Trip Diary 8-8-06 (5 of 20)
Up today at 6:30 (it's better than the usual 4:00 AM, so I'm
not complaining). It's moving day, so I read a little, watch the
news and see there's a major accident on 15 at Sahara, so I make a
note to steer clear of that on the move. I pack and check out of
Vegas Club. The desk attendant asks me if I used the in-room safe.
I say no and there are no charges to my room. I suppose they assume
everyone is going to be honest. If you use the safe, they charge you
a buckhuh?
Today I'm moving over to Sunset Station, one of my favorite
places to stay. It's also the first time this trip I have to pay for
my lodging. I used to get a comp for my whole stay, but my offer
this year stated, "Gas prices have gone up, and so we're lowering our
room rates!" What a bunch of bull. The rates haven't gone up, but
the free room nights have gone way down. I did manage to pay $39 for
the first night with the second night free; therefore, after all the
taxes, hotel fees, yada, yada, yadaI paid about $25.00 per night.
For this hotel, that's still a bargain.
Before checking in, I drove over to Sam's Town for
breakfast. Sam's Town has, in my opinion, the best breakfast deal in
Las Vegas in their café. Steak, three eggs, hash browns, and toast
for only $4.99. It's a favorite and worth the stop. I played a $20
through the Ugly Deuces progressive, cashed out at $32.00. I walked
over to the full pay deuces machines. I put in a $20 and did not get
ONE four-of-kind or higher. I lost that money in about seven
minutes. It was brutal!
Now comes the sad-sack story up to now of my Vegas trip. I
wanted to try the new penny machine called Deal or No Deal inspired
after the TV show. I like to try new machines at least once. I put
in a twenty. There are 21 lines. All the experts and I agree that
these multi-line plays should be played with max lines with one penny
per line. Except for the million dollar progressives, there is no
value in playing max coins. Okay, that said, I was just
experimenting with the machine playing the usual one coin per line.
There's a button on this machine that says, Play $1.05 for the
progressive, which at this bank of machines was $605.00. Of course,
I ignored this. I played quite a long time considering I never hit a
bonus round. Then it happened. I hit all five Cash Girls on the top
line. I was paid 1000 coins (pennies) for that hit. Unfortunately,
had I been playing the $1.05 per spin, I'd have hit the progressive
for over six hundred dollars. Damn it! All I could do is smile,
take in a deep breath and walk out of the casino.
Sunset Station, along with Main Street Station, and the
Silverton have some of the most comfortable beds in Vegas, matching
Bellagio and the Wynn. I wish I could afford these nice beds (When I
stayed at the Wynn, there was note saying you can buy one their beds
and have it delivered anywhere in the country for $1500.00). Okay, I
don't like them THAT much. However, it's nice to come to Las Vegas
and really enjoy the beds. The rest of the room is very nicely
decorated with a large TV and ample bathroom space.
The pool here is quite large, but it's a basic pool with very
little shade space. I'm not a pool user anyway, so it really doesn't
matter. The casino has everything you could ever need. Seven
restaurants, a multiplex theater complex, a state-of-the-art bowling
alley, and just about anything else you need in the mini-city of a
casino. It's clean, well-ventilated with lots of room between banks
of machines. It is in Henderson though, but it's only about 15 to 20
minutes from the strip with the completion of I-215.
Across the street from Sunset Station is a Wal-Mart
Superstore and a huge strip mall of assorted specialty stores, and
across the other street is the Galleria Mall with it's indoor complex
of Macy's and such. I stopped at Supercuts for a haircut (it's one
of life's ironies that a man that balding still has to pay for
haircuts).
After checking in and getting settled in my sixth floor room,
I headed over to Green Valley Ranch (GVR) where I'm going to meet
Stan, Patti, and Tullio (who's here from Italy). I met these good
folks on Curley's Chat room many years ago when chat rooms were just
getting started. It was before there was a VPFree site or a Las
Vegas Advisor site. We've been friends ever since.
I was a little early for our 2:00 PM meeting, so I played
some triple play Super Times deuces wild. As I've experienced in the
past, every time the Super Times number came up, I was dealt a dead
hand. Of the twelve or so times it came up, I caught a hand only
three times. Twice it came up with 8X, and none of the three hands
each time paid anything. If I didn't know better, I'd swear the
machine's computer KNOWS the hand you're to be dealt before it
declares the times factorat least it sure seems like it.
Anyway, I lost $40 here. My favorite machines at GVR are a
bank of nickel progressives right about the theater complex. To my
chagrin, they've been removed with penny "money vacuum" machines. I
walked everywhere to see if they've been placed somewhere else, but I
couldn't find them. Another decent play removeddamn!
I finally called Stan and it turns out they were in the
coffee shop the entire time. I had just missed having lunch with
them, but we settled on having dinner tomorrow instead. Stan and
Patti, who finally moved to Las Vegas from Wisconsin a couple of
years ago, live close to GVR and to give you an idea between their
play and my playmy slot club points, without making any withdrawals
in two years stand at just over 7000 points. Stan showed me his
point total (keeping in mind he uses his point for food and other
items all the time), was over 1.5 million. Tullio, who comes twice a
year from Italy, makes Stan seem like a low roller. So, you might
wonder why such a small-fry player like me gets to hang with these
high-rollers. Simply because these are some of the nicest people
you'd ever like to know. It really is a privilege to know them.
While I'm getting all misty and "sensitive" here, I'd like to
thank the MANY of you that offered me help with my laptop problems.
Quite of few of you made suggestions where I might find an AC adaptor
here in Las Vegas (it's a proprietary adapter and can't be
substituted with any universal product), two of you even offered to
have it send to your business, then you'd Fedex it overnight to my
hotelwow! This is beyond the calland it just goes to show that the
members of LVA and VPFree are a special family, even though I've
never met most of you. Thanks for your offers. I got a call from
Stan after he got home from the GVR. There was a package there for
me waiting! With a little luck, this will be the last report I send
from a Kinko's.
After leaving Stan I head over to Kinko's on Eastern to write
yesterday's report. Right across the street is a Verizon store.
I've been wanted to buy a new battery, so I went inside. I either
made a good deal, or I'm an easy mark, but the salesman talked me
into getting rid of my old phone altogether. The battery would have
cost $50, and I could get a new, up-to-date phone for $100, minus $50
rebate, which would make the new phone the same price as a battery
for my old one. The whole thing made sense to me, so I bought the
new phone.
Las Vegas was 106 degrees today. It's back to the usual
August weather. I suppose I should be glad that the first days here
were in the mild high 90s. Even with my windshield protector, my car
was a venerable oven. Gas prices here have averaged about $2.99 with
the lowest I found at $2.93. This is about a quarter less per gallon
than in San Diego. With this new BP oil line from Alaska going down,
I expect these prices to soar up soon, so I filled my tank up before
that happens.
I headed back to Sunset Station. I noticed the Padres were
on one of the lobby bar's flat screen TVs. I put my stuff in my room
and headed back down to the bar and enjoyed two Cadillac margaritas.
The Padres lost (bummer), but I was beginning to float a bit. I'm
really a light-weight drinker. I had NO business playing video poker
in this condition, but hey
when in Vegas
Though I made a couple
mistakes (that I know about), I still managed to break even.
I hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was not 9:00 PM. I
picked up a sandwich from the subway shop in the hotel and took it to
my room. I watch a bit of TV and called it a night. Gambling,
unfortunately, again is a bust. I always stop each day if I lose a
$100.00. I budget my trips for a possible $100.00 loss per day. Of
course, hitting the royal and the deuces on my first day has kept me
even for the trip, but even so, if I hit the hundred minus mark, I
figure this isn't my day. I have no "gambler's remorse" or feel bad
about having a losing daythe credo of a low-roller. Play to win,
but don't sweat about the loses.
More tomorrow.