Summer of Cal/Nev – Day 32
This morning was another packing up day and I simply move down the street to the Riverside for two nights, and then I will be right back here for another three night stay for the next poker tournament. I had reported earlier that this would finish up my Laughlin stays; however, that was wrong. After the next Vegas run, I come back here to the Riverside for a couple of days because from here I will be going to next set of casinos in California, which are in the Fresno area.
Today is one of those transitional days where there is really nothing planned other than the promise to see THE LONE RANGER with Martin. We were going to meet in front of the Riverside Cinema at noon, so I checked in at 11:00 after a stop at the Outlet Center to log in my trip report. I know that many of the readers of these reports catch up on them during work (I used to go through trip reports while students were takings quizzes and on state mandated test weeks), so there weren’t many replies or messages. It did read through the last few entries of Questions-of-the-Days and came across a couple of good ideas when I return to Vegas.
I should also update those who don’t get the Vegas news that the Mt. Charleston fire is 80% contained and they are allowing some of the residents to return to their homes. So, far 28,000 acres were lost and about 15 buildings—it wasn’t reported what kind of buildings, but no lives were lost and no reports of domestic animals lost as well. Considering the magnitude of the fire, all good news there. What really helped were the thunderstorms that drenched the area the past couple of days.
I had a little time to kill, so I had a seafood cocktail at the garage snack bar once again and played $5 in Keno breaking even. While I was playing, I looked to my left and saw a large stuffed animal dressed like a king sitting between some machines. It drew my attention because it seemed to have no reason to be there. It’s not a children’s area, there were no themed machines it might be promoting, and it just seemed totally out of place. I suppose I’ll never understand casino marketing.
Holding court at the garage casino at the Riverside
For those of you who haven’t been to Laughlin, the Riverside Hotel and Casino built a garage across the street so that people would have covered parking in the summer and then had the foresight to put in a small casino extension that has about a hundred machines and circular bar along with the snack bar. Go up the escalator and on the second floor there’s a Mexican restaurant (my parents claim it’s terrible, so I’ve never tried it) and then you take a covered bridge walkway over to the main casino. I mention all of this simply because I admire this one guy who saw a small little cubby hole across from the restaurant and just as you go across the bridge that had an electric outlet, so got the casino to rent it to him so he could sell and display his hobby of wood and metal insects and animals he calls Garden Critters. It’s really just the sort of thing you’d find at any craft fair, but I’ve always thought that was a pretty clever thing to do with an otherwise overlooked piece of real estate.
Garden Critters upstairs at the Garage casino at the Riverside
Though it was early, they did have a clean room for me in the South Tower. The rooms at the Riverside are your basic but clean variety; however, they are in bad need of modernizing and remodeling. There is still an old tube TV in the room, the carpet and furniture seems to have been here since the 70s. Isn’t it funny that I can sit here and complain about something that was given to me for free? However, this room does have great river view. I just open my curtains, pull the chair around and watch the activity of the river.
The obligatory pic of the Riverside room
A great view from the room--just across the little island is where they set up the July 4th fireworks
For people who come here and think about renting a water jet ski, I encourage you to shop around. Here’s what I’ve found: At the Colorado Belle, you can rent a Jet ski for $75 per hour, or $375 per day. Drive across the river and the Faststrip Gas Station rents the same Jet ski for $79 per day. I haven’t looked into the other hotels on this side of the river, but I’m confident they do the same kind of price gauging as the Belle.
Martin and I met up and watched the movie, which was 2 ½ hours (much too long) and as most know by now, it’s no cinematic masterpiece. They really “Disney-fied” it with comedy, which I did laugh a lot, but was an overall forgettable flick. The kid’s pack (what I usually buy) of popcorn, Coke Zero, and snack-size M&Ms was excellent!
Martin and I agreed to meet tomorrow for some more live poker at the Belle and he went back to the Edgewater where he’s staying. I played a little Keno and some other games here and there, but nothing worth mentioning and I broke even. The offer I’m using for this stay isn’t the monthly free rooms/free prime rib dinners/free breakfast buffets that I get (I’ll be using that one in later in the month), but a two night stay with a drawing for cash, which is on Thursdays. Okay, so it works this way: For taking advantage of the offer, you get some entries into the drawing, and then you can earn more entries at a rate of one entry per $100 played in the machines. I’m staying here on Monday and Tuesday nights…the drawing is on Thursday night. Does anyone else see the problem here? There’s nothing on the literature that says if you have to be present to win or not—but you usually do. We’ll see (or not, I am NEVER chosen for drawings—EVER).
I wish I had a more interesting day to report, but quite honestly, nothing very interesting happened. So aside from some observations here and there, this is a pretty lame report. That’s okay—there’s always going to be another one.
More tomorrow.
This morning was another packing up day and I simply move down the street to the Riverside for two nights, and then I will be right back here for another three night stay for the next poker tournament. I had reported earlier that this would finish up my Laughlin stays; however, that was wrong. After the next Vegas run, I come back here to the Riverside for a couple of days because from here I will be going to next set of casinos in California, which are in the Fresno area.
Today is one of those transitional days where there is really nothing planned other than the promise to see THE LONE RANGER with Martin. We were going to meet in front of the Riverside Cinema at noon, so I checked in at 11:00 after a stop at the Outlet Center to log in my trip report. I know that many of the readers of these reports catch up on them during work (I used to go through trip reports while students were takings quizzes and on state mandated test weeks), so there weren’t many replies or messages. It did read through the last few entries of Questions-of-the-Days and came across a couple of good ideas when I return to Vegas.
I should also update those who don’t get the Vegas news that the Mt. Charleston fire is 80% contained and they are allowing some of the residents to return to their homes. So, far 28,000 acres were lost and about 15 buildings—it wasn’t reported what kind of buildings, but no lives were lost and no reports of domestic animals lost as well. Considering the magnitude of the fire, all good news there. What really helped were the thunderstorms that drenched the area the past couple of days.
I had a little time to kill, so I had a seafood cocktail at the garage snack bar once again and played $5 in Keno breaking even. While I was playing, I looked to my left and saw a large stuffed animal dressed like a king sitting between some machines. It drew my attention because it seemed to have no reason to be there. It’s not a children’s area, there were no themed machines it might be promoting, and it just seemed totally out of place. I suppose I’ll never understand casino marketing.
Holding court at the garage casino at the Riverside
For those of you who haven’t been to Laughlin, the Riverside Hotel and Casino built a garage across the street so that people would have covered parking in the summer and then had the foresight to put in a small casino extension that has about a hundred machines and circular bar along with the snack bar. Go up the escalator and on the second floor there’s a Mexican restaurant (my parents claim it’s terrible, so I’ve never tried it) and then you take a covered bridge walkway over to the main casino. I mention all of this simply because I admire this one guy who saw a small little cubby hole across from the restaurant and just as you go across the bridge that had an electric outlet, so got the casino to rent it to him so he could sell and display his hobby of wood and metal insects and animals he calls Garden Critters. It’s really just the sort of thing you’d find at any craft fair, but I’ve always thought that was a pretty clever thing to do with an otherwise overlooked piece of real estate.
Garden Critters upstairs at the Garage casino at the Riverside
Though it was early, they did have a clean room for me in the South Tower. The rooms at the Riverside are your basic but clean variety; however, they are in bad need of modernizing and remodeling. There is still an old tube TV in the room, the carpet and furniture seems to have been here since the 70s. Isn’t it funny that I can sit here and complain about something that was given to me for free? However, this room does have great river view. I just open my curtains, pull the chair around and watch the activity of the river.
The obligatory pic of the Riverside room
A great view from the room--just across the little island is where they set up the July 4th fireworks
For people who come here and think about renting a water jet ski, I encourage you to shop around. Here’s what I’ve found: At the Colorado Belle, you can rent a Jet ski for $75 per hour, or $375 per day. Drive across the river and the Faststrip Gas Station rents the same Jet ski for $79 per day. I haven’t looked into the other hotels on this side of the river, but I’m confident they do the same kind of price gauging as the Belle.
Martin and I met up and watched the movie, which was 2 ½ hours (much too long) and as most know by now, it’s no cinematic masterpiece. They really “Disney-fied” it with comedy, which I did laugh a lot, but was an overall forgettable flick. The kid’s pack (what I usually buy) of popcorn, Coke Zero, and snack-size M&Ms was excellent!
Martin and I agreed to meet tomorrow for some more live poker at the Belle and he went back to the Edgewater where he’s staying. I played a little Keno and some other games here and there, but nothing worth mentioning and I broke even. The offer I’m using for this stay isn’t the monthly free rooms/free prime rib dinners/free breakfast buffets that I get (I’ll be using that one in later in the month), but a two night stay with a drawing for cash, which is on Thursdays. Okay, so it works this way: For taking advantage of the offer, you get some entries into the drawing, and then you can earn more entries at a rate of one entry per $100 played in the machines. I’m staying here on Monday and Tuesday nights…the drawing is on Thursday night. Does anyone else see the problem here? There’s nothing on the literature that says if you have to be present to win or not—but you usually do. We’ll see (or not, I am NEVER chosen for drawings—EVER).
I wish I had a more interesting day to report, but quite honestly, nothing very interesting happened. So aside from some observations here and there, this is a pretty lame report. That’s okay—there’s always going to be another one.
More tomorrow.
