We went to the Dunes liquidation sale. We hadn't been collecting for very long, and the sale was a new experience for us. My big regret is that I didn't used to carry a camera back in those days.

First we had to find a parking place...which we did. It wasn't real far away, but it was a really hot day...so it felt like it was miles away. They were only allowing 50 people in at a time, and there was a waiting line. We stood in line for quite awhile...and one of us went for a couple of bottles of water, which helped.

We finally got to the front of the line and were allowed to enter. We were hoping for some unusual items...we didn't want the same stuff that everyone else was getting. We did buy a deck or two of cards, when we were in the casino area. We spotted the keno balls and my husband asked how much for those...they said he couldn't buy them, because they're gaming equipment and you had to have a gaming license to buy them. So why were they out with the stuff for the general public? Whatever...the lady snatched the rack of balls out of my husband's hands, and about half of them went flying. We kindly helped the lady pick up the scattered balls. We found one that had rolled away...and somehow forgot to bring it back to the counter. OOPS!

We poked around in the kitchen and peeked into the restaurants. We were hoping, of course, to find some logo'd china and glassware, but no luck in that area. We noticed some of the signs on the walls, near the cashier cage....those would make a cool collectible! And there aren't that many around! Now, how do we get them off of the walls?? My husband spotted a podium, where a security guard probably sat. He searched the back of the podium and found a screwdriver...score! And he found a key marked "casino porter; do not duplicate". We have that key now, too bad it didn't have the Dunes name on it anywhere. Back to the signs...we were able to get some of them off of the walls, unscathed. We also got a couple of prints, on plastic/mylar that were behind a slot tournament counter. We took our "loot" and asked an employee how much for the lot...we got a surprised look in return, and the comment "I don't know, but it can't be much. I'm sure they expected to destroy that stuff with the building".

Finally we decided to go upstairs to some of the hotel rooms. They had the elevators set to only stop at certain floors....like floors 4-9 were open to the public, and the elevator buttons for the other floors were disabled. We started at the top and wandered through suites with mirrored walls and 10-foot elephant 'tusks'...some of the suites were classy, others were trashy; something for all tastes and personalities. We found an unmarked door that we went through, and found ourselves on some sort of catwalk behind the facade of the hotel! Back inside, we waited for the elevator...and waited, and waited. It finally arrived and we descended a couple of floors. The rooms on that floor weren't as opulent. They had cool peepholes in the hotel doors...I'd never seen a peephole that swiveled around! My husband unscrewed one, and when we saw an employee we asked how much...the employee didn't know.

After searching that floor we decided to go back downstairs. The elevator was taking forever, and my husband said "C'mon, lets try the stairs!" So we walked down a flight...which took us to a floor that had the elevator blocked off. My husband tends to be the "adventurous" type...and I follow along, usually protesting all the way! He decided we should explore the floor, and I followed him! It looked pretty much like the floor above it. Then we walked down another flight, and found the same thing....and another flight down was the same thing too. Down one more flight, we were on the main floor, and the door was locked!! We couldn't get out of the stairwell on the first floor!! Shoot!! Now what? Walk back up four flights? Not if we could help it! We kept going down, and found ourselves in the basement of the Dunes! We wandered around aimlessly, into storage areas and employee locker rooms. In a locker room, all of the stuff had been pulled out of the lockers and thrown on the floor...we scavenged a few aprons, and a Dunes employee handbook, as well as a couple of Frontier glasses! Happily we also found a stack of plastic bags, which made it easier to carry our treasures. We ran into another lost soul, and I think he was happy to see another human being! lol! We finally found another flight of stairs and went up them. Opening the door at the top we found ourselves in the parking lot! There was a guard at the door, but he didn't say a word to us...apparently there to make sure no one went in, he didn't care if someone came out.

Our new friend went back to stand in line again, to go back in! We'd explored everything we wanted, and we were near our car, so we left.

Stuff with a great story is the most fun stuff to have (But I do wish I'd had a camera to document this adventure!!)