We visited Laughlin on two occasions, both for the Annual Retired USAF & Government Contractor Aircrew–Life Support Personnel, along with my parents. My father is a retired USAF Life Support Retiree. They have people come from all over: NC, MA, NM, UT, FL, TX, CA, NE, KS, NJ, IL, B.C., NV, NY, TN, LA, OK and the list goes on. They really are a great group of men and women. Laughlin seems to be the place that they prefer to have the reunion with 11 visits out of 13. The annual activities include the Hospitality Suite, Golf Tournament, Card Tournament and Banquet. At the banquet they have raffles and give away very nice prizes. At the opening activities session all business is handle, reports on members status (sick/deceased), sharing of photos and taking the group photo. If you′ve ever had any questions regarding the Air Force or the planes which fly or have flown, this is the place to be. Knowledge is all over the place. There are some still active personnel that attend these annual get togethers, so your information is always current.
We always drive from Las Vegas to Laughlin so when we come back, we have a couple nights to stay in Vegas. On our first visit we stayed at the Aquarius Casino Resort. On the day we didn't have activities to attend we went to all the casinos in Laughlin and took a ride across the Colorado River to Bullhead City and rode around. Laverne Baker lived in Boulder City for a while during her retirement. When we left we took the route to the Hoover Dam before going on to Vegas. If you're never seen the Dam in person, you should if you ever get the opportunity. It appears to have three levels which you can visit to look over into the dam and they were in the process of building a bridge to ease the heavy traffic flow of the many visitors.
The River Palms Hotel Resort/Casino was where we stayed on our second visit. We had beautiful rooms overlooking the Colorado River. We enjoyed all the usual activities of the reunion and then I had to find my mother′s favorite penny machine to play. I get a kick out of her playing because she is afraid to play max so when she wins it′s not as much as she wants. On this trip she bet a little more. We went to couple of other casinos but was happier with the River Palms. We came home with some very nice prizes this year. Although my father tries to go each year, we won't be joining them because we plan to spend our anniversary in Reno.
The drive to Laughlin provides you with wonderful mountain views of rocks in various shapes and sizes. The tale of seeing mirages while you're traveling through the desert is true. They are in the process of expanding the highways between Vegas and Laughlin to make the commute a little easier. You also go through a town called "Searchlight", it′s a little city with a big McDonald′s. This is where we stop for our break on the two hour drive from Vegas. Of course, we did our walk abouts and got our exercise in. We will probably return to Laughlin one day.