Silverton TR 1-14-19

Yes, I think Lorraine is still there. Does she have short brown hair and wears glasses.

drmilled, if you think that tip is fine, it doesn't bother me. However, when you work in the industry, it's customary to "throw off" a little extra when you hit something "special". I wouldn't dare give less than a $200 tip to the bartender, and that doesn't even include what I would give to the people that paid me off...usually $100 a piece. Singer believes in not giving anything to anyone. But that's his position not mine.

I'm going to update the, "Guess Who's In Jail"thread as there's been some changes in Star's life.

Did you get the free play after talking to your host? or did miss it?

BTW, great report, I have not been there in awhile, thanks for the updates.

Before I continue with the VP nonsense, I want to tell you about the car I rented from Avis. I used to get the different Cadillacs...CTS...STS...but since I rented a Lincoln MK-S, that is now my car of choice. At times, you can get an upgraded car for a small amount of change if you just look at the rates available. For example, years ago I went to the Avis site and was automatically going to select a mid size car. I was ready to click on that car as my choice, when I looked further down the list and saw a full size Mercury Marquis for only $20 more for the week. Heck, for less than $3 a day, you could have all the comfort and trunk space you could ever need. And believe me, the gas mileage isn't that much different.

So since I've been a steady customer at Avis and I'm an "Avis First" member, I get a good rate on a Luxury car. When you go to make a reservation on the Avis website, they don't even offer the Luxury car...at least in San Diego they don't. They started this policy several years ago when the economy tanked and they started selling off all their luxury cars and SUV's. But when I made a reservation, I would make it for a full size car, and the agent would adjust it up to a Luxury car. She give me a rate of $341 for the week, and with taxes and such, it brings it up to $383.

But two weeks ago, before I even thought about making this trip, I guy from the Avis sales department gives me a call and wants to know why I haven't been renting cars lately. Last time I rented one was our last trip to Vegas which was in May. Well we talked a little bit and I told him that I had a problem back in Aug. 2011, but I really couldn't talk to him about it right now and I'd call him back. He told me he would email me some coupons and to get back to him ASAP. That was the time that Sharlene got the car impounded in Barstow. Tonyrob pay attention!

So he emails me some coupons, and I had already gotten coupons from "Avis First" for FREE weekend rentals for 2 days a piece. So we're getting ready to pick up the car and I realize that I never did get back to this guy, and just maybe he could do something for me as far as a discount for this trip. Heck, it never hurts to ask. So I give the guy a call, and start explaing the situation from Aug. 2011. After I told him the story, he said that he didn't deal with those problems and to call customer service and go over it with them. I then told him I had already rented a car for our trip and could he do anything for me TODAY!!! Sure enough, he gives me a rental code to give to the agent to get $50 off. Cha-ching! Wonderbar!

We then head down to the rental office downtown....but not at the airport where they hit you for extra taxes....and I head into the office. The car I wanted had been there almost a week, and the agent had saved it for me knowing I would be in sooner or later. Matter of fact, the Avis airport location had just called her that morning to see if they could take the car back for rental. No way Jose! My agent always looks out for me, and this rental was no different. So I give her the coupon code and she plugs it into the PC, and sure enough it takes off $50 from my tab. She looks up at me and says she had never seen anyone get $50 off before on an already discounted price and who did I know. I'll never tell!

She had the helper bring the car up to the entrance and the car was supposed to be silver. But the car looked white. Guess the sun must have been hitting it at a different angle as, sure enough, the car was silver. I walked out to examine the car with her as it had some minor scratches that I had to sign off for before I took the car.

These cars have no ignition keys, and only have a "fob" which has controls for locking and unlocking the doors and trunk. It also had a button that you could push to start the car remotely before you were in the car. When I entered the car and started it....you just push a button...the dashboard "exploded" with light. It had a monitor in the middle of the dash, and it let me know that it had a THX sound system. WOW! Even though I had driven these cars before, this was going to be a whole new experience. It was the latest model, and boy did they make some changes. The first thing I do when getting in a different car is to set the mirrors. I had to search for the controls that set the left and right side view mirrors. Well, that wasn't too hard, but what was to happen next was right out of....I don't know....Star Wars...Flash Gordon....whatever. The monitor had a few functions. Entertainment, Climate and believe it or not a rear view camera to let you see where you were going when you backed up. Now that was really cool! It was like a HD monitor showing you what was behind you. The side view mirrors also had a "warning" to tell you if someone was in the lane next to you to your left or right. Covered your ass for the "blind" spot! Really came in handy!

But this Entertainment/Climate monitor was really a bitch. Talk about texting while driving. I can imagine how many people have rented this car and gotten into accidents while screwing with these controls. Natrurally, I wanted to hear some music or at least sports talk radio while I'm driving back to the house to get packed. But, all these damn presets for the radio were set to Spanish radio stations. I couldn't find how you changed the darn channels. The monitor was "touch" sensitive, so you'd have to touch the screen to get anything done. But each time you touched the screen, it would go to another screen. At least I found the control on the screen for the heated seat and steering wheel as it was freezing in S.D. Driving up the freeway, I found myself swerving trying to get some music or sports on the radio. Screw this I thought, I'm not getting into an accident before my trip even started, so I looked for some sort of button that would finally shut the radio off. I found a control on the steering column that allowed me to lower the volume. I did that and pulled off on the shoulder of the freeway to see if I could gain any knowledge of how everything worked with this Entertainment/Climate control system. Now I'm not going to claim that I am totally PC savy, but I know I can work things out if given a certain amount of time. But this system was a total beatch. I mean I was ready to leave for Vegas and couldn't be screwing around with this system for hours at a time. It was already passed noon, and by the time I got home and loaded the car, we wouldn't get on the road until 2 pm. I figured a few things out and gave it the gas to get back on the freeway. VROOOOM came the sound from the dual exhausts. YEAH! That's what I mean.

Got home and we started to pack the car. I couldn't get on the road fast enough. I told Faye that whatever clothes she didn't wear, I was going to throw out, so we didn't have nearly the "load" that we would normally have on the trip. I get tired of seeing all these things packed in the suitcase or on hangers that NEVER get worn! I mean when it takes two carts from the bellman to get you to you room, you've over packed. And this time I was SURE that we weren't going to stay for more than the dates we had planned for....given a day or two. So we packed up and were finally on our way at 2:36 pm. That would make our ETA to Vegas about 6:36 pm according to the way I drive.

One change on this car were the shifting panels on the steering wheel. On the last car, there was only one control, and you had to shift the gearshift lever to manual in order to use it. But, in this car, there were two controls, one on each side of the steering wheel. One marked + on the right side, and one marked - on the left side of the wheel. This was a six speed automatic, and if you tapped the left side to downshift, the dashboard showed you were in 5th gear. Tap the right side and it upshifted to 6th gear. What a concept! Although I had this car for a week, it would take at least another week to "master" all the controls on this car. Believe me, I wish I could've kept it for another week like I usually do. But as strong as the horsepower that this car had, it still go 25 MPG. That's a real bonus.

When I got gas in Calif, I paid about $3.659 a gallon. Imagine my surprise that when we got to Vegas, gas was as low as $2.989 a gallon.

OK! Enough with the car. I'm getting tired about now as it's almost 11 pm and way past my bedtime, and I'll get back to the TR tomorrow. Stay tuned!

I don't get tipping everyone and their brother either, doesn't make any sense to me and I'm not a cheap person, I tip pretty generously for what I would say were customary tipping services IE,food and wait staff, cab drivers and others who have performed a service for me. I probably overtip actually. I don't see tipping someone who is just handing me my money as tippable just as I wouldn't tip the irs guy for handing me a refund check (if it were being handed to me in the IRS office) not tippable.
Now that person at avis who held the car for you for a week woulda been a very tippablte person. Did you tip them?(just curious)

J

Lorraine is the petite blonde with the cute Betty Boop voice

Actually, I never thought about tipping the Avis agent since she is the owner. Usually you don't tip an owner of the place since she is already making her profit by renting the car.

Yes that's what Lorraine looks like.

Hey Bags, are you finished with this report? I thought there was more...?

ROYAL time...

No...just the beginning! I just haven't had time to write the last two nights. I'll start writing again after work. About 4 pm pst.

OK! Back to the nitty gritty of the trip. It was Friday night and what was supposed to be the last night of the trip. We had invited her ex and her son and future daughter-in-law who is now pregnant with her son's child....a girl!

We all ate at the buffet and it sure was good even with missing the usual "goodies" of crab legs and Prime Rib. They substitute the PR with Baron of Beef, but nothing to substitute for the crab legs. But it was still good and everyone filled up on what there was. Naturally, the egg drop soup was the best there was and it tasted as good as usual.

After dinner, we headed for the Shady Groove Bar. We took the last two end seat on the left. The bar was pretty busy since they had that free concert in the Veil arena. We each slipped in a honey bee and started to to play! My machine was starting to rock and roll, and I almost immediately got 4 deuces for a $210 jackpot. Next thing I knew, I got 4 Kings, and almost immediately cashed out $300. But this was only the beginning of cashing out many TITOS for the night.

Faye decided to start to contribute and hit 4 Jacks, soon to be followed by 4 Fives. Aren't 4 fives really hard to hit? seems that way! But as soon as Faye hit her 4 fives, I came back with the same hand. Ain't that the nutz?

I was dying to hit the 4 Aces, and I just knew I was going to hit them sooner or later. It wasn't log before my wish came true! I got dealt 3 of them and the 4th one filled in on the draw! But I would need a lot more of them to get even. I really needed 4 Aces with a kicker to get me close to even. I prayed real hard that the Aces would appear DEALT, but that wasn't going to happen.But what did happen, was that 4 Deuces appeared on the draw, and a kicker filled in right behind it on the draw! Damn, that was cool, and we were then up to over $1300.

Faye kept on asking me for money to put away as we were on a winning streak! Everytime, I kept on giving her a $100 her and $200 there and $300 there. Next thing I knew, I didn't have much money left.But it was getting late, and her ex left and her son and GF stuck around to see how we did.

She would talk to them without playing while I played at full force.While I kept on hitting 4 OAK's, the money kept slipping away as it always does when you continue playing. I just kept on hitting 4 OAK's without any two coming in a timely manner when the first one hit! Finally, the bewitching hour hit (midnight) and it was time to go to bed. I had $500 left in my pocket to play the last day, and who knows what Faye had stashed away? As we headed to bed, I thought about coming down in the middle of the night and gambling my $500. Although even though I woke up at 2 am, I was in no mood to get dressed and go downstairs to gamble. I would wait for the morning.