Headed out of Atlanta Wednesday, US Air with upgrades to PHX and RNO. Good auspices for a fine trip.
Had a eye on a cheap car rental for a 9 night trip (headed to Tahoe and LV as well) without resorting to an econo box (at an age where comfort takes a priority over budget). Disappointed to find that even through Priceline I couldn't do much better than $40/day (all-in). Elected instead to do an Avis First rental (phone call got me down to $45/day). Received a comfortable Dodge Journey with XM radio.
First 3 nights at Harrah's Reno. Excellent Jacks play first day and a half: near b/e on 10K+ base points, with play results staying in +/- $1K range.
Discovered a nice little gimme at the casino store -- Diamond/7* gets a free paper each day. May not matter much to some, but I'm a NYTimes crossword addict and that damn paper sets me back $2.50 a day on the road ($6 for Sunday).
Headed over to Siena Thursday afternoon, to try my hand at their $200 loss rebate (new player; distributed $100/day over next 2 days). Sour session that visited a $400 loss on $4k play.
Kicked back and relaxed (PPV, etc.)
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Didn't manage to sample the nicer restaurants at Harrah's (Steakhouse/Italian) despite a $100 coupon. Never had the appetite for a large meal; imagine I'm missing Bev's company (she's on an 8-day cross country market research run, interviewing MD's to determine how her firm can push their drugs harder).
Chalk up Hash House as less than a fave of mine -- "mass quantities" as a food option was never a hit for me, and slicing into one of their breakfast "hashes" and having a very likely cooked egg yolk splash down a mound of food, into a mass of mashed potatoes, and then do a technicolor blend into the surrounding red sauce pretty much put me off my meal.
Give me a decent coffee shop who does a fine omelet ... please!!
Hash House, to their credit, does a very fine and satisfying Cobb Salad (and I'll probably stick to the salads in the future).
Quizno's (non-comped) has been my lunch mainstay.
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After hitting Siena Friday for my first refund installment (cashed out $120), did a Harrah's Tahoe run (just over an hour, door to door) to redeem some Free Play.
Just love the weather here! Can't think of a finer retirement spot (always had my eye on returning to Northern Michigan) May have to work on Bev (she's pretty much had her fill of "winter" 
On returning to Reno, decided to rate Bev's card for the first time here with some play. I seem to get stuck every time I venture to do this somewhere ... this time it was no different. After sinking $1200 on $1 JB with less than 1200 base RC's earned I called it a day. (Will work on building her play if/when she can come out with me.)
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Checking out of Harrah's in a few minutes to head on over to Atlantis for a couple of days. (Many thanks for the hearty recommendation a couple of weeks ago!) Looking forward to some very satisfying play options!
- H.