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Brewfest 07: Damn it's hot!

 
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RenoLady



Joined: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 316

PostPosted: Jul Mon 09, 2007 3:49 pm    Post subject: Brewfest 07: Damn it's hot! Reply with quote

We live in Davis, CA, but made our way to Reno via Spokane. We had been visiting R’s mom for the 4th of July, good times, but now we were headed into Reno for the brewfest. My sis and daughter were in company and we were driving sis’s CRV. We figured that 4 three-hour stints would find us in Reno by 7 PM Friday night, and we didn’t miss it by much.

Uneventful drive except the bizarre weather: Was the whole west coast suddenly annexed into hell? I don’t think there was any part of the west cooler than 105. As we were driving the last couple of hours into Reno, on 80 westbound from Winnemucca, we were surprised to see lightening in the mountains/hills. It was dusk, very hot and windy. Suddenly, the hills were on fire! Unbelievable how fast this fire spread, it seemed to be keeping up with our pace on the highway. After what seemed like 10 minutes, the fire trucks were dispatched. We didn’t see any structures in the hills, nor roads to get there, for that matter, so we were hopeful it would only burn sage brush and dirt.

Later that weekend, we saw the fire was still burning. It occurred to me that we were also a mile from the Tahoe fire, camping, weeks earlier, when the first fire trucks were dispatched. I wonder if there is another human being who was at both fires at their inception? Now before you try and put 2 and 2 together and make 5, I think it really just shows my propensity for being in Nevada whenever I can arrange it.

We had two rooms at Fitz’s, both on a birthday comp. Since my points are over a certain amount, they give a better comp to me than my daughter. She had to pay $58 a night (still a great deal on the brewfest weekend) and got a $25 comp for food, + all her drinks at all bars except Limericks. We got our room free, all food and drink, including Limericks. It’s funny, I have such a mixed emotion set for Fitz’s. The cheap me, loves the comps, free rooms/drinks/eats on these holiday weekends; the clean me is disgusted at the public restrooms and common areas; the people-lover in me is so impressed with the attentive staff at Fitz’s; the gambler in me is frustrated at the choice of games; and if there were an engineer in me, he would laugh at Fitz’s inability to keep building necessities working, e.g. elevators, plumbing and hvac.

Upon getting to our rooms and giving each room 15 minutes to “freshen up”, I decided a shower was a must. 800 miles of dust was not going with me into dinner. After turning on the tap for 5 minutes, still no hot water, just cold, AWK!!!! Last time it was NO water, so this is an improvement I guess. R calls for help, they come right away, in the meantime, I shower in cold water, (I was serious about leaving the road dirt behind), he can’t believe I can do that, but I reminded him I’d been swimming in cold Washington lakes, for the last week, and would just mentally go there during the shower. The man comes in caring a screwdriver, yes, a screwdriver, and heads into the bathroom. R laughs, what can you do with that? He asks. The engineer/busboy turns on the sink, and hot water comes out. Now this water had been running for 10 minutes in the shower, during which time I showered. No hot water, he comes in with a screwdriver, touches nothing in view with it, and we have hot water. He uttered no words. Analyzing this is taking too much energy, so we leave noticing how hot the room was, but deciding it would be cooler than his mom’s Washington home, in July, with no ac and 108 degrees. We were right.

On to the casino! We’d never used a birthday comp like this before, is it new? Anyway, folks were practically groveling when they saw it. “Get up! We’re not worthy!” I wanted to say, but amazingly, got used to it pretty quick. Since we had others with us (a few of my daughter’s newbie friends joined us), we ate at the buffet upon arriving Friday night. To help the cuisine (this buffet is fair at best), I skipped into Limericks bar across the hall (yes, skipped, I had just gotten into Reno after all). I motioned to my VIP badge and asked if I could have a couple of glasses of Rodney Strong Cab, sure! He says. Hmmm…. I like this. The other badges come with a sneer when you ask for two drinks, and never at Limericks-even for one!

It was almost 9 PM before we had our first gambling session, it wasn’t good, but we didn’t care, as is true for all first gambling sessions. By midnight, everyone else had turned in, and we decided to head downstairs, out of the heat, and try quarter triple play video poker. I do not believe the ac was working on the 2nd floor, at least, the employees claim it was not. I usually play quarter level, triple play, 4-7 quarters a time double double poker. Within a few minutes I had my first four of a kind (4OAK) for a cool $25. Well, it was a win any way. I quickly shot up to 7 quarters at a time, doubling my chances. After a few pulls, I got 4 aces and a kicker on the bottom for 1200 quarter, yes, that’s $300. I split the winnings with R, and we went to bed pretty even.

The next morning, we met everyone at the buffet again. Yeah, I know I said it wasn’t good, but while R and I ate free anywhere, the 3 20-somethings did not, nor did my sis. I could get them a buffet comp for a few points, and they were happy to eat free. See what I do for my loved ones? We played a little more after breakfast, digested and headed out into hell, I mean the brewfest, no shade in sight, but we were going to drink beer dammit! After one hour of scorching sun (add 10 degrees for the pavement) and a mere 2 beers, we called uncle and headed into the cool casinos. We slow played our way to Cal Neva for their 777 party and slot promos.

Their 777 party was dumb, consisting of the slot manager spooning out kool aid-type drinks (sangria), and a drawing that required filling out all these little post-its. (I hate that, don’t you?) Since we had a newbie with us, we signed her up for the $200 free slot play. We did this last spring with a bunch of newbie family members, and it worked out well, with earning free slot play for wins or losses. They had the same promotional signs up, claiming up to $200 for wins or losses. When we tried to collect, however, there was no slot play. Why? Well, they changed the promotion last month, now, you get free slot play based on earning 100 point increments (it takes about an hour to earn 10 at low limit) 100 points is $5. I suppose if you played $5 slots for 24 hours you might get the limit of $200. What’s frustrating about this is EVERYONE gets that, it’s what their slot club gives out, as everyone else in Nevada does, for that matter. We told them they were misleading folks, and shame on them, and took our low limit play back to Fitz’s.

By now it’s time for our reservation at Limericks. I made it for 4, with our daughter and friend joining us, using her $25 comp. When we were seated, this awesome server immediately approached us, saw our badges and said we were going to have a great time. He said we could have ANYTHING, and he would make sure that the girls $25 comp didn’t go over, putting the expensive stuff on our check. We relax and start grinning, you know, sometimes, using comps is stressful. It’s not what you think it is, some bartender is sure he’ll be stiffed, or some server doesn’t think it includes the filet, whatever, but not this time. We had carte blanch! So just what is that at Limericks? Well, I’ll tell you, it began with wine…I asked if we could get a bottle of Rodney Strong cab (it was good the night before), he said sure, but what you really want is Cakebread cab, trust him, I did and he was right, positively perfect, as it should be, we saw on the bill (that was comped) it was $110 a bottle. Yikes!

We had already ordered a couple of appetizers, crab stuffed mushrooms and coconut prawns. We shared with the girls, and moved on to soup/salad, leaving the bread alone. One must pace oneself. R and I had the filet and lobster, with the girls choosing the modest prime rib (very good). You know, it wasn’t just the fact that is was free, or good, or nicely paced, but that everyone was so attentive, I looked up to 4 people in front of our table, the server, the water guy, the manager and a helper with food. This is at Limericks! Home of the $8.95 prime rib! We finished with dessert, taking most back to our room, when a group returned to sing, give us presents, and take our picture, giving us a memento of the night. Our check came to $220, the girls was $24. Good times. We tipped well and went off into the night, floating along. Which might explain the foolish gambling that followed, oh well, got to keep those comps coming, eh?

My birthday and anniversary are 3 days apart. So I got the one trip, I wonder what you folks get that have everything nicely spaced? They gave me two presents, I gave the birthday one to my daughter. It was a nice silver necklace. My present was odd, I still don’t know what to make of it, maybe someone out there knows? It came in a faux leather covered canister, the size of a medium can of coffee. Inside are 3 glass tubes containing: sugar; unsweetened cocoa and unsweetened cinnamon. To confuse things, or direct things, they added a small melon scoop. Not ice cream, cuz it says melon. What am I to do with this?

We left early the next day, taking the newbies into Tahoe, choosing the north shore, as we folks in the “know” tend to do, and had a nice time at the art festival in the Cal Neva parking lot. Basically, it was chalk artists drawing colorful murals in the parking lot, soon to become colorful mud when the Cal Neva becomes tired of the lost parking space. I showed the newbie around the Cal Neva, remembering the trip report high-lighting this place. As much as I like the lake front, the attitude at this particular casino has always grated. Getting a drink at the circular bar is difficult at best, the glorified coffee shop has attitude usually reserved for a French café with a view, and please, when did they last do ANYTHING to this place? Yet still we come, walk the Indian room, point out Frank Sinatra’s show room, and have a drink, maybe drop a $20. I have never stayed here, and for me, who has been coming to this area for many years, that’s saying something. This place has about as much warmth as a greyhound bus terminal.

So this trip was a mixed bag. We were thrilled to be at the brewfest, but spent only 1 hour in it due to the heat. We loved our treatment at the Fitz, but were dismayed at its functional deterioration. We stayed even the first night (a win) and then did the glazed-eye loss the second night, rationalizing the losses with the comps, and still look forward to our next trip. Not sure when we’ll get back, we’re going to Vegas for Labor Day, but that leaves August wide open. No hot August nights for us anymore, they’ve become a more dangerous animal, better left alone, besides who needs the crowds and prices? Maybe a mini-trip to Carson after the big event…..
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alison



Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 1150

PostPosted: Jul Mon 09, 2007 4:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i enjoyed reading your trip report.

Glad to know that the Cal Neva promo has changed. I had wanted to take advantage that at the end of the month. I had been e-mailing them about it and have yet to get a response back. Now i know not to go there. I am bummed i missed out on that promo.

Happy Belated B-day and Anniversary!


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stan_allen



Joined: 19 Dec 2005
Posts: 1129

PostPosted: Jul Mon 09, 2007 4:15 pm    Post subject: Sounds like you had a merry Fitz-mas Reply with quote

Thanks for the inside scoop on being a VIP at the Fitz!
As for the Cal-Neva North Tahoe, I couldn't agree more about the overall sterile feel, and yet for some reason, I enjoy the hell out of it - perhaps *because* of the cheesiness, rather than in spite of it - but you're right; I would drop no serious gaming budget here; would much rather go across the street to the ornery Biltmore.
But I did stay at that Cal-Neva one night....nothing much to write home about, that's for sure!
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Barb



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

PostPosted: Jul Mon 09, 2007 7:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Loved your trip report--I always like to hear whats happening at the Fitz
both good and bad!! The freebie weekend was a great deal and we have made our "birthday" free reservations for August 21-24. It sounds like you had a fun time but really hot there. Happy Birthday and Anniversary Very Happy Barb
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 1181

PostPosted: Jul Tue 10, 2007 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great report and very informative, especially about the CalNeva $200 fake offer. I was going to take a friend there for that promo, but changed my mind. I Like your VIP treatment at the Fitz. I'm a major VIP at the Peppermill, but no one over there understands that.
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RenoLady



Joined: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 316

PostPosted: Jul Tue 10, 2007 9:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the nice replies!

Too bad the "VIP" only lasts once a year on my birthday/anniversary, which actually isn't until the end of next month, it seems you can use that promo the month before and the month after the events.

As for the fake offer at Cal Neva, R was so mad at the deception he claims we're not going back. I think it speaks to a level of cheapness usually seen when the tide turns in this town and penny pinching begins in earnest...
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