Monday October 23rd 2017

I spent the first part of the day outside the RV under the awning enjoying my morning coffee and catching up on my internet reading. Somewhere between ten and eleven the wind started to pick-up. I retracted the awning to keep it from catching a rogue gust and retreated inside for a little while. Other than the wind, they are having a heat wave in Las Vegas. The highs are about ten degrees above the average. It topped out just below 90 degrees today.

The activity for the day was to acquire a new frying pan. The non-stick coating on the pan I’ve been using since I started my Rambling Road Trip has started to come off. Over the weekend I learned that the Orleans Casino was “giving away” a square copper clad frying pan to anyone who earned three hundred players club points today. The Orleans is a few blocks west of the Las Vegas strip on Tropicana Avenue. Traffic to get there was a pain particularly close to the strip, but I got there and started to earn my 300 points.

At the Orleans one slot point is equivalent to a dollar bet in the machine. So to get 300 points I had to pass $300 dollars through the machine. That means in the worst case the frying pan would cost three hundred dollars and in the best case I could make money and get the frying pan. I only spent about forty dollars out of pocket to get to 300 points. I keep the 300 points so they can be used toward free slot play or some kind of comp down the road.

Not really worth all the effort I put into getting it.

After printing out my voucher, I picked up my frying pan. It may last a couple of meals. The quality isn’t up to gourmet standards or even my ability to cook well enough to feed myself level. It is also kind of small and won’t replace the function of the current peeling one. I’ll have to go to a store to find a replacement.

I don’t normally play for gifts in a casino. In this case I had a need for a frying pan and was looking for an excuse to play a few slot machines. I don’t consider it a loss, but rather an entertainment expense with a frying pan dividend. The other benefit was playing at a higher bet level. Usually, I play penny machines at the minimum bet level. To get to 300 points relatively quickly, I played at maximum bet level. If you forget (ignore) how much your betting, the higher value of the wins can be exciting.