Buffalo Bills in Primm, NV (PIU NX & DDR Extreme), Gold Strike in Jean,NV (DDR Extreme Plus), etc 8/31/13

Sean, Danny, and I went to eat at Red Robin at the Galleria Mall on Sunset today. It was Sean's first time eating at Red Robin. He's such a noob, isn't he? :p jk Anyway, Sean and I shared a mushroom burger with bottomless fries for about $10. The burger was delicious! I thought the fries were pretty mediocre but I don't care for steak fries in general. Sean liked them though. He said he's used to them from all the fish and "chips" he ate in the UK. :p

Sean's and my food (front) and Danny's food (back):

After food, we drove about 45 miles out to Buffalo Bill's to play some PIU NX! 

Buffalo Bill's Resort and Casino

31700 S Las Vegas Blvd

Primm, NV 89019

I don't remember if it was there last time we played there but when we arrived this time they had DDR Extreme behind PIU. They had Guitar Hero at the arcade entrance too. I'd wanted to take Sean on the roller coaster there since he'd never been but unfortunately it was closed for the night do to weather. The log ride was closed too but I can't remember what the reason was. Oh well. Danny Sean and I still had fun playing a few credits on NX and Extreme! The NX pads weren't perfect but they weren't too bad. Besides, it's the only NX in the area and one of the few PIU machines in the area. The Extreme pads were surprisingly good. 1P side was practically perfect and we were almost able to full combo songs on the 2P side. So much better than you'd expect or normally see from a public arcade!

Buffalo Bills arcade entrance:

View from just inside the arcade entrance:

DDR Extreme arcade area (note the PIU NX behind it):

PIU NX arcade area (note the DDR Extreme behind it):

We took a lot of vids while playing PIU there. Check out Sean's YouTube to see his vids! You can find mine here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrJjrQtZSSXyJhnYqPminNcKHwtexAwkg

Buffalo Bills arcade info update:

On the way back to Vegas, we decided to stop at:

Gold Strike Hotel and Gambling Hall

1 Main St

Jean, NV 89019

I think Danny and I had only been there maybe once before to check if they had an arcade and whether there were any music games in it. At the time, there hasn't been any so we'd never had a reason to revisit. This time, I just wanted to show Sean their little arcade but when we got inside they had Guitar Hero and DDR Extreme Plus!!!! Sean and I shared a credit on the 2P side of Extreme Plus. The pad was a 6/10 maybe but we didn't mind. We were just happy to finally see a dance game there. On top of that, we found out the arcade there is open 24/7!! Wow.. So awesome to find another 24/7 dance game location in the area. There are so few! Other cool things about the place: they had free lemon water by hotel registration just upstairs from the arcade, the hotel has a pool for guests, they gave us free tote bags and beaded keychains for signing up to their players club, and they said they'd be sending us offers for a free 1 night there just for signing up! DDR all night anyone?

Gold Strike's casino floor and sign pointing towards the downstairs arcade:

View inside the arcade at Gold Strike:

DDR Extreme Plus at Gold Strike:

New dance game location added to ddrfreak.com!:

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway9/28/13

Last Monday was Sean's, Danny's, and my 3rd consecutive week watching Monday Night Football at Gold Coast. We've won a few prizes in the raffle so far and this time was no different. We won a t-shirt and a tool set between us but the best part happened after the game! Apparently, there was an unclaimed set of two tickets to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on 9/28/13. Not wanting them to go to waste, the announcer caught Sean and me on our way out and if we'd be able to make it to the speedway if he gave us the tickets. Yes! We hadn't been to a race since we won some in the MNF raffle the previous season so we were due for another visit.

Our free tickets:

Saturday came around and we woke up just in time to drive out to the speedway for the race! When we arrived, the parking lots and stadium were so crowded it was like EDC all over again! We were walking for several minutes before we reached the front gates where we were greeted with some tasty eye candy:

It was a few more minutes before we'd chosen our seats and gotten comfortable. The race had already started but wasn't far in. We'd just missed the start but were still in time for all the action! I'd planned ahead and charged my phone up so I'd be able to get lots of good pics and vids of the race and that's just what I did. 

This is what the speedway looked like just after we arrived:

It got dark fast! This is what the speedway looked like after sun down:

The race lasted a good couple of hours after the qualifiers and we saw some tough competition, a lot of spin outs, crashes, and, most importantly, super fast trucks! The whole place was vibrating from the trucks driving by and it was too loud to hear yourself talk, let alone hear the person next to you. Every NASCAR fan knows what I'm talking about! 

I think the most interesting thing about this particular race was when the #10 truck driven by Jennifer Jo Cobb lost a tire and slammed against a wall maybe 5 laps before the end bringing out a late caution and leaving only a few laps more to start back up and determine the race winner!

By the end of the race, I could've sworn my arm was gonna fall off. I'd held it up for so long getting vids and trying not to miss any important parts of the race and I think I did a damn good job! (See YouTube) Finally, the #17 truck driven by Timothy Peters was the first to drive past that checkered flag to victory with the rest of the trucks trailing in behind, top 10 as follows:

1st: #17 Timothy Peters

2nd: #98 Johnny Sauter

3rd: #32 Miguel Paludo

4th: #3 Ty Dillon

5th: #54 Darrell Wallace Jr

6th: #9 Ron Hornaday Jr

7th: #7 John Wes Townley

8th: #62 Brendan Gaughan

9th: #31 James Buescher

10th: #8 Max Gresham

It took a lonnnng time getting to the car, out of the parking lot, and back home after the race. Traffic really was as bad as it had been during EDC - so bad, in fact, that we had to drive around the speedway to get out and head north on Las Vegas Blvd to find a different freeway entrance to the 95 south. Just after getting onto the freeway back into town (over an hour after getting in our car to leave), we saw endless lines of cars still waiting just to leave the parking lot! Wow.. I guess some people really love NASCAR. I wonder how many of them we'll see back out there next year? :p

Laughlin, NV Mini Trip 9/29/13

Danny just got a brand new 2013 Mazda 3 yesterday! It was the first car he ever bought himself and his first brand new car, though his parents had gotten a couple of used ones under their names for him in the past. To celebrate, we decided to take a mini trip! Danny chose Laughlin, NV - about 70 miles away - as the destination. 

Before going, we had to take care of a few things in Vegas and get some sleep so we didn't leave town til this evening..

We grabbed a bite to eat at Taco Bell before driving out. It was "happy hour" (2-5pm) when we arrived so they had two good deals going on: all Loaded Grillers and medium drinks, including their new Mtn Dew Freezes, were $1 each. Sean got the Baja Blast tropical lime Freeze, a beefy nacho griller, and a spicy buffalo chicken griller. I got the Typhoon tropical punch Freeze, a spicy buffalo chicken griller, and a loaded potato griller.

The new Freezes at Taco Bell:

My griller and Typhoon Freeze:

Then we were on our way! It only took a little over an hour to get out to Laughlin making one restroom stop on the way at Cal Nev Ari Casino - a TINY and strange-looking casino that looked like a bar with a small, adjacent restaurant.

 

There were some cactus-type plants outside the place, some I was familiar with but one I wasn't. I didn't even realize that one was spiky til I walked into it. :(

In Laughlin, we stopped at our favorite dance game location in the area: Riverside Hotel and Casino. They still had the PIU Fiesta machine in their arcade so we played a few credits on it and took a few videos (see YouTube). I hadn't expected to play any PIU so I was completely unprepared and struggled with the wrong shoes on but it was fun anyway! The 2 arcade attendants and the security guard working all watched us play and were impressed by us. They asked if we competed in tournaments for it and they even gave us 2 free credits, gave us wash clothes to wipe ourselves off with when we got sweaty, and asked people to move when they got in the way off our videos. So nice! 

Inside Riverside's arcade:

Since Danny works on Monday mornings, we didn't have a whole lot of time to spend in Laughlin but we were able to stop in one more casino while in town. We chose Edgewater! I'm sure I must've checked for dance games there before and didn't even remember them having an arcade but we found an arcade inside this time! Maybe it was new? There weren't any dance games in it but they did have Guitar Hero! We found some tokens while walking around the place and I found 2 green balls someone had left in the prize collection area of a crane game. Danny found and played a free credit left in a shooting game too. :) It was a strange-looking arcade but kinda cool and definitely better than others if seen.

Edgewater Hotel and Casino:

One view of the arcade at Edgewater:

They'd done an interesting job painting the walls in the arcade!:

We didn't have time for much else before going home to Vegas but we got some drinks at the gas station next to Edgewater before starting the drive back. It'd been a fun little trip out of town and a nice time trying out Danny's awesome new car. Can't wait for our next BBC House adventure in it. Sandy, UT maybe?!

Home Run 5k for ALS of Nevada 9/21/13

At the Midnight Cowboy race Sean and I did last weekend, we received some flyers with info on upcoming races. One of the races was scheduled for 9/21/13 - today! It was a baseball themed race called the Home Run 5k run/walk organized to raise money in support of patients with Lou Gehrig's disease/ALS and their caregivers. 

Sean and I were both happy to help and happy to get out and run! I still don't consider myself a runner but I've definitely enjoyed the challenge and rewards of running races lately, the excuse to dress up (themed costumes ftw!), and having yet another activity I can share with Sean. :)

With our schedules varying as much as they do, we wound up staying awake until 12am and waking up around 5:20am to prepare for the race clear across town. The race location:

Police Memorial Park

3250 Metro Academy Way

Las Vegas, NV 89129

It was HARD getting out of bed but we finally wriggled out of the blankets and got dressed, Sean with his baseball bat and me with my Yankees cap, baseball, and mitt. They said to dress up! Sean made bologna sandwiches for breakfast. We were ready to leave the house just before 6am but we had to swing by 7 Eleven for a little gas first. Then we were on our way! The drive ahead:

We arrived just after 6:30am and paid our $30 per person race registration. They gave us packets with our race numbers, timing chip things, race-themed t-shirts, ALS support bracelets, water bottles, protein bars, granola bars, and ALS Nevada info packets. We got geared up..

..and then played a little baseball with each other to warm up! There were only two of us so we actually just took turns throwing the ball to each other, swinging, and running after or catching the ball. Got us warm though! 

Our race didn't start til 8am so we still had a lot of time to kill by the time we were bored of batting. We jumped, jogged, and walked around a bit more til the opening ceremony started just before race time. Then it was 8 o'clock and time to run! As always, Sean started up front and I started towards the back. We could already tell by the other runners present that this was gonna be a much faster race than the ones we'd run the previous weekend. Still, we had every intention of giving it our all and having a good time while doing it. 

The race route:

From the start, I was having issues with my race wear. My headphones kept falling out of my ears (I need new ones!), I had no pockets so my iPhone was in my sports bra so I'd have music while running, and my mitt was already making my hand sweat like crazy. I didn't mind though. It gave me something to help take my mind off how tired I was gonna be during the race! :p 

Everyone seemed so fast this time around! I know I'm supposed to run my own race and pace myself but I also wanted to push myself and see how well I could do. By mile 1, I was at 8 mins 35 seconds, absolutely dead, and wondering whether I'd be able to finish the race without walking. Not sure why it seemed so hard (considering I'm capable of just under a 7 minute mile if only running 1 mile) but I slowed my pace just a bit to save me from walking. My second mile seemed impossible. I think it took me just over 9 more minutes to complete and my breathing sounded something like a speedcore remix of Darth Vader's breathing. I told myself to keep going though and only did because I knew how pissed at myself I'd be later if I didn't. From the end of mile 2 to the finish line was the biggest challenge and such a struggle for me. I was literally putting everything I had into it. I no longer cared what I mess I looked or sounded like. I just wanted to make it to the end without walking. Then came the hills and the off road section! The race went around a baseball field, down a paved hill, and up a dirt one towards the end. I passed several people on the downhill but wasn't sure I could make it up the uphill. I somehow did it anyway, though I lost a headphone along the way. :( I kept looking for that 3 mile marker but it took forever to show up. I'd planned to try and speed up just a bit at 3 miles  and sprint the finish as I always do but by the time I got there I barely had the energy to jog. I forced out every drop til I saw the finish line. I couldn't quite sprint then but I ran as fast as I could til I was past the finish and practically falling over onto Sean who was there waiting for me. <3 I collapsed on the ground, drinking water and juice Sean brought me til I'd caught my breath enough to tell him about the race. Apparently, it'd been just as tough for him. It was definitely one of the faster, more competitive Vegas races we'd done if not the fastest. Sean said it was almost like a UK race! Still, when we looked at our results we'd both held up alright against the other runners there. I'd even gotten a new personal best: 27 minutes and 2 seconds! My time wasn't great but considering it was my 5th 5k race, my 3rd time running since June, and my best time by a minute (since my 28 minute 5k time last weekend), I was happy with it! Sean got 20 minutes 49 seconds and wasn't super happy with his time but everyone else - including me - was pretty impressed with it, especially since he'd done it while carrying a baseball bat! We'd both gotten 1st place in our age groups too!

Sean's results:

My results:

Sean and I were both thirsty and a bit hungry by then so we got some more water, juice, and even coffee (for me!) to drink and some bananas, fruit, and granola bars to munch on. 

Soon after that was time for the awards ceremony! The race info had stated that every runner would get a finishers medal and that there would be additional awards for the top runners but I think only the age group winners got medals. Fortunately, that included Sean and me! (Vids of the awards ceremony, race, and more coming soon!)

Sean and me just after getting our 1st place age group medals:

The medals and race shirts:

Back home a few hours after the race, we checked out the Facebook page for ALS of Nevada. They'd uploaded one race pic so far and it was of us!

We got our medals and race numbers hung up in our room..

..bathed, and finally cuddled up for bed again! Mmmm n.n

International "Talk Like A Pirate Day" 9-19-13

I got a couple of emails recently telling me that international "Talk Like A Pirate" day was coming up! I'd never heard of such a thing but after reading the event details it seemed like another awesome excuse for me to dress up AND get free food. I love those! 

Being the last minute sort of people Sean and I are, we waited til the day of - today - to get our costumes together to celebrate. We didn't have much by way of pirate costumes at home so we stopped by the 99 Cent Store, spent $4.50, and came out looking like Captain Jack Sparrow!...almost. :p 

It was time to cash in! Our first matter of business: sail into Long John Silver's and take them up on their offer of free fish planks just for talking and/or dressing like a pirate. Sean did both! (See our YouTube channels for the full video.) Needless to say, they were pretty impressed or maybe just amused by us. They even asked to take a picture of us "to send to corporate". XD

Our costumes:

Our free fish:

Our second and final stop was Krispy Kreme doughnuts where they were offering a free doughnut to anyone who came in talking like a pirate or a free dozen for anyone dressed like one! The most convenient Krispy Kreme location for us was the one inside Excalibur Hotel and Casino. We were a bit worried that they might not be participating but when we arrived the employee who helped us not only told us they WERE participating but also said she'd helped 19 pirates before us! She let us pick a dozen free doughnuts but being the doughnut noobs we are we asked her to choose for us. Here's what we received!

Daggerfall

When I was 9 years old, I dropped out of 4th grade and spent almost a year playing the second game in The Elder Scrolls series, Daggerfall. After that year, I thought I'd put those days behind me...That was til my husband Sean set Daggerfall up on my laptop again last week! Since then, I've spent two solid nights on the game. No modding or cheating so far..and to think, I'm just getting started (or restarted, rather)! Let's just hope I can still manage to remember life outside of being a Dark Elf.

Crown and Anchor Pub in Las Vegas, NV

While out and about recently, Sean and I finally decided to stop in this British pub called Crown and Anchor we always pass by on Tropicana near Maryland. Inside, it looked and smelled almost just like the pubs in the UK! The food menu had so many of the foods Sean always mentions and says he misses and, according to Sean, they were even able to make a shandy just right! Even I liked it! Every other US bar we've been to either said they didn't know how or tried and brought us some nasty, messed up mix. (Apparently, it's supposed to be a good mix of lemonade and beer.) My favorite part of the place: the dart boards in the back! Sean says America's known for having electronic dart boards everywhere. Not here! They had regular dart boards and we were able to play for free!! Wow. Free entertainment with your drinks. That's different! Oh yeah and they have free wifi too. I think we've found a new spot to do our work-from-home work!

We've been back a few times since that initial visit, trying the food, taking advantage of beer specials they had on, sharing shandies, and even cycling the dogs over to hang out with us in the pet friendly patio area!

Here's "The Full Monty" breakfast and a Yorkshire pudding Sean and I ordered and shared one morning. We even got our roommate Danny to come down to eat with us and try a Yorkshire pudding!:

Here's the fish and chips meal (which comes with garden peas and is my favorite meal here so far), some kettle chips, and a side of curry sauce we ordered a few nights back. Yummy!:

And here's a dude that drank a bit too much and decided to sleep it off by the pub's front door before going home. Not an uncommon sight here!:

A couple of other noteworthy things Crown and Anchor has that we still need to try out: karaoke and trivia nights. So many good reasons to visit and keep going back!