Who Knew

That the middle of nowhere is just north of the Mojave Preserve. Since it was dark by the time I exited the Preserve, I had no idea what the area around the hotel looked like. I actually really hate arriving somewhere totally new in the dark for this exact reason. While bringing my bags in, a train rolled passed. Within about 50 yards of my room. That happened 7 more times that night. As it turns out, I was pretty much staying in an old train station.

Needless to say, there wasn't much going on as far as food in Nipton, CA. The hotel staff suggested going to Searchlight, NV, 22 miles away, which was literally, the only game "in town." ("Town" being a relative term, of course.) Apparently the are a couple of casinos in Searchlight, and one, "The Nugget" had great prime rib.

I don't eat cow unless I can help it, but I figured that a casino IN NEVADA that served prime rib had to be a decent bet. I had visions of the casinos I saw in Tahoe... and in Vegas, for that matter. You can imagine my shock when I had my dinner here:

Yeah, this place is HOPPING, isn't it? Believe it or not, it isn't even 8pm yet. What you can't see in the picture is that the restaurant is supposedly "smoke free." The casino, is not. Still can't understand how that works. Also don't understand how prime rib could be $10. The slot machines were so old school, that when I won $8 in a nickle machine, I got my winnings in 160 nickles. It was pretty exciting. I stood there completely stunned as an avalanche of coins fell out of the machine. "What am I going to do with so many nickles?" I announce to nobody in particular. An older gentleman, a regular I would assume, walked by and handed me a plastic bucket. Awesome.