Day 4

What an interesting day! After Church I wanted to verify the balance in our checking account. I had paid some bills Saturday night and OCD that I am, I wanted to make sure the bank agreed with my figures because the balance seemed quite high. Normally the bank figure is higher than what's in the register because of the items that haven't made it to the bank yet. However, when I looked online at the balance, it was almost $1500 lower than my register balance. Something was wrong! And, NO! I didn't go to the Eldorado to try to make up the difference.

I spend almost two hours searching for the mistake. There were so many transactions during the Christmas Season! Finally, I found it. In my register I subtracted a check for $27.89 and somehow the balance increased by nearly $1500. Fortunately, I didn't bounce any checks!

Then I packed a few things for a short stay in Reno. In October 2007, I attended a California Society of Hospital Pharmacists Seminar in Palm Springs. We stayed at the Wyndham hotel. For months afterwards, we kept getting calls offering us a great deal on a mini vacation if we'd just listen to a sales promotion. Finally I weakened and succumbed and purchased the package for $129. This was to entitle us to a 4 days and 3 nights stay at a 4-star hotel and a $50 gift card valid at any Darden restaurant (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, . . . ) and we had a choice from several locations for the mini vacation. It seemed like a good deal at the time as our room in Palm Springs was over $200 a night and that's at the convention rate! All we had to do in return was listen to a 90 minute presentation on timeshares. I'm pretty good at saying no and we had an entire year to use it.

As I'm sure that they count on, life had a way of getting in the way of using this package and we were at the point of use it or lose it. So I scheduled the stay for Reno. After all, Reno is just a short 90 mile drive from us. The information we got said, "Your WorldMark by Wyndham Experience begins at: The Reno Welcome Center located in the Eldorado Hotel Casino Reno, 345 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89501, (775) 786-5700 Ext. # 7475. Hours of Operation: Sun-Sat 10am - 9pm. . . . . " On the back was a map so we wouldn't get lost.

So we got in the car and drove to Reno, found the Eldorado, parked in their parking lot, walked up three floors to get to the Skyway so we could cross the street, went into the Eldorado, and couldn't find the Welcome Center. Hmmm! It wasn't where it was supposed to be. Found the Bell Captain and asked him where it was. Oh, they closed about 10 days ago. There was a Holiday Party for the employees one day and the next day the employees were laid off!

The phone number is the Eldorado's number. There was no answer at the extension. The Bell Captain tried to call Harrah's because there was a Welcome Center there also. No answer. And this was well before the specified closing time. We tried the 1-800 number not expecting an answer because it only gives Monday - Saturday times, and there wasn't an answer.

What to do? We could get a room and stay the night, but we'd have to pay for it! We were hungry because we were going to use the restaurant card for dinner at the Olive Garden and now we didn't have it. We saw the Eldorado's buffet as we were leaving and decided to eat there as it was convenient. The food was great! Then we went back to the car and drove home. We were home before 9 pm.

You can be sure I called the 1-800 number this morning. My $129 is being refunded and I can still schedule another mini vacation if I want. My photo for the day was taken from the parking lot. You can see the walkway that crosses the street and the Eldorado where we had dinner.