Born to Be Alive TR 22-28 Oct 2010

Trip Number 11

Welcome to the 11th Sailor53 trip report! As many folks know I’m retired from the U.S. Navy after 31 years. Today I work for the government as a writer of training materials for sailors throughout the Navy to help them understand the culture of new countries they are visiting. It’s a pretty satisfying job but I have to say that I’m looking forward to retiring for good one day in the near future.

The impetus for this trip was a scheduled meet for one of the many, many wonderful Vegas forums I am a member of. I had never met a lot of these folks and had been talking to many of them, in some cases for over 6 years.

Combined with the fact that I couldn’t take my usual week before Christmas trip because of work commitments, it was an easy decision to go 22-28 October.

My lovely bride who accompanied me on our last trip in May-June was not in the mood to climb back on a plane so soon. She has a fear of flying and it usually takes me about a year between trips to talk her into flying again. So she graciously granted me my liberty card to go solo once again.

Contacted my host at Orleans who lined me up with 3 comped nights and 3 at $36 a night with a review of my play at the end of my trip to see if more nights could be comped.

I also had an offer from HET for 2 free nights at either Flamingo, Rio, Bally’s or Harrah’s. I chose Rio as I have heard good things about the size of the rooms. I’m actually double booked as I wanted to have the option to go back to Orleans if the room or vibe at Rio was not to my liking. I knew from research and the word of others that the gaming conditions, especially for VP (my game of choice), are much poorer at Rio than Orleans. So if the gaming went south I could always zip back to Orleans if I wanted. Being double booked also provided the option (or detriment) to travel light when I went to the Rio.

I booked my flight on AirTran for about $350 round trip. I like AirTran because of their option of upgrading for a small amount if there are seats left empty in first class.

The last week of work went by slowly as it always does when I’m anticipating a Vegas trip. When Thursday finally came and ended I was happy to be packing my suitcase and making the time tick away while checking to ensure I had packed everything.

I put my laptop in my checked baggage as work had bought us all IPads to experiment with as possible tools in providing training materials to some of our customers. Since I had to play with it anyway I decided to take it with my in my carry-on bag so I could take advantage of the WIFI on the plane. It would help make the time go by between reading and watching movies on my portable DVD player. My book of choice which I had already read half of was “Bet the House†by Richard Roeper. It’s a pretty interesting read and I highly recommend it.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Friday the 22nd finally arrived. I had set my alarm for 3:45am. Got ready and the drowsy bride drove me to Pensacola Regional Airport for my 6am flight. Check in was quick and easy as I had checked in online the day before and netted those highly desirable first class seats. Score and win!

While waiting at the gate I made the first use of my IPad and posted a few words on the board. Without realizing it I’d actually started a daily blog of my journey.

Finally boarded and was sipping a bloody mary at about 6:05am. I only do early morning drinking on Vegas trips. It tasted wonderful.

Had about a 2 hour layover in Atlanta and then it was off to Vegas on flight 777! Can’t get a luckier number than that and I was hoping it was a sign of luck to come.

AirTran offers free wifi in flight for $4.95 per flight. I had to try that so signed up and there I was posting and emailing from 30,000 feet while enjoying another bloody mary. Life is good!

The president was flying in the same day I was to stump for Harry Reid. I was afraid this was going to mean delays either on the plane or on the road, so I decided to treat myself to a limo ride to the Orleans. My host set it up for $60 which may or may not be comped at checkout. We shall see.

Fortunately we landed on time and I raced for the tram with the energy of a 20 year old. And brother, I ain’t been 20 in 37 years! Grabbed the tram, down the hall, down the escalator and there is the most welcoming sight in Vegas, a chauffeur with a placard with your name on it.

My chauffeur’s name was Roger and he was a very friendly guy. He helped me with my bags and off to the limo we went. Not much traffic as I had feared and we were at the Orleans in about 15 minutes. Tipped him well and off to registration.

After I registered (1722 with view of strip) I started schlepping my bags toward the elevator. Who yells out not 10 feet from the check in counter but DMjewel (Dave). We spent a few minutes talking and I told him I’d call as soon as I got settled. That didn’t take long and I met him at the Alligator bar. Dave was down some but had survived his 8 day trip nicely so far. We played for awhile and I dropped about 60 bucks but did hit one 4OAK on Bonus VP for a small win.

The Piano bar where they have bands each night has been renovated and looks great. Much brighter and cleaner with the same pay tables as before. The progressive was up over 1500 smackers and I vowed right then to come back to claim it.

We had a meet scheduled at Barbary Bill’s for 5pm to watch Big Elvis. Dave and I met at the Piano bar entrance way to catch the shuttle down to the strip.

Trip was easy and short. Bill’s was hopping and we waited awhile to see who else might show up. I sat at the bar and played a $20 and nary a bartender recognized my existence. Dave sat by me while two women came up separately, one to my right, and one to my left. The bartenders were on them like flies on a rib roast. Disgusted with this treatment, we left.

Shortly thereafter Haleysmom, Can2do, MikeZona and lipgloss showed up. Big Elvis was in full swing and it was so loud we couldn’t hear ourselves think, much less converse. There wasn’t a table to be had so we decided to go to the Garden Bar at Flamingo for some quiet conversation.

We shared a drink and had a few laughs. But Dave and I were getting hungry so we excused ourselves and headed back to Orleans, a task that proved more difficult than we thought!

We missed finding the taxi line at Flamingo and crossed over to IP whose taxi line was humongous. We then trudged back to Bill’s to wait for a shuttle. A taxi showed up first so we grabbed it back to Orleans for a reasonable $11 fare.

Back at Orleans we decided on Don Miguel’s for dinner. We both had the taco meal and a beer. Everything was great as it always is at Don Miguel’s. The salsa was excellent.

After dinner we parted ways. I had to get a new key made before I left for Bill’s as mine quit working. The new key worked fine and I caught up on notes for the trip and then it was time to really start gambling. I had been hit and miss all day so now we’ll see how the luck really is.

I had a bit of luck at the Alligator bar. I was dealt 4 threes on DDB VP for a quick $100 win and then four Kings on BP VP. Lost some of that at the Crawfish bar then headed over to the Piano bar. The green glow from the baseboard lights looked great.

A band started up and was sounding pretty good. I milked $60 for almost 2 hours catching four 7s on DB VP. Alas it ran out but I had a helluva time there.

The losses then started to mount and I had to go back to the room to reload. It was almost 11:30pm and I was tempted to hit the hay but I was only down a couple of hundred for the day. My limit is $300 so I splashed some water on my face and headed back down with only $100 to see if I could get some karma going.

Played some 50 cent Bonus VP and lasted a loooong time. Hit 3 four of a kinds (4OAK) and had it up to $180 at one point but slowly dumped it back in. Oh well.

In the end I dumped my daily allotment of $300 – so it goes. Had a lot of fun though with Luis at the Alligator bar serving up strong Crowns.

So I get to my room about 3 am and of course my key doesn’t work. The worst time for stuff like this to happen is when you’re stumbling down the hallway ready for the pre-hangover passout!

Back down to the front desk and now a tech meets me at the door and says my lock is screwed. I’m bone tired but I’ve got to wait for a maintenance guy to come up and replace my lock. Should have gone to bed hours ago.

Tomorrow is another day.

Saturday October 23, 2010

After a hearty 4 hours of sleep my booze-soaked body refused further solace. So I steeled myself for another day in paradise. After getting ready I hit Seattle’s Best for coffee and wifi. I used my IPad to check emails and the like. The one thing I dislike about the IPad is there are no up, down, etc. arrows. My old fingers are too fat even for this new-fangled contraption. Wow, that sounded like my grandfather!

Met up with DMjewel at the Piano bar. This is really a nice looking bar now as I said before but this morning neither dmj or myself could hit a thing. I enjoyed a couple of Bailey’s and coffee though!

I gave up on the Piano bar and moved over to the Mardi Gras bar. Almost immediately I hit four 5s on Bonus Deluxe VP and ended up playing that machine for almost 2 hours cashing out a few bucks ahead after a couple of tasty Bud Light Limes.

I returned to the room for a break and for the third time my room key did not work. Grrrrr! Back down to the registration desk and got new keys. They told me to call on the white courtesy phone if they didn’t work. You bet I will!

Key 1 did not work. Key 2 did. I was tempted to call down but I’m sick of wasting my time with this crap. I wanted to grab a bite before heading over for the meet at Napoleon’s in the walkway between Paris and Bally’s.

Figured I’d eat and check the room key again before leaving for the meet. This is getting frustrating!

The line to every eatery had been gigantic all morning. I wanted breakfast but didn’t want to wait in the lines. Decided on Big Al’s Oyster Bar since it was already almost 1pm. Big Al’s never fails to please. I had a cup of New England clam chowder and a shrimp cocktail. The cocktail sauce is smackyourlipsallicious and they give you a half lemon to squeeze all that lemony goodness onto the shrimp. Wasn’t that a Led Zeppelin song?

The breadbasket contained warm sourdough bread and everything, as usual, was scrumptious.

Walked around a bit after eating and found DMjewel at a WOZ machine. I thought he said he was leaving for the airport at 1:30pm and it was about ten minutes later than that. He was in the throes of Vegas withdrawal which I can completely understand! I wished him a safe journey and headed back to the room – I was getting paranoid about this lockout problem.

Well the key worked this time. I rested a bit and decided to go down for one more session before leaving for the meet.

After trying to play as slow as possible I still lost $100 in less than half an hour, even with jumping from machine to machine. I guess DMjewel strategy does not work for me. It took 6 swipes of my card to get back in the room. After the meet I’m going to talk to my host about moving. This is nuts.

Grabbed the shuttle to Bill’s and crossed over to Bally’s. Figured I’d find where Napoleon’s was located even though I still had almost an hour till the meet. I was dreading playing in either Bally’s or Paris. I’ve never won a thing at either place. But I wasn’t winning back at home base either so what the hell?

Well I needn’t have worried. Had to wait for the shuttle for almost 20 minutes. Then in took about another 20 minutes for the shuttle to get to Bill’s. And the people. I’ve never seen the strip so packed. There were geeks, freaks, sportos, motor heads, butts, sluts, etc, everywhere (taken with liberties from Ferris Bueller‘s Day Off (1986)). It was (as we used to say in the navy) nuts to butts on the escalators.

By the time I made it to Napoleon’s there was barely 15 minutes until the meet. People started showing up and we quickly found out that Napoleon’s was closed to the public for a private gathering. Now what?

As more and more people showed up it was decided to move this gang of 20 or so folks to Le Cabaret in Paris. We left a note on the sign outside Napoleon’s to guide latecomers to our new location.

Actually the move was a good idea. The area was deserted and we just pulled all the tables and chairs together. I could never remember everyone who was there – it was great to meet you all and I really enjoyed getting to know some of you better.

I didn’t want to face the shuttle again so after I left the meet I grabbed a cab outside of Paris. The wait wasn’t too bad and the driver honked and screeched through the Vegas traffic. He must have been doing his job well as pedestrians were flipping him off and making other vulgar gestures at him as we drove.

Got back to Orleans in record time and now it was time to think about dinner. As I walked past the Mardi Gras bar I notice the Pumpkin Patch Halloween Palooza drawing, or whatever it was called, was going on. Since I’d scanned my card earlier and had entered the drawing I was stuck. So I hoisted myself on a stool at the bar to wait for the drawing.

Of course, my name was not called, but that didn’t stop me from having about 5 Crowns while losing my a$$ once again. This is getting old.

I thought about Chinese, but in the end decided just to get some pizza at Sabbaro’s and eat it in the room. I thought maybe later I’d hit the graveyard special at Courtyard Café.

Finally I hit a small run of luck. Caught four 5s (second time today) on Bonus Deluxe VP for $100 and then four Kings on Bonus Poker. Luis was pouring the Crowns tall and strong, just the way I like them. He is a big sports bettor, so I thought I’d give him the book I just finished reading by Richard Roeper, ‘Bet the House’.

Nothing really memorable happened during the rest of the evening except for one extremely drunk or high guy falling asleep at the Alligator bar. Luis kept trying to get him up but he was really out of it. He finally woke up and asked ‘Where’s my friend? You know him don’t you?†– I thought for a minute security would get involved but he finally stumbled away into the night.

I was stumbling too in the gaming department. I think I had three 4-of-a-kinds all day long. I finally gave it up about 3am and headed to the room with the lock that sometimes works.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Well with each new day there’s fresh hope. I was planning on cabbing down to MGM to hit the Lion’s Share but after the nightmare crowds I encountered on the strip yesterday I decided to save it for Monday. Besides, today is semi-moving day. I’m double booked at Rio for 2 nights on a comp I received in the mail.

I’m not planning to move all my stuff over there since I’m not sure I’ll want to stay. I’ve really got used to the Orleans over the years and feel most comfortable here. So the plan is to take an overnight bag and check it out. If I like it, I’ll stay. If not, I’ll just come back. I hate to say it, and I know I shouldn’t, but I didn’t think the gambling could suck any worse over there.

I was famished so I headed down to the Courtyard Café. The line was 50 people deep. Checked the buffet, same story. Even Seattle’s best was packed. No more weekend stays in Vegas for me.

Tried my old favorite, a Triple Play VP nickel machine by the keno area. Ordered up a bloody mary from the cocktail server and enjoyed about a half hour of fun but lost my $20. I saw the Airplane slot and gave it try. Finally hit a bonus and cashed out an extra $20 – I think this is the first time I’ve cashed out anything since I got here.

Bounced back and forth from VP to Airplane, Star Trek and John Wayne machines. Kept checking the restaurant lines and there was no relief. Finally I couldn’t’ stand it so I went to Fudrucker’s and ordered up a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. I was surprised it came with potatoes and a drink for $5.99 – not bad. Enjoyed it in the room and then headed back out to see what I could see.

Finally it was time to head to Rio to check in. Took the shuttle to Gold Coast and schlepped my overnight bag to Rio. No line at check in and got room 1321 in the Ipanema tower. I know, lucky 13, but I figured what the hell.

Room was nice but stunk a bit. Large room with floor to ceiling windows. I had a very nice view of Harrah’s and surrounding properties. There was a fridge which would be a nice touch for a longer stay.

I knew NMChop was at Palms so I walked over there. I had no way to contact him so I looked around but no dice.

Played a bit and had my best hit of the trip at the bar near the full pay Deuces Wild machines. I was playing a bit of round-de-round VP and hit four deuces with a kicker on DDB VP for a nice $200 win.

I tried the Full Pay DW VP machines when a seat finally opened up but only lasted a little while before my buyin was gone.

Crossed the street to Gold Coast and was hitting like crazy. Lots of 4OAKs and the bartenders couldn't wait to serve you another drink. I'd have half my drink gone and they were serving up another one. Best bar service I've ever had.

I was getting hungry so I decided to try a new first, Cortez Room. What a great place. I had the Queen's cut prime rib, baked potato and salad. It came with a huge warm bread thingy, butter and chopped tomato salsa. All for $14.00. Paid for it with my B Connected card. It was a great experience but I was seated next to a family with a sick 5 year old who coughed continuously. I felt sorry for her and thought she ought to be in bed or in the hospital.

As it got dark I headed over to Rio thinking I was going to get my a$$ handed to me. Surprisingly I did well at all the VP bars. Who needs good pay tables when you're hitting premium quads?

The bartenders are fantastic at Rio - it was almost the same as Gold Coast and they serve their drinks in large glasses, as does the Palms, which was great since you didn't have to refill as often.

I totally, accidentally was in the right place at the right time and saw the show in the sky. It was pretty cool and I'm glad I saw it, but it didn't stop me from playing VP at the Masquerade bar LOL!

Went to bed at a very reasonable 1am thanks to being over served. Man those bartenders pour em strong at the Rio!

Monday, October 25, 2010

This morning I had a few bloody mary's for breakfast at the Rio, then caught the shuttle back to Orleans for a change of clothes. I had a little luck at 3-play VP but had to leave as I was starving. I was going to hit the Courtyard Cafe for breakfast but I needed to change clothes first so went up to the room. Called the bride and she is treading water in Biloxi at the IP.

I decided to check emails and posts first and got to thinking it would be a good idea to go down to Mon Ami Gabi. The crowds have thinned so it probably wouldn't be so bad down on the strip.

Grabbed the shuttle down to Bill’s and made my way to MAG. There was a guy dressed up as a Transformer posing for pictures for tips. I didn’t get my photo taken.

When I got to Paris there was about a 20 minute wait for a table on the patio. Figured that was reasonable enough so took the pager and played at the sports bar for awhile. Sooner than expected the pager went off and I was led to a great table on the patio with dead center aim on the Bellagio fountains.

The sun was warm, the breeze was cool, and I was at my ultimate Vegas moment waiting for a fountain show. I knew I wanted to try the French onion soup and I also ordered the quiche Lorraine. I know, real men don’t eat quiche. But dang it, I love the stuff.

My French onion soup came and it was, by far, without a doubt, unbelievably the best I ever had. The only thing that would have been better was a fountain show to accompany the soup. As time marched by I realized they may not be doing fountain shows today because of the wind. Sure enough, my server confirmed this. Bummer, but I finally sat at a patio table at MAG after wanting to do so for over 10 years.

My quiche was wonderful but took awhile to arrive. I was in direct sunlight and after 30 minutes or so I realized my pasty white Scandinavian skin was getting burned on my left side. I will likely look pretty funny tomorrow!

After my meal I made my way over to Bellagio. Surprisingly all the escalators were working. Win!

I normally visit the Fontana bar to see if I can find Diane, one fantastic bartender. Instead, I located a place I’d missed for years – the sports bar. The bartender poured one mean bloody mary, and I enjoyed them while playing some Deuces Wild VP.

Sadly, my luck was not good and after a couple of fantastic bloody mary’s I made my way back to Gold Coast via the shuttle.

I bellied up to the Island VP bar and started up a conversation with a nice lady from Phoenix. It was a good thing too, as my luck was atrocious. After a bloodletting at VP I walked back to Rio and decided to have dinner at Martorano’s. I’d read it was really good and I’m always up for trying something new.

After a loooong walk I found Martorano’s. There was hardly anyone in the place so I chose to sit at the bar. The bartender was really nice and personable. There were so many menu choices it was hard to decide so I went with simple and traditional – spaghetti! The bartender insisted I had to have a meatball as they are Martorano’s specialty. I agreed and sipped a Manhattan and enjoyed the bread basket while watching the football games and the original Rocky movie on the plasma screens. Life is good!

I have always enjoyed Italian food. I didn’t think you could make it any better that what it is. Holy smokes, this was, hands down, the best Italian I’ve ever had. The meatball was accompanied by a cheese spread which, my bartender told me, needed to be combined with every bite of meatball. She was right. I don’t think I can express how much I enjoyed this feast. Try this place if you can. It is a bit pricy, but definitely worth it!

Now I would have called this the perfect day in Vegas if I was just talking about the food. But brothers and sisters, let me tell you, I’ve never had a bad gambling night like this one. I’d already dumped a couple hundred at Gold Coast, the home of full pay JOB VP. And tonight at Rio, where I practically could do no wrong last night, I was quad deprived all night long.

Let me paint you the picture. Two Franklins, six hours, and not one four of a kind. It got so unbelievable I was chuckling at my awful luck. If it wasn’t for Tony, probably one of the greatest bartenders I ever had the pleasure to meet, the night would have totally sucked. But Tony was jovial and shoving refills my way before I was even half way done with my Crown. I stayed too long and lost too much but I must say this was a very Vegassy fun day.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

When I finally dragged my butt out of bed at 8am I didn’t even want to think about moving back to Orleans. But my luck has stunk at every place I played so what the hell. I found an $80 TITO on the desk, evidence of the point I was at when I gave up last night.

Got ready for the day and since the shuttle to Orleans wasn’t running yet I headed down for one more shot at the Rio.

Found the first VP bar there was and ordered up a bloody mary. Rio’s drinks are served in oversized glasses compared to Boyd casinos. And doggonnit if they just taste wonderful. I had some good luck this morning as I got on a machine that is what I would call “a playerâ€. Specifically, it kept giving me trips, full houses, and flushes consistently. I was still laughing that it wasn’t giving me quads, but finally it did on DDB VP with 4 Queens. I only cashed out up about $40 but it was a really fun session.

After 3 Bloody Mary’s for breakfast I was a bit tipsy but managed to check out on the TV with zero charges. I had fun at Rio and enjoyed a different change of scene. However, I don't think I'll double book again. It's too much of a pain to have your stuff spread out between two places.

Grabbed my overnight case and made it to Gold Coast and the shuttle showed up in about 5 minutes. Back at Orleans again I shaved (forgot to bring my razor to Rio) and typed up some notes. I was starving but impatient for waiting in any line so I grabbed a slice of pizza from Sabarro’s.

I still had 2 days ahead of me but I thought I’d stay planted at Orleans for the day. All the running around yesterday had my legs a bit sore.

Tried a round of Deuces Wild VP at the bar by the sports book. I moved around quite a bit to try to get something going but no luck. Hank the bartender kept following me around and making sure I had a fresh Bud Light Lime in front of me just as I was ready to leave. That cheezer cost me about $100 as I kept feeding 20s into the dadgum machines. I was now down to my last 60 bucks and then my bankroll of 2 grand would be gone. I was really hoping for a Hail Mary win.

Sorry, no miracle occurred and I lost the rest in short order. Had to take the walk of shame to the ATM. But shortly thereafter I finally hit 5 out of 5 keno numbers for a nice $200 win.

NMChop from one of the many Vegas forums I belong to called and we met up at the Mardi Gras bar.

NMChop is a great guy to shoot the breeze with and generally a really nice guy. We talked for more that 4 hours I believe between sharing a drink at the Mardi Gras bar and playing some VP there as well. He hit quad deuces and threes and I finally had to talk him into cashing out. It's funny, but some people can play while talking to someone and some cannot - I can't! But Chop never missed a beat of the conversation while continuously pounding on those buttons. Hilarious!

After Chop left I went into 'hovering' mode. Man I played for a long time on the same $20. The band was rockin' at the Piano bar. They were so loud the vibration of the bass was vibrating me! Good times.

Hit the hay at a reasonable 2 am. Still down, but not out. The key to the room worked. A small win.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

You know the trip is coming to a close when you check in for your flight. At least I scored first class seats again.

Now that I was facing my last day I thought I'd finally do what I intended to do. Hit the Lion's Share at MGM and win me some millions!

Grabbed a cab to MGM – fare was only 10 bucks. Tipped correctly and made my way to the lonely Lion’s Share machine. No one was playing so gave it shot. No luck, not even a scare.

Played a little Deuces Wild VP at one of the many, and nameless to me, bars. Cashed out ahead with my buyin and a bottle of water. I was really in need of hydration!

Found the Megabucks and played for awhile with no hits but no losses either. Thought about walking up the strip and sightseeing but really felt tired so grabbed a cab back to Orleans.

Had one bloody mary at the alligator bar but was feeling really tired so went up to the room for a rest and to start some packing. Tomorrow’s wake up call at 4 am will come awfully early in the morning!

I actually took a short nap. These are the times when we realize that we just don’t have the stamina any more for a full 6 days of non-stop partying. I made the mistake of doing my ‘deadly trio’ of drinks almost every day - bloody mary’s for breakfast, beers for lunch, and Crown Royals for dinner. I didn’t drink nearly enough water and now it was taking its toll.

Stopped by the host office and talked to Brianna. All but my limo ride and a few small food purchases were comped leaving me a total bill of $86 – with all the losses this was very welcome news. I was actually surprised since I pretty much stiffed Orleans for the two days I was at Rio.

Did a little more packing and was trying to think what to do with the rest of my day. I thought about a movie but then remembered Rhonda (a good friend I have now known for years) was going to meet me for lunch.

We met up around 1 pm and had a nice lunch at the Courtyard Café. They have a special soup and half a sandwich for $4.99 – an excellent deal and pretty tasty as well.

With about six hours to go before I turned into a pumpkin I decided to just bounce around and see if there was any chance of winning a few bucks of my money back.

I started out at the Piano bar and had a little luck but it got so damned noisy with the Giant’s game I had to move. I’m not a huge baseball fan and I don’t mind watching but these people screamed after every pitch, hit, slide, etc so I had to get out of there.

From there things went downhill. I hit a couple of quads at the Piano bar but on JOB or DB VP, no premium quads. I kept trying but no joy.

Decided to have my “last supper†at Don Miguel’s. Enjoyed the chicken chimichanga and couldn’t finish half of it. Huge portions.

Had my last session of VP at the Alligator bar as is my tradition. Sat at the same end machine and played 50 cent VP for well over an hour on my last $100. It almost cleaned my clock but then inched up hitting two 4OAKs on DDB VP. I tried like hell to hit that royal that would put me even but I ran out of time and energy. I did end on a positive note cashing out $300. Maybe next time.

I was so paranoid about missing my 4am wakeup call I don’t think I slept an hour all night. Of course I woke up on time, grabbed my gear and headed for check out.

Check out was ez at 4:15 am. Taxi ride straight down Tropicana and only about 13 bucks. Short wait through security and then all I could do was sit and doze in my chair waiting for the flight.

Flight left on time but had issues with wifi so said screw it, had a bloody mary and dozed the whole way to Atlanta. As my Alabama bride likes to say, I was “wore slap outâ€!

As I was sleeping something weird happenedI woke up abruptly and yelled “OH!â€, then immediately realized my embarrassment and was looking straight at the flight attendant who was seated facing me for landing. She said “guess you were just dreaming about that jackpot!â€. Had to laugh over that one and apologized for startling everyone. I think I was just over exhausted.

Had another 3 hour layover in Atlanta and again just dozed while waiting for the flight. Flight to Pensacola was flawless. I’m still not caught up on my sleep but working on it.

Photos can be seen here: http://travel.webshots.com/album/578...ayIKlW?start=0

Thanks for reading everyone!

 

great report! Did you like the roeper book? I read that recently and could not believe how much of a degenerate he is!

 

I did like it. Who wouldn't (some days at least) want to be single and have tens of thousands of dollars to throw around? LOL

 

Great TR as always Sailor. I actually stayed at Rio for the first time back in June. I liked it. I played in the WSOP but also played VP and did pretty good. I hit a royal on my first night there.

 

Great TR sorry for the losses , but seems you had a good time out n about at your own pace, meeting up with old and new friends

hmmmmmm the link to the pics didn't work I got this message

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Nice trip report Matey!

But - I would never, ever, never put my laptop in checked baggage. Between it getting lost or broken, it is just not worth it. And for us, we often watch a movie while flying anyways.

Really though, I have heard way to many stories of damaged laptops or getting lost to even think about taking a chance.

 

Gotta agree on the laptop, would never put it in the luggage. Even if I had an Ipad.

 

Thanks for the TR. Too bad about the VP losses, but you did well with taxis, so almost a win when you don't get long-hauled

 

Sailor..great trip report !!!!!!

 

Nice report as usual Sailor. Sorry about the VP losses. Damn that game!

 

Love reading these. Thanks for posting. We're going to Vegas in a week and I'll attempt to post my first TR.

 

Great Report, thank you!

 

The surprising thing is how long it took for you get that first crown this trip . Good one as usual sailor. Glad to see you made it to the Rio. On the sole basis of their rooms I would go back there. I love how spacious yet cheap they are. The bad side is that I feel everything there is tight. I can't recall anyone winning on their slots in the 5 days i was there, as well as table games. That HET edge will destroy a low roller quickly. I spent more time gambling at the gold coast than the rio. I'm not a VP player so i can't comment on that, but for all the drinks you get with it, its not so bad.

 

Very nice report, can definitely understand the over-exhausted thing, although have never had it happen on a flight, have done it once arriving home a couple times.

 

Thanks for posting Sailor! I felt your pain with the room key issue. That gets uber frustrating real quick, but I'm glad to see it got fixed and you had a good, if losing, trip.

 

Great report! I'll be driving through Pensacola on my way to Texas (with a stop at the Beau!) in just six weeks. Feel free to join if you like!

 

great report

 

Not sure I'll be headed to Biloxi anytime soon - need to build the bankroll back up - thanks for the invite though!