Austin July 5, 2010

We had a delay in leaving Reno. This is the city my father went to frequently, and my sister told me he gambled at Harrah's. He played the $1 machines, which is a bit rich for me; but, in his memory, I walked to Harrah's and put in $7 dollar bills, winning $2. Katie contributed $2. It looks like no channeling was done that day. I had to take a shot of Katie in front of the Reno sign.

I saw the Beer Pong sign at Harrah's. Anna explained this is a game where someone tries to throw a ping-pong ball into a cup of beer. If they succeed, the opponent has to drink that cup of beer. She ended with a comment about how unsanitary that sounds when you explain it.

Anna ate breakfast at Mel's next to the Sand's. Matt was trying to recover from the buffet-induced GI upset, and anxiety about the car in the desert.

We stopped in Hawthorne for lunch, visiting McDonald's again (cheap and fast). In Tenopah, we stopped for ice cream cones, eating outside in a courtyard, and a postcard. We visited a town called Beatty for a rest stop, intending to buy gas but it was too crowded. We are trying to keep the tank full, due to so much desert and small towns with closed businesses.

We did spot 3 "pleasure houses" and a car for the Mustang ranch. We passed Waller Lake with about 20 miles of shoreline.

Here is the "extra room" parking lot at the Sands with our ride:
We saw a big sand dune off to the right and a couple of dust whirlwinds, plus some snow in the higher peaks. All the mini marts have slot machines. We realized we may not make it to Las Vegas until 9:30. Anna and Katie want to eat at another buffet; Matt and I can't handle that much food again.

We drove the strip in Las Vegas to get to our hotel (Harrah's). There was confusion about parking; we drove around a couple of times before finding the bigger lot. We told the security guard we needed extra room to park and asked if he gave us our parking pass. He replied, "No, I'm just holding these cards for no apparent reason". There was a long check-in line! We booked two rooms, both quite big; our view was of the Treasure Island and a bunch of pipes. We stayed in the hotel to eat: great food, lousy service. After, at 11:30, Katie and I hit the slots where I lost my Reno $20. Matt went on a walk and Anna went to her room. I was in bed at 1:30.

The cost of internet is $11.99/day! We checked the time to get to the Grand Canyon (4.5 hours) and Flagstaff (3.5 hours).