October 16-21st. From the Hotel California to Orleans .....

Needed to start a thread for posting and pic attachments so this is it. Looking forward to this break and hoping for a trip which finds unbelievable luck and wealth follow me onto the plane Tuesday.

I will post a couple of pics to be sure that is working as well.

 

I get to use Andre Johnson and U.S. Grant this trip to keep up with my drink count. And they are so shiny!!

 

Got my envelopes and all the good stuff.....

 

That's it for pre-trip reporting....seems to work ok but does use the phone juice a bit....thanks for bearing with my trials....

 

What are the quarters for??? Coin-in machines??

 

Those are my shiny $ coins for the waitress.....I put 10 in my pocket and when they are gone I usually am too.....water, sodas, juice I go with chips or folding $'s....Began using them when my wife (5'!") couldn't keep up and kept scouring the floor for me (a good spot to look) so she would just ask any one tipping with $ coins... and the waitresses would generally point in my direction.....I just use it for tabulation....

See Ya Thursday.....(your wristbands are still in the envelope)

 

Sorry for being obtuse...I totally didn't realize those were DOLLAR coins (I forgot all about those, lol)
I use $2 bills myself, since its Kris and I...
See you thursday!

 

I am hardly able to contain myself as I anticipate breakfast on Thursday enroute to Dallas Love....."eggs and cakes"....yummy...a great (but not unique) small town café....which will be my last REAL meal until my return....(pictures will follow---if the locals don't scrutinize this out-of-towner too much)

http://www.koffeekupfamilyrestaurant.com/menu/breakfastmenu.html

 

Good luck Bubba!
C'mon, you're going to have a "REAL" meal with us on Saturday at Redwood.

 

Having not eaten at the Redwood previously I will retract earlier comments.....however as the menu states and the waitress produces from the kitchen, everything is from scratch and the beer batter rolls are to die for....mmmmmmm....crap; there goes my stomach again.....see ya Friday! And congrats on 33 years in case I forget......what a woman she must be!! ha

 

Oh yea, it takes a very strong lady to put up with me for all these years! I'd be lost without her.

 

Scored a B-2 with a "TSA Pre" notation in the upper left corner......onward through the fog......

I tried to keep up a live "feed" on my trip but found it impossible after the 4th drink and attempting to get my fat little fingers on the i-phone keyboard with any degree of accuracy. Thus I am going to try and "edit" my posts and see if I can make do with a compact overview and comments on various pics which were posted during the trip itself.

Travel: Left the home in the wee hours and attempted to navigate the highways and deer population as the rut begins in this part of the country. Things went well until the last 4 miles or so and the morning Dallas traffic began to reduce my average mph. Arrived at the parking lot, shuttled and whizzed through security with priority.

Flights are now able to be direct without the obligatory stop prior to leaving Texas as required through the (Jim) Wright Amendment. Praise be to common sense. On time both coming and going.

Took the WAX to Fremont. 2 $. Rented a "compact" car from Enterprise on their weekend specail of 9.99 $ a day + all the extras. 40 $ + change with no problems although the compact was bloated into a Chevy Equinox(?) which was nice but better for a buddies' golf trip or couples' trip vs. a single outing. Cab from Orleans to airport was without incident and quite pleasant.

Weather: WOW !!

Food: Ate at the MSS buffet for breakfast twice. 8.5
Ate a hamburger at the "quickie" joint just off the floor at the California. 8.5
Ate at the Pasta Pirate (which found out will be closing to only re-open as a noodle place of some sort.....pasta to noodle) and had the steak which was good with a beer 9.0 (ate at the bar) Service was 4.0 as the bartender didn't have much concern for attention as his focus was with the wait staff in the restaurant and lamenting the pending closing. I was fine with it as he seemed a bit uninteresting anyway.
Ate at the Redwood Grill with Joe and this involved more than just spirits and dining but more on that later. Had the Porterhouse Special 9.8
Ate at the bar at the Prime Rib Loft @ Orleans with Prime Rib. 10+. NEVER had a disappointing meal with Prime Rib here and always the best of attention / service. This experience was no different.
Ate at the Courtyard Cafe @ Orleans. Only thing I have learned here is to ask for hash brown crisp and bacon well done. In this was the grease suddenly is evaporated or cooked off rather than floating about my plate while dining.

Used points to pay for those meals (other than Redwood Grill) not covered by two 20 $ coupons @ Hotel California and 50 $ dining credit @ Orleans.

Bed: Hotel California West Wing was again very satisfactory. Room 1439. Final third of the hallway so little traffic in the hall. Checked in at 12:00 and was the only one at the counter with three persons working. View of the parking garage. The bed was comfy and not too hard and not too soft. And it is always nice to be the youngest one walking the hallways in the early morning or late evening.

Orleans was as good as always. Room 907. Far from the elevator with a view of the pool and mountains in the distance. Great bed in refurbished room. Check in at 10:00 and was told it was one of few rooms available at that time due to being sold out on Saturday night. No charge for upgraded(?) room.

Gambling: Took a major hit on Thursday during the meet-up @ MSS. Did ok earlier in the day and then sort of lost focus (started drinking) and allowed degree of losses to exceed general expectations. Still had a great time but could have come home a winner if Thursday's debacle had been more restrained. Woke up with a TimSpeed level hang-over Friday.

Recovered slowly buying in all future sessions with only 100 $ and cashing out when at least doubling my money or more. If I ever went beyond 2x buy-in I would continue with the streak and cash out a profit or when returned to only 2x buy-in. Felted twice more but did ok several times. Craps personnel at Orleans / GC / MSS / Hotel California were always professional and attentive.

VP was absolutely great! Downtown pay-tables were night and day vs. those at Gold Coast / Orleans. 10 / 7 - 9 / 6 was 8 / 5 or worse. I could not find Jacks or Better at Orleans but it was abundantly available at Gold Coast. No Royals but several close calls. Multiple straight flushes / four of a kinds.

Played BJ @ the Orleans which the usual decks, rules and amazingly endured the following: pushed the first two hands @ 6 $ a hand. Lost 14 consecutive hands either from suck-out hits from the dealer to her hand or me hitting 12 - 16 and busting. Lost a split with 20 / 20 to her 21. Pushed the last two hands and when the shuffle came up decided to take it as an omen before we started on the 14 consecutive loss streak again. Wow.
Ended up 200 $ down for the trip which is probably about the amount of tip$ I gave out in drinking / dining / gambling. Again, could have come home a bit ahead but lost my mind the first day but wouldn't change a thing. The meet-up was fun if fuzzy and the wrist-bands I found to be very unique and easily identifiable. Good job Sonya!

Card score for Boyd began at 72,476 with 102,843 points. Upon departing
Card score 102,948 with 117,581 points. Losing 16, 000 + points at the end of this month from last October but still remain Sapphire for now.

Will go along and comment on the pictures posted and hope to clarify.

 

Using Java wifi at orleans after getting rental. Will post details later but wanted to upload some pics before battery goes out. Meet at mss was fun but not profitable. Wristbands worked great. I will post pics sequentially with timeline and again follow up later. Weekend begins early here especially with Buffett on the weekend.
When I left it was awfully early and COLD for central Texas boy. But the price of gas warmed me up as well as breakfast @ Koffee Kup.

 

Here comes the train! the train!!

[IMG]http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/17/255f7c222c2007ebb577df38b20d3bfd.jpg

Always enjoy the visual show while waiting for luggage which came fairly quickly.

100$ buy-in at hotel California

 

Heading down the steps to the MSS meet-up.

[IMG]http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/17/f324047b7b660305d320421ba8f795bf.jpg

This thing is tall and looks like a giant unicycle without the seat....

[IMG]http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/17/4a3527be39beef59a33a6b8f05ea18c9.jpg

nickel boredom

[IMG]http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/17/bd7c5111ec3a8659824b4a11d158bdea.jpg

Only ended up cashing one for 100 $ (damn Bears --both NFL and college)

Rented a compact car and got this!

[IMG]http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/17/7b8fc3e77bb2886ffb1df1526c56622e.jpg

 

Last morning after a late night. Plan to go in and type text to the following pictures tomorrow via edit button and hopefully make sense of some of it. Live trip reporting is best done with a tablet or laptop with much less alcohol vs. An i-phone & too much imbibing.

 

Some vp porn

 

Room 907 @ Orleans. New shower head from regular room but they have removed the phone from the toilet area (how clean could THAT have been?) and the obligatory window in the shower.....It was good.

 

Breakfast of Champions and the view out the window down onto the pool area....