NEW YEAR'S GATHERING - MESQUITE

Jan 1, 2018
6 min read

"Wishing you Peace, Love and Laughter in the New Year"

"This Year - Break a Bad Habit, Learn a New Skill, Do a Good Deed,

Visit a New Place, Read a Difficult Book, Write and Send a Letter,

Try a New Food, Take a Risk."

"What did our parents do when they were bored with no Internet?

I asked my 18 brothers and sisters, and they didn't know either."

~From Irish Craic and Humour

When I created my Updated Bucket List for Year 77, I included a plan to continue attending, and organizing when that is helpful, a gathering each year to celebrate New Year's Eve. Although the location and number of people attending has changed over the years, we still have a group of Core Zonk's that do their best to make it each year. As in the past several years, we met in Mesquite this year and this time there were just eight of us: Bonnie & I, Linda and Chad, Walt & Bev, and Grant & Finch. Other of our "regulars" had various conflicts; Marilyn is fighting cancer, Quent & Barbara are spending time with Jon who came home from Alaska for the holidays, Jon & Maridee are dealing with Maridee's illness and promise to aim for the Mini-Zonk gathering in March, Ted & Dixie had a family gathering to attend, Al & Dottie didn't want to fight the traffic driving this far, Jack & Dee are tending their 6-year old granddaughter and have "yucky colds" and Susan has not made a habit of joining us on New Year's Eve for many years.

Friday - Southern Californians always leave on Fridays by the millions to drive to Las Vegas for the weekend. The traffic is very frustrating. We assumed it would be much worse on the New Year's holiday weekend, so Bonnie and I left home early Friday morning December 29th and drove to Mesquite in order to beat the traffic. Linda and Chad drove from Cedar City, and Walt & Bev drove from Phoenix, also arriving on Friday. We met them at Linda's home, had a cocktail, then went to Wedgies Sports Bar to eat and watch a football game. Unfortunately, the Utah State Aggies lost to New Mexico in the Arizona Bowl.

Saturday - Today was mostly just a day for visiting. Walt & Bev played golf. Grant & Finch flew from Yuba City to Las Vegas, rented a car and arrived in Mesquite Saturday afternoon. We all met at Cucina Italiana Restaurant that evening for a fun visit and a delicious meal.

Click Photo to Enlarge - Use Arrows for Next Photo

Sunday, New Year's Eve - We had a few more activities today. Walt & Bev played an early round of golf. Linda, Chad and Finch visited the Virgin River Casino for a morning round of Bingo. Grant, the Zonk resident gambler, and I played the slots.

I have not gambled since I lost all my money in Las Vegas on the famous "1959 Boy's California Trip." However, because I'm doing some crazy things during my Year 77, I decided to find a slot machine that paid based on getting three 7's in a row, and "invest" 77 dollars trying to hit the big jackpot. Of course the final result was predictable, but it was fun while it lasted. I make my annual donations each year in December, and it turns out that the Virgin River Casino was on my list this year. See the photos below.

"Gambling - the sure way of getting nothing for something."

~Wilson Mizner

1st photo - The slot I played took 25 cents. You could double or triple that bet and the winnings would be double or triple. I played 75 cents on each spin. The payoffs were various color combinations of sevens, with double or triple badges appearing periodically. The big jackpot that I was after was $7,500.

2nd Photo - When the photos are enlarged you can see the numbers on the right side. If you win, the top number is the number of quarters you won. The second number is the number of quarters you have left to play, and the bottom number is the one, two or three quarters you played on the last spin. I had played about an hour when this photo was taken. I had $7 left in my pocket, and $5.50 left in the machine, when I hit a $60 jackpot (i.e. the top number on the right is 240 quarters). So rather than being $12.50 away from being broke, I was only $5 behind my $77 beginning amount. At this point I joined Linda, Chad, Finch and Bonnie for lunch.

3rd photo - After lunch, with my new found winnings, I went back to the same slot machine and almost immediately hit a 263 quarter jackpot ($65.75). Now I was $41.25 ahead of my beginning $77. But I was still a long way from the $7,500 big jackpot goal, so I kept playing. Of course you know the result - I left the casino without any of my $77.

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Our group met in the library at the Highland Estates Hotel early evening to begin our celebration. We had a glass of wine or two, and wished Linda Happy Birthday.

As the time for our dinner reservation approached, Linda distributed the traditional headdress attire so we could make our "expected" entrance into Hugo's Restaurant for dinner. The restaurant manager had earlier said, "Are the people who wear toilet paper on their heads coming this year?"

Hugo's was very crowded and busy, and although the service was a little slow, the dinner was delicious. I wish I would have taken a few more photos because people at adjacent tables followed our lead and were wearing toilet seat covers on their heads.

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Linda, Chad, Walt and Bev headed home at 10 minutes after 12 o'clock (at least that's what the broken clock shows). The "Selfie" of Finch and I was actually after midnight, but the clock is covered so we have no proof. I missed Quent & Barbara, who have always been willing and able to make it into the New Year.

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Monday, New Year's Day - Walt & Bev left early today to drive back to Phoenix (we need Walt to watch after the stock market to make sure it keeps going up). The rest of us spent the day at Linda's lovely home on the Falcon Ridge Golf Course. The left photo below shows the front of the home, on the right is the rear side.

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Linda's home is right on the fairway for the 7th hole of the golf course. The left photo shows the tee and the right shows the hole.

Click Photo to Enlarge - Use Arrows for Next Photo

Linda and Finch picked up a bunch of food at the grocery store and Bev had brought homemade tamales and hot sauce. Linda laid out a buffet style spread including the tamales, chicken salad on croissants, a fruit plate, chips, dip, nuts, and more. Everything was really tasty and we snacked and visited a good part of the day. It was good to see Ivers who came to town from St George and joined us for the afternoon. Below are Finch, Linda, Bonnie and Ivers having a snack.

Despite the fact that we had spent a good part of the day eating at Linda's place, Grant & Finch and Bonnie & I proceeded to the Panda Garden that evening for dinner - just what we needed.

These few days our group of friends spent in Mesquite was a lot of fun (as it always is when we get together) and we agreed to get our group together again on March 31st for the Mini-Zonk.

A Little History: For many years our group of old Utah friends have made a habit of gathering to celebrate New Year's Eve. We have also used this occasion to celebrate Linda's birthday, which is December 31st. This year, and several previous years, we have gathered at Mesquite, Nevada. Prior to that, for a number of years we gathered at various National Parks, an approach designed by Mel. We celebrated at Death Valley in 2003, in Zion National Park in 2004, at Bryce National Park in 2005, at Moab (Arches and Canyon Lands National Parks) in 2006, Grand Canyon National Park in 2007, Tubac in 2008, San Diego's Mission Bay in 2009, Laughlin in 2010, Pasadena at the Rose Parade in 2011, and Mesquite in subsequent years. Linda created an interesting tradition in early years that resulted when the host of a New Year's Eve party in Big Bear failed to give us hats and horns to celebrate at midnight. Linda brought toilet seat covers from the ladies room that we used as hats. This has been done by our group every year since then and will be seen in several of the photo gallery below.