Great Day in Laughlin

We left pretty close to schedule yesterday - 10:15 AM - and arrived in Laughlin at 2:15 PM (AZ time). With the one hour adjustment for Pacific Time it was 1:15. We stopped several times along the way - for potty breaks and a stop at Safeway in Kingman to pick up some coffee for our room. The trip was kind of nostalgic since it has been about 4 years since we came this way on route 93 through Wickenburg to Laughlin. There have been many changes along the way, but most were in Kingman where we always got off to buy a Dairy Queen at the Stockton Ave exit and discovered the whole shopping center has been closed down for remodeling. Across the street from that is where the Safeway is located and, fortunately, it was still there.

There was light snow on the ground at the outskirts of Kingman and the temperature was 29 as we entered town. There is a steep pass that goes from Kingman into Bullhead City on the Colorado River and our favorite "finger" rock brought back more memories:

When we reached the bottom of this pass we turned into Laughlin over the Colorado River and arrived at our Hotel:

Because we were early and check-in wasn't until 4 PM, we had to wait for our room to be ready which was about a half hour after we arrived. The room is wonderful:

and ranks right at the top for room values in Laughlin. For $34 per night, you can hardly beat this. It has a single cup Keurig coffee maker in the room and that's why we stopped at Safeway to get a small can of Decaf coffee to use with our filter that we brought from home. We are on the fourth floor overlooking the garden area. As soon as you walk into the casino, you walk through this very nice Atrium:

We hit the slots and it was all fun from there. I immediately hit a couple medium sized jackpots that gave us the extra cash to cover the expenses for the trip. We played for a couple hours and went to dinner at the hotel restaurant - Harlow's - and had a terrific T-bone steak dinner that totaled $15 for the two of us. These are the kind of deals that used to be common in Vegas, but are no longer. We played a little more following dinner and then went to the Pioneer Casino next door for a couple hours of play. We did fine there and left with just about what we started with in that Casino.

Today is our only full day here so we expect to walk the Riverwalk to the other hotel/casinos and play a little at each of those along the way. It is a great way to spend a birthday - actually, a great way to spend any time.

One note on Austin's trip to Western Michigan University - it was postponed to next weekend. I didn't receive notice of the schedule change until talking to Patty yesterday. One of the coaches made a trip to Austin's school to talk with him and explain the schedule change and to assure him was at the top of their list and were looking forward to his visit next weekend. In the meantime, he has another University - Drake - coming to visit him at home on Tuesday so it's looking good for Austin to be getting some offers soon. We are so happy for him...