Single day travel experience

Personal Finances Budget Travel/Vacations
1

Last week, I had a very different experience.

As a membership perk, several of the California casinos, offer a one or two night hotel room stay. Costs vary, but sometimes free. I opted to try out the free offer from a casino with a newer hotel, and spent a night at Jamestown’s Chicken Ranch casino resort.

On my way there, I pulled over at an interesting retail set-up. It is a corner of a street intersection with a 7-11 convenience store/gas station and Starbucks on the front side, and a special set-up in the rear for food trucks. At least in California, a food-truck at a gas station, is not a unique sight. But, this location is very different. There are power columns with 30 or 50A outlets and there were six food trucks offering a variety of food options. I opted for a food truck offering a small menu of Indian food. I ordered a very unusual fusion item - Butter Chicken Fries, and a not-so-unusual item, Naan. While waiting for my order, I hung out at an outside seating area that could likely seat 20 - 25 people. I could have eaten the meal there, but when the order device buzzed, I just picked up my food items and headed to my car (more on the food later).

Jamestown is slightly over an hour’s drive away and the resort location is actually on the outskirts of the town of Jamestown. As a casino, Chicken Ranch has been around for many years. But, “the resort” aspect, is more recent, maybe 12 - 15 months. The hotel/casino structure was built on the side of a hill. Somewhat of a rarity, inside the casino is entirely non-smoking. Casino floor is on the 2nd floor, and hotel check-in is on the ground floor.

I find out I have been assigned a room on the 7th floor, and the card key activates both room entry and the elevator. I have an even numbered room. Not that much to see outside. The odd numbered side will have a better view. Yosemite is around 100 miles away. But, even from the top floor, there are taller mountains in between that would prevent a view of Yosemite NP.

The room itself. Nice. Some amenities - iron, coffee-maker, bath-robe, hair-dryer. Check-in instructions said each room had a tablet device but it was for in room use only. It was almost dead, so I hooked it back to charge, and never looked at it again. It probably is most useful for checking hotel services and/or ordering stuff from one of the dining options. WiFi - unavailable. If one wants to unplug, then this place is definitely the right place :slight_smile:

Okay, dinner. Usually, Butter Chicken is a standalone item and/or served with rice. This fusion item is thick French fries on the bottom, and the Butter Chicken poured on top. Different & somewhat enjoyable - yes. Must have item - not-so-much. The Naan I ordered was less Naan, more roti. To those unaware, major difference in taste, thickness and texture between the two types of flatbread. Overall: average → below-average meal experience.

Hotel itself has a few dining options. On the casino floor, there is a Wahlburger place and another eatery/bar. There is also a standalone bar. Downstairs, there is a coffee location and a gift shop which also offers snack items. On the third floor there is another eatery, and on the roof-top there is a more formal eatery. The resort kept its old casino location - I think, primarily as a Bingo hall. Not sure if there are any food options there.

The room was Free. But, I did end up paying for it via my casino spending. The casino promotional marketing worked.

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What kind of place doesn’t have WiFi in 2025? Ridiculous.

I’d be a terrible customer. 25+ years ago, my wife and I spent a week in Las Vegas. I had $20 in my pocket to lose at the casinos. In the end, we did so much stuff that we had no time to gamble at all, so we headed to the airport with the $20. Then we were thinking of blowing it at the airport gambling in the slot machines there, but we had to run to our gate, so the $20 came home with us.

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Many fast food restaurants used to have WiFi. Many have discontinued the service. In-N-Out wants you to enjoy “animal style fries” and other secret menu items - no WiFi

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Nobody needs wifi at a fast food place because they have adequate cellular data (almost everyone has unlimited). But at a hotel, you need it, especially if cell service is limited, and if you are connecting other devices (iPad, laptop, etc).

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Sorry, you cannot speak for everyone. I use wifi at multiple fast food locations, and have seen more than a few others use non-phone devices at the locations too. Back to the hotel, in my case, since I had other things to distract me, not having wifi for a few hours was not that big a deal. Chicken Ranch likes to move its slot games around quite a bit. So either one goes hunting for the new location of the games they enjoy, or try some new games, or return to their room, or walk to the Bingo hall (about 1/3 of a mile away), or go for a walk - See lots of options besides wifi.

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This is true! I should have put nobody in quotes. Sorry.

Yep, some people do. Heck, some people sit at starbucks for hours with their laptop connected to the wifi. But I’ve read that starbucks is removing many of their tables to reduce that phenomenon.

Maybe the resort doesn’t have wifi to avoid people spending too much time online, and too little time gambling? Probably, LOL!

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@MarkR- On my part, I probably didn’t used the correct word. When I said “unavailable”, I meant I could not connect to the Access Point the three or four times I did try. Per the OP, a visit to a resort is an opportunity to unplug, and from that perspective, not having a wifi connection served a purpose.