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kevin_standleeAfter the Westercon 76 closing ceremony, we said our goodbyes and set off homeward bound.
The hotel was at I-80 Exit 113, measured from the Nevada border.
Exit 99 is Toole, and I took this photo while waiting for my order at Starbucks.
We stopped at Grassy Mountain rest area, which is just before the start of the Great Salt Lake Desert.
Normally, we shoot across this stretch of barren salt flats as fast as the van will take us, but this time we stopped (off the freeway) at the Tree of Utah, a sculpture that is about the only landmark there is on this 50-mile stretch of road.
Although we'd planned to stop in Wendover, we needed to stop at the Salt Lake rest area as well, and I wish we hadn't, as the place was swarming with biting flies. Once we got going again, we ran with the windows down to try and blow them out of the Astro.
We stopped at the Red Garter Casino-Motel, where we have sometimes stopped overnight. In this case, it was the "AYCE Spaghetti" advertised on their sign, as neither of us had had lunch, so we thought we'd get this as lunch-dinner.
Kuma Bear peeked over the edge of the table wondering what we were getting for him. We told him he could have a bite of spaghetti if he wanted it, but he turned up his nose at it.
The restaurant was not crowded, and there was only one server. Here was our first helping, which was pretty good.
As we were finishing this first helping, I asked the server for another helping. She seemed to acknowledge this, but after more than twenty minutes, nothing had arrived. I tracked her down and more forcefully asked for a second helping. By the amount of time that had passed, she clearly hadn't heard my first request.
I originally wanted a third helping, but we had lost so much time that we needed to go and I asked for the bill. To my great annoyance, the bill showed that she had charged us for 4 helpings of "AYCE Spaghetti." I pointed out to her than "AYCE" means "All You Can Eat," and that it was spelled out on their Specials board at the entrance. She looked dubiously at me and said she'd call the manager and get back to me.
I could hear a loud conversation from the kitchen that I interpreted as the manager "clarifying" the situation. A few minutes later, she came out with a corrected bill and said that this was the first night she had worked at this location (there is a group of several casinos here under common ownership) and that nobody had told her about this. I paid the bill, not tipping anywhere near as generously as I normally do, and we left. They wasted so much of our time that we also did not do any gambling, not even the Tropical Fishing machine that Kuma Bear likes.
We refueled the Astro at Pilot and set off again, passing "Wendover Will" at the edge of West Wendover. It was, as you can see, getting dark. We had expected to be at Elko by sundown, but thanks to the debacle at the Red Garter, we got in much later than we expected.
After checking in to the Holiday Inn Express, Lisa took a bath and I checked the train schedule for the Big Boy for Monday. It was so late that we did not try getting a look at Elko yard, where we expect they had tied up for a couple of days for a Union Pacific employee event not open to the public. I was pleased to see that the first stop was later in the morning than I thought, so I wasn't going to have to be up at 4 AM in order to be on the road in time. But it was still much later than we'd planned, and I knew I wasn't going to get enough sleep.
The hotel was at I-80 Exit 113, measured from the Nevada border.
Exit 99 is Toole, and I took this photo while waiting for my order at Starbucks.
We stopped at Grassy Mountain rest area, which is just before the start of the Great Salt Lake Desert.
Normally, we shoot across this stretch of barren salt flats as fast as the van will take us, but this time we stopped (off the freeway) at the Tree of Utah, a sculpture that is about the only landmark there is on this 50-mile stretch of road.
Although we'd planned to stop in Wendover, we needed to stop at the Salt Lake rest area as well, and I wish we hadn't, as the place was swarming with biting flies. Once we got going again, we ran with the windows down to try and blow them out of the Astro.
We stopped at the Red Garter Casino-Motel, where we have sometimes stopped overnight. In this case, it was the "AYCE Spaghetti" advertised on their sign, as neither of us had had lunch, so we thought we'd get this as lunch-dinner.
Kuma Bear peeked over the edge of the table wondering what we were getting for him. We told him he could have a bite of spaghetti if he wanted it, but he turned up his nose at it.
The restaurant was not crowded, and there was only one server. Here was our first helping, which was pretty good.
As we were finishing this first helping, I asked the server for another helping. She seemed to acknowledge this, but after more than twenty minutes, nothing had arrived. I tracked her down and more forcefully asked for a second helping. By the amount of time that had passed, she clearly hadn't heard my first request.
I originally wanted a third helping, but we had lost so much time that we needed to go and I asked for the bill. To my great annoyance, the bill showed that she had charged us for 4 helpings of "AYCE Spaghetti." I pointed out to her than "AYCE" means "All You Can Eat," and that it was spelled out on their Specials board at the entrance. She looked dubiously at me and said she'd call the manager and get back to me.
I could hear a loud conversation from the kitchen that I interpreted as the manager "clarifying" the situation. A few minutes later, she came out with a corrected bill and said that this was the first night she had worked at this location (there is a group of several casinos here under common ownership) and that nobody had told her about this. I paid the bill, not tipping anywhere near as generously as I normally do, and we left. They wasted so much of our time that we also did not do any gambling, not even the Tropical Fishing machine that Kuma Bear likes.
We refueled the Astro at Pilot and set off again, passing "Wendover Will" at the edge of West Wendover. It was, as you can see, getting dark. We had expected to be at Elko by sundown, but thanks to the debacle at the Red Garter, we got in much later than we expected.
After checking in to the Holiday Inn Express, Lisa took a bath and I checked the train schedule for the Big Boy for Monday. It was so late that we did not try getting a look at Elko yard, where we expect they had tied up for a couple of days for a Union Pacific employee event not open to the public. I was pleased to see that the first stop was later in the morning than I thought, so I wasn't going to have to be up at 4 AM in order to be on the road in time. But it was still much later than we'd planned, and I knew I wasn't going to get enough sleep.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-11 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-11 02:40 am (UTC)Hey. That's all you can eat.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-11 03:08 am (UTC)