On the Way Home

Context: This post is about a trip to San Diego.

Before we started flying on our Disney trips, we'd drive through Las Vegas on our way to California, and we'd always stay in Virgin River in a place called the Virgin River Inn. And casino. The casino always intimidated me slightly, with its thick red carpet and flashing lights on the machines and the slight smell of cigarette smoke. The buffet was really good though (which was why I can tell you what the casino was like—our parents walked us through the casino to get to the buffet).

We had a room booked in the Virgin River Inn for our return trip, and I was looking forward to seeing my old haunt and eating at the buffet. However, on our way to San Diego, we passed through a dinky Nevada town called Primm, which had two casino-hotels called Buffalo Bill's and Whiskey Pete's. My mother had a brilliant idea, which was that if we booked a hotel in Primm and canceled our reservation at the Virgin River Inn, we could spend more time with her brother because our room for the night would be that much closer to San Diego. My father acquiesced to this wish, leading us to leave San Diego around three instead of around noon as originally planned.

Since I was mainly on the trip to be a driving slave, I drove about one-third of the time, and that was not fun (especially in the Las Vegas traffic). We eventually made it home safely the next day, but I',m going to skip over all that and just tell you about Buffalo Bill's Resort & Casino!

By the time we got there, it was kind of late (late for road-tripping, anyway), and we were all kinds of exhausted. I have actual gaps in my memory of arriving, although I do remember this dialogue happening as we got out of the vehicle:

MOM: Something something a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

A BROTHER: A bird in the hand is worth two in the tush.

A BROTHER: A bird in the bush is worth two in the tush!

We got into the hotel by way of a side door with a security guard, who informed us that we would have to go to the casino itself to check in. We pulled our suitcases through long, silent hallways.

LITTLE BROTHER: Why is this the hotel from The Shining?

After several minutes (not even joking), we emerged in the casino, a cavernous room with a high ceiling and a rollercoaster and a defunct log flume and an actual western town.

You'll notice that this western town features creepy mannequins of cowboys. There was also an in-casino buffet (that was closed, boo), a Denny's, a McDonald's, and a movie theatre showing Black Panther. And elsewhere in the hotel, there was a pool shaped like a buffalo.

Mom was slightly horrified. I, however, was delighted and fascinated.

AWKWARD MORMON GIRL: I want to come here on my honeymoon.