Juliacentralicious

Nevada: Gambling!

We ended up in Reno in the afternoon, and commenced our walking tour of the Littlest Big City—that is to say, we hit up every casino along the main strip. More accurately, I lost (at least) a dollar at The Silverado, something Irish-themed, something pretending to be fancy, the usual mix of everywhere. On the other hand, Mike netted about thirty bucks from our casino tour, which he promptly exchanged for a bottle of rum. The moral? Go to Reno, get free rum.
I can't say that I liked Reno as much as Vegas, it's much too sad. While Vegas is simply a moral vacuum, Reno is more like a gravity well of people. The waitresses are older, or look like they used to be cute, and the people seem older too. On the other hand, the lure of absurdly loud carpets and somewhat over-the-top decorations (the Silverado had a surprisingly large dome inside, filled with a steampunk-esque "mining" contraption) is hard to resist. Even better, they still had older relics of slot machines tucked away in some places, the kind that actually accepts coins and spits them out back at you! (While the video slots are all shiny, and the voucher system is certainly easier to use, there's nothing better than the real—not artificial!—sound of coins hitting metal.)
We made it to the other side of Nevada that night—stopping in the town of Lovelock (the town motto, oh so cleverly, was something about locking up your love there). At a gas station which, inevitably, had three slot machines.
Also of note was when we drove through the town of Battle Mountain, as well as passing the sign for Deeth Starr Valley (!), which gave us no end of amusement.
That night we stayed at the Red Garter in Wendover, on the border of Utah. Wendover is a beautiful oasis of last-stop gambling and gas stations, nothing like the high density of the more popular gambling destinations, but then again, the sign outside our building proudly proclaimed that it was, indeed, a "Casino!"

posted by Julia @ 9:25 AM