Just back from our annual golf trip to Reno, Nevada. We drove up Friday and I played three golf courses in three days. Neil and I drove up together on Friday, leaving my house at 7:00AM for the 2 hour drive up to Reno. We played Sierra Sage, a private 18 hole facility in Northern Reno and met Steve up at the course along with Brad, Paul and Wes. The course is nice, but run on a shoestring budget by a man and his wife that wanted to get into the golf business. He bought this course from the county and it is a going concern, in pretty good shape, but the sand traps are not full of fresh sand and some of the sagebrush is a bit overgrown in the rough areas. It was the start of what turned out to be a pretty windy weekend in Reno. Reno is technically high desert, unlike Vegas, which is low desert. Both areas tend to be fairly flat and the wind can be pretty fierce. We teed off at 10:00 AM and the wind wasn't bad, but got stronger as the day progressed. I shot 86 on what was just a warm up round between friends. Unfortunately, it also turned out to be the best round of the weekend for me.
Darla and Lilly drove up in the afternoon and we met them at Scheels, a huge sporting goods store in the vein of Bass Pro Shops and Cabellas, about 3:00 PM. They have a huge float plane hanging from the ceiling upstairs and a full Ferris Wheel in the center of the store. Quite impressive and something that Neil had been telling me about for about a year. The problem was I had my clubs in his car and he was holding us hostage in the store. I was tired and hungry and wind blown and just wanted to get a hamburger and get back to the hotel for a shower. Neil and I had talked on the way over to the store about Steve's desire to eat dinner that night at Brew Brothers, a sports bar in the Silver Legacy. Charlie and Frieda were staying at the Silver Legacy (as we were) and we wanted to have dinner at La Strada, an Italian restaurant in the El Dorado casino. I told him that Charlie and Frieda and us had discussed it ahead of time and had plans for dinner at La Strada. I thought I made it clear that he and Lilly were invited, but he misunderstood and when I asked him if he was having dinner with us, he said that he was eating with Steve and Brenda. I even mentioned at the time to Darla that Neil was wimping out because Steve has a pretty authoritative personality. We finally got the okay to get our things from his car after patronizing him and going upstairs to see the float plane and the collection of life sized US Presidents on display. I stopped at the In and Out Burger on the way to the hotel and had a small burger and a chocolate shake. We got checked into the hotel and went to dinner with Charlie and Frieda at 7:30 and had a great meal. We all chose the Chef's dinner, where the chef gives us a five course meal consisting of appetizers, a pasta dish (gnocchi and mushroom ravioli), salad, the main course (ahi tuna and a small beef tenderloin), finished off with a tiramisu. Excellent and all for $40 per person. Darla and I had an Italian margarita, which is a regular margarita with a splash of Amaretto, which smooths it out. It turns out that Charlie and Frieda are also nickel video poker players and we spent an enjoyable evening gaming and drinking. During the last two courses of the dinner, we were bombarded by Steve and Brenda and Paul and Brad. Brad entered the room in the back announcing, "Paging the Snoop Lion Party!!" We had a few laughs with them and sent them packing when our main courses arrived. The other diners around us in the fancy restaurant weren't overly thrilled with us. Neil and Lilly were out in the front of the restaurant, but refused to walk back with everyone thinking it was bad manners.
Saturday we had an 11:00 AM tee time at Somersett, a private country club in West Reno. We met Charlie and Frieda for breakfast at 9 AM and talked and visited for most of an hour and then were off to the course. The course is gorgeous, but very difficult and the wind blew in about the time we teed off and was blowing with gusts up to 40 MPH. It was difficult to the point that I hit an 8 iron into a blowing head wind on a par 3 127 yard hole and the ball went up, hit a wall and landed on the front of the green 36 feet from the cup ( I normally hit an 8 iron 150 yards). I was the only one of my group on the green the rest were at least 20 yards short of the green. Somersett is the first picture of the golf courses above Wolf Run is the second). I struggled around the course shooting a 47+46=93, which included a birdie 4 on the final hole.
Saturday night we set up dinner reservations at Bertha Miranda's, a family owned Mexican Restaurant on Mill Street about four blocks off Virginia Street. This is the second year that we had a group out to this restaurant and the food is excellent, but they serve pitchers of margaritas that fill eight glasses for $18. Our group of 13 managed to go through 7 pitchers of margaritas in the 2 and a half hours that we were there. Brad called over one of the waiters and told him that this was a family reunion and that it was "Little Brother Charlie's" birthday. The wait staff all came out with a serving of fried ice cream in a fried tortilla and sang Happy Birthday to Charlie. He was grinning like a loon and ate up all the attention. His birthday is in July, but he didn't care. It was a big laugh and we had a great time at dinner. We spent another couple of hours afterward playing slots with Charlie and Frieda and were off to bed by midnight.
Today, we met for breakfast at 8 AM and played Wolf Run, the home course of the University of Nevada Wolf pack and owned and run by the University. It is a course that we have played many times and it is fun to come back and try to improve upon prior outings. I had a great start to the round birdieing two of the first five holes, before imploding and shooting 44 on the front followed by another 44 on the back for 88. Steve in our group shot 101, but birdied the final two holes to keep it that low. All of the guys in our group (including Tim and Neil) had birdies during the round which was great. The gals met us afterward at the bar and we talked and visited until finally heading back to Roseville at 4 PM. We were home by 6:15 and in the pool by 6:20. It was an exhausting weekend and my lips are chapped from the wind, but we had such a good time and it is good to get together with friends and share this life.
Daniel is trying to figure out where to go on his honeymoon. his Mom and I are paying for his flight and room, but he is between Hawaii, New England and Aspen, Colorado. As he hems and haws, I have given him a dollar limit as flights are going up as I write this and he needs to get this booked. I know that Becky's parents are putting out a boat load of money for the wedding, so we are getting off cheap. Also, as a struggling stockbroker at the time and just transitioning back into insurance, I so appreciated Dad and Mom setting us up for a trip through Vacationsss. I'm sure Dan and Becky will appreciate making memories themselves and not having to break their collective banks to do it.
Well, that is our weekend in a nutshell or blog entry as it were. I hope that you are all doing well. I know that I will hit the ground running tomorrow at work with a webinar at 8:30 AM in our conference room with a new carrier that Harvey has arranged for us. Time cards are also due in to me (electronically) by 9 AM. Be well. Ciao.
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