But no one else ever shows up. At the Pepper Mill Hotel in West Wendover, Nev. , a waitress sends you marching to the buffet table and tells you to go back as often as you like. The special is tasty prime ribs. There's also chicken, beef, pork in various forms, all manner of vegetables, and an ambitious salad bar, which is shielded. A woman quickly turns away from the greens and sneezes, and you forgo the salad.
Some people sit at their tables apparently in pain, stuffed to the gills.
Soon they will move. They will arise, pay the tab, and head for the casino to experience another form of pain. Thirty miles west of West Wendover, the Oasis Bar and Grille is a scene from a old Western film. It's a low-slung log affair. Outside, you kick up huge clouds of dust walking from the parking lot to the building, and a huge furry dog of no noticeable pedigree rises to meet you.