So on the days we didn’t hike, we tried to go see something we had never seen before. One day we drove for about 90 minutes, up a winding paved road up to almost 10,000 feet elevation. What was the incentive for that you ask? Well every day on the TV we’d seen ads for the highest casino in the world and Dave figured since we were this close to it, we might as well go. Plus Cripple Creek itself is a historic gold mining town which has an old mine you can tour (we didn’t) and modern gold mine that is still producing half a million ounces of gold a year.
Elevation wise, the highest casino in the world is at 9,597 ft! Just slightly higher than the town itself at 9,494
We ate lunch there and as an added bonus Dave got a metal bolt in his fries. When we called the waitress over to see it, she took it and immediately got the manager who apologized. Apparently this was the 3rd time a bolt had appeared in someone’s fries so it was clear we weren’t making this up. Apparently they’ve searched the french fry process for the problem but can’t seem to find it….you wouldn’t think there were that many bolts in a fryer would you?? Anyways, we ended up with a free lunch and a couple of beers so it was all good! Unfortunately, no money was won in the highest casino in the world…oh well, we were there!
So we thought we’d spend the rest of the afternoon walking around town but we only made it down one side of main street (which was mostly other casinos) and then almost back the other side when we both started to feel weak. The elevation got to us and we think it was worse because we’d eaten quite a bit and had a beer. Not the best combo. But a good learning for our future trip to Macchu Picchu….don’t eat and drink like that in high elevation until you’re used to it!