We stopped at Wildhorse Resort in Pendleton, OR. It sounds kinda fancy, right? I mean, the word "resort" IS in the name of the place. Oh, but don't forget the "wildhorse" part...much more of an indicator as to the kind of place it was. It was a casino that was on an Indian/Native American/American Indian/Indigenous People reservation (not really sure what the newest politically correct term is for the people who were here long before ol' Christopher C and company started stompin' all over the US of A).
I (kate) immediately felt nervous when we pulled into the parking lot filled with truckers and pick-ups and didn't want to leave our stuff in the car as we went to check out the place. When we walked into the place, I realized it wasn't nervousness, but rather a smothering depression that I was feeling. The people at this casino/resort weren't the jet-setters who flew into Vegas for a couple nights and rocked out and gambled the money that they had earmarked for gambling. This was a different crowd. A sad crowd. A depressing crowd. A checking out of the hotel a day early because they didn't have any more money crowd. But as we always try to do, we decided we'd have fun regardless of the dark cloud hanging over the wildhorse.
We played some $3 craps, and won a couple of bucks. Then we played some $3 blackjack and lost a couple of bucks. Then we played some 25 cent roulette and lost a dollar or 2. Then I decided to check out the Wizard of Oz slot machine. I typically do not like slot machines. THIS machine, however, is much more than a slot machine. You get to play little games if you match up the dorothys and there are flying monkeys and we had a blast playing it in Vegas with devin's parents. There were 2 ladies camped OUT at the machines, though. Just when one of them had a dollar left to play and I was ready to slide into the warmed-up chair, they'd reach into their pockets for what seemed to be an endless supply of $20 bills. So I cruised around while devin played some craps.
I sit down at this Wild Fangs slot machine. I put my $12 coupon into the machine. I spin 3 times (25 cents, 50 cents, then 75 cents). Big bets for a penny machine. On my third spin, I literally think, "this is kinda silly. I'm playing this because it's like a video game, but it's not a video game. I'm such a sucker." Then, some pictures line up and I get 15 free spins. Then, during my 15 free spins, I get 15 MORE free spins. Hmm. So I'm watching as the computer-generated reels start spinning and spinning. On the 28th spin (I sometimes exaggerate, but I'm really not exaggerating), the thing starts flashing and wolves line up across the top of the screen and I look at the credits. Now it's a penny machine so it takes me a second to calculate my winnings. 19,998 credits. That's nineteen dollars and...no, one thousand...no, no....$199.98!?!?!?!? My $12 and change turned into almost $200?! I print the ticket to confirm my calculations....yup, $212 on the coupon. Unfortunately, there are only depressed chain-smokers with bleary eyes staring at their screens or digging in their pockets to find just one more dollar. I don't think they're in the mood for celebratin'. So I find dev at the craps table and casually say, "hey dev. I just won 200 bucks at some wild fangs game thing." He looks at my ticket. "kate, whoa. So let's go play some big buck hunter in the arcade and head to bed." But first, we took some pictures.
The next morning we watched in disbelief as Sarah Palin was announced as the trophy running mate of John McCain. That's all we'll say about that for now. Then we hopped in the car and started our drive to Portland. It was another beautiful drive. We stopped in Hood River for a bite to eat. It's the mecca of kite surfing (think of a being on a surfboard with a small parachute attached to you and going 40-50 mph across the water) and was a cute little town. The only picture we have from Hood River is of our lunch. We thought it was hilarious when we ordered grilled asparagus and literally the plate arrived with 8 pencil-thin asparagus spears.
We finally made it to Portland that afternoon. We met Jess and Susan at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art for a brief hello and then hit up the REI to buy some hiking shoes with our Wildhorse winnings. After that, we had an awesome dinner at a crepe place with Jess and Jacob. It was so nice to have some quality yummy food after eating on the road for a week. After devin decided to try the balance board at Jacob's house (imagine a skateboard with no wheels on top of a cylinder...you try to balance the board in the middle of the cylinder) and got his second injury of the trip (devin flew in one direction and the balance board flew in the opposite direction), we headed out for a drink with Kristen and Scott who had recently moved from Oakland to Portland. After a fun slumber party at Jacob's, we had an AMAZING breakfast at this Swedish restaurant called Broder with Jess and Susan and their respective beaus. The food was so cute (and delicious) and for some reason these are the only pictures from Portland. But, I mean, LOOK at it! We're shooting for another trip to Portland in November and we will definitely be eating at Broder again. A quick shout-out to Jacob for the comfy air mattress and to Jess for the most perfect restaurant picks!
Up next, the U of O game...
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