Ahhhhh Back....

All righty…I’m back!!

What a great week. Spent 3days in lovely Lake Tahoe, came back for a ¾ day at work Friday, and headed out with about a dozen friend to Mt. Hood National Forest for some high-quality, top-notch camping.

Excellent car camping as we feasted like gluttonous Kings on short ribs, hot dogs, biscuits and gravy, beer, wine, etc. Props to Rev. Bill Stolti (no not really a Rev., but the name works) for putting the whole trip together.

As for “business”, the trip to Tahoe was excellent. I got to spend some time touting the horses (all day Wednesday) and spent quality hours at the poker table at the Horizon (see below). Caught two blistering nights of Widespread Panic at Caesars, only spent 15 minutes with my head in the toilet!! (I know TMI, but deal with it!).

Basically, South Lake Tahoe is a mini-mini Las Vegas. Reno is a mini-dirtier Vegas. S. Lake Tahoe is smaller than Reno, but waaay nicer and consists mainly of 4 Hotel/Casinos. I ventured around for a little taste of each and sample each’s offerings:

Caesars: I’ll start there b/c that’s where I stayed. Solid Casino, with two late night clubs providing music, and a pretty good bar within the confines of the casino. Sports book here is way less than avg. The “concert venue” within Caesars is just awesome. Being able to access your room and anywhere else you wanted to go freely throughout the two nights of shows, is difficult to replicate almost anywhere. Overall nice job, except for the less than inspiring sports book…

Speaking of sports books….I found myself absolutely LOVING the sports book at across the street and up one “lot” at Harvey’s. B/c this was the Wed. following a holiday Monday, many tracks were dark which prob. Worked to my advantage. With only 3 (to start, a 4th track, Pleasanton went off later in the day) tracks running (Monmouth, Philly, and Delaware) I could concentrate on races from all of those tracks and pick and choose as I saw fit. With 5 GIANT screen TV’s showing all of the action, the middle screen airs a stationary view of Lake Tahoe from the top of Harvey’s while occasionally a caption runs a cross the bottom of the screen reminding you: “View from the Top of Harvey’s”. Tellers were both friendly and helpful. Major props to Harvey’s on their sports book.

Need to get back to work now. More reviews and notes later. Haven’t received this weeks updated standings from Patrick, but will certainly post em’ when I get em’.