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Did they close the schools for snow, ma?

 
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RenoLady



Joined: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 316

PostPosted: Apr Tue 18, 2006 4:04 pm    Post subject: Did they close the schools for snow, ma? Reply with quote

This was a different trip. It was only supposed to be a layover on our way to Spokane, which turned into more time in our favorite city!

Last Tuesday, (4/11) found us closely watching the weather. We had booked our flights to Spokane out of Reno months earlier, and didn’t envision this continuing wet weather mid April. The flights had better times, prices and let us play in Reno a little. From Davis, it’s only about 2 and ½ hours through some really beautiful country. We had planned on heading up AFTER work, staying at the Fitz and flying out the next morning, simple, eh? Well we woke up to rain in the valley and chain controls in the pass. When the chain control lifted, we headed up, arriving in Reno many hours earlier than we had planned at 5:00 PM. Okay, let’s gamble!

We had planned on a small bankroll for this night, which was gone in an hour! Ouch. Dang slots, when am I going to learn? Well of course we can’t quit now, so we continued playing/losing at the Fitz until about midnight.

Circus Circus had sent me a flyer with pretty good rates for April and May. The flyer said $55 for Saturday (yes, they let me book a Saturday arrival), and with 3 hours of play, you’d get a certificate good for a future night free. So we decided that when we flew back in Saturday, we’d stay at Circus. More on this later. So we took our car out of valet at Fitz, self-parked at Circus and took their free shuttle to the airport. Painless. The flights were overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to bump. We couldn’t take the bump, because the next flight in would have been after midnight, too late for the folks to be out picking us up (an hour’s drive from the airport). We stood first in line at the C corral (Southwest) because we had neglected to print out boarding passes on-line, we wouldn’t make this mistake on the return.

We got the last two seats together in the very back row: the one closest to the toilet and its fragrance. The seats don’t recline, in fact, I think they push you forward. They are also obviously smaller and the stewards bumped me in my aisle seat regularly. I think they felt bad, because they didn’t charge me for my wine. On the return trip, we had printed out A passes, stood in line first, so we could get the luxurious exit seats and thought everyone else were suckers. A few minutes to boarding, we noticed a lack of people, huh? Saturday night flight to Reno on Easter Eve, and the plane only had 28 passengers. Fine, everyone gets 6 seats! We took the exit seats and smiled happily at each other, so maybe we didn’t have to print them out early, or stand in line for a good seat, but we got the best there was with no touching stranger body parts! Then-n-n it happened. Right before the plane shut its door, a scruffy, 20ish, young man darted in. He took a look at the empty plane, and headed right for our row! When he sat down next to us, my husband said: “You’ve got the whole plane, and you have to sit on top of me! NO!” The man looked around, headed to the front of the plane, and laid across three seats. The stewardess told my husband he should have let him sit there because the leg room was longer. The guy was about my height, and my husband is 6 foot. R said if he wants to sit there that bad, we’ll move. But we weren’t going to sit 3 abreast in a plane with 28 people! I didn’t get my wine free on this flight.

We arrived in Reno at 8:30 PM, took the 8:40 shuttle to Circus and checked in. We played/lost until midnight. The next morning, before check-out, I went to the player’s club to see about the certificate for the free room. She saw that we had played the requisite 3 hours, and told me to take it to registration to get last night for free. Huh? It worked on the same visit? Sure ‘nuff. I take it to registration, they credit my card back the $55 (+upgrade to main tower) and the night was comped. It made the losses a little easier to take. We also took some cash back from the player’s club points.

It was during the morning coffee at Circus (they have coffee pots again, or maybe just in the main tower?) that our daughter told us not to come home. The rain was fierce in Sacramento, and didn’t look to be letting up. So….we thought about it for a couple of seconds, and said, let’s go to Fitz! We’ll use our player’s points for a room. We got one for 32 O’Lucky dollars, and we had a stolen night, both from the Fitz, and from work, because within a few hours they had CLOSED the pass, yup, closed it. We had no choice! Must play more, get more money, it’s out of our hands!

This was a fun day, much like the snow days of youth, where you can’t possibly get out of bed on a regular school day, but are able to jump up on a snow day to go sledding. We went sledding, all through the upstairs of the Fitz, making more points to replace the ones we were using, rationalizing our free room, meals and drinks for the losses at the slots, and having fun the whole day. We took a break mid day, and watched the snow from our room fall on Reno, while the TV played one of the Lord of the Rings movies, even that was good.

We ate at Molly’s, the buffet and room service. Okay food, we were pretty loose from the booze flowing while gambling, and wouldn’t have noticed anything amiss anyway. The next day the pass was open Westbound, with chains from state line to Gold Run. No way! That would be a nightmare with all the stranded Californians heading back. We’ll wait, maybe we stay again, we’d let nature decide. We did decide to check out, head to Atlantis and try somewhere else. Fitz was killing us. We could always get a room anywhere on a Monday night.

Atlantis was good to us, we played more video poker, and won some small jackpots. We played for about 7 hours, and took a comp to the Oyster Bar. After dinner, close to 9PM, my husband said he wanted to drive home. He hadn’t drank anything, and was feeling up for it. There were no controls, so off we went! The roads had some black ice on them around corners, so there were some pucker points here and there, and the amount of snow was amazing! It looked like the worst of any winter we’d seen. And this is Spring! We’re going to be in for it when that stuff starts to melt.

As much as I like Fitz’s comps, staff and deals, we should have moved around. We just did better at Atlantis, even on the slots. We played at El Dorado and came out even over a couple of hours, we lost at Circus. It was pretty busy Saturday and Sunday, but everyone had split early on Monday. Too bad, they turned a 2 hour trip into 4 because they didn’t wait for the sun to be out long enough to melt the snow on the roads. We’ve learned to wait until after 2 PM, the controls come off unless is still snowing.

Our next trip is to Vegas over Memorial Day so we won’t be going to Reno until the brewfest in July. That’s my favorite time. Great brews by about 40 craft brewers, BBQ smells all around, music on every corner, and the games waiting inside when you’re ready. Good times.
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Barb



Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 82
Location: Portland, Or.

PostPosted: Apr Tue 18, 2006 7:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Loved your trip report- When is the brew fest in July? Sounds like a lot of fun. Barb
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sab



Joined: 18 Dec 2005
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Apr Tue 18, 2006 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

the brews n blues is july 8 this year. it is usually the last weekend in june,but for some reason it was switched this year. el dorado is the host of the event. I will be there for the 6th or 7th straight time, it is a great day for beer drinkers and music lovers.
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RenoLady



Joined: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 316

PostPosted: Apr Wed 19, 2006 7:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We've gone to most of the brewfests, and you're right, it's at a different time this year, and isn't it just one day this year? I wonder if there were problems last year.......
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