Here%26#39;s an account of my pre Vegas road trip that will come to an end tomorrow. Posted as a reply.
I%26#39;m aware that this isn%26#39;t strictly relevant to Vegas and perhaps shouldn%26#39;t be on this forum at all so I%26#39;d appreciate it if anybody who thinks along these lines doesn%26#39;t respond saying so. If you don%26#39;t want to read about this then you%26#39;re welcome to leave now before wasting your time. Hopefully it will be of interest to a few of you... :-)
Pre-Trip Report - The long road to Vegas.
I want to read it Blagger!
Pre-Trip Report - The long road to Vegas.
If you read my post of around ten days ago you’ll know that I’ve been on something of a road trip in the build up to my arrival in Vegas sometime tomorrow. Here’s an account of my odyssey of the last few days.
I arrived at Reno airport last Wednesday morning, picked up a rental car and drove to Lake Tahoe where I had to attend a conference all day Wednesday and Thursday morning. The view of the lake with the snow capped mountains in the background was sensational. The conference was at Harrah’s and that’s where we all stayed. Hotel was nice enough and is connected by a tunnel to Harveys, another HET property across the street. I had made a conscious decision to keep gambling to a minimum with the intention of safeguarding my Vegas bankroll and apart from a $50 VP loss, was successful! The rest of my free time was spent socialising with other conference attendees and catching a bit of forum time here and there! I couldn’t really get to see that much of Tahoe but it had a really laid back atmosphere, nothing like Vegas. I believe however, that on weekends during the skiing season it can get totally crazy.
When business was concluded at Thursday lunchtime I drove up to Reno for the afternoon. I’ve been desperate to check out the National Automobile Museum for some years now and I wasn’t disappointed. Anybody who has the slightest interest in cars simply HAS to visit this place. The car collection at IP is worth seeing but it’s like comparing a sandlot football game to the Superbowl. If only this were in Vegas! I then had an hour or so to kill before heading back to Tahoe (my accommodation was taken care of for that night) so I went to check out a few of the Downtown casinos. I have to say that I wasn’t too impressed with Downtown Reno. The vibe was a little like Downtown LV in the days before the Fremont Street Experience was conceived. Just a little seedy and plenty of what could be described as “characters” wandering around. A few too many panhandlers for my liking. The casinos seemed ok. Some familiar names to Vegas visitors – Harrah’s, Fitzgerald’s and Circus Circus (no I didn’t go inside!). The Silver Legacy and the Eldorado seemed the nicest places but I only spent 5-10 minutes in each and didn’t gamble so can’t really give any proper opinions.
On the way to and from Reno you drive through Carson City. Now this looks an interesting place but unfortunately I didn’t have the time to stop and check it out. It’s the sort of old frontier town that by rights shouldn’t still be around but has survived on the back of being the state capital of Nevada. It’s a real clash of styles as on one side of the street you’ve got the very impressive modern state legislature buildings and on the other a real mish-mash of old school hardware and general stores along with casinos that aren’t much bigger than saloons.
Checked out early on Friday morning as I wanted to make a quick detour and stop for an hour or so at Virginia City, an authentically preserved mining town. It was ok but if you like this sort of thing then Oatman, Az. is a better bet. One fun diversion was a small gambling museum that’s definitely worth the $1.50 admission. The old slots were interesting (you can “pull the handle” on some of them) but the thing I found most interesting were a couple of poker machines from the 70s, around ten years or so before the technology was around to develop the video poker that we know today. Posters a few years older than me probably remember them.
After an early lunch it was on the road for the long drive to Tonopah. Rte 95 stretching out ahead of you as far as the eye can see, passing across county lines with weird and wonderful names like Mineral and Esmeralda. The highlight was driving by Walker Lake shimmering like some sort of surreal mirage on the left with the snow capped Sierra Nevadas to the right.
Arrived at Tonopah at around 5pm and checked into the Ramada Tonopah Station complete with its own small casino. After a shower and a bite to eat I went to check the casino out. As it was Friday night it was busy with plenty of locals and straight away you realize that you’re in a completely different universe to Vegas. First of all there’s the signs, “Absolutely no weapons (concealed or otherwise) permitted in the casino” and “Please note, complimentary drinks are strictly domestic beer and well drinks only – anything else and you’ll be asked to pay the difference”. Then something else dawned on me. No TITO. Pardon my ignorance if I’ve got this wrong as I don’t gamble near home. For all I know this is commonplace around the country but it just seemed really weird! Everything was strictly coins. I threw $20 in a VP machine (which were all of the full pay variety), hit a hot streak and cashed out $90 in quarters. I carried my winnings over to the cage just like in the old days! I then threw another $20 in another VP machine only to realize that it was a 5c machine. Now I’m no high roller but I’ve got better things to do with my time than playing 5c VP! I decided to play for a few minutes anyway, hit four of a kind virtually instantly and cashed $30 in nickels. I’d forgotten how dirty your hands can get scooping up those coins. Too funny!
Tonopah is supposedly one of the best spots in the country for stargazing due to its high desert location and the virtual non existence of air pollution. Unfortunately last night was cloudy so my stargazing experience didn’t even get started…. :-(
We’re now up to this morning and another early start to get to Death Valley. Specifically I wanted to get to Scotty’s Castle and do the tour before the buses arrived and you can end up with a two hour wait. Mission was successfully accomplished and the tour was great. Definitely worth the time and effort. I drove from there into the heart of DV feeling the temperature rising by the minute, and checked out some of the stuff there. The old Harmony borax works, Stovepipe Wells sand dunes and Salt Creek. The only downside was the strong winds – dust was literally everywhere but it was absolutely fascinating. The entire place has an amazing other-worldliness to it.
So right now I’m at the Exchange Motel %26amp; Casino in Beatty. Hopefully a not too hectic evening! The plan is to head back to DV in the morning and see the southern end of the park. This is supposedly the more interesting part with Badwater Basin and Zabriskie Point amongst other things. From there a leisurely drive to LV via Pahrump, hopefully arriving in early afternoon.
“Absolutely no weapons (concealed or otherwise) permitted in the casino” ... too funny
I missed coins machines for awhile. I didn%26#39;t miss the dirty hands.
Sounds like a great adventure so far.
It sounds like a great trip Blagger. I love exploring and the things you are doing sounds like the kind of side-trips that offer some real value to the trip.
I traveled to Reno last summer for a conference and found a terrific art fair and some great restaurants. I didn%26#39;t like the casinos downtown so much but enjoyed Atlantis and Grand Sierra. I get great comp offers from GS now.(That%26#39;s where we stayed)
I hope you continue to post your trip including the LV stuff. :-%26gt;
Awesome Blagger. FWIW, some people say Circus Circus is the Jewel of the Nile in Reno. I wouldn%26#39;t know, but I%26#39;ve read that.
I%26#39;m surpised you%26#39;ve done so much and not one hooker has fallen from the sky.
The Exchange Motel and Casino in Beatty, ah yes......
Lol DrV.....
Definite hooker activity spotted in Tahoe whilst enjoying a few beers with the other conference guys. I guess they can smell a party of guys working away from home from a good distance! They hovered for a while, a little small talk then faded away once they realized it wasn%26#39;t a great business oportunity... :-)
Hi Blagger
Thanks much for posting your pretrip adventure at Lake Tahoe and Reno. I am a relatively new poster to the forum, love the LV forum and have appreciated your posts.
I am a long-time lover of LT, my fav is Harvey%26#39;s and hope you have a chance to visit there again if you are a VP fan. They have a couple of great VP bars there, the Heavenly Bar and California Bar have the best bartenders and crowd. The latter is a $3 progressive VP where I had the fortune of once winning a royal. Sigh, that was awhile ago...
We%26#39;re traveling to Harrah%26#39;s Reno in June, you are right the vibe is so much different in Vegas. One thing I have noticed is the payouts for slot players seem to be better at LT and Reno, imho.
Best of luck on the rest of your journey, looking forward to hearing more from your trip.
Blagger, I forgot to enquire. Just how was the spa at the Exchange?? I do await your LV report.
Ubet, I did take a look around the casino in Harveys. I think I%26#39;ll definitely visit Tahoe again. I%26#39;d like to go for a weekend in the winter when I guess it%26#39;s really rocking! I%26#39;m not a huge VP player. I play mainly tables, blackjack and (if I want to give my brain a rest!) a little three card poker, but I do enjoy a little VP. I wanted to make sure I didn%26#39;t lose too much of my Vegas bankroll before I get there and I guess I find it a lot easier to walk away from a cold VP machine than a bad run at BJ... :-)
underpar, sadly I arrived here too late and the Exchange spa had closed for the day....lol.... I am however going spa crazy in Vegas with three reservations made - Qua (to see if it%26#39;s as good as everybody says) and both Mandalay Bay spas. I guess I%26#39;ll have to post a seperate spa report as well as the TR!
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