Well boys and girls, it's that time. Only one day left to regale you with the trials and tribulations of my long journey across the loneliest road in America, and I'm afraid I'm all out of Nevada chips. I do have one extra chip that I brought along special because of the name. That chip is from the Frisco Club. Technically from Reno, but borrowed for this special occasion. More on that later. My neighbor Jim is still hanging with me. Having left me in Ely to go straight to Grand Junction, he and I woke up and continued our journey east. He in the beamer and me in the jeep (and a dog).

As a refresher, my sister's (female) dog's name is Disco, so I HAD to get a picture of my Frisco chip in Frisco, but I also had to get a picture of Disco in Frisco. This inspired me to create the world's greatest pet/chip limerick (I challenge you to find a finer example):

There once was a puppy named Disco
Who slipped on the ice there in Frisco.
As the dog slipped and danced,
On snow (with no pants!),
Twas Disco in Frisco on Crisco.

But you didn't come here to be mesmerized by my mastery of memorializations, nor my allegedly amazing alliteration. You want chips, and by gosh, you're gonna get 'em, I promise. But first, you need to see the picture of Disco in Frisco (naturally).

Some obligatory beautiful scenery pics, mainly because I'm obviously getting paid by the inch to write this drivel.

And another picture of the dog, just to see how much patience you have with me.

And now, before you run out of oxygen from holding your breath so long:

Annnnnnd, we're off to see the chippers, the wonderful chippers of Central City and Black Hawk Colorado. Here's your sign in case you're lost.

I can't let a good Nevada reference slip by, and since the speed limit is, like, minus 30 in this town, plenty of time to ignore the "don't use handheld devices" law.

And, we've arrived in Central City. The buildings and casinos here are all on the much older side compared to the mega-resorts found in Black Hawk. Think Downtown Vegas vs. The Strip, sorta.

I get it. You've had enough of the travelogue. Where are the dang chips, you say? Calm down. Here you go. I hadn't been able to harvest any chips in Nevada. Pretty much all of the casinos have stopped offering table games in the towns I passed through, and I kind of wasn't diligent about asking if any casinos had chips in the cages. But here in Colorado, I had 2 sister towns to hit, didn't plan to do any gambling due to time constraints, and decided to buy WAY too many chips from the casinos here (please buy lots of them so I don't have to continue to lie about the fact that y'all ordered every one of these, haha). So, my standard by was a single $25, ten each of $5 and $1, plus ten each of any snapper or fractional they had. For those who didn't have chips, tokens would do. Found a casino with $5 tokens, a new thing to me, and maybe many of you as well. Without further ado, let the chip p0rn begin. For reference, Central City has 2 (open) casinos with chips (Century and Grand Z). The other locations had tokens only, and it appeared that some casinos were temporarily or permanently shuttered. Some of the local Colorado chippers would know more about that, I'm sure. All of the other chips/stacks you see came from Black Hawk casinos.

All of the casinos were diligent about checking temperatures and asking the usual health questions. Then they took your name and cell#, presumably in case someone was infected, they could contact you to let you know you were exposed. Some were quicker about this process than others. By the end of the night, I was quite the colorful banded Barry, and even had a tramp stamp of sorts.

At least some casinos tried to make the 6 foot rule be less annoying and more entertaining.

My stash. I brought a large empty suitcase in case I found a bunch of goodies to bring home. This provided me with a little place to stash my stacks while I moved from casino to casino.

In Black Hawk, I had to drive a little bit because I have a bum ankle and walking/hiking, especially up/down hills, stairs for long periods of time can get to me. So, at one point, I parked my car at the Gilpin Hotel on the 2nd or 3rd floor. Close to the casino entrance, and I figured it would be an easy exit back out the front. Nope. To exit, you have to circle and circle and climb and climb all the way to the very top of the parking garage. I realized this after a couple of floors (no down/exit signs). I figured I was traveling in one half of the structure and when I got to the top, it would direct me back down the other half for a 7 floor (or whatever it was) repeat adventure to the bottom. As I popped out onto the roof, signs directed me to what looked like a certain head-on crash with the hillside. I slowly realized that I had just effectively taken a dizzying escalator to the top, and I'm going to exit right onto a higher street carved into the hillside. Very clever. Makes sense why they have valet parking across the street now (free, just tips). I think it took me 10 minutes of driving in circles, and burning a gallon or two in gas, just getting out of there. If you go... just tip the valet.

Anyway (why do you force me to digress like that?)... before I exited, I backed up a bit, put the car in park, and got my phone out to take some nice night pics from the top, overlooking the town. The tall building in the one picture is the Ameristar. Sorry, my Canon's battery died the day before and I forgot the charger, so all I have for pics at this point is my old iPhone 6s+... don't judge. Unless your first name is Bill. Then, and only then, can you Bill Judge. Again, you forced me to digress. Here are more pics.

Jim had seen enough of the town (doesn't gamble and doesn't collect chips - clearly struggling with mental issues, am I right?), grabbed the dog and headed for my sister's house in Denver, leaving me to finish up my harvesting. A couple of casinos made me wait. One was in the middle of a shift change. Another didn't know if they had uncirculated chips they could sell me, and one (Gilpin) didn't have table games any longer, so nothing to harvest there, UNTIL I visited their sister property and the cage manager checked their system and noticed there were $32 in chips back at the Gilpin, called her manager pal to confirm they were there in the vault, and asked her to hold them for me. Which means... I literally have the very last chips to ever exit the Gilpin. I believe she said they're not even redeeming any more that are presented. I don't know if it makes these special or not, but hey, I'll take any edge I can to make these li'l discs seem more special. Probably gives them a 10x in value, wouldn't you say (he asked, hoping someone would pay him 10x to get them)?

I got to my sister's around 8:30pm, chowed down on a delicious vegan meal she made especially for me while we chatted for a bit. She headed for bed as she had to work the next day (mortals) and I stayed up to organize my haul. This is the result.





If I didn't say this earlier, all of these Colorado chips are going to be for sale. I'll post prices for everything separately, probably tomorrow. I've had a lot of catching up to do since I got back, so again my apologies for not getting the stories and pictures out sooner. I hope you enjoyed it. I am looking forward to making another trip on this highway, but spending more time at each town to get to know the places and talk to the people more. You never know what information or treasures you may unearth. Until next time, have a great night.