Solo Laughlin II, Electric Boogaloo

So I know I was doing this back in August, but as a nod to part of my title, I’m BREAKIN’ my own rule of not traveling again until next year. The price can’t be beat and it’s been a rough couple of weeks for me so here we are again.

I’m currently sitting at the gate at the airport waiting on a charter plane that will take my happy ass to Laughlin.

I have no real solid plans for this trip other than a massage tomorrow and pizza from River Rick’s at some point.

I’m hoping to do a whole lotta relaxing, plus I’ve already chronicled a couple other Laughlin trips, and there isn’t a lot of variety there so I don’t know how interesting this will be but I like to do trip reports for my own memories.

We should be boarding by now but I don’t see a plane, so there’s that. I know that I must be at the correct gate from the sheer amount of old people though.

Aaaaaand they just announced our flight is delayed by at least an hour. Took my happy pill a little too soon.

 

Nice throwback to sixth grade. Enjoy!

 

Have a great trip!

If you get a chance please report back on whether River Ricks is now making the Hawaiian Pizza and/or the Breakfast Pizza! They recently had a sign up saying that these two new pizzas were coming soon, but they weren't yet available when I was there in October.

 

Will do, but I believe that sign was up last February when we were there for the first time, so I’m not sure getting that pizza up and running is their top priority.

I’m hoping so though because I’d love to try the hot Hawaiian one.

 

Plane just got here. Always a good sign after a delay.

 

Also, Hubs just sent me this pic of my angel, clearly not missing me at all.

 

I had River Rick’s when I was down there in early November, it was so good I had another one with my Dad the next night. Wish I had found it before, it’s an excellent pizza! The cookies are good too.

 

Omg, the white chocolate macadamia cookies!!! Sooooo gooood.

 

Much fuller flight than the last three charters.



Waiting on fuel and then we are off.

The delay was blamed on fog.

 

The guy across the aisle from me is doing scratch off tickets.

 

@cvkelz where do you charter from? I’ve always been intrigued about flying into Bullhead City directly.

Unfortunately, AFAIK CET doesn’t offer charters to Reno/Vegas/anywhere besides Laughlin from NorCal so Laughlin is my only choice.

 

From Monterey.

It’s an easy hour flight and then a quick fifteen min bus ride to the hotel.

Last time they dropped off Tropicana first. Hope today is the same.

 

All checked in.

Promenade tower for the first time. If I overheard the desk clerk correctly, they are shutting down the entire East tower (the one I’ve always stayed in before) on the 8th for whatever reason so they cannot put any of us in that tower.

This room is okay but lacking a fridge and the air conditioning doesn’t appear as good. Thank goodness it’s not the middle of summer. The tower is a bit of a hike from the front entrance though.





I called down and the clerk said she’ll send housekeeping up with a fridge. We will see if it arrives.

Interesting travels. My two row-mates on the plane were these cranky old ladies that thought the world was against them. When the flight attendant ran out of water just as she got to our row, one of the ladies actually said “Well, THAT was convenient…”. As if the FA planned it so she would run out just to spite them. They got real nice to me after I offered them som m&ms though.



Fridge just got delivered with my luggage so I think it’s time for a trip to the Family Dollar for water and snacks.

No plans tonight other than a little gamble, some dinner (should I do in n out or pizza?) and maybe a trip to the lounge to check out the band if I can stay up that late.

 

If you want to make friends and influence people…just pull out a damn snacklebox!

I will be in Laughlin next month, so our timing is a little off!

Good luck Cvkelz…win lottsa of money!

Mike

 

Snacks and water were procured just before it got dark around 4:30.

No pics of the walk as I was trying to figure out my new pocket video camera gimbal thingie.

I was starving when I got back to the room but was starting to feel nauseous from all the non foods I had been eating all day (I love a snacklebox, but it does NOT make a meal).

I looked up a couple of places but the only thing that sounded even kind of okay was the Pan Asian from Carnegie’s deli downstairs. It was just Teriyaki chicken, rice and broccoli. I added some Mandu from one of those vending machines that steam up stuff and brought it back up to the room.



While I was waiting for it to cook, I played some gamble. My usual games were not being kind to me. I was about to give up when I spotted one of those pink cat kismet game thingies. I won back what I had lost plus 20 when I got the text that my food was ready.



I had plans that I was going to go see the band that was going to play at the lounge downstairs but I’m so full and tired I can’t fathom moving from this bed.

God I’m old.

 

Welp, morning not going as I’d hoped.

Wanted to get a nice long workout in before my massage but the toilet had other plans.

Now I’m waiting on on maintenance for a plunger and housekeeping for a new set of towels.

 

Got everything sorted.

I figured one of these stays this was going to happen. The toilets in all of the rooms that I have stayed in here at the Tropicana have never felt that reliable. They did the job, but kind of with an attitude about it. Like a customer service agent or retail clerk that hates their job: "Oh, I'll flush what you gave me, but I'm going to take my sweet time about it and you'll be so glad when it finally goes away you won't care..." And while I do eat a lot of fiber in my diet, I'm not taking the craps of a 350 lb wrestler so I don't feel that the demands that I'm making on the petulant porcelain princess are all that great.

Anyhoo, they sent up a guy to plunge and a gal to replace the towels and clean up and then I got my workout in.

I grabbed some fruit and coffee from the pool cafe downstairs to try and circumvent yesterdays snack-food-fest and now I'm just relaxing for a few minutes before I shower and head out.

My massage isn't until 2:00 but I figured I'll slot around maybe hit the mall on the way there so I can see if any of the five stores that were open last time have closed yet.

Also, the internet in this tower is PAINFULLY slow.

 

^ I know most of this is probably not supposed to be funny, but it sure did make me laugh. Good luck at the zombie mall and I hope you enjoy your massage!

 

I’m with @MohrPfun, as much as this sucks I can’t stop laughing at your amazing recap of it.

And the answer is Pizza AND In n Out by the way…

 

Massage was amazing.

Some pics from the walk over.



Zombie Mall (credit to @MohrPfun ) still zombieing.

Bath and Bodyworks was the star of the show today as it was packed with all the disappointed tourists that wanted an actual mall.


Guys!! My beloved Maidenform store finally bit the dust! So sad!!



This is the stairwell that you have to use to get to the upper level and also where I will eventually meet my demise at the hands of the mall zombies.




They did have a sad little Christmas display.