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Denny's #1539 Carson City, Nevada 7 August 2005 12:30am PDT 2299 N. Carson St. (775) 883-6550

• Attendees: P7A77, AJ, B
• Wait-person(s): Kimberly (Manager)
• What we ate: nothing
• A few of us were spending the weekend driving around Northern California and western Nevada for some Tea Leaf Green shows. On the way up we passed a few menacing black utility vehicles with rather nasty ugly drivers, taking "missionary" work back to the basics. In case you can't make them out, the seal on the door reads "The Great Seal of God - The Sabbath", over the rear wheel is "Jesus Christ Government - Official Use Only", and yes, that does say "Bounty Hunter" up top. Is there some sort of turf battle going on with the mountain militias?
• Thankfully they weren't after our heads, so we head up to the top of a mountain for a rousing afternoon of music. The show in Reno that night was cancelled, but we still had hotel booked and 66.666...% of us were itching for poker. None of us had a map, but we figured, hey, getting down a mountain can't be that difficult. Some meandering and appropriate pitstops later, we arrived at the bottom to realize that yes, indeed, we were on the wrong side. So we stopped in at some local casinos, made some good change in a short time at a table, and headed up on to Reno.
• Nature called, as she is wont to do, so AJ (who was doing all the driving, bless his heart) pulled over at, of course, Denny's. Nobody was eating, and B was asleep, so I just darted in to get the info. I was waiting up front to speak with the manager, who gave me a curious look. I started into my spiel about traveling around and visiting Denny's, at which point she cut me off and asked if I had that web site. I couldn't immediately assess whether she was going to hug me or take a butcher cleaver to my jugular, so I sheepishly confirmed her suspicions, one eye on my exit routes. Well, glory be, she was on happy side of the fence. Yay! She presented to me a clean, cold, crisp carafe and graciously mugged for the camera with me.
• This is why I prefer graveyard shift. I probably should have eaten there, but I was too tired and out of it to think too quickly at that point.
• Once in Reno I immediately lost what I had won, went down some more, and spent the rest of the night climbing back to break even. Perhaps I was up a bit. But not too bad, got to see some shows, have a good time, and a brand new carafe! There was even a WAY factor. Huzzah!
• PS - It should be noted that this was AJ's first exposure to this, er, adventure, and he expressed concern for my sanity.
• WAY: Bill (old GM, now in Sparks)
• Free Stuff: Carafe

Denny's #0113 Las Vegas, Nevada 25-May-97, 10:00pm PDT 2545 E. Fremont St. (702) 384-7441

• Attendees: P7A77, Amie
• Wait-person(s): Erlinda
• What we ate: P7A77 - Coke; Amie - Coke
• Things were hectic at this Denny's, what with the large crowd, apparent lack of servers, and people complaining about stolen bikes. We were hoping to find directions to the varios Vegas Denny's, since we wanted to make sure the Casino Royale Denny's was our hundredth. Our waitress didn't seem to have the best grasp of the English language (but she was very friendly, so we didn't hold it against her), which only complicated things. Luckily, the manager, Richard, was more than helpful. He gave us very good and complete directions to all the Vegas Denny's, and gave us some pretty groovy free stuff.
• Too bad I didn't win at the slot machines.
• WAY: No (but they did have someone who looked like Gallagher)
• Free Stuff: Suggestive Sell Cards (for employees), Denny's Lapel Pins

Denny's #1341 Las Vegas, Nevada 25-May-97, 10:30pm PDT 5318 Boulder Hwy. (702) 456-1919

• Attendees: P7A77, Amie
• Wait-person(s): Candy, Ruthanne (Manager)
• What we ate: Nothing
• So we were waiting for Candy to get the manager for us (since she was too nervous to snag anything for us herself) and we noticed this strange frosting cake type thing sitting on the counter. For some unknown reason, it had various coins stuck all through it. Tho', I suppose if you're going to have a pile of frosting sitting on your counter, you really don't need much of a reason to add some loose change to it.
• WAY: No
• Free Stuff: Omelet Menu

Denny's #1056 Las Vegas, Nevada 25-May-97, 10:50pm PDT 13081 S. Maryland Pkwy. (702) 734-1295

• Attendees: P7A77, Amie
• Wait-person(s): ...
• What we ate: Nothing
• We were just crusin' through, 'cause we were anxious to get to the Strip. That's 'bout it.
• WAY: No
• Free Stuff: Omelet Menu

Denny's #0002 Las Vegas, Nevada 25-May-97, 11:05pm PDT 1826 Las Vegas Blvd. South (702) 384-5624

• Attendees: P7A77, Amie
• Wait-person(s): Tim
• What we ate: Nothing
• What an amazingly cool Denny's. It's got the old old style sign, but it's lit up in neon. It's also across the street from the Stratosphere Hotel/Casino. And, it's got the lowest Denny's store number so far in this project - Number TWO! As it turns out, though, it's not the second Denny's ever - all of the Denny's in existence were renumbered quite a few years back. Still, Vegas is one of the first cities to have Denny's, and it's pretty fun to get such a low number regardless.
• WAY: No
• Free Stuff: Omelet Menu

Denny's #1038 Las Vegas, Nevada 25-May-97, 11:40pm PDT 2201 W. Sahara Ave. (702) 873-3200

• Attendees: P7A77, Amie
• Wait-person(s): PJ
• What we ate: Nothing
• I'm sorry, little miss PJ, that you're working a shitty job on a weekend in Vegas, when you'd much rather be cocktail waitressing and pulling in the big bucks, but that's no excuse to be snotty to me. Not only do you refuse to give me anything, but you say you're going to get the manager and then go in the back... never to return. Who needs ya, anyway. Thtphtptht.
• WAY: Undetermined
• Free Stuff: Nothing

Denny's #2110 Las Vegas, Nevada 26-May-97, 12:10am PDT 3771 Las Vegas Blvd. South (702) 736-6266

• Attendees: P7A77, Amie
• Wait-person(s): None
• What we ate: Nothing
• Hoo-boy, was this Denny's busy. There was a long line just to pay. I hung around for a while looking for my chance to talk to somebody, but to no avail. Oh, well. I was in a hurry to get to the next Denny's, anyway.
• WAY: Undetermined
• Free Stuff: Nothing

Denny's #0141 Las Vegas, Nevada 26-May-97, 12:45am PDT 3397 Las Vegas Blvd. South (702) 733-8707

• Attendees: P7A77, Amie
• Wait-person(s): Cindy
• What we ate: P7A77 - Chicken Quesadilla with No Guacamole and extra Sour Cream, Large Strawberry Banana Orange Juice; Amie - Moons Over My Hammy, Hashbrowns, Coke
• This is it. The one-hundredth Denny's for this project. And, as far as I'm concerned, quite an appropriate one to symbolize cheesy excess. They were pretty busy here, too, but our waitress was still all smiles. She was also quite good at upselling food. Even though they were busy, we got our orders very quickly. When we were finished, it took a while to find someone to talk to for free stuff, and I was prepared to leave, but Amie suggested we hang out for a while. And it was worth it. I got me a free Save the Children handprint tshirt. Now I can pretend like I've had little kids run their hands all over my chest. The trip to Vegas was well worth it.
• WAY: No
• Free Stuff: Save the Children tshirt

Denny's #0495 Reno, Nevada 1 October 2005 11:45am PDT 680 N. Wells Ave. (775) 322-9039

• Attendees: P7A77, Scott
• Wait-person(s): Allie
• What we ate: P7A77: Grand Slam (eggs scrambled), water; Scott: Fabulous French Toast Platter, Large Orange Juice, Coffee
• And so back to Reno and poker. I was riding high on all my recent wins at smaller casinos and home games, so figured I was unstoppable. My first few hours in town confirmed this. Did what I expected, was able to pay my share of room and gas immediately. Nice start, gonna be a good weekend.
• Ha. I'll spare the gory details, but suffice to say I played poorly, got pissed about it, and kept throwing money at it. This is what many affectionately refer to as "tilt". And what sucks is I knew I was doing it, but there was nothing else to do. The whole point of the trip was poker with no distractions, and I was already down heavy almost from the start. It was a horrible, gory, disgusting scene.
• I was able to finally settle the hell down and do a slow crawl at the Eldorado for the long haul. I was doing pretty well at it, not going up too much, but not going down, either. Then the table rotated and some drunk guy who kept getting drunker decided I was his buddy, and I was too tired to realize I was getting distracted. I didn't lose to him, but I lost to others, and he won a lot. He had a good drunk style, and yes, I believe it was for real. He seemed to like to drink enough to have his drunk late night techniques worked out. Can't really blame him, it was my own fault for losing, but oh well. Next morning was even more pain and suffering. Thankfully we were scheduled to leave that evil stinky place.
• At the concierge I politely inquired as to the location of Denny's. The guy got a bit of a snooty look. Uh, hello dude, this is Circus Circus, you're not exactly high brow. So the guy tells me there's a Carrow's near by. Okay, nice, where's the Denny's? Well, as it turns out, if I go down such-and-such street and get to the Carrow's, if I turn left, Denny's will be another block down. I confirm the directions, omitting the landmark reference. He says again, "yeah, it's right by the Carrow's." Okay, guy, I get it. Don't judge me!
• I arrived at Denny's an empty man. Don't we all, at one point or another? Scott, on the other hand, was the big winner of the weekend, yay for him. The Denny's itself was standard. A waitress came up to us, looked at us, smiled, and walked to the table next to us without a word. Nice. Once the staff determined we were good enough to dine with them (what, they think they're Carrow's or something?), the waitress they sent over was very smiley and friendly. I figured she was new. You can tell who has the life-force sucked out of them from prolonged exposure to Denny's clientele. Besides, with the turnover at most of these places, practically everyone is a trainee all the time. Everything old is new again.
• I had trouble finding the Grand Slam on the menu. There was the Lumberjack Slam, all shiny and photogenic, but no original Grand Slam. I got a bit panicky. I wanted to close out this suite of entries with the classic breakfast, but it was nowhere to be found. Plus, I was fairly broke, and a man's gotta eat. Allie ultimately pointed it out to me, way on the bottom in the corner, tiny little print. They sure don't want you buying the cheap stuff. Scott chose the Fabulous French Toast Platter over the not quite as fey as the French Toast Slam... well, okay, they're more or less on par there. He remarked that they were, indeed, fabulous, sister. Snap.
• Again, they were way too busy to deal with my questions. I hate weekend morning shift.
• WAY: undetermined
• Free Stuff: nothing

Denny's #1386 Sparks, Nevada 26 September 2002 2:55pm PDT 205 E. Nugget Ave. (775) 359-9053

• Attendees: P7A77, Amie
• Wait-person(s): Rosa (employee since 1985)
• What we ate: Nothing
• And so we entered Nevada. The scenery turned into barren desert not far past the border. It's like the Californians saw where the lush greenery stopped and drew the line. The Nevadans said, okay, fine, our silver is worth more than your stupid little gold rush anyway. Bring on the whores! Or maybe it didn't go like that. I fell asleep a lot during American History. It was right after lunch, give me a break.
• We had our first gas-up for the trip. I had to walk through a room of slot machines to pay for it and somehow lost track of ten bucks. Yes, I have "sucker" tattooed on my forehead. Who'd a thunk the casino at the Arco off I-80 at the border didn't have the loosest slots? I even lost 50 cents at the Denny's. At least it had a groovy old-school sign. You don't see those much any more, what with the "Diner" makeover. Bring back the 70s, I say. Wide collars, key parties, and Denny's. Western civilization has peaked, I tell ya.
• The Sparks Denny's gave us a travel directory, so we could figure out where the rest were on our trip. Not that I don't already have a bunch of directories, but I had neglected to bring any with me. Or maybe I did and they fell apart. Or maybe we didn't need any at all. I can't remember. Still, can't have too many travel directories. We got an idea where we'd be stopping through Nevada and paced ourselves. One in Winnemucca, one in Elko. Good spacing throughout the state.
• Got to Winnemucca, couldn't find the Denny's. But there was a diner with a familiar-looking sign named Jerry's. That is, the diner was named Jerry's, not the sign. Tho' it may have been for all I know; we weren't formally introduced. This morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. Stopped in, asked if it had ever a Denny's. No, sorry, the honor of running Denny's out of town went to Dos Amigos.
• Okay, fine, be that way. Nobody likes you much anyway, Winnestupida. Moving on to Elko. This place had every chain store in the world. All the fast food, all the department stores, all the big boxes. And a conspicuously absent Denny's. We got fixins for PB&J at the grocery instead. So much for the travel directory. Three Denny's failures in 24 hours. Someone's trying to tell me something.
• Nevada ended up being a wonderful drive. Mostly flat, open highway with nice desert scenery and a mountain to drive through here and there. Good and relaxing. Got to Utah and the Bonneville Salt Flats. It was nighttime, but we could smell 'em out there. Thanks to light pollution, this was the first opportunity I'd had to see the Milky Way. My word. Took my breath away. Seriously, everyone should move to the country and use kerosene lamps. I don't have a photo of it, because my little snapshot digicam wasn't good enough for it, not even on a tripod with a longer exposure. You'll just have to take my word on it, sky full of stars = awe-inspiring.
• WAY: No
• Free Stuff: Take-Out Menu, Travel Directory

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