Bruce's Travels

Started the day with a ham-n-egg breakfast at the Magnolia Cafe inside the 4Q. Delicious 8-ounce bone-in hamsteak, two eggs, hash browns, and toast. Broke down and went to the Walgreens down the street and bought a small bottle of Prilosec for $13. It'll take 24 hours to take effect, but hopefully will take care of the heartburn. I ate nothing after that, but drank complimentary beer at the Fremont most of day for the carbonation. In some crazy way, it seemed to help. I spent most of the day at the Fremont Hotel playing $3 blackjack, and came out ahead at end of day by about $35. Nice. The Fremont also offers free Internet, so occasionally I'd go into the cafe and play on the Internet. I noticed a lot of Hawaiians in the place, so I googled "Sam Boyd Fremont Hawaii" and learned that the Sam Boyd had (he died 1993) a big connection with Hawaii and that his corporations' hotels/casinos are so incredibly popular with Hawaiians that Las Vegas is sometimes called ...

June 7 Hi Everyone: I am inside the Fremont Hotel and Casino across the street from the Four Queens (4Q) where they offer free wi-fi. The 4Q charges $8.95 a day. Plus they have $3 blackjack here, and I've already won $17, which is lunch! Breakfast this morning was at the Magnolia Cafe inside the 4Q which, by the way, Yelp and other Internet sources consistently rate as one of the best breakfast places in downtown LV. I had their 8-ounce bone-in hamsteak breakfast, which used to the Player's Card Special at $7.99 but now is just on the regular menu for $10.49, no discount. Still a very good value for the money. OK, backtracking to yesterday. I finally got the call from Tavannes that my sources were back in their booth, so I went over to talk to folks there about prospective timetables for two of their new watches: the "Le Captive" and the "Submarine Commander." Their head designer, Nicholas, is going to email me some hi-res photos of both in a couple ...

Hi all: After leaving the "press room" at Couture, I caught up with "Gina" from a PR firm representing Zenith watches, which Gina pronounces like the zen like Zen Buddhism. I tell her I've never heard it pronounced like that, but she says that's the way the Swiss pronounce it to distinguish it from Zenith TV and radio, and I immediately dismiss this as bullshit, but it isn't her fault because that's the way her client told her to pronounce it. Anyway, she gives me her canned spiel about the current product line, and I am most interested in their new line of Pilot heritage watches. She says that Zenith is the only watch company allowed to print "Pilot" on the dials of watches. Hmmm. Well anyway, they are beautiful watches, and of the all the watches I've seen at the show, these are the ones I most covet for myself. They start at about $4,250 on the Internet, but we'll see if I can snag a preowned one on ebay or somewhere. ...

It's Monday June 5. I'm here in the "press room" at Couture with free Internet. Interviews so far with Longines and Oris. One more interview to go this afternoon with Zenith. Very plush show, millions of $$ being thrown around. To backtrack: Made it to Las Vegas. Hooray. Spirit did not charge me for the backpack. Many other travelers had packs like mine. They weren't even checking. I think they're only concerned with "carry ons" that are actual pieces of luggage with handles and wheels. Anyway, landed at McCarren and took a $14 Uber ride (plus $2 tip) to downtown. Had the driver drop me at Binions because I was hungry for lunch. Local time said 10:30 a.m., but my tummy was still on Central Time (12:30). I had one of their famous burgers and a Miller Lite. Famous because the burgers used to be the only thing food item you could get at Binions back when it was famous as a Poker-only casino back when Benny Binion was still running the place. It was ...

June 4.  Here at my gate at O'Hare airport. Have 30 minutes of free Internet time, so thought I would start a blog entry. For those who don't know, I'm going to Vegas for four days to attend two trade shows. These are the JCK show at Mandalay Bay, and the Couture show at Encore. Both shows are primarily jewelry, but there are a number of watch companies there as well. The theme with the watch shows is "Heritage" and thus many companies are displaying and/or unveiling "retro" looking watches that are tribute pieces to their old-time watches. This is right up my alley as a seller of and writer about vintage timepieces. So I thought a little trip would be in order to gather story material and also to have a little fun in Vegas. Too bad it's going to be hotter than hell, but I can deal with this I guess by staying inside and using Uber to get around. I am flying Spirit Airlines for $159 round trip, but of course there is no "free" luggage b...

Hello friends and family: Next week at the this time, I will be leaving Fort Myers and heading back to Janesville. I am taking a different route this time for two reasons: First, to avoid Atlanta, though I'm told the I-85 bridge collapse does not directly impact my route through the city on I-75. But getting through Atlanta is a headache even under the best of conditions, and I'm anxious to see if this route through the Mississippi Gulf is any less stressful. Two, I won't have (cat) Abby with me, so I can afford to take a more leisurely, exploratory route back and not have to worry about finding pet-friendly motels. Abby is staying with (sister) Dawn for the next six months until I return to Fort Myers in November. I've reserved hotels for the first two nights, the first being in Tallahassee, and the second at the Palace Casino Resort in Biloxi. From there, I don't know where the next night's stay will be. It could be in Memphis, or I may hang around the Bil...

Hi all: Been meaning to update the blog, but a nasty cold has caught me unawares, as the old phrase goes. I guess it wouldn't be a winter stay in Florida without an end-of-season cold. (I've gotten one of these almost every year that I've been down here.) Started Sunday 3/26 and by Tuesday I was in the thick of it. Nasty stuff, I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say it's really knocked me on my ass. I'm still not out of the woods, but feeling a little better and by next week should be in good shape. It's been a busy last few weeks since my last update March 15. I've been to casinos, a live theater production, a really nice first buying trip to Costco. And just a couple nights ago on April 3 I helped (sister) Dawn lease a new 2017 Toyota Corolla. Let's get going. On March 18, Dawn and I attended the annual Ft. Myers Reading Festival, usually held at the Harborside Event Center, but this year held outdoors at adjoining Centennial Park ...