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My Little Brother's Lucky Hand at The Slots Gave Our Bike Trip A Boost


Carl revisits a casino he won the slots at during the bike trip.

Casino across from the bus station  in Winnemucca

John's sons exploring the salt flats in Utah

Open road through the Nevada dessert.

WINNEMUCCA, Nev. _ June 9 was the official start date of our coast-to-coast bike tour.

From a parent perspective, it was actually June 6.

That’s when we hugged our father goodbye in Denver before boarding a Greyhound bus for California. Dad had driven us there, perhaps thinking the long journey by car would change our minds. Driving from Denver this week across the vast expanses of Wyoming, Utah and Nevada reminded me of staring out the bus window along that very route reflecting on what Carl and I were about to do that summer of 1976.

What 17 year-old wouldn’t be contemplative, knowing his parents had entrusted him to safely guide himself and his 15-year-old brother across America? The Greyhound went north from Denver to Cheyenne, then due west through Evanston, Salt Lake City, Reno, Sacramento and eventually to Eureka, Calif where we would start our pedaling. We had crated and shipped our bikes two weeks earlier to Eureka to assemble when we got there. From the bus, the landscape was a blur of sagebrush and huge barren mountains against miles and miles of laser straight highway. I remember mixed emotions of feeling free from parental control, yet now saddled with adult responsibilities. One “grown-up” thing Carl and I did on the bus leg was to go into a casino during a two-hour layover in Winnemucca, Nevada. It was directly across from the bus station and no one checked our IDs as we strolled in during the wee hours of the morning.

This was my trip journal entry from Winnemucca on June 7. “Carl and I crossed the street and went into a big gambling casino and played the slot machines, even though you have to be 18 to legally gamble in Nevada. The first one Carl put in, he won the jackpot and all kinds of coins came pouring out. I had no luck, though, and lost my money. Oh well, that’s just my tough luck.”

Carl found the casino and old Greyhound station today during a fuel stop in Winnemucca. The bus depot is now a health-food/smoothie business. But right across the street is the “WinnersCasino” - just as we had remembered it.

The $38 Carl won was no small change in those days, especially for a 15 year old. I ribbed my bro today for not trying his luck again while posing for a photo at one of the gambling machines. It’s a great memory from the outbound leg of our bicycling adventure. .It would be another 22 hours to arrive in Eureka to rendezvous with our bikes.

Exploring the salt flats was a highlight during today's marathon drive through the Utah and Nevada deserts. It was a much needed stop after hours of monotonous landscape.

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