 2 beers and/or 2 wines or frozen margaritas per person. The food was okay, nothing special. I did get a margarita, which was so very tart, I could not really drink it. I would not do that again.
We walked outside, watching the people on the water in their waterjets and on the boats as they went by. Lots of birds making lots of noises in the trees. We walked up and down the river walk, in and out of the casinos as we went along, playing a little here and there, but mostly just enjoying the change of scenery. There were signs posted everywhere – do not feed the birds.
Early to bed, as neither of us were hitting on their machines, and it was nice to relax and just look out over the river and at the limited neon signs of the hotels in Laughlin.
Tuesday – Neither of us felt like a huge breakfast so we went to McDonalds for a quickie breakfast meal. We had food left over, and being the animal lover that I am, I just had to wrap my biscuit in a napkin and head outside to feed the loud birds. As I began to toss the crumbs on the ground, from out of nowhere came 4 small wild cats. They attacked the bread like they had not eaten since forever. That made me really sad. They must live in the garage next to the Aquarius Casino. Luckily they would not get close to us, or I would have probably come home with 4 cats. Time to leave so we got the car from valet, and drove down the street to the Pioneer casino. Hubby has always liked this place (he’s a country boy – think John Boy Walton). We played here for a long time, each donating 20.00 to the tiny little casino.
Drive back to Vegas was easy, little traffic, one police officer waiting for us in Searchlight, easy to wave to him at 25 miles an hour J. Stopped at the little convenience store there, and was amused that all their snacks were hot – as in spicy. Spicy chips, spicy Doritos, spicy sausages, spicy Fritos – all spicy. John stuck with M& Ms as he does not do spicy. I got some munchies cheese curl things; hit the spot for the drive back.
Check in at the Rio, and got a room in the Masquerade tower. We have never stayed at the Rio before, and our room overlooked the front of the building, facing the Palms to the right and Luxor to the left of us. I did like the windows, floor to ceiling. I liked the Keurig coffee maker, and they leave you one single K cup. More in the honor bar, for 8.00 for 3 of them – are you kidding me???? They sold K cups in the store at the bottom of our elevators for 99 cents each and that’s where I bought them.
We walked around the casino for a bit, trying to find our way. We discovered the only video keno machines we could find were at the keno parlor. We both began to play, John hitting $100 here and there and I found a 6/6 for $400 which was nice.
I had been to the Rio on several occasions, and didn’t remember that they only do the sky show on weekend nights – beginning on Thursdays. So that made the casino very dull. They did have a good crowd there, much larger than the crowds in Laughlin and about the same amount as at Palace Station, which draws a large local crowd.
We decided to just stay at the Rio and keep playing there for the night. For dinner we used the MRB coupon for the Carnival Buffet. I really enjoyed that, everything was fresh and there was certainly a lot to choose from.! After some more uneventful play, we headed to bed. The bed (king size) was very comfy. In fact, all our beds were comfy this trip, and I slept like I was dead.
Arrived at McCarron airport, had carry on bags so no wait for luggage this trip. Took the car shuttle over to Payless. The only car rental with a line! After ½ hour in line, I walked over to the empty Budget counter and asked how much for a car. I had booked Payless at 198.00 for the week. Budget quoted me $350. For the same amount of time. No thanks, got back in line with hubby and waited. The line was not all that long, but the wait was 45 minutes. They are so involved with trying to see you all the add on, it’s unreal. Finally we found our car, a very nice Nissan Versa with 5000 miles on it. I was happy as I own a Toyota Corolla and this is the same size, which made driving and parking a breeze for me. I have to make mention here that the boothling tried his best to sell me different types of insurance to cover the car – even telling me that even though my personal auto insurance would cover collision, if the car was damaged, I would be liable for up to 90 days of rental fees while it was repaired. I left feeling very uneasy.
On to Palace Station to begin our 2 night stay there. Threw the bags into the room, and ran down to the casino…….let the playing begin. Now, we live on the east coast, so the 11:30 pm check in was really 2:30 Am our time. We played our favorite game – video keno, until 5 AM our time when we had to crawl back to the room for some much needed sleep. My best hit on Saturday was 6/7 for $200 I went to bed $200 ahead.
Sunday started with breakfast in the Café at Palace Station. Always a good choice. We both had the skillet breakfasts with eggs, sausage, hash browns and white toast. And coffee, lots and lots of coffee. Then to the casino to play more video keno. Some penny machine was offering a progressive of $26,000 for hitting 10/10 for 40 pennies. We tried it, of course didn’t win. But then I changed to 7 numbers and hit for $134 so it wasn’t a total loss. I also played some penny machines here and there, but did nothing on them.
Jumped in the car and off to Texas Station to try our luck there. Hubby likes that casino, I once hit 9/9 for nickels and cashed out a grand. I haven’t done a thing there since. I believe they got their grand back by now. I got tired of losing there, so we headed down the road to the Orleans. Hubby parked himself at the bar, watching the Patriots game – go Pats!!! They won J Lots of people at the Orleans in their football shirts. Seems everywhere was offering $1 beers and $1 hotdogs in the sports book area. None for me, thanks – up the escalator I ran, heading to the movie theatre to get some nice fresh popcorn. I played some video keno at the bar, and then moved on to video poker. Bonus poker was 7/5 at the bar.
Back to Palace Station to head to the buffet. We had looked at the Orleans buffet, huge line, not into waiting in line these days. No line at Palace station, food was good, hot, plentiful, sliced turkey and ham at the carving stations. Some german type food for Octoberfest was available. Their buffet is okay, nothing to write home about, 10.99 for the 2 of us with MRB coupon. Went back to video keno, and hit 6/6 for $400. 8 PM Vegas time is 11 PM our time, heading to the room to get some needed sleep. Beds are comfy and pillows are plump! Tomorrow we drive to Laughlin for a 1 night stay at the Aquarius.
Monday – We leave Palace station and head down the long road of route 95 to Laughlin. We have visited Laughlin before, but always for a day trip. I thought it might be nice to stay one night there and see if maybe it would bring us some luck. Driving through the desert we were shocked to see some actual water in the usually dry lake beds. I knew Las Vegas had gotten some rain, and was surprised that it was still sitting out there in the desert. Had an uneventful drive – knew that the speed trap was coming and was prepared for it, and drove the required 25 mph through the little town of Searchlight.
Check in at the Aquarius was very easy as it was really dead there. We were given a high corner room – rate booked on line was 24.00 for the night! Lovely view of the river, watched the water taxi boats for a bit and headed down to the casino.
John played on his video keno machine for a long long time on his first 20 dollars. I fed bill after bill into every keno and poker machine I tried. No luck at all! I walked over to check out the buffet to see what they had to offer. I believe it was 15.95 per person, and on Monday night, it offered 2 beers and/or 2 wines or frozen margaritas per person. The food was okay, nothing special. I did get a margarita, which was so very tart, I could not really drink it. I would not do that again.
We walked outside, watching the people on the water in their waterjets and on the boats as they went by. Lots of birds making lots of noises in the trees. We walked up and down the river walk, in and out of the casinos as we went along, playing a little here and there, but mostly just enjoying the change of scenery. There were signs posted everywhere – do not feed the birds.
Early to bed, as neither of us were hitting on their machines, and it was nice to relax and just look out over the river and at the limited neon signs of the hotels in Laughlin.
Tuesday – Neither of us felt like a huge breakfast so we went to McDonalds for a quickie breakfast meal. We had food left over, and being the animal lover that I am, I just had to wrap my biscuit in a napkin and head outside to feed the loud birds. As I began to toss the crumbs on the ground, from out of nowhere came 4 small wild cats. They attacked the bread like they had not eaten since forever. That made me really sad. They must live in the garage next to the Aquarius Casino. Luckily they would not get close to us, or I would have probably come home with 4 cats. Time to leave so we got the car from valet, and drove down the street to the Pioneer casino. Hubby has always liked this place (he’s a country boy – think John Boy Walton). We played here for a long time, each donating 20.00 to the tiny little casino.
Drive back to Vegas was easy, little traffic, one police officer waiting for us in Searchlight, easy to wave to him at 25 miles an hour J. Stopped at the little convenience store there, and was amused that all their snacks were hot – as in spicy. Spicy chips, spicy Doritos, spicy sausages, spicy Fritos – all spicy. John stuck with M& Ms as he does not do spicy. I got some munchies cheese curl things; hit the spot for the drive back.
Check in at the Rio, and got a room in the Masquerade tower. We have never stayed at the Rio before, and our room overlooked the front of the building, facing the Palms to the right and Luxor to the left of us. I did like the windows, floor to ceiling. I liked the Keurig coffee maker, and they leave you one single K cup. More in the honor bar, for 8.00 for 3 of them – are you kidding me???? They sold K cups in the store at the bottom of our elevators for 99 cents each and that’s where I bought them.
We walked around the casino for a bit, trying to find our way. We discovered the only video keno machines we could find were at the keno parlor. We both began to play, John hitting $100 here and there and I found a 6/6 for $400 which was nice.
I had been to the Rio on several occasions, and didn’t remember that they only do the sky show on weekend nights – beginning on Thursdays. So that made the casino very dull. They did have a good crowd there, much larger than the crowds in Laughlin and about the same amount as at Palace Station, which draws a large local crowd.
We decided to just stay at the Rio and keep playing there for the night. For dinner we used the MRB coupon for the Carnival Buffet. I really enjoyed that, everything was fresh and there was certainly a lot to choose from.! After some more uneventful play, we headed to bed. The bed (king size) was very comfy. In fact, all our beds were comfy this trip, and I slept like I was dead.
