Tahoe to Idaho

We built a huge campfire on our last night in the campground; of course, we had our favorite beverages nearby.  Cassie occupied her stroller (helps keep her contained and clean).

Our final day in Tahoe was beautiful; I didn't want to leave!  We did a little shopping...a little RV cleanup and laundry...and a little gambling "for the road".  We decided to go to Bill's Casino again because they had lots of penny video machines and we were essentially now playing "off budget".




Sue's machine suddenly froze..just like a computer loaded with the Vista OS.  So, I turned on my Service light...and waited...and waited.  After 10 minutes, I looked around and didn't see any operations staff on the floor.  I then pushed the Help lights on ALL the machines around me.   Still nobody came!

 Sharon then went off in search of someone and was unable to identify any management staff and noone at the Security Desk!  She finally found a lonely bartender who warned her not to pick up the phone at the Security Desk or she would be arrested!  As you can imagine, this got my panties in a bunch!

Sharon then took my place at the frozen machine and I went off in search.  Still no staff or Security but apparently the bartender alerted management of a possible security threat and two mean men came to talk me off the ledge.  By this time, I was steamin' mad!  Not only had the machine captured my pittance and refused to allow me to play or cash out, but no one came to help when summoned for 20 minutes by a dozen machines...AND my sister was threatened with arrest if she attempted to summon Security!   My panties are On Fire!!

The "excuse" was that we should understand that an employee did not show up for work!  Of course, that attitude enraged me and I began to speak in an enhanced tone of voice, saying that we were females unaccompanied by men or firearms and there were many little old ladies on the floor oblivious to the fact that the casino had NO Security!  I told him he should be ashamed of his excuse and the Gaming Commission might be interested in his casino's lack of security.  The Security Guard who finally made an appearance looked scared!

Finally, the one mean guy offered me a free drink (to get me to shut up?) and I said NO I NEED TWO DRINKS and so do my friends!   Immediately, my machine was fixed and we all had two drinks AND the guy came over and gave us a tip on the best game to play to maximize winnings.  Five free drinks later times 3 women, Sharon won the top line on a maximum bet--$403.95 on her dime machine.  She also won a shot of top shelf tequila.

Woozy with booze and winnings, we retired back to the room that Sharon & Marilyn had gotten using Marilyn's casino birthday coupon.   I gave Cassie her bath, we took a snooze and then Sharon treated us all to a seafood buffet on the top floor of Harrah's overlooking Lake Tahoe.  Wow, whatta way to end our Tahoe vacation!

Next morning I dropped Marilyn off at Reno airport and continued on my journey to Yellowstone.  At the last possible moment, I changed my route to a small state route to avoid the crappy Bonneville Salt Flats drive to Salt Lake City.  Very happy with decision as I had the road to myself.  The bad part is that I began thinking of the sad task ahead and spent much of the ride trying to focus through blurry eyes.

This is a nice photo of the Snake River at Twin Falls, ID which I hiked a bazillion stairs to get to.

I am in a relatively classy Casino Travel Center north of Pocatello within an easy drive of Yellowstone tomorrow around noon.

This is how I warm up my coffee mug on a cold morning--like this morning.  It is sitting directly in front of the furnace blower vent.

  I changed my mind again and am going to Henry's Lake State Park just 20 miles from Yellowstone.  It has services and wifi and rates are very low off season.  It is supposed to be really pretty.  I guess I am delaying going into Yellowstone...