Driving through Nevada was really something. Lots of snowy mountains, lots of pretty rocks, lots of small towns off the interstate that you could see the perimeter of, and even a surprise tunnel. We stopped in a very small town... not sure of the name... so that we could get gas and stop at a Wal-Mart. We were genuinely shocked to find that the Wal-Mart in this town had a beautiful view of the Mountains right behind it. Our next stop was Reno... the crazy city of Reno... We both hated driving in Reno and were so relieved when we finally made it to El Dorado Hotel and Casino. It was absolutely beautiful and I wish I'd of taken more pictures of it. We didn't even see half of the place I'm sure. When we got there we took our stuff up to our small but nice room and then ditched it to back downstairs and explore. We started at the brewery inside of the hotel. The hotel had given us a coupon for 2 complimentary beers with the purchase of an appetizer... we took advantage of this and had nachos with our free beers... which were actually PINTS!!!... not the small sampler we were expecting!!! After this we lost $10 at blackjack and watched people have fun playing craps. Then we went to the sushi bar and had some really great sushi. After that we went down to the craps table and turned $20 into $100. We met a great guy at the craps table who was REALLY good at it and had a lot of money to bet. He didn't mind at all that I pretty much just copied what he did... in fact he encouraged it. When we lost a couple of times we took a little break and went to the martini bar. We had a coupon for Buy one get one free martinis $9 or under. We used this but the very nice older man sitting next to me paid for it due to Michael being in the military. I had a "chocolate duchess" martini which had butterscotch schnops in it and Michael had a New Orleans Martini, and a Van Gogh. Our friend's name was Phil... and he was very drunk, but very pleasant. We all talked a lot about wine, beer, flying planes (he was an former pilot, but not for the USAF). After he left to get something to eat we headed back toward the craps tables and made another $40ish dollars. Then we took a break after a couple of losing rolls and headed over to Cin Cin bar to use a coupon for a free glass of wine with purchase of something... I don't remember what. We got the most amazing plate of clams, oysters, and garlic bread and told the bartender to make us something good. She came back with a delightful Mojito like martini. Then she made us a delightful citrus martini and I forget the last thing she made us. Then it was back to the craps table where we won another $35ish dollars. Earlier in the night we had gotten some VIP players cards which the dealers would use to track our gambling... and later we found out that we should have been scanning them every 2 hours to earn more free stuff... would have been great to learn that a lot sooner... but we plan to go back again eventually so at least we'll know then. Also we didn't learn until later in the day that the drinks were free so long as we were gambling... that also would have been great to have known a lot earlier before we spend money on drinks. Welp... I guess you live, you gamble and you learn. We also played a little Roulette... Michael was good at it... I was terrible... he made back what I lost. The next morning we both had terrible hangovers. Mine was much worse than his seeing as I don't drink all that much any more. Michael rushed us out of the hotel (which coincidentally caused me to leave the new Bare Escentuals Foundation that I had purchased in Colorado somewhere in the room or at least has yet to be found) and rushed us to the check out and to the car to put away our bags, then he rushed us to the breakfast buffet to use our buy one get one free buffet coupon. It took me like an hour to eat 1/2 a plate... I felt so sick. Then we lost all of the money we'd made at craps and it was back on the road. lolz
