Reno!

Just back from business in Reno. My first flight out, was a flight to Phoenix. I sat next to a single mom with her 7 year old son. He was a cute kid. The flight overall was uneventful, except for the last 20 minutes, which was bumpy as hell. I knew I was screwed when the pilot came on and said, “um, folks, I’m going to go ahead and put the seat-belt sign on now for the remainder of the flight. Looks like we’ve got a bumpy ride ahead of us”. And bumpy it was. I was feeling so nauseous, I really thought I was going to hurl.

During the flight, I listened to some tunes (moe. @ the Roxy, LA from 07/25/06). Towards the end of the flight, I let the kid next to me listen to my iPod. His mom had one, but blew the battery in it, watching CSI on the flight. The boy said he loved Green Day, so I let him listen to American Idiot. Well, he kept playing song 1 over and over. Instead of just hitting the song back button, he kept dialing the song back. Then during the song, he kept pressing the middle button, you know the one, to rate the song, over and over. It got to the point where he wasn’t even listening to the song the whole way, and was dialing, and pushing buttons all over the place. I was freaking out! I sat there and thought for sure, this is it for my iPod. Miraculously, he pulled the earphones out and said, I’m all done listening. No shit you are kid, no shit.

I had to basically do the OJ to get from my landing gate in Phoenix to my take off gate to Reno. They were in the same terminal, but on different concourses, and even using the people movers going at a fast pace, it still took me 10 minutes. I got there and the flight was already boarding. The flight, while short, was again, bumpy, bumpy, bumpy. I got a ginger ale to try and take the edge off.

When I got to Reno, the first thing I heard was some funky circus music. I look up, and right there at the landing gate is a row of slots – hah, let the gluttony begin. This was my first trip to Reno (I’ve been to Vegas once)….I was staying at the Reno Hilton.
The place is huge – full service casino, shopping mall, fitness center, pool, bowling alley, comedy club (Josh Blue is there on Aug 26th), music theatre, bungee jumping, bumper cars, driving range….you get the point.
I went right to the bar and got myself a 5 dollar margarita with a 2 dollar chambord floater. All the bars have slot machines built into them, so that you can play the slots, loose your money, but drink for free, all at the same time. That’s the deal, as long as you’re playing (or say you are playing), you’re drinking for free.

There happened to be a conference at the hotel that week – the Administrative Assistant’s club, so there were literally hundreds of middle aged women running around, all with their credentials around their necks, having a grand old time. I don’t know who lost more money this week, the administrative assistants, or the 80 year olds, sitting at the slots, blowing their pensions. Some of the old women I saw couldn’t hold up their heads because of Osteoporosis, but could push that damn slot machine button pretty well. It was sad, really, it was pathetic. How do you play slot machines anyways? They are so frigging high-tech these days, I couldn’t make heads or tails of them.
I did play twice – I blew 2 dollars. I think I was up $0.25 at one point. I actually wanted to play one of the machines, a Sea Monkees machine, but some lady was on it, pressing away, smoking her cigs. Which brings me to another point. Everyone seems to smoke there. The minute you come off the elevator, its like a burst of not fresh air. Step right up and breath some smoke.

The other thing I noticed right away, was the music being piped through the hotel. Damn, its good to hear Baker Street again, and I don’t know when the last time it was when I heard Driver’s Seat. Yes, I’m kidding. Name that shitty 70s band, and I bet the hotel plays them.
All the while, I’m wondering, who goes to Reno anyways. Sure, I’m there for business, and the admins are there for a conference. Do people actually pick Reno as a travel destination, and if so, why not go to Vegas, where the experience is that more out of control??? I don’t know….

Rob had me place a bet at the Sport’s Book there. That’s another thing. I walk down to place the bet, and there they are, the professional betters, with their paperwork, marking things down, shuffling the papers, looking at the odds. It looks like tough work. And everyone doing their research there seemed to be missing teeth and wearing baseball caps. They'd probably be smoking but the Sports Book miraculously is non-smoking.

I placed $50 on the Damn Yankees to beat the White Sox and $50 on KC to beat Boston. I let Rob know that I got the bet in so that he could watch accordingly. And yes, the Yankees proved to be the damn Yankees as they lost in extra innings. The Red Sox also choked losing to last place KC, and so a $50 bet paid $75, thus giving me a net gain of $25. Not too bad.

One night my colleagues and I took a drive down to the “strip” for dinner. Downtown Reno consisted of about 4 casinos and hotels. We went to Circus Circus and ate dinner at the steak house there. The restaurant was placed right across from the “kid’s” section of the casino. Who brings kids to a frigging casino? It was already past 8pm, and there were tons of young kids out and about. I just don’t get it. We happened to catch one of the circus acts before we left. A woman and 2 men performed to the music of a band of washed up musicians.

Overall, the food was not good in Reno. One night we ate at a restaurant called Rappscallions. Food was high priced and moderately good. Second night we ate at Circus Circus, and our last night, which proved to be amazing, we ate on the north shore of Lake Tahoe at a place called Gar Wood’s Grille and Pier. I have a couple of pictures from Tahoe, from my phone, but Blogger is being tempermental and will not let me upload them......

All and all, it was an OK trip. OK people to travel with, OK food, OK facility we audited.....OK.