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SATURDAY, 8/27

The trip to Metro only took 1:10 - with no traffic and no construction, I was able to optimize my drive time. I guess you could say I like getting up this early. I didn't have any problems finding or parking in the Big Blue Deck. There was a short line at security that moved quickly. No issues there either. The flights to RNO involved a stop at Midway and a transfer at Denver. Despite the mess to the east, all my flights left on time and arrived early.

Speaking of east, I found out that Alexandra Steele, one of my favorite former Weather Channel airheads, is trying to become more substantial and has moved cross town to report weather for CNN.

Meanwhile, back in Reno, there was a long line at the desk for Hertz, but eventually I got my car. When I rented a car in Lansing last week, they were just about out, so they stuck me with a Chevy Traverse. Since I had a lot of driving to do then, I was not very happy about the extra carbon fuels I was about to burn. It looked like the same story was repeating itself - they were very short of cars and gave me - oh please no Traverse, no Traverse, no Traverse... - not a Traverse. A convertible. I wasn't as excited about it as some of you might be, but at least it wasn't a Traverse. It was a Mitsubishi Spider, a little bulkier than it needed to be, but not too bad. I put up with its quirks on my trip.

I took 395 to Carson city. I wanted to stop at the Nevada State Museum. The museum itself was mildly interesting, but the primary draw for me was the coin show - I used to be a numismatist a very, very long time ago, but my coin show days ended at least 25 years ago. Since I didn't have a good idea of what I wanted, I didn't buy anything. Maybe some other time...

Back on the road, I took US-50 to Lake Tahoe. Oh my. The turns were almost constant and there were plenty of elevation changes up and down (mostly up). It was quite the ride; it's hard to imagine it during high winds or on slippery roads. Actually, the weather was nice on the way there and perfect in town - good convertible weather, had I wanted to put the top down.

I made it to Stateline safe and sound. Several casinos greeted me, but I only had eyes for Harrah's. The entrance was disappointingly shoddy, but the casino itself was fine. I found a 8/5 bonus machine for quarters and took my chances.



I got a straight and that helped me to a $1.25 profit. It's better than losing.



There wasn't any reason to linger here, so I motored back to Reno. Going downhill on twisty roads is even less fun than going uphill - fortunately the brakes and steering were fine.

I eventually made it to Harrah's Reno and parked there. I explored the West Tower area for the first time - more slots, more restaurants, nothing too special. I found another 8/5 bonus machine for dollars and fired away. This time I lost $5, but I was up on "gambling" for the Great Race overall.

With all the Great Race silliness done, now it was time to have some fun. I walked over to the Silver Legacy (about 3 blocks away) to visit old friends - and maybe encounter a human or two. I played one of my favorite machines in town - 25 line 9/6 JoB for nickels. I was quickly dealt a flush, and it's oh so beautiful when that happens.



I also spent some time at craps. Nothing tremendous happened there and I pocketed another $12.

Then I went to Café Sedona for dinner. I had the ribs and paid with previously-earned comps - that's nice when that happens. That was a $16 meal. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, I guess, since the ribs were more than I could eat at the time. I got a doggie bag and munched on them throughout the evening.

I had spent enough time downtown so I got out of there to my room for the evening at John Ascuaga's Nugget in nearby Sparks. I checked in, put my stuff away and rested for a few hours. It had been a long day.

The room itself was decent, a little better than I expected. It was roomy with lots of chairs and desks. They had a flat screen TV. There was an extra sink for some reason.

I woke up at 11:30 mostly refreshed. I got my John card (not what you think, you perv ) - it offered $5 or more in freeplay and $5 off dining. Nice. For once, I got more than the minimum - $10 in freeplay for me. Cool. I found a 9/6 JoB machine that would take my play.

I should take time to mention that the Nugget has a fair amount of JoB and 8/5 bonus for nickels and up. They even had a $25 machine for your high rollers out there.

Back in Sparks, I whiffed on the freeplay, but on two consecutive hands on the same machine I got two pairs, so that made up for it. I found a 3-line 9/6 JoB for quarters. I quickly got a hit and left $11.25 ahead. Then the clock hit midnight.

SUNDAY, 8/28

I played an assortment of slots and lost about a buck. I should mention that they have Elvis Multi-Strike, a game that I had only encountered lately at the Four Queens in Las Vegas.

I then found a $2 minimum craps table that wasn't too busy. That doesn't happen too often in Las Vegas. I was up and down, and I left as the table collapsed with $12 of my money.

The blackjack was mostly shoes with so-so rules. The $25 table had double deck. No thanks. The casino was fairly busy overall. I went upstairs, finished my novel and slept some more. It was now 2:30.

I was back up at 5:30 with extensive plans for the day. Would I stick with them? Let's see.

I stopped by Rosie's Café for their Awful Awful burger. Good stuff, though I found it no better than Binion's. The service was very good. Total damage with drink and coupon was about $7.

Then I checked out some of those All-Star machines more thoroughly. They have 9/6 JoB and 8/5 bonus on some for 10x nickels and dimes. Not all of them are so generous though, so YMMV. I first played 8/5 for dimes. That did not go well and lost $77. Then I tried 9/6 and hit three quads within five minutes for a gain of $28.





Not a great morning but it could have been worse.

After some time hanging around the room, it was finally time to check out. I did it by video (no extra charges), then said goodbye to the Nugget. My overall impressions were mildly positive. It's a good place to be if I should happen to be stuck in Sparks for some reason, but I found it a little isolated from Reno proper. There's also not much in the immediate area. We'll have to see what they offer me from the modest amount of play I gave them.

I drove to a gas station near the Atlantis and filled up. $20 for 5.2 gallons - it wasn't the cheapest gas in the area, but I'm just a tourist; I can't be expected to know all this. From there I went to Atlantis' huge surface lot across from the casino. There weren't many people there, so I parked close to the skywalk.

At the casino I lost enough at Cops & Donuts to buy a few (doughnuts, that is; cops are a little more expensive), if I were so inclined. Then I was drawn to their version of the ATM. I had a good run with the Deal or No Deal - What's Your Deal machines in Las Vegas, but this machine ate my cash the last time I played it. I wanted revenge at $5 a spin. But the RNG had the last laugh - it took a ridiculous 20 spins to get the bonus, and only a single at that. I did well in the 1st round and the first offer was $35.05. No thanks. I did even better in round 2. The second offer was $47.50. No deal. I had mixed results in round 3, but the top two cases were still in play. The third offer was for $50.50. Hmmmmm... I thought awhile, but took it. Claudia did her best to tempt me to double it. It would've taken me out of the hole, but I didn't do it. I don't know whether to congratualate myself or kick myself. Anyway, I locked in a $49.50 loss.

I lost another $4 at 100 line 9/6 JoB and $2 more at some random slot. I gained $15 at a couple of different 9/6 video poker games. Then I settled in to play blackjack. Things went well from the start - I was up $60. Then the pendulum started swinging the other way - especially once they changed they cards (it was single deck). Finally I was bumping against a hard deadline to return the car, so when I caught a mini-run to only end up behind $70 (only?) I had to take it and leave. I've never had very good luck at Atlantis, but they do have some good games.

I drove the car back to the airport and returned it to the designated area. A rep pulled me in and looked it over. No issues. From there it was a short walk to the shuttle pickup area where the Peppermill shuttle came along. It was pretty full, but there was plenty of room for me, and we arrived without incident.

I tried to use a kiosk to check in and found out that my room was not ready - try again later. This was my Hulk out moment, but with no one to take my frustrations out on (the front desk was quite busy), there was nothing to do but kill time in the casino.

First I went to the sports book to check out the odds - it, too, was packed, so I didn't linger there. Then I played some NSUD and dropped $45. Then I scanned in my card for their daily contest - hey, a $10 matchplay. Something I could use for once.

It was now time for a spell of BJ. The dealer was the angelic-looking Wendy. I won the matchplay and stayed up early. Then the worm turned and my chips started to melt away. And then two things happened - they changed cards and switched dealers to Mariannne. She's so teeny she used a box to stand on. I caught a huge run against her, but everyone else was also doing well. One guy who was betting multiple green flipped us each a $25 chip to bet. If we won, we had to give it back, but got to keep the profit. Alas, this was the one hand most of us lost, but I actually won. I didn't understand his generosity, but thanked him anyway. He was the big winner when I left, and I hope he kept it when the tides turned on him. I was happy to take my $175 profit to the bank.

Lookie here - I got a text an hour earlier saying my room was ready. So I went back to the kiosk to finish the check-in process. The Tuscany Conversion Tax had increased to $12/night (plus tax). I didn't pay that because the room was comped. I also didn't get any offer to upgrade to the Tuscany Tower for any price this time. Not that I wanted it; both times I stayed there, my bankroll took a turn for the worse.

My room on the 3rd floor of the Peppermill Tower was very nice - close to the elevators and ice machine, nice and large, well kept, and relatively quiet. One quirk is that the bed was so high I had to jump in it. I kind of liked its regal position once I got used to it.

After some rest I went back to the casino to pick up my freeplay and get some dinner. The freeplay was up to $30 this time. I turned it to $26.25 at NSUD. Then I saw that STP was free, so I had to take my chances. Oddly, the casino wasn't as busy this evening as it was that afternoon. STP dealt me a couple of quick winners so I left another $1 ahead. Yay.

Then I stopped by Café Milano - a.k.a. the former Peppermill Coffee Shop. I don't know why they changed this, other than to destroy every trace of its neon past other than the casino (and I imagine they'll change that too, someday). The café did look nice inside, if anonymous. This place was never very cheap and it seems to have gotten more expensive with the makeover. My sirloin steak dinner and drink cost about $26, most of which was comped away. The food was good, the service was good at first, but slow by the end when more people showed up.

After that meal, I went back to the room and was in bed by 11:30.

MONDAY, 8/29

I got up around 5. I prepped for the day to come, but I was running a little too early - not much was open besides the slots. I did get to do the kiosk thing and got 4 dining points - each point is $1 at the dining outlets. I now had 7 of them; maybe I would get a chance to use them.

I hunted high and low for a 9/6 JoB nickel option. Most were 9/5 or 8/5, but one spin poker was 9/6 and playable for one line. So I did that. I got ahead early and stayed ahead, despite not hitting anything too big. I killed some time and earned $5 while doing so. Not bad.

Then it was off to the Atlantis. The journey was mostly the same - the west (Peppermill) side of the road had a couple of spots of sidewalk construction. And there was a rib shack wannabe taking the place of an Arby's that closed two years ago. The Atlantis was a little busier, but not much was open here either. I still needed to kill some time... I know, let's play some blackjack. This was single deck with a $5 minimum. This did not start out well as Sajee put a hurt on me and wiped out several comers. I was nearly $100 down when I caught a nice run. The smoke cleared with me ahead $10. That was enough action for me; I had killed enough time. The buffet was open.

Toucan Charlie's was a nice find - a very big selection for breakfast, all prepared very well and tasty. The service was good. The one downside is that it was as big and confusing as the rest of the casino. I sampled a little of this & that. The damage would've been about $14 if I had to pay, but I got most of it comped.

Back in the casino I noticed STP was free, so I had to give it a try. This was not a wise decision as I surrendered $47 behind. I also sampled evil cousin STP Spin (8/5 bonus). I never did get a multiplier, but I was dealt a full house, which I think is better.



I left ahead $10.

I walked back to the room for some R&R, but I couldn't resist the lure of the casino. I placed my bets for the day on two baseball games. I won them both for +$20. But that was later. For now I spent 3 hours at a single deck BJ table. I faced three different dealers. Things were bad against Kristi and worse against Jason. At one point I was down about $150 and thinking of ways to spin another loss in Reno. But you know what happened next - I caught a run against Yuan. That got me to +5. Good enough. I shut it down for the trip, up about $50.

Several hours later I wandered down to Café Milano for a burger and fries - good stuff, but no bargain. Even after using my dining points it ended up around $10.

On my way back to the room I got my boarding pas - A18, nice. I went to bed about 10.

TUESDAY, 8/30

I got up around 6. There was nothing on the agenda other than getting ready to go home, so I did that, slowly. I noticed something on my e-bill, so I checked out at the front desk. She said the magic word - "comped" - and I was somewhat mollified. There was a $50/night deposit PLUS the Trash The Neon Tax for each night that showed up as a hold on my credit card. That eventually cleared off, though it did take a couple of days.

The shuttle had 7 people in addition to myself. I noticed the shuttle route was different this time - it actually went south, then back north toward the airport. Odd; there must have been some construction I didn't notice.

Nothing notable about the shuttle ride and security was its usual self. The flight to Midway took off on time and landed early - not that it did me any good. We waited for some connecting flights and that caused us to leave a little late. But we arrived on time in Detroit. One nasty surprise in the ramp came when I forgot where I parked and I didn't note it anywhere. So it took awhile to find the car. But I did, and the rest of the way home wasn't worthy of note.

And thus ends another trip to Reno. It looks like the next trip will be in April. It's far too early for me to decide where to stay.

[stan_allen]

Top-notch attention to detail, sir, and a fine job of low-roller cash-out-with-wins-even-if-small strategy.

I commend your report, and thank you for your reporting!

[LilyJDragonfly]

I totally admire your ability to cash out with glee at $1.25 ahead!! If only my brain could wrap itself around that concept and act upon it!

I share your thoughts about the JA Nugget; it's a decent place, but just too far from anything else... The Dog and I actually stayed there one night for our first Reno visit as everything else downtown was sold out.

Your trip report detail is awesome and if you ever head back to Tahoe, go to the Montebleu and play the Sigma Derby there - so fun!