Well, we were expecting to be heading eastward this morning, but it all fell apart due to some luck happening our way.

Wandering into the Tropicana casino yesterday, we signed up to be members (to get a free T-shirt). The catch was that we had to play for 30 minutes first, which we did. Probably the only two people to ever play over half an hour on the pokies (slots) and spend a total of $3.00 - and we didn’t win a lot of credits to keep us going. The machines in Reno are far more “loose” than they are in Vegas. Probably because Reno does not give out free T-shirts, but hey…

Anyway, we went back to the promotions desk to get our free shirts and the woman behind the counter asked if we’d like free tickets to go see Folies Bergere, which is the dancing girly show they have at the casino. Sure. Why not? I’m sure we can fill in the day somehow, since the tickets are priced at US$51.45 each.

We then walked out to do a free pull on a giant slot machine to win a 2001 Ford Mustang and we won. Alas, not the Mustang. But, Di won a free ticket to, you guessed it, the dancing girls. We showed our tickets to that already and the guy swapped it for a ticket to a magic show.

I then spun the dial and won a ticket to the same magic show! Hurrah! So now, within an hour, we’d managed to get a free T-shirt each, free tickets to the dancing girls, and free tickets to the magic show (US$19.45 each). Not a bad hours work.

Just been to the magic show which was quite good. A couple of white tigers, a bit of humour, and a fair bit of stuff that we could not explain how the hell he did it.

We also managed to get free ice cream earlier today (we’re nuts about those little coupon things) and we’re going back to get a couple of hot dogs for dinner. Not just any hot dogs. Hot dogs that are 14 inches long! For a mere 99c! Fantastic!

Oh, by the way, we ended up spending our gambling winnings on a motel room (the Klondike) which did exceed the value of an RV park, but the latter did not come with a shower (we had three each!) and a pool and air conditioning and a remote control TV (watched an old episode of Knight Rider - don’t remember it being so bad!).

It was nearer the airport than most other motels, but you didn’t actually hear the planes, so no big deal. For US$32.60 (or US$29.99 plus a stupid tax), we got the room, a free prime rib dinner, and a cooked bacon, eggs, home fries and juice breakfast in the morning.

Life is good! We’re expecting to head out of Vegas tomorrow morning, unless we get a whole lot more free stuff…*grin*

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001