From Spirit Mountain Casino March 25th 2016

From Spirit Mountain Casino March 25^th 2016

My two days at Bear River included a trip to the Loleta Cheese factory. Production was closed the day I went but I bought some olives and a chunk of cheese( neither particularly discounted) and saw a bit of the countryside.

 

On the 20^th, I returned to an old favourite, breaking into the routine of a casino-only trip by stopping over at Cape Blanco State Park (N42 49.871 W124 33.011) for a couple of days. From there, I hiked out to the lighthouse, went into the town of Port Orford to find the Crazy Norwegian’s closed for the day but the other celebrated restaurant, Griffs by the Dock, right down on the docks, was open so I had a mediocre oyster dish and some good chowder, neither in the “best of the world” category.

Three Rivers Casino, Florence OR (43 58.831 124 05.250) was the next stop, a couple of hours north. Here, one encounters very friendly staff, an excellent and well priced buffet and a small lake with park-like surroundings by extensive, level parking lots

This may be the “new” best Casino location so far because it offers most of the features that we “casino campers” require for our free nights on the road. Patrons check in as usual with Security to get a four day pass that can be extended if one has enough activity on one’s Player’s Card, meaning, if you don’t play than you will have to move along. With the Player’s Card, one gets $10 worth of free play, so I decided to take the plunge and play poker on a slot machine. In the end, I had several staff members surrounding me as they all tried to explain how the system worked. It is not enough to understand a little about poker, which I think I do, but rather the method of accumulating credits and points on one’s card, pressing he correct buttons to make sure one doesn’t blow one’s entire “budget” on one roll of the cards, as well as having an understanding of the distinction between “card credits” and actual cash credits, the former of which can be used to obtain discounts in the restaurant, parking extensions etc. At the time of this writing, I am up $1.26 in total after 45 minutes on the machine. It doesn’t take long for the eyes to get bleary. Even the button-pressing- finger/wrist is subject to carpal tunnel syndrome – this on top of the numbness created by long hours behind a steering wheel.

Local news outlets recount that at Cape Kiwanda, just north of were I am camped at the Three Rivers Casino, deaths of at least 7 people in the last 11 months, including one a few days ago have been reported. At an average age of 19, teens ignore warning signs and a fence to walk out on a high sand dune at the top of a cliff and (being invincible) fall to their deaths into the water. There, they either drown or are never found. Sounds to me a lot like the avalanche issue at ski areas.

 

From Three Rivers, I continued up the coast to Lincoln City, and then took Highway 126 over to Spirit Mountain Casino. From there, I haven’t decided if I will go along the Columbia River to Boardman County Park (an annual favourite) or head north up 97 to Ellensburg and Yakima, both of which have as yet undiscovered casinos for me to try out.

 

And - for those who have been asking, on March 23^rd,, I filled up with diesel fuel in Florence, a fishing town on the coast of Oregon and home of the Three Rivers Casino. The price was $1.69 per US gallon. On the same day, according to Gas Buddy, the lowest price for diesel fuel in the Salmon Arm area was CDN $0.899/litre = CDN $3.39 per US gallon, times US exchange rate @ .758 = US $ 2.57. This is a little bit higher than some of the diesel prices in Washington State (the highest on my travels), though quite a bit higher than Oregon (the lowest on my travels). Fuel prices have dropped quite a bit since late November as I remember filling up then in Omak, Washington for US $2.71/gallon.

 

March 24^th, I set records by visiting two casinos. Just up the coast from Florence is Lincoln City, OR, one of the larger towns on the coastal highway. There, I dropped in to check out the Chinook Winds Casino (44 59.954 124 0.353). The entry was a little difficult, turning left off the very busy 101 at a traffic light onto a side street, thence into the casino parking areas. These are all over the place but there is a special one for RVS. This has steeply angled parking, so I didn’t really like it right off the bat. The best thing about this place was the surf. Huge waves were crashing in to the beach, something I could watch all day – this almost changed my mind about staying but I didn’t. The casino itself is huge with a hotel and conference center included in the main buildings. Walking through the buffet on the second floor, I was quite impressed at the selection – everything looked very good. Luckily, I wasn’t having lunch so managed to escape without adding further to the girth.  

About an hour away to the east, at Grande Ronde on Highway 18, Spirit Mountain (45 03.582 123 35.013) is another of these large casinos, run, possibly, by the same Indian tribal corporation as Three Rivers and Chinook Winds. Parking lots were nice and level with RV-sized painted lines, so I had the slides extended and satellite dish up in very short order. The best thing about this place may be that it has a dump station and fresh water spigot at the back of the parking lot.

There is also a big-rig friendly Shell Station on the premises. Though prices are not rock-bottom, they do have a propane-fill-up station – pretty well everything that a casino-camper could desire. The usual routine of signing in at Security, then obtaining a Player’s Club Card at another desk applied here, just as at most of the other places I have visited. There is a free shuttle that one can call by intercom from any of several covered kiosks in the parking area. However, to maintain my svelte figure, I hiked the 200 metres back and forth to the casino. Enjoying the excellent dinner buffet ($15.95) at 5:45 on a Thursday in March, I went in without waiting; however, the line-up was quite long when I came out. My server was quick to offer a drink but omitted to give me any cutlery. When she did bring a knife and fork, she forgot a teaspoon (for my trifle dessert) - nor was there any offer of coffee. Other than that, the variety and quality was excellent and I am staying over an extra night because Fridays feature the seafood buffet (more expensive than the regular fare).

One small item of curiosity – the Players Club lady told me that I would have to go back to Security to get a new Parking card as I had filled mine out with black ink. Apparently the casino has a “policy” of using only blue ink. I questioned Security about this and asked if it took a lot of people at a meeting to make such a decision and did he know why? I may have mentioned that I was in the early stages of writing a book about strange happenings along the Oregon coast and this would certainly qualify. He allowed as how he did not know the reason and couldn’t think of any management types who might know the origin and reasoning behind the black-ink-ban. He did tell me, however, that at his former place of employment (a private prison), they (employees) were restricted to using only black ink and no blue, the opposite of Spirit Mountain. This was also chalked up to “policy” so note to those out there involved with Customer Service training – never quote “policy” and try to have a reason for anything you do – that is much more satisfying for guests and probably as well for staff who might be inclined to think that some senile god is sitting out there on a cloud flipping coins to see whether their organization should favour black or blue ink.

I wrote this update on a Friday morning and as I sat at the computer, shuttle buses, like sharks, were being very attentive and circled the RV parking lots every 5 minutes or so. Maybe there was some important revenue-producing event that I should have been attending but I chose, instead, to save my energy for the seafood later on.

Pics:

178 Loleta Cheese Factory

180 Flowery Shrub near Gill’s

183 Coach and surf

184 Rocks and surf

186 trees at Cape Blanco

196 Cape Foulweather Barque

200 surf at Chinook Winds

202 Spirit Mountain entrance

203 Me at Spirit Mountain