Visitreno

[Mammothgambler]

Ok, here's my antics from my recent Reno road trip, Tues-Thurs, July 17-19. No major wins and actually left down $700, but I got the royal treatment at the Peppermill and definitely got some good comped food in me.

I arrived in Reno on Tuesday at noon. Jumped on the shuttle bus at was at the Peppermill about 15 minutes later. As some of you know, I've had major trouble with my reservations getting honored there during past trips and got shafted on my last visit, so after some interaction with the hotel director, I was promised things would be better moving forward.

The day before, I signed onto their website at 9 am to utilize their online check-in service that is supposed to magically make your stay enjoyable and land you in the room type you actually reserved. Basically, it gets your credit card number and charges it (BEWARE - AT 3 AM THE DAY OF ARRIVAL!), confirms your upgrade and room type preferences, and from there, the only thing you have to do is pick up the keys at the self check-in kiosk upon arrival. I'm still questioning why these people make you go through the deepest shades of hell just to check in, but I actually got the room type I reserved - after 4 stays! Still not sure if it was a result of utilizing the online check-in or all the notes and pushed buttons the director left in the system when making my reservation after my last complaint, but it worked for the most part.

While at the check-in kiosk, a note popped up to see the front desk. So much for automation - I've mentioned in the past, but I've only been successful checking in with this thing twice in all my visits to the Pep. There was a really nice attendant at the front desk for a change, and she mentioned that the reason for the message was that the suites were still being cleaned. She asked if I'd like to receive a text when my room was ready, which wasn't a problem.

From there, I checked my backpack in with the bell desk, and decided to head down to the Atlantis to give Toucan Charlie's buffet a try with my comps, in addition to hitting up Super WalMart and Best Buy afterward to get all my necessary shopping done. Always works out good when I'm able to do that BEFORE entering the casino, so as not to destroy the shopping funds!

The buffet was great. Really good selection of Chinese and Italian dishes, and probably one of the biggest dessert selections I've seen lately. About halfway through, I received not only a text message, but also a voicemail from the Pep that my room was ready. Headed to Best Buy to get a new wireless mouse, stocked up on beer and food at Super WalMart, and it was back to the Pep. They're doing a ton of construction around Virginia and Moana and I actually had to walk back a street or two off Virginia to avoid it, but made my way.

Fortunately, I didn't need to deal with the front desk again when I got back, and was able to get my room key from the kiosk after swiping my ID. I was checked into Imperial Suite 1636. Lots of rooms were still being cleaned when I was walking down the hall, and I was able to get a split-second glimpse of how some of the other room types turned out since the remodel. I didn't take any photos since the room was identical to the one on my last visit to the Pep (see my previous trip report), the only difference being this one had floor-to-ceiling windows since it was on the top floor. On a hilarious note, I got greeted with a little bit of the old meets the new - right around the refrigerator and bar area, I happened to notice a remnant of the old flowered hippie wallpaper that nobody peeled up and replaced. Good knowing a bit of the old-skool Peppermill is still intact!



After hitting the hot tub, steam shower and pool, I was down in the casino. When I first arrived earlier, I was checking out the jackpot meters on the Blazing 7s and noticed a woman playing one of the $1 Double machines - where the jackpot was at well over $11,000. Can we say TIGHT, seeing as how those jackpots start out at $5,000 after resetting? I've been watching that thing grow since February. Well, almost 4 hours later, this lady was STILL playing - hadn't gotten up, or even blinked an eye for that matter. Jeez! 5 minutes later, she hit the top jackpot - $11,972. Go figure, it was another one of those silent machines with no bells or song playing, so she didn't know what was going on at first. I was really happy she hit it, because she probably put about 8 grand or so in getting there!

About $185 later with only a few minimal wins on the Quick Hits, and I was done. From there, I decided to walk down to Harrah's to grab my $80 of freeplay and $25 food voucher. The $80 of freeplay actually got me about $80 in cash. I noticed there is a new $1, 2 coin Quick Hit machine that's now in the carousel with the rest of the $1 5 liners, and I was able to get $10 off of it with three single bars on the first spin. The buffet was great, not crowded at all since it was still pretty early, and I was able to get a few bottles of Blue Moon to round off my bill to an even $25.

From there, it was off to the Silver Legacy. Spent a bit of time on one of the 90 cent Double Diamond Deluxe machines and actually got about $20 off of it. Since I had already lost close to $200 at the Pep, I decided not to hit up my usual $1 Wheel of Fortunes and Blazing 7s while I was in there. Sometimes change is good!

Back to the Pep. Waited until about midnight, went back downstairs, and played through another $400 without a single hit. Ouch! The usual 3 am stop at the Café Milano for a California Veggie Burger and hash browns was great as always. Pretty much just hung out in the hot tub for the remainder of the trip. Yup, we're on day #55 without hot water at my apartment complex, so hot water is good!

At about 9 am on Thursday morning, I woke up to what I thought was the alarm clock, but I was wrong - it was the fire alarm, followed by the public address system blaring, "A fire alarm has been activated. Please do not panic. Do not leave your room unless instructed to do so." After 10 minutes, there was finally silence. Oh well, good knowing the public address system works at the Pep!

Jumped on the shuttle bus for the airport, and started the walk to the Grand Sierra from there to utilize my $100 of free play. Between the Blazing 7s and Quick Hits, I was able to get about $58 in cash. While trading in all my loose coins at the main cage, I saw someone go through what would have to be one's worst nightmare on a gambling trip - he went to withdraw his last $400 at the ATM, which did not spit out any money, but actually deducted the balance from his card! Turns out the satellite signal in the ATM tripped out for a second, but you should've seen the look on his face when the cage employee was telling him it was going to be 5-7 business days before he'd be able to have that money in his hands! I've done some reading in the news lately about how those third party, non-bank ATMs can be very problematic. This was an eye-opener for sure!

Back on the shuttle bus, back to the airport, and back on the bus to Mammoth. I unfortunately bumped into a man who arrived in Reno on the midnight flight from Seattle needing to get to Bishop, not knowing that the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority buses only run once per day - he had been sitting on that same bench from midnight to 1:50 pm waiting for the bus to arrive. Needless to say, he was really happy to see that bus pull up!

I'm taking a breather next week, but have several Reno trips lined up for August. Looks like I'm going back for the Reno Tahoe Open, Slot August Nights, and the $75,000 Triple Header slot tournament at the Pep, in addition to whatever else comes up. If any of you are going to be around, message me for sure - would love to finally meet some of you all in person!

Mammothgambler

[LilyJDragonfly]

Nice shot of the wallpaper!

I think that The Dog and I will be in Reno next weekend (not this one)... shoot me a private message if you'll be there the first weekend and maybe we can hang out.

And what's up with the no-hot-water? I vaguely recall you mentioning this in a post some time back...

[Mammothgambler]

Hi Lily, thanks, and I JUST...literally, JUST...missed you this week and last! I'm getting caught up on my trip reports and will post in a bit.

Oh, the water? The utilities? The ski lodge? Guess what, this whole ordeal is over and I'm trying to move to Reno next month (I'll explain in my new trip report). Yes, people, I've survived a total of 72 whopping days without some utility or another, mainly hot water, and fortunately, Mono County officials finally caught up with our landlord, and now the bank has his property and has shut it down to the public. I'm being a squatter until the end of the month, and since this guy has 19 other properties elsewhere in California, yachts, and probably diamonds, in addition to everything that has happened here, I was able to pull off getting 3 free months rent outta the whole deal over time. Not bad!

Mammothgambler (maybe soon to be RenoGambler, but that's too common - gotta come up with a new name AGAIN...)

[mjames1229]