Welcome to yet another trip report. It’s been over 3 months since the last trip and the last report but after working like crazy for the last few months it’s time for another vacation. This report will be a little different this time. It will be done in 2 parts featuring 1 week from July 9-17 and a separate report from July 25-August 2. During the week in-between I will be out of town on a separate trip taking a cruise to Alaska. With that in mind, let’s get started on part one of the journey.
Day 1 Friday July 9, 2004
Trip To Airport:
I’m flying out of Newark Airport today and as I’ve been doing for the last few years I’ve rented a car from my local airport and will drop it off in Newark because it’s much cheaper than parking at the airport for 3 weeks! I Thought I had reserved a full size car like I usually do but I must have made a mistake when I made the reservation. I was a little surprised when I was given a Mitsubishi Lancer. I was about to complain after I got out into the lot about the size of the car and when I saw the rental agreement but, after looking at my confirmation I really did reserve a compact car. Oh well, it was my screw up but I only needed this car for 1 day to drive 75 miles. My rate for the one day rental was $$39.99 and I had a discount of a whopping 5% for a whole $2 off. As I said above, they gave me a Mitsubishi Lancer with only 8300 miles.
The ride was pretty uneventful with exception of the asshole driving a dump truck pulling a trailer with a backhoe almost sideswiped me.
After filling up the gas tank at my usual stop near the Meadowlands I made it to rental return at Avis with no hassles and I was on my way to the terminal.
Flight:
Today I’m flying America West on flight 217. This is the flight I usually take when I head out to Las Vegas. My fare was $295 including all taxes and airport fees. This has pretty much become the standard fare for flights to Las Vegas from Newark unless you catch a sale. This flight was scheduled to depart at 8:00am.
There were just a few people ahead of me at check in and I was at the counter in just a few minutes. The agent informed me that my suitcase was 9 pounds overweight and if I couldn’t remove it I would have to pay $100 extra. Eff that. Luckily I have a smaller suitcase packed into the larger one and simply removed it and was on my way.
Security moved well except for the asshole that kept trying to carry stuff through the metal detector like his phone, car keys, and pocket full of coins even though he was told 3 times to remove all that stuff from his pockets. Then when they pulled him to the side and wanded him he still had more shit in his pockets. What an asshole this guy was being.
One other note to add about the airport was in the terminal. It appeared that someone puked all over the carpet. No one from housekeeping had been there to clean it yet and it was entertaining was how many people don’t watch where they are going and stepped right in the puke!
Today’s flight was going to be 5 hours exactly and the captain said it was going to be quite bumpy most of the way because we were flying right into the Jet Stream.
The flight was pretty full and I was in a row with 2 other people. I forget the name of today’s movie but it was Ben Affeck and J-Lo so I passed on it.
After getting our standard snack of a soda and 2 microscopic Biscoff cookies I napped for a while. I didn’t think I slept very long but when I was woken up by the captain coming on the PA telling us we were flying over Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Pike’s Peak and we’d be landing in about 90 minutes.
He was right on with his estimate and we landed right on time. He did a great job landing the plane and got a round of applause from the cabin.
Rental Car:
This trip I’m doing something with the rental car that I don’t normally do. That is making 2 separate rentals this week instead of just one. I have done this in the past to save substantial money but this usually isn’t worth the time involved. This trip it will save about $70. Today I picked up a 1-day rental at the airport. The original plan was to return this car to the Golden Nugget tomorrow and pick up a new rental to avoid paying the new customer facility charge of $3 per day at the airport and to avoid all of the other over inflated taxes. Since the original plan though Dollar has had a major price drop and it’s actually going to be cheaper to return this car at the airport tomorrow and pick up a new one there. Also since the price drop making this switch tomorrow will only save me $40. After the price drop I tried to make just one reservation for 8 days but the rate for some reason went through the roof. Today’s rate is $14.99 for a full size car. I’ve also used the discount code CTI which gives a $15 dollar discount. Based on my confirmation I’ll only be paying the new customer facility charge and sales tax for a total of $3.38 for the day. This will be an incredible deal if they go through with it. Other than taxes this means I’m renting this car for FREE!
The shuttle driver told me to pick any car off of row K up against the fence. There wasn’t much to choose from but I took a Chrysler Sebring. This was only a 2-door car but it was still pretty nice and only had 7300 miles on it. My luck was already starting as I found a quarter on the seat when I opened the door! My contract was waiting for me at the guard booth and in just a minute I was on my way.
Hotel:
My first 3 nights will be at Main Street Station. My room is comped and I’m reserved with a silver card that is good for food and beverages at all of the downtown Boyd properties except for the high-end places. This will probably be my last trip that I’m at the silver level based on the changes MSS has made to their slot club. I’m also booked on the Sizzling Summer Craps Tournament. I’ve never played in a craps tournament before so this should be fun. It’s a free invitational and it also comes with a mini slot tournament entry. I’m in room 608 with a view of the 95 Freeway. My room wasn’t ready yet because it was only about noon so I had to stop back later to pick up the keys. They did give me my silver card and all of the tournament info and I headed to lunch.
Dining:
I went over to the Market Street Café in the California for lunch. I ordered the hot open turkey sandwich. The sandwich was pretty good but the do use a deli turkey rather than turkey breast for this sandwich.
For dinner I returned to the California. This time I had one of their Friday night specials. I had the honey tempura battered chicken. This would also be known as chicken nuggets with a honey batter. It came with a side of rice and was pretty good.
Late night at the bar we ordered some appetizers from the Triple 7 Brewpub. We got some mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers with fries. This stuff hit the spot after a bunch of drinks and not eating in quite some time.
Gaming:
After lunch it was still too early to check in so I played some 8/5-bonus video poker. This machine wasn’t treating me very well and I dropped $60 in pretty short time.
Next stop was the craps table. I bought in for $200 here. This table wasn’t great but not terrible. I was holding my own but not one shooter (including myself) could make a point. They were throwing a few numbers before going out though. Because of this I switched to the dark side. I was also making 1 come bet during a roll. My hope was the shooter would throw a few repeating numbers and then go out. This was working out pretty well and my dark side bets were making me some money. I was up over $100 when a new shooter came to the table and made 3 consecutive points in a row. I gave up and cashed out with a $75 win.
It was now time to register for the craps tournament. I drew for the 9am session on spot 11 at the table. The tournament gift was a set of binoculars.
When I was done registering for the tournament I played on some slant top machines with 8/5 bonus again. I hit a few quads this session but no aces or bonus quads. I finished the session with $100 profit.
After running some errands and getting settled into the room and resting for a while it was time to go down to the casino again. My friends the Bostons were arriving tonight and we had plans to meet down at the bar at 11pm for some video poker and drinking. Oddly as I was leaving my room to go to the bar coming out of the room right across the hall was Rich and Dawn. Of all the rooms here at MSS and we were right across from each other. We headed to the bar and played on the multi game bar tops. I switched off between 9/6 jacks and 8/5 bonus. I hit a few quads here but like earlier none of them were bonus quads. After about 6 hours and numerous cocktails I called it quits at about 4:30am down about $200. This wasn’t a good move having a tournament session at 9am later this morning!
Total win/loss for the day -$50
Total comps for the day $141