I say mini because it was only a two day trip. There's nothing short about my trip reports!

After arriving here at the new house in Sparks, (suburb of Reno), we've been steadily unpacking for the past few days. I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate unpacking. And inbetween the unpacking it's calling the window blinds people, the guy who's installing the garage door opener, etc, etc. Right about last Sunday I threw up my hands and threatened to divorce Terry if we didn't take a day off! (Ok, maybe it was she that threatened me, but that's just trivia....)

Given it's still October and we didn't get a chance to see any of the fall colors due to the move, we decided to take some time off and see if there were any fall colors left. And since that meant driving into the Sierra's, we decided to go ahead and spend the night in Tahoe as Terry recalled we had a comped night at Montbleu, (formerly Caesar's Tahoe).

We left Sparks on Tuesday morning and drove south on 395 down to Minden. After stopping for lunch at the Carson Valley Inn we headed west on highway 88 towards Hope Valley. We stopped many times along the way to photograph the gorgeous colors. Large stands of aspen trees that were just golden. Traditionally the best fall colors are in the valley itself, not far west of Sorenson's, but once we got that far we found most of the leaves on the ground. We were too late for the best of it, but we had been able to see quite a bit coming up the eastern side.

Just past Sorenson's we turned north on highway 89, over Luthor Pass. Never been on this highway before and was surprised to learn that from Hope Valley it was only 26 miles to South Lake Tahoe. I'd have guessed it was much farther. But we made it in no time. We arrived at Stateline around 3PM so we went right into Montbleu and checked in. They gave us a room on the 16 floor, (there are 17 floors total). The room was awesome, sort of a mini-suite. Round jacuzzi tub, that was cool. Still had the gold fixtures with Caesar's etchings on them. I'm not sure how much they've changed, the casino seems quite different, but I never spent much time there before, and this is the first time we've stayed there, so I don't have much to compare to.

We headed out for a walk up to the Lakeside Casino, where we've often stayed. All the bad video poker is gone, replaced by horrible video poker. I finally found a deuces wild machine downstairs that was the ugliest ducks I've ever seen, but still better than anything I found upstairs. Played it for awhile before Terry found me, cashed out a whopping $5 ahead. Hey, better ahead than behind!

We walked all the way back up the street to the Heavenly tram. As we walked passed the Edgewood Tahoe golf course it still looks in great shape, and there was not a soul on it. Around this time of year they charge anywhere from $75 to $150 per round! No wonder it's deserted. Someday I'm going to play that course though, just have to wait for a deal.

As this was a Tuesday we didn't expect there to be much going on in the casinos, and the only surprise was how little was going on. So few people it was almost scary. I've never seen Tahoe that way. Rows of BJ tables at Harrah's, about a third of them with dealers standing there, nobody playing. Rows and rows of slot machines, nobody sitting at them. Erily quiet for a casino. We stopped at Bills Casino as I recalled they had a couple of nickel DB machines that paid 9/6/5, which is about the best you can find there. We found them, they were available, (as was just about every machine in Bills). We both hit quad aces, Terry hit quad threes, I hit a couple of other quads, we both cashed out up.

Headed to Montbleu. Again an empty casino, very quiet. We had some free play so we looked for some sort of acceptable VP to play it on. Gotta tell you, no matter what denomination, there's nothing there worth playing. It was that bad that even me, a nickel player who's used to bad pay tables, would call it a wasteland.

We had dinner at the buffet, (which they named the unbuffet) as you get $5 off with your slot club card. Normally $17.99 and not worth that, but certainly worth the discounted $12.99 Good food, nothing comapred to what you could get in Vegas, or even Reno, but a reasonable selection of American, Italian, Chinese, with prime rib / turkey breast / pork tenderloin at the carving station. A few different soups, but the roasted tomato soup was to die for. Course I love tomato soup anyway, but this was excellent. The pizza wasn't good, yikes. Pretty good selection of desserts. We're not big on dessert but I did have a piece of carrot cake and was glad I did.

After dinner I headed back to Bills to hit those DB VP machines again. No luck. Terry felt obligated to play at the Montbleu as they were giving us a free room and all. She held her own on the bad VP. $3 per point on the slot club card for VP there.

This morning it was Starbucks, (more expensive than down in the bay area!) Played another $20 each and lost it, although Terry lasted a long time, then went to the coffee shop for breakfast. The coffee shop is called "20 four". Clever, huh (not!). Decor was great, but let me give you a hint on the food. They have a selection called Daily Double. Two eggs, two strips of bacon or sausage, two pancakes (or toast). At several Reno casinos this is called the deuces deluxe and usually coses $2.22. At Montbleu it costs $10.00. I kid you not, ten bucks. Regular bacon and eggs or ham and eggs is $8.95 so I can't imagine why anyone would order the Daily Double! I had ham and eggs and Terry had bacon and eggs. Both were Ok, I mean how badly can you screw those up.

We left Montbleu and headed east on highway 50 around the southside of Tahoe. That lake is beautiful, doesn't matter how many times I see it or photograph it. We had taken our clubs with us and had a noon tee time at Eagle Valley in Carson City. Took our time and got there just in time. Golf was fun. Terry wears out after 9 holes so played scramble style on the back nine. I was surprised by how much the altitude affected me. We walked, (the wife won't let us take a cart) and while the course looks pretty flat, a lot of those fairways were uphill. I was gasping for air. Did Ok though, well for me!

By then it was 3:30PM and we hadn't eaten since about 9AM. So we headed into Carson City to find something to eat. Along the way we filled up at a Shell station for $2.99. There were cheaper stations but we get a 5% rebate from Shell so we always fill up there. It's the first time we've paid less than $3 a gallon in over a year. I sure hope the low gas prices stick, but I doubt it'll last all that long.

Then it was the 30 mile drive north from Carson City back to Sparks. Got home, found the cats still alive, the house fine, and it doesn't look like anybody came in and unpacked any of the dozens of remaining boxes! So back to unpacking tomorrow!

I like being retired, well except for the unpacking!

Thanks for the TR, Manny. LL and I went to Tahoe and Reno in 1999 in October. It was indeed sparse then, I was told summer and winter are the seasons and it's packed then. It is a beautiful spot anytime, I'm sure. This was my first trip to Nevada, so what I found remarkable was the line of video poker machines in the supermarket!

We spent most of our gambling time at the Riverside.

Sometimes one just needs to take a break. The colors sound wonderful. Casinos sure are empty. It was pretty crowded in Vegas, wonder why that area isn't attracting crowds.

Sounded QUAD-o-RIFFIC -- man you guys hit a lot of those in a short period.

I know that area well. One of my best friends lived there for a year when he was cashing out his stocks (to be a NV resident and avoid paying the huge takes on his million dollar windfall) and went to those casinos when I traveled out there for my bachelor party --- 10 years ago next week, matter of fact!

Good TR -- hope you get settled into your place up there soon. But a very nice diversion for ya!

Thanks for the write up.

Edgewood at $75 would BE a bargain.

Thanks for the report, good luck getting those boxes unpacked!!