Charlie and I were in Las Vegas from October 15th till October 24th. What
a weird trip. I gambled my brains out, at one point was down $1800 but
finished up even. Exactly, to the decimal point. Along the way, we had
some fun.
The fun started in Phoenix when we got a bump for our flight from Phoenix
to Vegas ( a short jump of about an hour) and got a voucher for $256. They
put us on a flight that left 20 minutes later. Charlie got the flight
attendant to give him 3 packages of peanuts instead of one. ( up $256 and
2 packages of peanuts).
Upon arrival, we headed to National where we got a brandy new Buick for 10
days for $201. We are Emerald Club members; check in and out was
accomplished in 15 minutes. No hassles.
First, we headed to Arizona Charlie's West. I am sorry but this is my
favorite casino in Vegas because I love banging away on the 3/5 play 10/7
DB. Within 10 minutes of arrival I was doing just that. Our room was in
the tower overlooking the pool. It was a great room. the new circulation
system in the casino was working just fine. This is not to say that our
clothes did not have a hint of smoke...they did. But so did they at the
Palms and also Suncoast. Oddly, this did not happen at Sunset. We were
only at AZWest one night and when we left, I was up $150. charlie was up 5
nickles. Guess who is the gambler in the family...
(up $256, 2 packages of peanuts and $150)
We checked into the Palms the next day for a 2 night stay. This was the
result of a conversation with Bobby Garcia, our host, whom I cold-called in
September. I got him by accident. I told him that I usually played around
8k a day and I was comped at AZWest, Suncoast, Boulder, Sunset and Sam's.
Much to my surprise, he offered to bring us in at casino rate. I thought
this was great. I love the machines at Palms. I settled in at the full
pay deuces and shortly moved to the 50 cent 5 play. I was in heaven.
Charlie settled in at the pool, where he watched several young ladies
waltzing around with postage stamp bikinis and no shame. The famous beds
at the Palms were wonderful, just like our queen sized bed in our loft at
home with the down comforter and lots of pillows on it. With one
exception...ours usually has a big old Weimaraner in the middle of it.
Otherwise, no difference. I played my toochie off at the Palms. I kept
hitting everything. I had multiple sets of aces and 4's especially. When
we left, I had put 24000 points on my card. I am assuming that equates to
roughly 24000 dollars in. Would that be right? Anyway, I contacted Bobby
and he picked up the room both nights. He was a great host. I had thought
he might comp one night and leave the other at casino rate and I would have
thought that fair, but I was pleased at the total comp. We had the
Hawaiian Luau on Wednesday night. It was...interesting. (up $256, 2
packages of peanuts and $350.)
Now we will talk about the Martini Ranch at Texas. Charlie's favorite
drink is a martini. He got all duded up in his jeans, boots and shirt and
waddled over. His first martini was a peach martini. It was $8, but he
sat at a video poker machine at the bar and the bartender comped him.
Charlie was happy. He tipped the guy $3. Next he had a chocolate
decadence martini. This one was made with Godiva liqueur. What an awful
thing to do to Godiva chocolate. The bartender comped that one too and
Charlie toked him another $3. Luckily I showed up about then. Charlie was
speaking in tongues. I ran him over to Fatburger and stuffed him with
food. He recovered nicely. He loved the Martini Ranch and we visited it
again before we left the following week.
On Friday we checked into Sunset Station thru the good graces of Nancy
DeGregorio, a great host. we were comped upfront. That night we had
dinner with Bonnie and George at Sonoma Cellar. I had the lobster tail and
Charlie had the prime rib. It looked like dinner for 4. He said it was
the best prime rib he has ever had but I am sure he forgot that I make
prime rib too. Sunset was where the wheels started to come off the train.
We were there for 3 days and I was hitting the quarter 5 play pretty hard.
I put on 30000 points in 3 days. Then I also played blackjack at 10/15 a
hand for about 4 hours. I like playing blackjack at Sunset under the
beautiful Gaudi ceiling. One night there was a female impersonator making
the rounds of the BJ tables. He was quite serious so nobody said anything.
He was actually very attractive and dressed much better than I was. But
for the 5 oclock shadow, I might have been fooled. In my town of Pascoag,
you don't see that too often (population 8000). I almost forgot to double
down on my soft hand against the dealer's 4 upcard. On the day before we
were to leave Nancy called our room and said for God's sake, eat at a good
restaurant and charge it to your room and I will pick it up. So I said ok
and for breakfast the next morning charged $8 in the coffee shop. We don't
eat at casino restaurants too often, we like to get out of the casinos for
a while and we have our favorite places around that we like to eat at, like
the Tillerman, Hamada's and Marie Callendar's. (up$256 airfare, I ate the
peanuts and was down $1400).
On Sunday we went to the VPFree brunch at the Gold Coast. They have done a
nice job of remodeling. The place was clean and not smokey. It was fun to
see the people I have been reading for so long. Jean was there looking
terrific as usual. She had bats in her belfrey. They were attached to her
head by a headband. The long suffering Brad was with her. He sat at
another table for lunch so he could get a word in...Jean's Halloween outfit
was completed by orange and white pumpkin socks. Would you believe that
she never got a look from the general population? What does this say about
gamblers? The Gold Coast buffet was very good. It is called the Ports of
Call buffet and believe me, Charlie made a trip around the world. He had 3
plates of food. Plus he had already had something to eat. He doesn't like
to go out for breakfast on an empty stomach. That morning we had been to
church at St. Peter's on Boulder Highway in Henderson. They are still
against sin. After church we went to do the laundry. One woman came in
and put her clothes in the machine and then proceeded to take off her
sweater and throw it in, then she took off her jeans and she had a pair of
short shorts on. then she took off her t shirt. By now Charlie was
watching this with some interest. I was basically indifferent. Under the
t shirt she had on a decorated bra like a stripper might wear. Charlie
leaned over to me and said got a dollar? I declined to give him one as
this woman outweighed him by some pounds and I was afraid she would beat
him up.
The next day we checked into Suncoast, comped of course. By now I was down
$1800. We decided to take a drive and ended up at a store in Summerlin
called Pet Treats. It is a bakery for dogs. All the ingredients are
fresh. I spent $28 on cookies shaped like dog breeds and other treats for
Gracie . Charlie ate a Golden Retreiver. Sometimes I have no control over
him whatsoever. While we were waiting for our car at the Suncoast valet,
we were watching the clientele pull up to valet. All of them were ancient
and they drove straight for the valet guys. Good thing they are young and
nimble. A few of them had bike carriers in the back of their cars with
electric wheelchairs attached to them. They made the valet guy struggle
with the lift and pick up the wheelchair and set it down and get it
running. Then they got on it and drove into the casino. No tip. We
watched this happen twice. The second time, the valet struggled mightily.
When the guy climbed into the wheelchair and went to drive away, Charlie
said, hey, how about the three dollar tip? But the guy pretended not to
hear him. The valet guy was laughing. I decided it was a good thing I was
not a valet person. On the third day of the Suncoast stay, I was flailing
away at the 50 cent 5 play and was dealt 3 Aces. That is a draw that
quickens the heart. I hit the Aces on 2 lines for $800. I was thrilled. I
called Charlie from his nickle machine where he was playing one coin at a
time and we rejoiced. THREE HANDS LATER, I had switched to quarter play
and was playing the Devil's game on 5 play and out of the blue, holding one
ace, I got the aces and the kicker on one line. I called Charlie again but
he had just got a full house and had made 40 cents and was gazing at his
screen lovingly. Finally he came over and we rejoiced again. Then I hit
some reel slots at 45 nickles each pull and hit a jackpot on Leopard Spots.
it was $400. On my last day I also got special 4's on DB and some other
stuff.
The day before we left we went to the Bellagio Buffet. Bonnie and I had
been the day before and loved it so I wanted to take Charlie. He was in
his glory. He ate every esoteric thing they offered and had 6 pieces of
dessert. I am not kidding. This buffet is well worth the $17 per person
price tag. We also had a good dinner at Austin's steak House , in Texas
Station.
Got home safe and sound with a happy Gracie greeting us at the door. (up
$256 voucher, dead even on the gambling). A great trip. Highlites:
brunch with Marcia Nicks and Bonnie at the Irish Pub in Green Valley Ranch
Dressing, Aces and the kicker, Jean in full Halloween regalia and watching
Charlie at the Bellagio Buffet.
Annie