Thanksgiving and Thankstaking

I fell asleep at 6:00 p.m. and was out. Just dead asleep. And then I woke up and it was 8 hours later.

What is a person to do in Las Vegas at 2:00 a.m.? Well, I knew what I wanted to do.

And that was to sleep more. And then more. And then more after that.

We got out of bed at 8:00 a.m. It had to be a record for me - 14 hours of blissful jet lag fighting time zone zipping sleep.

And that was it, again, no problem. We were adjusted to Vegas time, just like that.

We had a light breakfast at the coffee shop, with the idea that we'd have buffet for late lunch, so we could stock up on fresh veg and stuff like that. Seriously, after a almost three weeks being away from your own kitchen, you just want simple things for a meal or two.

Then, we'd use the Gold Cart at Redwood Steakhouse to soak up some consolation crab legs, or retribution rib eyes.

The royal progressives on a machine I like to play were fairly healthy, if you ask me.

So I played.

Managed a fake Royal, and a five of a kind. My hundy went south way quicker than I wanted.

Mrs. Flusher wasn't hitting anything, so we decided to try the 50 cent 8/5 bonus progressive uprights. I was kind of interested to see if the machine I'd killed deader than a doornail last trip had been resurrected.

It had! It lives!

I broke the ice after almost a full hour of shoving money in with a mercy quad - four queens dealt. And four deuces, of course, since I had been playing deuces before. Also, with kicker. But hey, I wasn't turning it down.

The Quad Queen got a mercy quad of her own.

Somewhere along the line we moved to some slant-tops and tried some Double Double.

And I managed to get four pointies! No kicker, though.

Our 'lose constantly' pattern from before seemed to be breaking. Now it was a 'lost a lot, win some, lose it back' pattern.

Which was definitely more fun. There's nothing worse than constantly feeding in bills and getting only a couple of minutes of losing play. Nothing. Not even scurvy of the sphincter is worse.

Some of you have noticed that this trip report is no longer live. That's true. It's almost impossible to write decent-length posts real time while travelling. My goal was to almost keep up through Australia, and I did fairly well with that.

Now, I'm well behind because I've had other things to take care of, and rather than putting out a post almost every day like you're used to, I managed one every three or four days.

The point of all this is that the day I'm describing is around Thanksgiving. I might not have made a big deal out of it, but... well, you have to see the photos.

So - we strolled over to Main Street - it's alway, always special crossing that bridge and looking across the casino from above, and then riding the escalator down into its hungry maw, where you'll be chewed up and spit out, or maybe not even spit out, maybe left to digest in the guts of the casino, penniless, and without hope.

Yes, that escalator thing is a feel-good moment!

We tried a few things including the Loose Doose, but did nothing. We were getting hungry and that's when I noticed that the buffet had become somewhat popular.

It was jammed. All of the laneways inside were jammed and there were jammin' people jammin' up the casino, where the line jammed up alongside the bar.

Never was I so happy to have that magic Gold Card which shunted us to the front.

I suddenly realized that if we were going to get into Redwood, I'd better get on the horn and set it up - pronto. I poked the digits and slung my slab up to my ear.

"Hi, typical greeting here, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to make a reservation at the Redwood Steakhouse."

"Let me transfer you -"

"Hi, another typical greeting here, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to make a reservation?..." I did that thing where you sort of say it like its a question? and kind up curl your voice up at the end? Because you aren't sure?

"When for."

"Tonight?...around 7:00?..."

"I'm sorry, we're booked solid."

"We could take a table in the bar. How about that? Can we eat in the bar?"

"The bar tables are booked solid."

"Okay, then, can we eat at the bar. We could sit on stools and eat at the bar."

"Even the stools are booked solid."

I had to get creative.

"Okay, we how about... a table outside of the bar - in the casino. Can we do that? How about we take a table in the coffee shop and you can bring us Redwood food there? Or sitting at some machines?..."

She laughed but the answer was negatory. Noy noy noy.

Damn.

Full of Main Street Station Thanksgiving buffet (including the secret pecan pie), we tipped out the napkin boy and headed for the more-jammed-than-ever entrance.

"Let's both get toothpicks and walk slowly along the lines of people who have waited for two hours to get in," I suggested.

But the Quad Queen had a plan in mind. Multiplay and hopefully a good run.

Let me tell you, it was a bloodbath. The QQ was Quadless. I managed a couple. Any ground we'd gained during the day was gone, gone, gone and then some. You know how triple play Slutty Times Pay Double Double Bonus can decimate you if the spinners aren't hitting. Same with multiplay, it goes fast.

Regroup. Time for some fun in the room.

And that meant Keno.