Road Trip to Houston: Las Vegas

Day 17 - Winslow to Las Vegas

Today we had a pretty easy four and a half hour drive from Winslow to Las Vegas.  We knew we would gain an hour when we crossed into Nevada so we were in no hurry to get on the road this morning.  After being on the road for over two weeks we were really looking forward to spending four days in one place.  We arrived at Harrah’s Las Vegas around 1:30 and quickly checked in. 

Our room was ready and we were happy to see we had a mini-suite as the regular rooms are really in need of an upgrade.  Despite the need for room refurbishing, we still prefer to stay at Harrah’s because of its mid-strip location that works well for us.  We did find that they are in the process of upgrading all of the rooms which should be completed this year.  We unpacked our bags and got settled in and then went down to the casino to do a little gambling and get something to eat and that was about it for the day.

Day 18 – 20

Rather than go into a detailed account of our stay in Las Vegas, I’ll just give a summary of our stay.  We had no real plans as we just wanted to relax after spending the last two plus weeks on the road.  We didn’t go to any shows and pretty much just ate when we were hungry instead of planning anything.  We did eat at one restaurant we hadn’t tried before; the Border Grill located in the Forum Shops in Caesar’s Palace, which we found to be quite good and will eat there again.  We visited some of the other casinos on the Strip, took some afternoon naps and basically took it easy during our stay.

One thing notable on this visit to Las Vegas was the gambling.  We gamble for fun and don’t expect to win, but this trip we both did well and in fact Val did very well!  I didn’t come out ahead, but I did come home with most of the gambling money I’d brought.  Val, on the other hand, not only came out ahead, but quite a bit ahead.  Her best win was almost $1400 on her favorite Buffalo slot machine.

Val has a nice $1366 dollar win.

And gets paid.

The most remarkable thing though, was something that happened to us together.  Just after I retired in 2012, Val surprised me with a train trip to Denver.  On the way back we stopped in Reno for a couple of days and ended up winning $12,000 on a dollar slot machine.  We call these a “double, double, double” machine as the big jackpot is three double symbols lining up.  Ever since then whenever we see one of those types of machines in a casino, we each put in twenty dollars and try to bring repeat the magic.   

This trip was no different and so every day we would each put in our twenty with little success, but on the second to last night we played a “double, double, double” machine at the Linq Hotel and as the wheels lined up the first column showed a double, then the second column showed a double.  We held our breath waiting to see if a miracle would happen and history would repeat itself – well it didn’t, but what did happen was instead of a double symbol coming up a triple seven symbol came up and we had won $800.   

We didn't get the third double, but got the next highest symbol...

And as you can see, we were very happy with our win.

That’s a far cry from $12,000, but we were pretty happy, but that’s not what makes this story remarkable (at least to us).  What shocked us was the next night (our last night) we tried the “double, double, double” machine at Harrah’s.  Once again the double came up in the first column, but the suspense ended early as the triple seven symbol came up in the second column and we were pretty sure the third symbol would be a blank space.  What shocked us was that another double symbol came up in the third column – we had won $800 for the second night in a row.  That is the second highest win you can have on that type of machine and to have it happen two nights in a row on two separate machines seemed impossible.  Of course Val and I were elated and couldn’t believe it happened, but it certainly was a great way to end the trip.

Our second $800 dollar win in two nights.