Fremont Street, Las Vegas, Nevada

From my perspective, there are 3 major gambling areas in Las Vegas: the Strip, Downtown, and locals' casinos scattered around town.

The Strip has all the glitz and glamor Las Vegas is known for, but it also has the high prices. The top shows and top entertainers are located on the Strip, as well as the premier restaurants and clubs. But I can't afford the Strip. The odds at the machines and tables are not very favorable to the gambler, so I avoid that area.

These days, we spend most of our time at what are known as locals' casinos. These locales cater to the knowledgeable local gamblers. As a result, you can find some of the best gambling odds at these places, especially for video poker, which is what Donna and I play.

While at Sam's Town during our recent visit to Las Vegas, we took the free Sam's Town shuttle to the downtown area. Our last time to visit downtown was about 12 years or so ago. At that time, we spent nearly a week at the Golden Nugget, which had recently been refurbished. The Fremont Street Experience had also recently been added as an attempt to draw visitors downtown. The Freemont Street Experience is essentially a pedestrian mall along the westernmost 5 blocks of Freemont Street in downtown LV. The pedestrian mall is covered by a barrel vault canopy which erupts in choreographed light shows set to music at scheduled times. Concerts and other events are also held in this area, once known as "Glitter Gulch".

Looking east down Freemont Street under the Freemont Street Experience canopy. The Four Queens is on the right, and the Freemont is on the left.

Looking west down Freemont Street. Binion's is on the right and the Golden Nugget is on the left. At the end of Freemont Street is the Plaza. The Golden Gate, home to the famous cheap shrimp cocktail is somewhere on the left. We had their shrimp cocktail for breakfast during our visit.

Donna and I like downtown; it is old Vegas to us. Locals' casinos are scattered all over town, and the large mega casinos on the strip are usually located at good distances from each other making it difficult to visit more than a few casinos on foot. But in downtown, you can visit a dozen or more casinos all within a few easy blocks of one another. You can find all sorts of meal deals downtown, and slot and table odds are normally very competitive. There are a number of 100% plus video poker games downtown.

When you think of the downtown area, think of a suburban shopping mall. In each such mall, you have several major stores, like Sears, JC Penney, Dillards, and others. Then you have a number of smaller shops. That is how Freemont Street is. There are numerous large casinos, like Binion's and the Golden Nugget, and several smaller casinos like Mermaids tucked in between. It's an exciting area for adult entertainment.

Sam's Town, Las Vegas

For the week of February 18 - 25, we stayed at Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall on the Boulder Highway in Las Vegas. It was our second time to stay and play at Sam's Town, and we had a good time.

The rooms are very adequate at the hotel, though they do lack some amenities such as refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker. This seems to be a trend at casino hotels. They want you down in the casino playing and spending money, not in your room. And lack of fridge and microwave forces you to use their restaurants for food.

But Sam's Town has some good eateries, most of them located around Mystic Falls, the center atrium of the hotel. At various times throughout the day, Mystic Falls comes to life, with water spouts shooting 8 stories into the air and the cries of various wild animals, including wolves, bears, and eagles.

Mystic Falls

Sbarro, Panda Express, McDonald's, Willie and Jose's, and Billy Bob's Steakhouse are all located around Mystic Falls. We enjoyed $6.99 fajitas at Willie and Jose's while there. Although the fajitas lacked the strong fajita seasoning I like, the food was well prepared and the meat was quality meat. The food was so good, we ate there twice. Elsewhere around the casino are Dunkin' Donuts, Subway, TGIF, the Sam's Town Buffet, and two casino delis. The casino delis offer great deals, and are a good place top use your points.

Skylight above Mystic Falls. Hotel rooms are located on 3 sides of the atrium.

Glass elevators servicing the hotel at Sam's Town.

We like staying at Sam's Town. First, Sam's Town is part of the BConnected gaming club. BConnected has casinos around the country, so our play around the country keeps the comps coming in for us. Second, Sam's Town Las Vegas has full pay deuces wild video poker, which returns 100.76% with perfect play over the long term, so it is an advantage play for serious video poker players.

Third, in addition to gambling, Sam's Town offers other entertainment. There is a bowling alley downstairs and a movie theater on the main floor. The casino also operates a shuttle service to the Strip and downtown. During the week we were there, we never cranked our truck.

Mystic Falls. Water flows from various holes in the rock. At designated times during the day, water fountains shoot straight into the air. Note the mechanical bear at lower right. During shows, he rares up, growls, and paws at the air.

Another angle of Mystic Falls. Note cougar at left and eagle at center of picture. A wolf on a track at the top of the mountain rolls out and howls.

Looking down on Mystic Falls park from the second floor balcony in front of the elevators. Walkways weave through the atrium park. Various mechanical animals live in the park, including woodpeckers that tap away.

Sam's Town is easy to reach. The Boulder Highway does not have the traffic of the Strip. There is also a Super Walmart right across the street from Sam's Town. If you want some variety in your gambling, Boulder Station is less than a mile up the Boulder Highway. Like Sam's Town, it also offers full pay deuces wild at 100.76%.

I'm sure we'll be heading back to Sam's Town in the near future.

On the Road: Laughlin, NV, to Las Vegas, NV

We're back in San Angelo now, so I'll try to catch up and post a few entries about our recent trip.

On Monday, February 18, we left Laughlin, Nevada, for a week in Las Vegas. The drive from Laughlin to Vegas is really a pleasant one, with good roadways. It is just under 100 miles, with all of it on 4 lanes or more. It's a good highway to just slow down and take in the landscape.

Laughlin to Vegas

The trip begins with getting on Highway 163 for a 20 mile drive to connect with US Highway 95. Highway 163 heads west from the Colorado River and the casinos lining it, climbing the Newberry Mountains. Spirit Mountain, the highest peak in this range, rises to 5,642 feet.

This photo was taken along Highway 163 a few miles out of Laughlin. It is probably about halfway up the slope of the Newberry Mountains, and is the last view of Laughlin. The picture shows the mountains in the east in Arizona, and clearly illustrates how Laughlin lies low in a valley.

After cresting the ridge of the mountains, there is a short and slight slope downward before the highway intersects with US Highway 95. A small housing community is on the west side of the road, along with a convenience store/gas station. Just north of the intersection is a rest area with facilities on the east side of the highway. It is modern and well planned, and a good place to stop and stretch your legs.

A few miles farther on is a small community typical of rural Nevada. On the east side of the highway is an RV park, while on the west is a casino. A few houses also line the west side of the road. The name of the place is Cal-Nev-Ari, which is a syllabic abbreviation of the states California, Nevada, and Arizona. Almost anywhere in Nevada where there are a few houses, you can usually find a casino. About 200 people make this community home.

Next up the road is Searchlight, Nevada, which is an old mining town. It has at least 2 casinos and a few other businesses, such as a McDonald's. If you drive through this area, please note the drastic drop in the speed limit from 70 MPH to about 30 MPH in a very short distance. Local law enforcement had a car stopped when we came through.

Desert landscape just north of Searchlight

Joshua Tree just north of Searchlight

Just north of Searchlight, the snow-capped peak of Mount Charleston comes into view. At 11,916 feet, it is the tallest of the southern Nevada mountains. It is located just west of Las Vegas, and provides an area for winter sports for the greater Las Vegas area.

Just south of the intersection of US 95 with US 93, a large solar farm appears along the west side of the highway. The light plays off the panels such that at first the area appears like a large body of silvery water. It is not until you get near that you can actually see the rows of panels reflecting the bright sunlight off the desert floor.

Solar farm south of Las Vegas

We then join Highway 93, which goes from Las Vegas to cross the Hoover Dam and continue on to Kingman, Arizona. Known locally as the Boulder Highway, this highway takes us straight to our destination, Sam's Town.

Live, From Muleshoe, Texas!

It's early Thursday morning. I'm sitting in a hotel room in Muleshoe, Texas. I'm still tired from our 752 mile trip yesterday, and I'm ready to get back to Angelo and check on the progress of our house. I'm ready to get settled.

Donna and I left Laughlin just after 4:00 AM local time yesterday. We immediately lost an hour when we crossed the Colorado River, as Bullhead City is 1 hour ahead of Laughlin. It was dark as we climbed out of the Colorado River valley. The road to the summit of the ridge twists and turns as it wends its way to the top. Once atop the pass, it is a straight shot through Golden Valley down to Kingman, where we pick up Interstate 40.

From Kingman to near Williams, there are some ups and downs. This area looks like good ranch country. Near Williams, we approach alpine country. Pine trees appear on the slopes, and snow begins splotching the countryside, especially on the north side of slopes. From Williams to Flagstaff is probably the most beautiful stretch of this trip. If you were spirited away and suddenly placed down in this area, you could easily believe you were in Colorado. Humphreys Peak to the north of Flagstaff is snow covered. This 12,637 foot peak, the highest point in Arizona, is visible from as far away as Holbrook to the east, a distance of about 90 miles.

When we left Laughlin, the temperature was 57. We dip to as low as 10 in the high country around Williams. Some of the snow drifts here are quite deep, and the snow cover is still pretty solid from the storm that moved through a few days earlier.

As we leave Flagstaff and the mountains, the temp rises and the snow begins to disappear. From just east of Flagstaff to the Albuquerque area, the landscape is roughly the same. This is good driving as there are really no ups and downs and twists and turns of note.

We drive straight through Albuquerque, a city of about half a million people. From the freeway, the city is very attractive, with beautiful desert landscaping lining the road. It is an easy drive through town. On the eastern edge of town, we pass through the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. Sandia Crest, the highest point in this range, is 10,678 feet. As we break out of the foothills, we look out onto the plains of eastern New Mexico. We're surprised to see an expanse with quite a bit of snow, the greatest snow cover of our trip, in fact.

As we near Santa Rosa, the bulk of the snow gives away, and the temp begins to rise. We leave I-40 at Santa Rosa, and follow US 84 down through Ft. Sumner then to Clovis. Just east of Clovis, we finally reach Texas at the twin communities of Texico, New Mexico, and Farwell, Texas. 20 miles farther and we are in Muleshoe, where we spend the night. There must have been quite a bit of snow in this area, as bulldozed piles of snow are everywhere and snow melt runs down the streets. It really is quite messy.

Today, we have about a 5 hour trip to Angelo. We will stop in Big Spring and have lunch with our daughter.

I enjoy traveling, but it is always good to get back to Texas.

Where in the World are Donna and Keith?

I'm sitting in Starbuck's in the Aquarius Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. For the past week, we've been at Sam's Town in Las Vegas, and we've had no Internet connection. I refuse to pay $4.95 for Internet at casino hotels; yeah, I'm a cheapskate.

We're spending the next 2 nights at the Aquarius. We'll rest up here where things are a bit less hectic, then get a very early start for Texas on Wednesday morning. Hopefully, by Friday evening, I should be connected again and posting as fast as I can write blog entries.

We've not done much, so I really don't have much to share. Weather has been tolerable, but not as warm as we like it, so we've stayed inside for the most part. I'll be watching the weather now to see if we can return home on the northern route; I know there have been some winter storms in the north, and that Amarillo and Lubbock were getting snow this morning. Hopefully , that will be all cleared out when we get ready to head home.

Light and Shadows

I've always enjoyed how light plays on desert and mountain landscapes. When I used to travel through the Davis Mountains and Big Bend country in far West Texas several years ago, I was always fascinated by sunlight and shadows on the mountains. The same view in such landscapes can look very different depending on the time of day, time of year, and the way sun hits - or does not hit -- the land.

I came out of the Golden Nugget Casino a couple of nights ago and was struck by the view of the mountains on the east side of the Colorado River. Laughlin lies in a valley along the river, and rough desert mountains rise both east and west from the mountains. It was about 5:00 PM when I came outside, and the sun had already started descending below the mountains to the west. As a result, the sun was striking only the tops of the mountains on the east side of the river.

By the time I got my camera and found a place to take a picture, the scene had lost some of its golden color, but the picture below still is quite pretty. Just a few minutes after I snapped this picture, the sun had set enough so that the mountains in the picture were completely in the shadows.

Mountains on the Arizona side of the Colorado River

Many people unfamiliar with the desert do not find anything attractive about it. But if you know where to look and what to look for, there is a great deal of beauty in the desert.

Hanging Around in Laughlin

We've been in Laughlin since last Sunday. We're staying at the Pioneer Hotel and Gambling Hall in the middle of the Laughlin Strip. This is our first time to stay and play at the Pioneer. The Pioneer is a locally owned casino with a wild west theme. The casino is not very busy, but the hotel with its cheap room rates seems to have a high occupancy level.

We split our playing time between the Pioneer, the Golden Nugget (which is next door) and the Aquarius, our favorite place. The Pioneer has 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker at the center bar, and that's a good game. Next door, the Golden Nugget has several games above 99%. I hit a small jackpot there yesterday. But we spend most of our time playing at the Aquarius, which has the best video poker inventory in town for the low roller.

We've used comps to eat as much as possible, but we've eaten a few meals at other places. One of our favorite places to eat in Laughlin is at Daniel's in the Regency Casino. The Regency is a local casino stubbornly clinging to a tiny spot next to the Edgewater. The actual casino is small, probably the size of a shoe store in a stopping mall. There really are no good plays in the casino, and you seldom find many people playing. But the restaurant has some good bargains. Our favorite day is Wednesday, when burgers are 2 for 1. The burgers are good, and cooked to order. On this trip, we also stopped in on Tuesday, which is taco day, and sampled several of their tacos. Our favorites were the shrimp taco and the carne asado taco.

We'll stay here until Monday, when we head to Las Vegas for a few days. We will be staying at Sam's Town while there. We then return to Laughlin for a few days at the Aquarius before returning to San Angelo.

We've not done too much while here besides take it easy. We've looked around both Laughlin and Bullhead City, Arizona, across the river, and I think we've seen about all in this area we'd care to see.

It's been very windy here, with steady winds of 20 mph or so daily, gusting to 35 mph or more. Temps have been topping out in the 60s, with lows in the upper 30s. But the sun has been out every day. As always, the river is beautiful and clear. The river appears as a blue ribbon winding its way south through a brown landscape. We do enjoy watching the river.