Summer of Tournaments – Day 35
It saddens me to leave this suite at Rio, especially knowing that the next three days are going to be spent at the Plaza, downtown. I checked out and had a $12.35 charge when I ordered my $32 room service breakfast yesterday, which she paid off with my reward credits. I think I need to remember that I can occasionally indulge with room service considering I have so much in reward credits.
First thing was to drive to Best Buy on Rainbow (a quick stop at Jack-in-the-box for some breakfast). Rainbow Ave is one of the longest streets in Las Vegas. It runs north and south and begins Tropicana and goes all the way to Craig. Along the route is one strip mall after another. You know a street is very long when you pass the fourth McDonald’s along the way. You might remember a couple of years ago (or was it last year?) that I stopped at one of these strip malls to check out this indoors Harley Davidson motorcycle dealership. It was huge and all indoors with hundreds and hundreds of hogs for sale along with everything else imaginable for motorcycle riders. Anyway, as I left there, I noticed a small shop in the shopping center that sold nothing by skulls. They weren’t open at the time I was there, but I took a picture and ran a caption about how any place could possibly stay in business selling nothing but skulls—I mean, just how many people are still into the whole punk thing anyway? Well, that store is gone and has been replaced by a beef jerky store.
The skull shop a year ago
\
A Jerky show today.
The story doesn’t end there. After taking the picture of the new Jerky store, I got back in my car and noticed a man coming out of the store, staring at me, and then approached the car. I rolled down my window and said, “Bet you’re wondering why I took a picture of the store.” He said he curious, so I told him about my blog and the whole skull store thing. His name was Bob and opened the jerky store four weeks ago, but I was wrong, the skull store was in the space to stores down, currently empty. And no, they didn’t go out of business, they moved to the Galleria Mall on the Strip. What?! We got into a long discussion about business being down and how tough it is for small stores to make it, but he did say his rent for this place was quite low. He has four other stores and thinks with Harley joint right there; it was appeal to same type of customer. Nice guy. He invited me in to try some jerky, but I don’t really eat it plus I was running late, I still needed to get to Best Buy. I told him another day.
Best Buy is past the 95 going north on Rainbow and I finally made there to buy a charger for my dad’s iphone as he left his at home. I bought and made my way back to the Orleans where I’m going to take my mom to the movies while my dad does his bowling tournament thing. My mom decided she wanted to see TAMMY (I had seen it in Tahoe), so we went up the escalators to the cinemas, got a kid’s pack of popcorn, a pack of DIPS ice cream (Mom loves them), and some water. She enjoyed the movie—didn’t love it—but it was a good way to while away a couple of hours in air conditioning. I walked her back to her room as she wanted to lay down for a while, I headed out to check into the Plaza.
Monday’s at the Orleans, if you put 300 points on your card, you get a gift (remember the colored bowls last week?). I sat down at the triple play for nickels and put on the necessary points (hit four quads, but still dropped $15—royals—where are you?). The gift today was a sports bag (not bad quality) and it went into the back of the car along with the bowls. I drove downtown and wanted to check into the valet, which used to be in the front of the hotel, now it’s on the far side. This is crazy, because after leaving my car with the valet, I had to walk my bags through the sportsbook and casino to go back to the front of the hotel where the check in line was at.
There was a huge line to check in, and my Caesars 7 Stars is no good here—but wait—there’s a sign that says Kings and Aces go to this line. Last year when I was still Diamond, the Plaza was offering a free upgrade to whatever level you held at another hotel, so I was still a King card holder and walked right up to the front desk. Very cool (though all the people waiting in the line didn’t think so). This is my first time staying at the Plaza. I assume because of the card upgrade, they sent me three free nights and I had the dates to fill. This will most likely be the only time I stay here as I don’t plan and playing here very much (terrible video poker schedules) and I’m just not a big fan of the place. But free is free, so here I am.
If you haven’t heard the story, the huge Fontainebleau hotel being built here went bankrupt and still stands today, an empty shell. Well, when they went under, the new owner of the Plaza offered to buy a lot of the furniture that had already been delivered to the Fontainebleau. So, though the Plaza is pretty much a B-rated hotel, the furniture is supposedly pretty nice. My room is on the 11th floor and facing the west, and yes, the train tracks are directly below. I expect to hear them roaring by every night.
[]
The bedroom. Bed is a little stiff but I know there’s many who like that
The bathroom is as expected, very small, but they did the best they could
Possibly the most uncomfortable couch (love seat?) I’ve ever sat upon.
There is no coffee maker, but the ice machine is only a couple doors away. The TV is nice and the best surprise is the free and strong band Internet. All in all, not a bad room, but I’ll fill you in.
I picked up my car from the valet (they park the cars outside, so I’ll be using the self-parking for now on). I drove back to the Orleans to meet my parents and my step-sister for dinner at TGIFriday. It was an interesting item on the menu that caught my attention. A rack of baby back ribs cost $20.45 and the next page a rack of baby ribs and shrimp cost $21.95. Really? A plate of shrimp (there were about 10) for a dollar more. My dad and I went for the ribs and shrimp and it was a terrific dinner. We set up our time to meet tomorrow for another movie and called it a night.
For the next couple of days while my parents are in town, I won’t be participating in any tournaments though the Plaza offers one at 7 PM. However, they use dealerless poker tables (big video screens deals the cards) and that’s not anything I’m interested in.
More tomorrow
Totals:
Tournaments: 22 Cost: $213 Won: $2150 Balance: $1837
It saddens me to leave this suite at Rio, especially knowing that the next three days are going to be spent at the Plaza, downtown. I checked out and had a $12.35 charge when I ordered my $32 room service breakfast yesterday, which she paid off with my reward credits. I think I need to remember that I can occasionally indulge with room service considering I have so much in reward credits.
First thing was to drive to Best Buy on Rainbow (a quick stop at Jack-in-the-box for some breakfast). Rainbow Ave is one of the longest streets in Las Vegas. It runs north and south and begins Tropicana and goes all the way to Craig. Along the route is one strip mall after another. You know a street is very long when you pass the fourth McDonald’s along the way. You might remember a couple of years ago (or was it last year?) that I stopped at one of these strip malls to check out this indoors Harley Davidson motorcycle dealership. It was huge and all indoors with hundreds and hundreds of hogs for sale along with everything else imaginable for motorcycle riders. Anyway, as I left there, I noticed a small shop in the shopping center that sold nothing by skulls. They weren’t open at the time I was there, but I took a picture and ran a caption about how any place could possibly stay in business selling nothing but skulls—I mean, just how many people are still into the whole punk thing anyway? Well, that store is gone and has been replaced by a beef jerky store.
The skull shop a year ago
\A Jerky show today.
The story doesn’t end there. After taking the picture of the new Jerky store, I got back in my car and noticed a man coming out of the store, staring at me, and then approached the car. I rolled down my window and said, “Bet you’re wondering why I took a picture of the store.” He said he curious, so I told him about my blog and the whole skull store thing. His name was Bob and opened the jerky store four weeks ago, but I was wrong, the skull store was in the space to stores down, currently empty. And no, they didn’t go out of business, they moved to the Galleria Mall on the Strip. What?! We got into a long discussion about business being down and how tough it is for small stores to make it, but he did say his rent for this place was quite low. He has four other stores and thinks with Harley joint right there; it was appeal to same type of customer. Nice guy. He invited me in to try some jerky, but I don’t really eat it plus I was running late, I still needed to get to Best Buy. I told him another day.
Best Buy is past the 95 going north on Rainbow and I finally made there to buy a charger for my dad’s iphone as he left his at home. I bought and made my way back to the Orleans where I’m going to take my mom to the movies while my dad does his bowling tournament thing. My mom decided she wanted to see TAMMY (I had seen it in Tahoe), so we went up the escalators to the cinemas, got a kid’s pack of popcorn, a pack of DIPS ice cream (Mom loves them), and some water. She enjoyed the movie—didn’t love it—but it was a good way to while away a couple of hours in air conditioning. I walked her back to her room as she wanted to lay down for a while, I headed out to check into the Plaza.
Monday’s at the Orleans, if you put 300 points on your card, you get a gift (remember the colored bowls last week?). I sat down at the triple play for nickels and put on the necessary points (hit four quads, but still dropped $15—royals—where are you?). The gift today was a sports bag (not bad quality) and it went into the back of the car along with the bowls. I drove downtown and wanted to check into the valet, which used to be in the front of the hotel, now it’s on the far side. This is crazy, because after leaving my car with the valet, I had to walk my bags through the sportsbook and casino to go back to the front of the hotel where the check in line was at.
There was a huge line to check in, and my Caesars 7 Stars is no good here—but wait—there’s a sign that says Kings and Aces go to this line. Last year when I was still Diamond, the Plaza was offering a free upgrade to whatever level you held at another hotel, so I was still a King card holder and walked right up to the front desk. Very cool (though all the people waiting in the line didn’t think so). This is my first time staying at the Plaza. I assume because of the card upgrade, they sent me three free nights and I had the dates to fill. This will most likely be the only time I stay here as I don’t plan and playing here very much (terrible video poker schedules) and I’m just not a big fan of the place. But free is free, so here I am.
If you haven’t heard the story, the huge Fontainebleau hotel being built here went bankrupt and still stands today, an empty shell. Well, when they went under, the new owner of the Plaza offered to buy a lot of the furniture that had already been delivered to the Fontainebleau. So, though the Plaza is pretty much a B-rated hotel, the furniture is supposedly pretty nice. My room is on the 11th floor and facing the west, and yes, the train tracks are directly below. I expect to hear them roaring by every night.
[]
The bedroom. Bed is a little stiff but I know there’s many who like that
The bathroom is as expected, very small, but they did the best they could
Possibly the most uncomfortable couch (love seat?) I’ve ever sat upon.
There is no coffee maker, but the ice machine is only a couple doors away. The TV is nice and the best surprise is the free and strong band Internet. All in all, not a bad room, but I’ll fill you in.
I picked up my car from the valet (they park the cars outside, so I’ll be using the self-parking for now on). I drove back to the Orleans to meet my parents and my step-sister for dinner at TGIFriday. It was an interesting item on the menu that caught my attention. A rack of baby back ribs cost $20.45 and the next page a rack of baby ribs and shrimp cost $21.95. Really? A plate of shrimp (there were about 10) for a dollar more. My dad and I went for the ribs and shrimp and it was a terrific dinner. We set up our time to meet tomorrow for another movie and called it a night.
For the next couple of days while my parents are in town, I won’t be participating in any tournaments though the Plaza offers one at 7 PM. However, they use dealerless poker tables (big video screens deals the cards) and that’s not anything I’m interested in.
More tomorrow
Totals:
Tournaments: 22 Cost: $213 Won: $2150 Balance: $1837
