Night club central

We are at the Eldorado Casino Resort in Shreveport, Louisiana (map). We are basically right across the Red River from where we stayed a year or so ago, at a different casino.

Shreveport/Bossier City is only a couple hours from where we were last night, in Monroe, but we have a club downtown here, and we chose this casino because it was a short walk away. Our plan was to have dinner at the club, and maybe do the champagne brunch buffet this morning at the casino.

Our plans were foiled, however, when we discovered that the club had canceled its normal Saturday dinner seating to host a member wine-pairing seminar with a buffet. That aced us out of our free meal entitlement, and, even though the wine tasting was a bargain at $25 per person, we were in the mood for a quiet dinner for two. We opted instead to eat at the Vintage Steak House here in the casino, which was excellent, if a bit overpriced for the region.

We had a lovely drive yesterday, staying off the freeway the entire day in favor of US-80, at least right up until Bossier City. Our truck atlas informed us that the US-79/80 bridge over the Red has a low clearance, and so we hopped on I-20 just a few miles east of the river, then took the first exit on the west bank.

Our printed casino camping guide directed us to check in with the valet upon arrival here. He told us to park in the back of the otherwise valet-only lot across from the casino. The lot is quite small and full of cars, but we had a relatively easy time getting settled with Odyssey's tight turning radius. Later in the evening, a 45' Prevost entertainer coach came into the lot, and the professional driver had somewhat more of a challenge, which he handled with aplomb. His generator ran the whole time he was here, but they left before 11pm. Good thing he left when he did -- the lot filled completely by midnight, and we could not have moved if we wanted to (although we guess the valets would move some of the cars, if needed).

It was quite comfortable here, and mostly quiet, other than the occasional train on the nearby tracks, and, ahem, the riverfront club district, which was quite busy on a Saturday night. Our first indication was some squid dropping his sport bike in the middle of the street, right outside our window, and that was still in the daylight. By midnight, the entire street was full of cars, with folks walking in from every direction in their clubwear. We could not really see (or hear, thankfully) the clubs from where we are parked, but we could hear the traffic and voices of clubbers well into the wee hours.

In a few minutes we will pick our way out of the valet lot and get back on 80 west. We are headed to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where will will visit with friends Neal and Cali, of GeekBrief TV fame. They mentioned something about watching some kind of football game this evening.