Reno 08 – Day Two
Watching the news this morning, we are reflecting a lot on how lucky we’ve been so far on this trip. Holiday travellers all across North America are not getting as fortunate a break as we’ve had, so we’re awfully thankful for the angels that have been watching over us.
All the national broadcasts are showing delayed and cancelled flights, and just now there was a breaking news alert on a mishap in Seattle with a de-icing agent. What a way to add stress into an already highly stressful time of the year…
Yesterday, we took to the streets of Reno, safe in the knowledge that that crazy Johnny Cash is no longer with us, and might pull a Folsom Prison on us. You might want to Google the lyrics there, for that comment to make any sense…
Cash presence or not, we did take our lives in our hands later in the day, walking unwittingly through a pretty bad part of town, confirmed later by a cab driver returning us to our hotel. We had left our room about 10:30 AM, with the sole intent of making it out to Reno’s big shopping mall. A day or two before Christmas. Yes, we are indeed snap crackle and pop…
However, along the way we ended up waylaid at the Silver Legacy casino, and then the elderly Cal-Neva. Untouched by time, the Cal-Neva is one of the oldest casinos left here, in the downtown strip. We were delayed long enough to have lunch there around 1PM, at an authentic lunch bar, with an authentic short order cook. We had authentic hot dogs, and later, I had some authentic gaseous emissions – sorry for painting THAT picture (honestly though, gentleman that I am, I am protecting the identity of the true gas bag…)
From the Cal-Neva, we finally began the hike to the shopping mall, which turned out to be much further away than it looked to be on the map. We had to make yet another pit stop, at The Peppermill. Besides being exhausted, we had also started to notice more and more unsavoury characters along the way, so we thought it may be best to cab it the rest of the way to the mall.
By the time we finally made it to the cab stand outside Macy’s, it was after 5PM. Wattaya gonna do? When in Rome…
We walked even more throughout the mall, eventually picking up a few things on our wish list. The thing we noticed most was the lack of lines in the stores. Sure, there mall was busy, but we never had to stand in a single line. If this had been Calgary, the mall would have been absolutely insane. It was nutso before we even left. So it was surprising to note that a couple of days before Christmas, the stores were rather barren. I suspect this won’t bode well into the new year.
On a side note, last night when we were wandering around the hotel, an NHL game was on many of the TVs in our complex - Edmonton versus Phoenix. Once again, Canada was close by (Edmonton was the original Canadian team that Wayne Gretzky played for. Phoenix used to be located in Winnipeg, for that matter). Last night, we watched San Jose pulverize the Vancouver Canucks – if we had stayed in San Fran, we could have seen that game live! Very cool…
Hope you’re already with your loved ones, or make it there on time to celebrate!
Chow for now!!
Watching the news this morning, we are reflecting a lot on how lucky we’ve been so far on this trip. Holiday travellers all across North America are not getting as fortunate a break as we’ve had, so we’re awfully thankful for the angels that have been watching over us.
All the national broadcasts are showing delayed and cancelled flights, and just now there was a breaking news alert on a mishap in Seattle with a de-icing agent. What a way to add stress into an already highly stressful time of the year…
Yesterday, we took to the streets of Reno, safe in the knowledge that that crazy Johnny Cash is no longer with us, and might pull a Folsom Prison on us. You might want to Google the lyrics there, for that comment to make any sense…
Cash presence or not, we did take our lives in our hands later in the day, walking unwittingly through a pretty bad part of town, confirmed later by a cab driver returning us to our hotel. We had left our room about 10:30 AM, with the sole intent of making it out to Reno’s big shopping mall. A day or two before Christmas. Yes, we are indeed snap crackle and pop…
However, along the way we ended up waylaid at the Silver Legacy casino, and then the elderly Cal-Neva. Untouched by time, the Cal-Neva is one of the oldest casinos left here, in the downtown strip. We were delayed long enough to have lunch there around 1PM, at an authentic lunch bar, with an authentic short order cook. We had authentic hot dogs, and later, I had some authentic gaseous emissions – sorry for painting THAT picture (honestly though, gentleman that I am, I am protecting the identity of the true gas bag…)
From the Cal-Neva, we finally began the hike to the shopping mall, which turned out to be much further away than it looked to be on the map. We had to make yet another pit stop, at The Peppermill. Besides being exhausted, we had also started to notice more and more unsavoury characters along the way, so we thought it may be best to cab it the rest of the way to the mall.
By the time we finally made it to the cab stand outside Macy’s, it was after 5PM. Wattaya gonna do? When in Rome…
We walked even more throughout the mall, eventually picking up a few things on our wish list. The thing we noticed most was the lack of lines in the stores. Sure, there mall was busy, but we never had to stand in a single line. If this had been Calgary, the mall would have been absolutely insane. It was nutso before we even left. So it was surprising to note that a couple of days before Christmas, the stores were rather barren. I suspect this won’t bode well into the new year.
On a side note, last night when we were wandering around the hotel, an NHL game was on many of the TVs in our complex - Edmonton versus Phoenix. Once again, Canada was close by (Edmonton was the original Canadian team that Wayne Gretzky played for. Phoenix used to be located in Winnipeg, for that matter). Last night, we watched San Jose pulverize the Vancouver Canucks – if we had stayed in San Fran, we could have seen that game live! Very cool…
Hope you’re already with your loved ones, or make it there on time to celebrate!
Chow for now!!
2 comments:
Dear Santa,
My one wish is to reveal the true identity of the gas bag!
Santa:
Absolutely, Mrs That Dan Guy, you have been a good girl and deserve your wish! The true identity is your husband: Mr. That Dan Guy or otherwise known as Gaseous Gus!
Merry Christmas Mrs. That Dan Guy!
Let's tell the truth here, it was indeed Gaseous Gale, which pretty much summarizes the entire experience quite nicely.
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