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This past week I was able to travel to Laughlin, Nevada to visit my friends Pat and Lisa, who had traveled from the cold climes of upper Minnesota. We stayed at the Riverside Resort Hotel and began the new year with a visit to this popular destination.

Laughlin is situated along the banks of the Colorado River which divides the states of Arizona and Nevada. Bullhead City occupies the east banks (Arizona) and Laughlin the west. In 1964, Don Laughlin bought a boarded-up eight-room hotel room and opened the Riverside Resort, offering 98 cent all-you-can-eat chicken dinners, a few slot machines, and two gaming tables. Four of the rooms in the hotel were used by the Laughlin family leaving the remaining for visitors.

Originally, the area was known as Tri State. The story goes that it was a U.S. Postal Service inspector that required Don to give it a name in order to have th email delivered. According to the resorts welcome materials, Don Laughlin responded to this demand, “I followed his advice,” he said laughing. “He suggested ‘Laughlin’ because it was a good Irish name. His name was O’Neill.”

Pat and Lisa were on the 4th floor and I on the 23rd. Lisa took this picture from their balcony.

We spent the night talking and reminiscing about the old times teaching back in Colorado Springs. This lead to our call to Gary, another friend back in the Springs. We had a good talk with him and exchanged pictures using our cell phones (Gary had grown his hair out — a very surprising move as he is a retired Air Force pilot and one to always have given me grief about needing a hair cut.) We have now committed to tradition that whenever and where ever we meet, we will partake in the calling of Gary. Funny how traditions are made. And even though it seems frivolous, that call was and is meaningful as it also was time spent re-connecting and realizing the friends you make are important.


The taking of a knee has also become somewhat of a tradition. Not sure it it has to do with the refreshments, but it might. There is always a story behind the picture. What I will say here is this shot had to be done TWICE as Pat raised his beverage in the first one in such a way it completely blocked his face! He blames the mild palsy that likely runs in his genes.

The Riverside offers a lot of different entertainment including gaming, bingo, first run movies shown in six THX surround sound cinemas, a championship bowling center, karaoke, celebrity concerts, various restaurants, and water sports on the Colorado River. It is family friendly and I even saw numerous guests that had their dogs with them.

Here’s a picture of the resort from the air.

Of course, everyone always wants to know if we won any money. Yes. I won by losing! I was playing in a $2 Texas Hold’em game (that’s about my speed) and was just about even after a couple of hours. I looked at my cards and found pocket aces, Ad and Ah. Being the best starting hand you can have, I was feeling pretty good when a couple of players called my $4 pre-flop raise. Long story short, it came down to one of those players rivering a flush on me. I turned over the Red Aces to show I had had a good hand and the whole table responded in shock as I had just won $500 for having red aces cracked, as they call getting beat. What a surprise. As it turned out, I was just 30 minutes from that promotion ending for that day.

Laughlin is a decent get-away from Phoenix. It’s a short 4 to 5 hour drive or when available, Vision Air offers charters from Williams/Gateway airport in Mesa and can get you there in about 50 minutes. Pat and Lisa find it a great trip for them to get out of the cold winters of Minnesota. Our next trip to meet up on is an attempt to take a visit in the summer to the Land of 10,000 lakes. We’ll be sure to give Gary a call.