I was determined this trip to shift my focus from gambling to indulging the simple pleasures of travel and especially to enjoy more of the amenities included in each hotel.
This visit to the Orleans, although it was in cooler Autumn weather, I decided to use the pool area.
I found the large jacuzzi very pleasant with moderately heated water and plenty of space. I could store my Kindle and shirt wear I could easily see them while to enjoyed the massagin bubbles and the fine back scratches of protruding rocks that form the center of the Jacuzzi.
I think that having my back scratched is second only to sex as pleasure inducing and these rocks performed that task as did some of the textured parts of the pool on the bottom of my feet.
Outside of Taos, Elizabeth and I paid a good bit of money to soak in pools with similar textures. The water was of various minerals, including arsenic which surprised me. Other than that this pool did all of the things that the Taos pool did and for no extra money.
While soaking I took a good look at all the green around me. When I was a boy, my family never traveled out of the Northeast, so when I went to Air Force basic training at Lackland in Texas, I was fascinated to see my first palm tree. We would stand at attention, drill marches, get lectured, and all around us were these wonderful new trees. I could see them, but I could not walk over and touch them until my first day of liberty, a couple weeks into basic training.
And that is the first thing I did on liberty. I took some time to touch and explore these great trees.
Here in the pool at the Orleans there were no lectures or drilling or any of the constraints of basic training. While I would not mind putting up with all that again if I could also be the age I was, it is some comfort in old age to know that I am free to look and touch and enjoy the pleasure of the water, sun, and greenery ??
In the trees were those blackbirds so common here in the West. And I watched and listened to them as well.
These birds are another example of common pleasures that are so easy to ignore.
On the strip yesterday I saw the parrots at Margaritaville and they were fun to see. But these plain black birds had songs and squawkes and those parrots were silent.
What a variety of sounds these birds make. I sat drying in the sun and one perched right over my head and talked to me. I answered with just a bit of a simple sound I heard him make and he answered with so many different sounds that I laughed with delight.
It was fine for me to finally not be so drawn into the gambling that I missed indulging these fine pleasures.
Also most pleasing was my Kindle. I had packed the last morning and my reading glasses were no where to be found, so I just upped the letter size on the Kindle and read easily without difficulty.
I used it to when I arrived before the pool opened. Just in the doors on the way to the Fitness Center there are some fine, large cushioned chairs and I waited there reading the Kindle. On the the attendants asked if I would like a juice and offered me four kinds. I am going to remember that place. That tomato juice and the free poker doughnut I had earlier was my free breakfast at the Orleans.
Since the swimming area does not open until 10 am, I was worried that I might miss my checkout time, but they easily extended my checkout until one PM. This helped me relax and enjoy the pool and meant that by the time I made the walk to Flamingo Avenue and caught a bus to the Super 8, it would be time there to check in.
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